Author Topic: 2013-14 NBA thread v. Adam Silver Lays the Pipe on Donald Sterling ©2014antigoon  (Read 112805 times)

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Offline Syzzle

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On top of that how many times did the Clippers go on a run, and he would just stand on the sideline looking clueless not calling a time out or anything?

Offline j

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The most striking thing to me was how many times in the last couple minutes a Clipper got WAY out on the fast break with not a single OKC player in the zip code to drop back.

Actually Reap is right, OKC not fouling was the most striking thing.  What an implosion.

I'm kinda pulling for the Clippers though.  I like Durant, but don't care for the Thunder as a team.

-J

Offline ReaPsTA

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Not that the Thunder don't deserve a lot of criticism, but the heart, execution, and teamwork the Clippers have shown this playoffs have been really incredible.

Like, JVG kepts saying "The Thunder need to go to Durant" over and over again, but it's not about that.  CP3 and Blake did a lot for the Clippers, but their comeback was also about never folding mentally, running an actual offense for 48 minutes, and the contributions of everyone on the team.

It's impossible not to root for the Clippers when they keep playing such inspiring basketball.
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Offline black_biff_stadler

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Disagree about 90%. I'll only concede on the smaller sample size, 1 versus at least 4 games in all 3 other major North American sports.

If a "lesser" team beats a "superior" team in the SB, they've pretty clearly proven they are the best since luck is a very minimal component while the superior team's performance can't simply be apologized away by luck. They get an extra week to heal injuries before the divisional round and then both teams get two full weeks to heal up and gameplan for the SB.

Hey Reap, I was curious about your take on this.
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Offline ReaPsTA

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Disagree about 90%. I'll only concede on the smaller sample size, 1 versus at least 4 games in all 3 other major North American sports.

If a "lesser" team beats a "superior" team in the SB, they've pretty clearly proven they are the best since luck is a very minimal component while the superior team's performance can't simply be apologized away by luck. They get an extra week to heal injuries before the divisional round and then both teams get two full weeks to heal up and gameplan for the SB.

Hey Reap, I was curious about your take on this.

I'm here now.

I think a team's performance within an individual game is very much about the luck and the situation.  Like, within the paradigm of the Superbowl, I almost always think the winner deserved to win that game, but that doesn't mean they're the better team, which I know makes no sense.

Look at this current Clippers Thunder series.  Clippers decisively win game 1 based on the energy from the previous game 7.  Thunder kill the Clippers in game 2 because the Clippers finally wear and and because of the KD MVP speech.  Game 3 both teams play a high scoring offensive game and the Thunder win by a few points.  Game 4 the Clippers have a huge comeback and win.

In each of those games, the right team won.  But taken as a whole, the four games show that both teams are very even.  We still have no idea who's better yet, which is why it's going to be exciting to see the rest of the series play out.

EDIT:  Or, to use a Superbowl, if Football is a best of seven sport, the Giants probably don't win either of their Superbowls.  But, because Football isn't best of seven, you can't say they don't deserve them either.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2014, 06:39:55 PM by ReaPsTA »
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Offline black_biff_stadler

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You made some valid points but I just can't get how a supposedly superior team can have half a month to prepare for a game against a team they should beat, lose that game, and still be considered better.
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Offline ReaPsTA

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You made some valid points but I just can't get how a supposedly superior team can have half a month to prepare for a game against a team they should beat, lose that game, and still be considered better.

Freak stuff.  A shooter gets hot.  A receiver makes a crazy catch.  One of the teams comes up with a game plan that's awesome but would never work again once it was on film.  In the last Superbowl, the Seahawks figured out the Broncos signals, which I'm not sure it something that happens a lot in Football.

I'm not saying that every sports game comes down to luck.  The Patriots vs. Broncos AFC championship game was a clear case of the Broncos just being a better team.  But if you played the NFC championship game the 49ers win 4 or 5 of them.  Without playing a series to see who can sustain more success over multiple games, how can you definitely say either team was better?
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Offline black_biff_stadler

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Well yes, I already conceded the sample size disparity. But the big thing is that that is greatly overcome by the fact that they have a veritable eternity to gameplan for the SB whereas in the NBA finals, the team who took longer to win their CF gets a maximum of two or three days to prepare which can be a legit disadvantage. Without getting too slippery slope here, I'll point out that (as of last year) game 1 winners win a best of seven series 71.1% of the time (867-353) according to this link https://www.whowins.com/tables/up10.html So, that already means that there's a huge advantage in winning game 1 which almost makes game 1 like the SB itself.
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Offline ReaPsTA

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The Rockets fired one of their assistant coaches.  Guess he was the fall guy since they didn't get rid of McHale.

I feel like the importance of assistant coaches in a general sense is underrated.  Doc Rivers coached some mediocre offenses his last few years in Boston, and when he went to the Clippers all the sudden he was coaching the best offense in the league.  Obviously, the roster helps.  But no one points out that Doc hired Alvin Gentry, an assistant coach for Mike D'Antoni's seven seconds or less Suns offenses, as an assistant.  You don't think having someone like Gentry helping you with your offense matters just a little bit?
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Offline KevShmev

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You made some valid points but I just can't get how a supposedly superior team can have half a month to prepare for a game against a team they should beat, lose that game, and still be considered better.

Think of it this way:

There is no way to say that the 2007 Giants were better than the 2007 Patriots, but they won the Super Bowl, in large part thanks to Asante Samuel dropping what would have been a game-ending INT on one play and then the Tyree on the next play.  If either of those fluky plays turn out differently, the better team wins, but everything went the Giants way in the last two minutes of that game.  But you can't convince me that the Giants were the better overall team.

Same for the 2012 Ravens and 2011 Giants, neither of whom were even among the five best teams going into those playoff years, yet got hot and win it all thanks to the one-and-done format.

And I don't agree with ReaP's take that the Super Bowl winner doesn't mean a lot.  I just think the one-and-done format makes it more difficult for the truly best team to emerge as the champion than sports that have the best-of-seven format.

Offline KevShmev

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Think Paul Pierce is tired of losing playoff games to LeBron James?

Offline ReaPsTA

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Think Paul Pierce is tired of losing playoff games to LeBron James?

Probably.

EDIT:  Huge LeBron game though.  Doesn't matter how good you are, you need to keep proving it.  If I were a Western Conference coach, I'd look at that box score and think, "fuck."
« Last Edit: May 12, 2014, 09:26:30 PM by ReaPsTA »
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Offline ReaPsTA

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In this video, Kendrick Perkins and Zack Randolph tell a referee they want to play physical in the low post and ask if the refs can avoid calling touch fouls on them.  The referee says something like, "If you wanna lock arms, that's fine.  But no one falling to the ground.  You have to stick within the guidelines."

I don't like to use the word surreal lightly, but I had an out-of-body experience watching this video.
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Offline black_biff_stadler

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It's sketchy, no doubt, but it's much easier to swallow considering both teams' interests were represented.
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Offline ReaPsTA

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It's not even sketchy.  The ref was making sure both Perkins and Randolph were there to keep it fair.

I think it's more that, like, Basketball is a sport where the rules are more guidelines.  Football has judgment calls and no-calls, but generally the rules are enforced as they are.

The first couple years I watched, they tried to pretend that rules were being enforced.  Lately it seems like the league is being way more open about the rules being enforced selectively.  They posted a video where, literally, two if its players ask the ref not to enforce the rules and the ref at least partially agrees to their request.
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Offline Dimitrius

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I don't really mind it in that case though. They're both agreeing to it and telling the ref and he's allowing them with limitations, fine with me.
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I don't really mind it in that case though. They're both agreeing to it and telling the ref and he's allowing them with limitations, fine with me.

I don't mind it either.  I just can't believe I saw it.
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Offline ReaPsTA

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Stan Van Gundy is leaning toward taking the head coach/president of basketball operations job in Detroit.  If he does this, he'll consider hiring Otis Smith as the team's GM.

I feel bad for Pistons fans.
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Offline KevShmev

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Yeah, why would fans of a team that has won 34% of their games in the last five seasons want a coach who has won 64% of his games over 7+ seasons as a head coach?

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Yeah, why would fans of a team that has won 34% of their games in the last five seasons want a coach who has won 64% of his games over 7+ seasons as a head coach?

Stan Van Gundy is a great head coaching hire, but if he wants to hire Otis Smith as his GM, it's hard to believe that he has the right stuff for running the Basketball ops.
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Offline antigoon

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Wait.

So if SVG accepts that role, he, the coach, will be in charge of the GM? That's a pretty amusing flip of things. 

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Wait.

So if SVG accepts that role, he, the coach, will be in charge of the GM? That's a pretty amusing flip of things.

Clippers right now are the same way.
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Offline King Postwhore

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Man I heard some of the Anderson Cooper interview with Sterling.  That guy is nuts!
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Offline Accelerando

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Sterling on Magic Johnson: "What has he done? He has AIDS."

Pretty sure Johnson was HIV-postive, and did not have AIDS. Glad Sterling knows what he is talking about.

Offline King Postwhore

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One of many bat shit crazy comments and attacks he make when a different question was asked. 
I don't like country music, but I don't mean to denigrate those who do. And for the people who like country music, denigrate means 'put down'.” - Bob Newhart
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Offline Syzzle

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Why are people even giving Sterling attention?

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Media does and I was listening to sports radio on the ride home.  I couldn't turn it off because it was that crazy.  I'm not worried, the other owners will do the right thing.
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Offline jammindude

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Yeah, why would fans of a team that has won 34% of their games in the last five seasons want a coach who has won 64% of his games over 7+ seasons as a head coach?

Ask any team that has been coached by George Karl...
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Offline antigoon

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Wait.

So if SVG accepts that role, he, the coach, will be in charge of the GM? That's a pretty amusing flip of things.

Clippers right now are the same way.
Yeah, but isn't Doc also the GM?

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Yeah, but isn't Doc also the GM?

Kinda maybe.

When Neil Oshley went to Portland, Gary Sacks took over as Clippers GM and I think actually negotiated the deal to bring Doc to LA.  When Doc joined the team, he took on the title of Executive Vice President of Basketball operations, and Sacks I guess kept his title of Vice President of Basketball Operations.  The team has no official GM.

So like, I guess Doc is the one on the phone making deals, maybe.  But I doubt Gary Sacks stopped GMing either.  So Doc is the head coach, the ultimate authority in Basketball operations, and he has someone who used to be the de facto GM working under him.

The Stan Van Gundy arrangement seems to be a little more clear (Otis Smith would be the GM), but who knows.

Clippers staff page here has to official job titles
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Offline j

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OKC just got handed this game by Chris Paul and the officials.  Westbrook rewarded for unbelievable (but typical for him) stupidity.  Clippers repeatedly opting for Jamal Crawford one-on-fours during their offensive possessions.  Neither team playing a fucking bit of defense.  No idea what the refs were watching half the time.

Travesty of coaching, playing, officiating; just a horrible game all the way around.

-J

Offline KevShmev

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Exciting finish, but man oh man, that was some dreadful officiating, which is par for the course for the NBA.

Offline Syzzle

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What was that officiating holy shit :lol

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Exciting finish, but man oh man, that was some dreadful officiating, which is par for the course for the NBA.

RealGM's message boards are exploding.
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Offline antigoon

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Gotta love Doc just not giving a crap during the postgame interview. I wonder if the NBA should switch to hockey style, where an objective referee reviews these plays in a remote location.