2024 NBA playoffs thread

[UNCGrad]

I think I've always loved the NBA. I was always a Bird guy, but my real entry as a kid to the 80's Celtics was my dad, who went to the University of Minnesota and was so excited for Kevin McHale at the NBA level.

All of that said, I still turn the channel, avert or close my eyes when Magic's baby sky hook clip from '87 comes on. That's the worst I felt about any sports result in my life, with only Alex Gonzalez booting the double play ball in Game 6 of the NLCS in 2003 coming close.

Today, I'm a favorite players kind of fan of the NBA, and I love following coverage of the league. Give me The Lowe Post podcast any day of the week. (Tim McMahon's wry comment this week, "I knew a little Slovenian, but realized I know more words than I thought" about Luka's trash talk to Gobert gave me the best kind of chuckle.)

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Game Ones can be deceiving, but the Celtics have had no real opposition so far.

 

[HanSenSE]

This keeps up and I'm going to switch to softball at halftime.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The same thing happens if you play the theme from ABC's Monday Night Baseball or NBC's Game of the Week. It's nostalgia, and nostalgia is a drug stronger than heroin.

There's only one thing that does that for me.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

This keeps up and I'm going to switch to literally anything else at halftime.

 

[Twirling Time]

Doncic Kong has been turned off for Game 1. He can't throw it in the damn ocean. Mavs trail 0-1.

 

[qtlaw]

The Mavs made a game of it cutting deficit from 29 to only 8 with about 4 mins left in 3rd; then they laid an egg, with Kyrie missing a lot of wide open shots. Luca had a nice run up until then, so final numbers won't look great. They made Celts sweat, I'm not counting them out.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

The Mavs made a game of it cutting deficit from 29 to only 8 with about 4 mins left in 3rd; then they laid an egg, with Kyrie missing a lot of wide open shots. Luca had a nice run up until then, so final numbers won't look great. They made Celts sweat, I'm not counting them out.

I went into this thinking Mavs in six, but ooof, this was rough.

I'm certainly not counting Dallas out, but a healthy Porzingis makes a massive difference for Boston.

 

[Deskgrunt50]

There's only one thing that does that for me.

Don't want to threadjack NBA, but that's a nostalgic time machine of awesomeness.

 

[Big Circus]

A healthy Porzingis does incredible things for the Celtics offense*. All the talk was about all the missing stars on the other teams, but they themselves were missing a guy who transforms their interior defense and gives them an offensive option that makes them overwhelmingly hard to guard.

Sure, they had a lot of talent left, but that's kind of the point of their team build - five all-star or borderline all-star players in their prime who complement each other. When they're all in the game, they're very hard to beat.

*That doesn't mean the series is over - I expect the Mavs to get a similar boost once Kyrie becomes available.

 

[Twirling Time]

Cowlishaw raised a surprising point in the DMN today: Dallas and Boston teams have never met in a playoff in any of the 4 major sports before these Finals.

 

[qtlaw]

A healthy Porzingis does incredible things for the Celtics offense*. All the talk was about all the missing stars on the other teams, but they themselves were missing a guy who transforms their interior defense and gives them an offensive option that makes them overwhelmingly hard to guard.

Sure, they had a lot of talent left, but that's kind of the point of their team build - five all-star or borderline all-star players in their prime who complement each other. When they're all in the game, they're very hard to beat.

*That doesn't mean the series is over - I expect the Mavs to get a similar boost once Kyrie becomes available.

Porzingis on D makes a huge difference; plus if he's hitting 3s and simply shooting over smaller guys at FT extended is such a boon. However, in the 2nd half, Porzingis missed several of those same shots and I've seen him miss many of those seemingly easy shots where he towers over (and is so much bigger) than the defender.

I do think that the Celts will win because Porzingis, Tatum, Brown, Holiday and White are a stacked team.