Comments on: Clippers vs Nuggets 2025 Game 5 Preview

By: World B. We

World B. We — Thu, 01 May 2025 12:35:12 +0000

Both those teams have won the championship in the last 5 years. I’d say no more painful. Much less in fact.
Here’s some pain. The best comparison I can come up with for a team like the Buck’s is the Nuggets. Small market team that put everything into a trophy. Both having respective Unicorns. One is named Giannis. The other is named Nikola. And both those teams made roster mistakes with basically no room to do so given the state of modern restrictions on front offices, which I love personally. It’s the way it should be. Parity is fun.
One major difference is the Pacers handled their shit, while we are still playing. That to me is pain. We can’t pinch off the loaf that is a spent Nuggets team even though we are more talented and have a deeper roster.

And then there’s the Lakers. A team where restrictions conveniently (and suspiciously) don’t apply.

They pushed all the chips in for a relatively recent championship and should be going through the doldrums reminiscent of the Nugget’s but just got bailed out by…an old friend of Kobe’s who used to sell shoes? Silver trying to get people in Tajikistan to wear Faker jerseys? A corrupt Mav’s owner so wealthy that she was able to pay Trump enough campaign money to have her Zionist dream of the US Embassy being moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thereby degrading the separation of Temple and state in that country?
I couldn’t honestly tell you what happened but whatever it was it was dirtier than a hill of mud.

And here are the Lakers. This summer they have 3 expiring contracts connected to players that they won’t miss that collectively make up something like 50 million worth of salary matching. And perhaps most shocking of all, they retained the majority of their picks in the scandalous trade. They ate their cake in 2020 and somehow still kept it. They’ll be able to get an actual center no problem. They’ll be good for the foreseeable future. Not a bad time to be a Laker fan. Pretty much never a bad time to be a Laker fan and that delegitimises the entire sport.

Go Clippers! Befuddle the masses! Flip the script!

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Thu, 01 May 2025 07:07:41 +0000

Went to the Laker game tonight. Crowd was completely dead. Felt like a regular season game. The fan base that attends Laker games is pretty old. JJ Redick did his best hybrid of Doc Rivers and Ty Lue. He lost his rhythm in the bright lights of the playoffs. He stubbornly refused to play a big, went small for almost all 48 minutes and made Gobert look like Wilt 2.0. This game must’ve reminded Gobert of his days in French AAU ball when he towered over everyone and just had to run and dunk.

Going small is often risky and mostly doesn’t work out. Going small with Luka on the court as your wing defender is like giving your opponent an all you can eat buffet.

Wolves shot the ball poorly but their strategy was very good. They hunted Luka on every play, made an effort to look for Rudy (something that many of Rudy’s teams don’t do) and found ways to match up with Lebron and Luka. Randle was the best overall player in the series, and up close he really is as big as Lebron. Luka and Lebron played hard, but they were clearly worn down and couldn’t get enough shots up to win. Hachimura was up for the challenge. Reaves was really bad. But this game was about JJ’s total lack of faith in his bench and his stubborness, which masked the fact that the lights were too bright for him.

Minnesota is a scary team. They are capable of making a deep playoff run.

By: John Maclean

John Maclean — Thu, 01 May 2025 06:47:51 +0000

I was already feeling good about game 6. But Zu not winning most improved player has totally thrown gasoline on that fire. This could be an epic performance from him.

BTW. How much more painful is it to be a Bucks or Lakers fan right now regardless of how this all turns out? Here’s hoping we at least win game 6 to put a stamp on that.

By: mlslaw1

mlslaw1 — Thu, 01 May 2025 00:57:25 +0000

Doghouse or just not good enough to earn minutes. Gotta get to Amir.

By: John Ki

John Ki — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 23:14:11 +0000

Is Coffey on the injured list or Lue’s doghouse? I haven’t seen him play even during garbage time?

By: mlslaw1

mlslaw1 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:32:57 +0000

Concur and will even say Coffey has a case for playing some now.

By: mlslaw1

mlslaw1 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 21:32:08 +0000

Yeah, Kawhi, James, Zu, Batum and Bogi floats my boat big time. I like the Batum option on Gordon and I think Bogi has the juice to bother murray + as you say, Bogi has flipped the switch last two games. Bring in Norm to play vs. some subs and see if he can flourish. We need a change up here — now.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 20:06:11 +0000

The first option: Harden-Kawhi-Zu-Batum-Bogi has some added value for Harden. Denver has blitzed him and crowded his space the last 2 games. You need to get Braun off him and get James in rhythm. Bogi helps James a lot more than Norm does. He’s a good ball handler, can move the ball well and has shown some juice the last 2 games. I also think his defense is better than Norm’s.

For any lineup change, the core metric should be: what changes make Harden and Kawhi better on the floor?

By: I'm a Mann I'm 40

I'm a Mann I'm 40 — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 19:49:02 +0000

Why does Lue rarely light into these guys? Like sure, Bogi, Batum and Dunn played hard, but how was the intent right from this team? Is he trying to keep everyone calm? I don’t know how much these fiery speeches always matter, but when we see lack of aggressiveness and little leadership then where is it going to come from? Harden dipping out 2 games in a row to avoid media, feels like he’s mentally given up the edge after overreacting to that Braun foul, that was a big nothing.

Either Ty is not willing to be the fiery leader or he feels like this group is too fragile to come after. I don’t really like either of those reasons.

By: khyber jones

khyber jones — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 18:33:16 +0000

Might try one of these two lineups to start the game:

Harden-Kawhi-Zu + Batum + Bogi
Harden-Kawhi-Zu + Dunn + Batum
Harden-Kawhi-Zu + Norm + Bogi

What lineup helps get Harden/Kawhi unleashed and can deal with hammering Gordon (who I believe is the pivotal player to stop in order to shift the momentum back to LAC)? I think it's the first or second option. The third lineup is the pure fire. If we start with that, play with pace and get a lot of 3s up, play for the magnet ball and better spacing for Kawhi/James and run the heck back on defense.