Yeah the Knicks should win. No reason for Miami to play their stars except to shake off some rest. But that's what the Bucks are for in the first round
Question: Would you rather play Boston,Chicago, or Atlanta in the first round? +Boston is Boston. We beat them twice without Chandler, but they didn't have KG. Rondo is missing the playoffs though. The Celtics always cause Melo trouble though and are a good defensive team. +Chicago another great defensive team. We are 0-3 versus them and there is a chance Rose comes back. They are a tough,physical team, something that has caused problems for the Knicks physically and mentally. +Atlanta, probably currently better than Chicago or Boston. They have Horforda nd Smith who could bang low and a quick PG in Teague. They aren't great defensively but they probably have more talent than Chi or BOS currently. We are .5 games back of IND, if we pass IND for the 2 seed we get Boston most likely. If we stay in the 3 seed, ATL is only .5 games up on Chicago for the 5 seed. (We get the 6 seed as the 3 seed)
First off, during the regular season with this many games left..its very rare...to take your top two dream teamers out is unheard of. Never heard of this before the Spurs did it. I get doing it to the Spurs after their antics but the Knicks? Nationally televised game? Hey..if they are banged up their lead lets them do it. If I were in charge of the NBA with those ticket prices and what they charge the networks to do games...I would be furious. Again..maybe all three are banged up. I guess it happened with 30 seconds to go against the Bulls the night the streak ended. And you know what Staff? I remember hearing during the game when they did it to the Heat that Pop has done it before. I truly do not remember it but I can swear they said that is his thing.
My heart would say the Celtics..but that team...I just do not trust what they can bring to a short series. I want no part of the Bulls the way they have played us. Easy..bring on Atlanta.
Pop earlier this year was on the second night of a back to back. They were playing on TNT. Pop not only pulled Parker, Duncam, and Ginobli, I believe he flew them home to SA so they weren't even at the game. He was fined 250,000 for doing this and not playing by the NBAs rules. Miami listed the players with injuries and didn't play them, thus following the rules. I also can't remember if players rested before Pop, but it's probably not common teams have the 1 seed wrapped us so early. That's what I figured, but Teague/Horford/Smith bother me. I don't know, I feel like the Celtics would be the easiest but I just don't trust us against them like you said. By default, Hawks even though they are more talented
Popovich wasn't the first to rest players, but no coach gave the finger to the league like he does. He deliberately does it on nationally televised games, doesn't even pretend the guys are injured, tells them to go home and not even attend the games, and sits out everyone at once. Miami taking a page out of SA's book. It's one thing to selectively rest guys but it's another to do it all at once like this. This is essentially tanking. Many teams have tanked in the past, especially for the lottery (the Celtics were especially blatant about it in recent history, even Bill Simmons acknowledges that), but they generally try not to be so obvious.
Well what PHX is doing is more tanking (resting dragic for no reason). What Miami is doing can be considered legit just because everything is locked up for them. The only thing they can play for is HC advantage in the finals and they are 4 up on the loss column against the Spurs for that. This I'm fine with, what PHX is doing is more questionable. You would think that uh Felton would be playing let alone better after his comments about the Heat. He's looked pretty bad, good thing the refs benched him
Hmm gonna have to see a reply why Melo got that tech. He slapped Battier's arm as Battier was attempting a shot for continuation. I am 99% sure you are allowed to defend a shot after the foul to stop continuation. He might get that tech rescinded tomorrow
I consider it tanking when a team just sits a bunch of players who are not really injured. It's true that Miami's tanking is a different situation, but tanking is tanking. I'd like it better if teams just gave guys limited minutes or sat the stars out on different nights, rather than doing the Pop thing.
True that would make sense. Stagger Wade and Bron. The Knicks don't feel like boxing out or playing defense so Miami, specifically Mike Miller, is having a fun time. Anyone guarding Melo is having a bad time
Mike Miller is having himself a game. Also looks like the Knicks thought they could come here and not play/hustle/defend and win. They can't though so the Heat are driving and shooting at will. Felton is the main culprit as usually. He has let Cole, Miller, and Allen beat him off the dribble. Come on man.
Down 58-50 at half. Just some horrific defense from the Knicks. Bad rotations and bad double teams. THen Felton isn't stopping anyone off the dribble. Hopefully Woodson fixes it at halftime. Both teams shooting well from 3, I think over 50%
Well technically we are the unstoppable team with a 8 game win streak, longest current streak in the NBA. Your a team with a puny 2 or 3 game win streak :beer:
But yeah we are acting like we need to double team anyone on the Heat, which we don't need to do. This leads to open 3s, but oh well.
Bulls lost to the Wizards, meaning ATL is one game up on them. Looks like the Bulls might uh be avoiding that 5 seed and taking the 6 and IND/NYK whoever comes with it
