NBA 2023-24 Season Thread - The Lakers Lose, America Wins

Araxen said:

We shit the bed like only the Wolves can. I knew it was to good to be true. lol

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Honestly the series shouldn’t be this close, so don’t feel too bad. The officiating the Wolves received in game 2 was an absolute farce, and those refs should be investigated.

What a crazy game. I really believed the Twolves would not respond and be the ones getting blown out this game.

What a wild series.

Blitz said:

My beef with basketball now, is game to game, it can be a terrible product. Most of these games are not remotely competitive. Outcome is way too dependable on three-pointers.

I'm surprised Wolves pulled that out. Fun game 7 upcoming - or well, fun in theory.

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I despise todays basketball because of just this. Fuckin the three pointer and guard play has me rarely even looking at the Celtics. I just don't like the product.

The Timberwolves are the next dynasty in a few years. This is nuts what AE is pulling off. Clearly Denver's Achilles heel is fast break and tight defense.

What a horrendous performance by Murray & the Denver role players.

3 point shots are just going to have more variance game to game. a team can go 13/25 one night and 7/25 the next on basically the same looks.

OU Ariakas said:

It all started with Vlade Divac bringing his flopping and whining to the game. He was the start of the decline of hard-nosed defense and now refs call fouls on absolutely everything. I hate it.

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It’s gotten ridiculous. If an offensive player initiates contact it should never be a defensive foul. The real shitty issue is that it appears some officials are easier on this than others, and it even varies from player to player. NBA officiating desperately needs philosophical consistency more than anything else.

OU Ariakas said:

Agreed. They barely call traveling or moving screens, both of which occur 5+ times every single goddamn game.

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While Divac brought the Euro faggot-flop to the NBA, its real downfall was leaning into NYC street ball in the 80s and 90s. They started ignoring the procedural fouls that made people practice specific skills in favor of allowing athletic showmanship. Before a point guard had to be massively skilled to run the floor and dish to open men without carrying/palming/traveling but now they just do whatever the fuck they want as long as they don't gain a "competitive advantage" that is completely different from one ref to another. Same thing with all the three point bullshit these days. A large percentage of 3 pointers are opened up by moving screens and it is totally silly.

Shaq really showed it for what it was, on both sides. He started his career with less traveling and 3 second violations, but the NBA allowed so much illegal contact against him that he just bulked up to better take the damage and leaned into pure power with the lack of movement. In a world where they stuck to the real rules of basketball, Shaq would have had Bill Russell amounts of rings.

These days it barely even real basketball. The NBA is a product first, so offensive players are sheltered and allowed to do nearly anything they want. Then, when playoff season comes around, they start letting a lot of bullshit fouls go so that the refs don't "affect the game" but it really is just a complete shit show of retarded street ball that barely resembles basketball any longer.

Personal foul rates have been going down every decade since the 80s. Combined with the higher pace that's like 20 percent less fouls per possession.

Mavs back in the Western Conference Finals. Not sure how well they will fare though. Both the Nuggets and T-wolves are monster teams.

Denver shitting the bed in the 2nd half LOL