Not Being a Joker, We Need A The Finals Thread

tims4wins

PN23's replacement
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Jul 15, 2005
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I’m trying to think of a scrub aside from David Tyree who burned Boston sports more than Caleb F’ing Martin. Maybe Bucky F’ing Dent but I think he at least made an all star game once.
The thing is, Tyree made one catch. Martin made shot after shot for 7 games.
 

BigSoxFan

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The thing is, Tyree made one catch. Martin made shot after shot for 7 games.
Yeah, was just comparing the impact. What Martin did was definitely more annoying. Fluke plays happen. Scrubs torching a legit contender for 7 straight games just shouldn’t happen.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Yeah, was just comparing the impact. What Martin did was definitely more annoying. Fluke plays happen. Scrubs torching a legit contender for 7 straight games just shouldn’t happen.
Martin feels like a scrub but he actually grades out as a useful player - its more than the eye test or that he became Jordan for a series.

I get that his pedigree as well as the Heat's seeding makes the C's ECF fail feel even worse but imo, those things don't matter. Martin is decent and like it or not, the Heat simply were the best (hottest?...Heatest? ) team in the East during the playoffs.

I get that might be of little comfort but accepting those things as facts helps me. A bit. That series still sucks.
 

Tony C

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Mark Jackson seeming shockingly confused by how good Jokic is is the best part of any Nuggets call
Not just him. Around mid-season there was a wave of anti-Jokic sentiment from many parts. It’s not just that it led to Embiid’s MVP, but heck even at the all-star game wasn’t he the last pick or last round pick? I know he legit looks unathletic but dude just won 2 MVPs, was kinda weird how he got transformed into something other than what he is: great.
 

Kliq

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Jackson didn't vote Jokic in the Top 5 for MVP this year (he claimed he filled out the wrong section on the ballot). In a world with standards he wouldn't be calling the NBA Finals.
 

Auger34

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Apr 23, 2010
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I didn't see the game last night. Who guarded him primarily?
Martin was guarded mostly by MPJ from what I saw. Porter did a good job on him but Martin also missed 3-4 open shots (missed them pretty badly at that). The only Heat players who actually played well were Vincent, Lowry, Haywood Highsmith and Adebayo. Everyone else was varying degrees of really bad
 

InstaFace

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Adam?? No shit. Great dude. Got drunk with him many times. I think his wife got pissed when we talked sports all nite at the bridal table for our buddies wedding.
He was talking about starting his blog / pod. Didnt realize had come so far.
The Long Arm of the SoSH strikes again.
 

BigSoxFan

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Martin feels like a scrub but he actually grades out as a useful player - its more than the eye test or that he became Jordan for a series.

I get that his pedigree as well as the Heat's seeding makes the C's ECF fail feel even worse but imo, those things don't matter. Martin is decent and like it or not, the Heat simply were the best (hottest?...Heatest? ) team in the East during the playoffs.

I get that might be of little comfort but accepting those things as facts helps me. A bit. That series still sucks.
"Scrub" was more just my bitterness showing through. I would absolutely take him on the Celtics.
 

InstaFace

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Hope it’s Nuggets/Celtics on Opening Night (or Christmas). The Finals That Never Was.
We should play an international charity series best-of-5 or something during preseason. Every fuckin NBA fan would watch.

Edit: even more seriously, NBA should play a 3rd place series on the Finals off nights. Make it worth the players' while. Satisfy fans' curiosity. They'd all make a fortune.
 
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Auger34

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Apr 23, 2010
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"Scrub" was more just my bitterness showing through. I would absolutely take him on the Celtics.
Yeah, completely understand and agree. Martin is a very good rotation option and literally every team would want him/could use him....

All of that being said, he isn't close to the offensive player that he was in the Celtics series. That's what stings
 

Tony C

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As one of the old timers who watched him in college and the pros, Walton’s defense, shot blocking, and rebounding were better.
Absolutely. On the flip, to say he wasn't "asked" to ballhandle (which sounds vaguely dirty) or long-distance shoot is a bit of a passive way of putting it. He wasn't asked as there's no evidence he could do either at anything near Jokic's level.
 

Auger34

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As one of the old timers who watched him in college and the pros, Walton’s defense, shot blocking, and rebounding were better.
Shot blocking and defense doesn’t surprise me at all. I would bet Walton was ahead of him by a pretty good margin on both of those.

Rebounding surprises me. Jokic is a really good rebounder (his hands seem like they have stick ‘em on them)
 

Tony C

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I don't have the patience to scroll back to see who posted that top 5 half time acts YouTube clip, but a hearty thanks to whomever that was.

I'm one of those who every time during a broadcast they show 5 seconds before going to break I'm like "nooooooooooo....don't break! Must see more!!!!" Of course, it never occurred that all I need to do is a search on YouTube....because I'm dumb. But not dumb enough to stand on a pile of chairs like that 60+ year old dude!
 

Kliq

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The game when Walton played was very different. A lot of it was focused on the fast break, and Walton's best passing attribute (throwing outlet passes) wasn't kept track by statistics. He never was asked to ball-handle or shoot, or play make in the half-court the way Jokic is, so it's hard to compare the two. He was a much, much better defender, arguably the best defender in the league at his peak, although of course his role was very different (protect the rim, rarely had to come out and defend the pick and roll).

Jokic is much more similar to Bird, I think. If Bird played today he'd handle the ball a lot more and his passing would probably have an even bigger impact on the game than it did back then. Jokic is bigger than Bird, Bird maybe a smidge more agile and Bird is a better outside shooter. But this is what Bird would look like today; and Jokic really should have won 3 straight MVPs like Bird did.
 

54thMA

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As is often the case, teams that come out of nowhere to get to the championship round in their given sport get there with part skill, part getting hot at the right time, part luck.

The best player on the Bucks got hurt during their series and the Celtics best player rolled his ankle seconds into a deciding game seven.

We're talking about a team that was dead last in scoring in the NBA this year.

Part skill, part getting hot at the right time, part luck.

As annoying as losing to the Heat was, it was a joy watching Denver throttle them last night.

Keep working the ball down low to exploit their size advantage.

Denver is a fun team to watch and very easy to root for, Jokic is a true superstar, very unselfish and team oriented.
 

scottyno

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Dec 7, 2008
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We should play an international charity series best-of-5 or something during preseason. Every fuckin NBA fan would watch.

Edit: even more seriously, NBA should play a 3rd place series on the Finals off nights. Make it worth the players' while. Satisfy fans' curiosity. They'd all make a fortune.
Nothing would make it worth the players while. They just finished playing 100 or so games without much of a break including a 20 or so game sprint and now they're going to play an extra series after they're already eliminated for... reasons? You'd get each team running out it's game 82 roster plus g league guys and no one would care to watch that for a full series.
 

Humphrey

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Nothing would make it worth the players while. They just finished playing 100 or so games without much of a break including a 20 or so game sprint and now they're going to play an extra series after they're already eliminated for... reasons? You'd get each team running out it's game 82 roster plus g league guys and no one would care to watch that for a full series.
Been done before...https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/06/22/nfl-playoff-bowl-garbage-time
 

Euclis20

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Aug 3, 2004
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Shot blocking and defense doesn’t surprise me at all. I would bet Walton was ahead of him by a pretty good margin on both of those.

Rebounding surprises me. Jokic is a really good rebounder (his hands seem like they have stick ‘em on them)
I'll call BS on the rebounding. Their career rebounding %'s are almost even (19.8% for Walton and 19.1% for Jokic, but he's getting better and is at 21.6% since the start of last year), they are 44th (Jokic) and 45th (Walton) all-time in rebounds per game, and this despite the fact that Jokic carries a far heavier offensive burden (20.6% usage for Walton, 26.6% usage for Jokic). You can squint and say Walton was better, but it's awfully close and any tiebreaker has to go to the guy who actually played more than 40% of the time.

It's really hard to compare Walton to any stars given how little he played. Jokic already has 130 more regular season games and 15 more playoff games, and at 28 you could argue he's still getting better.
 

InstaFace

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I'm one of those who every time during a broadcast they show 5 seconds before going to break I'm like "nooooooooooo....don't break! Must see more!!!!" Of course, it never occurred that all I need to do is a search on YouTube....because I'm dumb. But not dumb enough to stand on a pile of chairs like that 60+ year old dude!
NBA League Pass - or certain streaming services - give you a feed that is the announcers and normal TV broadcast, but no commercials, instead of the commercials you get the in-arena main camera during those breaks. So you get to see all the timeout dance-troupe routines, the awards to Local Hero X, the half-court shots, the baby races, the trampoline bits (or unicycles), and the halftime acts - which are often those balancing routines.

I thought it'd get old after the first 1 or 2 I saw, but honestly at least half of them are really great acts. We've had some game-thread regulars this past season or so who've become real connoisseurs, I think @DeJesus Built My Hotrod could probably put together a Top 10 for you.
 

luckiestman

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I’m actually glad Mark Jackson is calling these games because the Jokic commentary is always so funny.
 

CaptainLaddie

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Sep 6, 2004
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where the darn libs live
Martin feels like a scrub but he actually grades out as a useful player - its more than the eye test or that he became Jordan for a series.

I get that his pedigree as well as the Heat's seeding makes the C's ECF fail feel even worse but imo, those things don't matter. Martin is decent and like it or not, the Heat simply were the best (hottest?...Heatest? ) team in the East during the playoffs.

I get that might be of little comfort but accepting those things as facts helps me. A bit. That series still sucks.
They were the 1 seed last year and not much of the roster changed. They beat the 1, 2, and 5 seeds, plus got out of the play in tourney. They’re a very good team with top tier coaching.
 

Strike4

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Jul 19, 2005
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I like Malone in that huddle - clear, to the point, not worrying about hurting feelings because he knows players don't care about that in game. Hopefully the Celtics get more of that going forward.
 

luckiestman

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Jul 15, 2005
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Heat came out balling with max effort but Denver is such a bad match up for them. 3 pt game.