I thought Philly couldn't get ahead of Milwaukee under any circumstances at this point.
I think you would rather get them early than late, but I also wouldn't put much stock in a game against a bad team while missing their 3rd (and 4th if you think Simmons is back for rd 1) best players. I think the MIL game is more indicative of what you'll face in the playoffs
Yeah, the Nets have been going through the motions for the last two weeks once Simmons was ruled out and the Raptors run pretty much locked them into the play-in.
This is a board that freaks out when Ime leaves his starters in mid-4Q with a 16 pt lead in January yet nobody cares that an injury in essentially a meaningless game may not allow time to recover for the real games to begin. Bizarroland.
It’s reallly not. We are purposely playing to go through Brooklyn rather than through Toronto. As I said, nobody does this on the final day of the season and risk injur but we are.
I wouldn't say that, plenty of teams play for the higher seed and home court, especially if it's 2 spots in the seeding. It certainly looks like DAL will be doing that tonight for only 1 spot in the seeding.
TOR should not be an easy out in the playoffs. Would much rather have had CHI but apparently that's not possible the way things are landing.
Yeah, if 3 was guaranteed, we’d have tanked. Toronto being in play changed the equation.
It does revert to the two team tie breaker. However, since the C's and Bucks are tied head-to-head and against teams in own conference, the determining factor is record against east playoff teams.
Awesome rant……next time try being accurate. If you’re going to attack a poster like this with a flat out lie maybe it’s better you don’t post.
What a freakin turnaround! Ime has earned all the accolades he gets for molding this team into the group he wanted them to be and to Brad for pushing all the right buttons in structuring the roster as such. I expect this summer to be even better in filling some holes.
I’m amused by Harden forcing his way out of Brooklyn mainly because a key player is unvaccinated, only to end up in Philadelphia where a key player is unvaccinated.
Thybulle is not that key. He’s a piece of the puzzle. Doc started Danny Green twice this past week and might consider it in the playoffs, if only for continuity’s sake.
Thank you, I literally went to NBA.com before posting and scrolled the past scores and counted it (incorrectly) 3-1 Bucks. I just read it wrong. Carry on!
Two teams went for the higher seed tonight. One got away with it unscathed while the other watches Luka Doncic limp off the floor slowly with a trainer on each side of him with a calf injury. Brilliant strategy. This is why most teams don’t play for seeding. It’s moronic to do so.
Yeah, we'll never know unless the Raps somehow make the ECF (not completely crazy, actually), but the Celtics don't have any vaccine issues in the playoffs now.
So should the Cs sit TL 2 weeks ago just in case something happened to him? Where do you draw the line?
We hope it translates in the playoffs, they haven't been terribly good in clutch games.
Brad is definitely not getting enough credit by the NBA media for all of his excellent moves (there were many). At the trade deadline alone he moved 7 players from the roster. White and now Theis were key additions to the rotations. Plus IME has built a very clever & straightforward rotation schedule pairing up good combos of bench/starters after the start of Q1/Q3.
Actually, forget just the East: the Celtics were the best team in the *whole freaking league* by net rating, even ahead of the 64-18 Suns. And their margin grows when you adjust for strength of schedule.We hope it translates in the playoffs, they haven't been terribly good in clutch games.
Having the best defense + a large point differential has those analytic prediction sites making the C's EC favs (538 has them winning it all).
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-nba-predictions/
although Vegas is saying something else
Brad is definitely not getting enough credit by the NBA media for all of his excellent moves (there were many). At the trade deadline alone he moved 7 players from the roster. White and now Theis were key additions to the rotations. Plus IME has built a very clever & straightforward rotation schedule pairing up good combos of bench/starters after the start of Q1/Q3.
So, teams are supposed to be worried about Simmons when, last we saw him, he puked on himself spectacularly in last year's playoffs and has not played in an NBA game since?
worried about him... no. Recognize that he's a really talented player who if nothing else brings the defense that team lacks... yes.
I guess we'll have to see if he (1) actually plays or (2) is even remotely close to the same (flawed) player he was before this whole fiasco. I cant imagine they'd throw him out there for the first time in the playoffs but, If he plays, I would double Durant/Irving off him immediately + foul the shit out of him if he gets any where near the rim.
The line is usually the final game but as someone brought up yesterday there is now the long layoff due to the play-in round. The vaccination issue is now dead and nobody ever said there was proof only speculation based on actions and words we all weigh differently. It’s playoff time!
Fwiw, BPI also has Boston as the overall favorites and massive EC favorites.We hope it translates in the playoffs, they haven't been terribly good in clutch games.
Having the best defense + a large point differential has those analytic prediction sites making the C's EC favs (538 has them winning it all).
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2022-nba-predictions/
although Vegas is saying something else
This has already been debunked, at least regarding Horford. Whether Brown is or not is still it settled but considering the source got Horford wrong, you gotta question it.
In that article there was an update with the headline "Update: Horford announced that he is vaccinated."
