NBA Playoff Thread

Huge Lakers fan here, but in another life, I'm an OKC fan for sure. Them boys are fun to watch and the fans are great.

Monster put-back from Gasol. He'll end up being the Lakers' MVP of the postseason, hopefully MVP of the Finals, too.

 

Gasol had no idea what to do after he hit that shot. Verk awkward moment.

 

All I care about is that he hit the shot.

 

Looked more like he was waiting to celebrate until he wasn't surrounded by three Thunder players.

 

Yea, that too. He's just goofy so it looked more awkward. I think he was also not sure if it was kosher to celebrate beating the 8-seed. I think it would be, but Kobe might slap him for that.

 

Goofy?



Awkward?

 

No argument there. Awkward is getting elbowed in the balls and not even reacting.

 

He's taken ONE team to the finals. TEAM. Not teams, and that 2006 Finals year is looking more and more like an aberration. He hardly is ever the best player in a playoff series. Great shooter, scorer. Lousy rebounder, passer. Bad defender. Franchise player? Nope. All these last few years have proven is you need a LOT of help around Dirk. He alone, or even with two or three other solid players, won't get you anywhere. Look at all what they've done to help him and still, nada. They've wasted years trying to build around someone who needs to be a No. 2.

 

Man, the Bucks are getting steamrolled. I was hoping they'd somehow pull this off.

 

Watching Games 6 and 7 of Hawks-Bucks revealed two things:
The Bucks played their asses off, and for the first five games of the series the Hawks phoned it in. No way that series should have gone longer than five, given the talent disparity.

 

Who is on your list of franchise players? Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen didn't come close to sniffing a title when they were the clear cut #1 guys on their team. Hell, they didn't even make it to the finals. Does that mean none of them are franchise players? Did they magically become franchise players when they won a title in Boston?

Are Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan the only franchise guys in the entire NBA? I suppose Dwayne Wade might also meet your criteria as a franchise guy.

 

Ray Allen was never a franchise player. He was a guy who shot the lights out and scored a lot of points. He wasn't going to lift a team to a higher place just by joining them, whether by skill or will, or both.

Which pretty much describes Nowitzki.