NBA Playoffs 2012 Running thread

True, but that's the case when every game is televised and every hit is on YouTube 30 seconds after it happens.

And in this case it's transparently obvious that's it's not the dirty plays per se attracting attention, but WHAT TEAM administering them that has teeth gnashing.

 

Yeah, we only notice when the Heat do it! That's why nobody said a word when Artest decked Harden ...or when Bynum flattened Barea... Oh wait ....what's that .....we DID?

You're getting carried away with this paranoid everybody's against my Heat mumbo jumbo.

 

In a way I agree -- leading with the high elbow was certainly cheap and dangerous. And given that he was in motion, chances for injury would be higher.

However, was he expecting no contact when coming for an offensive rebound?

 

There was a time Miami would have been applauded for taking care of their stars. You don't want a flagrant foul, don't take one on our superstar or yap and mock our other superstar when you are nothing more than a scrub off the bench.

This is not to say that they don't need to be punished but the level of vitriol is ridiculous. Increase each foul to a flagrant 2 and suspend them for a game.

Larry Bird called his own team soft for Christ sakes.

 

Not to the throat.

And coming down with the arms is not a very good way to give a hard foul. If you want a guy to stop driving to the hoop, stopping him with your body is much more effective than the arms.

 

This series does have a certain nostalgic feel reminiscent of those intense 80s and 90s series between Celts/Lakers, Celts/Sixers or the Bad Boy Pistons or Thug Ball Knicks vs. essentially anyone, where you felt like these teams might claw the others eyes out to win.

One of Simmons favored recent themes has been how he believes NBA players have gotten way too chummy on the court and how that sense of seething animosity is what's missing from the playoffs nowadays. Maybe it is good to have some more of that nasty edge back in the playoffs. I'm betting Game 6's ratings just got a nice boost with the addition of the Game 5 cheap shots storyline.

That said, I don't agree that a shot as blatant and dangerous as Pittman's would've been looked upon approvingly in any era. That was miles beyond the line.

 

No doubt, whatever happens in game six, there is a real rivalry developing in Heat-Pacers. Rivalry in the sense of they hate each other's fucking guts, like the glory days of Hicks v. Knicks. This series is reminding me a lot of Knicks-Pacers '93, when the Knicks were getting pissy because the very recently shitty Pacers had the unmitigated gall not to genuflect in their general direction. (The Knicks won, but the most memorable moment in that series, the one that set up the rivalry for the next few years, was John Starks head-butting Reggie Miller on their way up the court, and Miller falling back, naturally, as if he had been shot.)

Indiana's going to have a tough time winning if West and Granger aren't close to 100 percent, particularly West. It's going to be a powder keg, and maybe there will be a point where the teams will really goon it up and, say, send Juwan Howard and Kyrylo Fesenko are out on the floor early, circling each other. That is, unless Wade or Hibbert comes running out screaming, "Old-time basketball! George Mikan! Bob Petit!"

 

I doubt Haslem and Hansbrough get suspended, but Pittman deserves multiple games for his shot.

 

The Cleveland State of the Heat.

 

BTE has a valid point. Just read here after the Pacers Game 2 win and last season when the Heat were .500 in Dec. People really thought Miami would trade Wade or LeBron.

 

It is the knne jerk reaction to everything that happens in the playoffs. I'm sure if the Heat lose the next game the sky will be falling again for some people.

 

I believe Larry Bird still has warm feelings for those rough series. He told The Indianapolis Star his team last night was soft. "S-O-F-T." (Just in case there were still some who thought he was too much of a hick to know how to spell the word.)

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/story/2012-05-23/Larry-Bird-Indiana-Pacers-Soft/55168184/1