NBA Season 2024-25

[blink]

Dallas beat OKC at OKC.

Crazy

And. Luka didn?t even play. 

Thunder are pretenders, just like the Cavs.

This is very possible.   
I keep waiting for the Cavs magic to rub off, but it hasn't yet.  I think it will before the playoffs.

[Who]

Toronto have now won 4 of their last 5.

They have beaten Boston, Golden State, Orlando and Atlanta. They lost to Milwaukee.

Toronto are not that bad of a team. They have just been banged up all season. They should not be among the basement dwellers. They should be closer to the play-in spots. Maybe just outside the play-in but competitive. They have enough talent to be competitive.

[Birdman]

Toronto have now won 4 of their last 5.

They have beaten Boston, Golden State, Orlando and Atlanta. They lost to Milwaukee.

Toronto are not that bad of a team. They have just been banged up all season. They should not be among the basement dwellers. They should be closer to the play-in spots. Maybe just outside the play-in but competitive. They have enough talent to be competitive.

Toronto are a pretty good team if they all healthy, that?s the problem?

[Who]

Toronto have now won 4 of their last 5.

They have beaten Boston, Golden State, Orlando and Atlanta. They lost to Milwaukee.

Toronto are not that bad of a team. They have just been banged up all season. They should not be among the basement dwellers. They should be closer to the play-in spots. Maybe just outside the play-in but competitive. They have enough talent to be competitive.

Toronto are a pretty good team if they all healthy, that?s the problem?

Probably more mediocre than good. More competing for the 9th / 10th place play-in spots in the East than a top 6-8 seed.

After the Celtics lost to the Raptors a few days ago, people were very down in the game thread on losing to such a bad team because the Raptors had such a terrible record at 9 wins 31 losses at the time but that record is deceptive because they have been so banged up. Now they are healthier and are more like a 34-38 win team (maybe even a .500 team) than a squad struggling to get to 20 wins.

It was a bad loss but it wasn't as bad as folks thought it was because Toronto are better team (when healthy) than their current record indicates. This little 4 wins in 5 stretch shows that (to a point) with some wins against good opposition there. They are a capable team when healthy. Not a basement dweller.

[Phantom255x]

I feel like the overall product is just deteriorating in the regular season. Besides maybe Christmas Week with the national media games, and then post-All Star Break the rest of it is just a grind. So many players still resting, load managing, sitting with "injuries/illness", etc. Also so many blowouts where by the 2nd half it's 3rd stringers vs. 3rd stringers.

Pretty sure at one point last night, there were five games going on and all of them were 20+ blowouts. Including us.

I know they tried with the NBA Cup but that is also temporary and frankly even the elite teams don't seem to try as hard in that than the others.

[SparzWizard]

I feel like the overall product is just deteriorating in the regular season. Besides maybe Christmas Week with the national media games, and then post-All Star Break the rest of it is just a grind. So many players still resting, load managing, sitting with "injuries/illness", etc. Also so many blowouts where by the 2nd half it's 3rd stringers vs. 3rd stringers.

Pretty sure at one point last night, there were five games going on and all of them were 20+ blowouts. Including us.

I know they tried with the NBA Cup but that is also temporary and frankly even the elite teams don't seem to try as hard in that than the others.

No wonder ratings are dropping. At this point, the Patriots offseason has been more exciting than the Celtics this season after raising Banner 18

[Phantom255x]

I feel like the overall product is just deteriorating in the regular season. Besides maybe Christmas Week with the national media games, and then post-All Star Break the rest of it is just a grind. So many players still resting, load managing, sitting with "injuries/illness", etc. Also so many blowouts where by the 2nd half it's 3rd stringers vs. 3rd stringers.

Pretty sure at one point last night, there were five games going on and all of them were 20+ blowouts. Including us.

I know they tried with the NBA Cup but that is also temporary and frankly even the elite teams don't seem to try as hard in that than the others.

No wonder ratings are dropping. At this point, the Patriots offseason has been more exciting than the Celtics this season after raising Banner 18

I mean look at the 3 games today.

Morant, Miles Bridges, Lamelo Ball, Embiid, LeVert, etc. are all out tonight. Some of these guys literally played 2 days ago.

[Who]

I feel like the overall product is just deteriorating in the regular season. Besides maybe Christmas Week with the national media games, and then post-All Star Break the rest of it is just a grind. So many players still resting, load managing, sitting with "injuries/illness", etc. Also so many blowouts where by the 2nd half it's 3rd stringers vs. 3rd stringers.

Pretty sure at one point last night, there were five games going on and all of them were 20+ blowouts. Including us.

I know they tried with the NBA Cup but that is also temporary and frankly even the elite teams don't seem to try as hard in that than the others.

No wonder ratings are dropping. At this point, the Patriots offseason has been more exciting than the Celtics this season after raising Banner 18

I mean look at the 3 games today.

Morant, Miles Bridges, Lamelo Ball, Embiid, LeVert, etc. are all out tonight. Some of these guys literally played 2 days ago.

Agree 100% with the sitting out / resting / load management.

I also dislike the lower number of minutes stars are playing nowadays. Guys used to play 35-40 minutes a night. MJ would play around 37-38mpg for the Bulls. So would Pippen. You only had 10mpg where MJ wasn't playing and Pippen would at least be on the floor for that. Nowadays, the stars play less and the benches play more. I don't care about the benches. I am not paying money to watch the bench players. I am paying money to watcth the star players. They are the guys I come to see.

Some of these lineups today with the 2nd units and how much playing time they get drive me nuts! They are so bad. So uninteresting. Mediocre talent. I pay to watch top talent. Not mediocre talent. I pay to watch SGA. Not Isaiah Joe.

[Phantom255x]

Cavaliers might lose to an Embiid-less Sixers now

[radiohead]

The refs are trying so hard to give the Cavs a chance in this game. So many non calls on Philly.

[radiohead]

Huge turnover by Ty Jerome. Wow.

[Phantom255x]

Wow for a sec I thought Philly was employing "Capture the Flagg" there lol. That was a massive choke at the end but they barely hang on.

[jpotter33]

Cavs showing some real cracks in the armor now with Mobley out. This would be a chance for us to close that gap and threaten to overtake them if we weren't in our own slump.

[Phantom255x]

Cavs showing some real cracks in the armor now with Mobley out. This would be a chance for us to close that gap and threaten to overtake them if we weren't in our own slump.

Something I'm noticing, people mention Cleveland as having a great defense with some tough defenders, but they do give up a lot of points. Outside of only allowing 92 to Phoenix recently, here's their PPG given up since the start of January:

122, 105, 122, 126, 108, 117, 134, 117, 92, 109, and now 132 to this Embiid-less Sixers

Now they are very talented and deep enough to outscore most teams. But they've had an iffy month overall. They definitely miss Mobley, but that's the thing too, early in the year they were fully healthy most games and everything was clicking.

They are still IMO the team to beat in the East but it's a little encouraging at least that they don't look as dominant. OKC is a juggernaut right now but they are out West.

[SparzWizard]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ6meQMBBPg

Even the 76ers mascot plays much better defense than the entire Celtics team. DPOY. Sign him up.