I understand and love the physicality the playoffs bring, but there’s a pretty clear line between recklessly (or intentionally) hurting dudes and playing defense on every possession. Plus, even if that line isn’t clear in real-time, the league has the power to look at plays after the fact, with the aid of much better video tech than we had in the 90s.

I’m kinda hoping LAL beats Minnesota because that’s probably the team that scares me the most in this tournament. They have a lot of bodies to throw at you; they’re physical; they have size and complementary shot makers who always seem to get magnet ball hot against us; and they have Ant, who has quietly been one of the better Q4/clutch time players this year. The stuff he did against LAL tonight is pretty much what he has done in most of their contested wins. He’s not as efficient overall, but he’s made his game more effective b/c he will shoot that 3. He’s given up the midrange for the 3, because he can get to the rim easily. If we were to play them, we’d have to put him in the dunngeon and drive him off the 3 pt line, use Zu to contest at the rim, and make him settle for the midrange.

I think the Lakers can even the series with Lebron playing that well. JJ just has to get off this kick about playing small and being predictable; Lakers need to take care of the ball when securing rebounds in the back court; and they need better shot selection.

The NBA should’ve suspended him a long time ago to send a message, but this shit’s just gonna keep happening in the meantime.

P.S. I didn’t like PBev either, but I legit can’t think of an instance of him being particularly dirty while he was on the Clippers – I realize I sound like a homer, but I can’t think of any instances of Clippers PBev that straight up went out there to hurt a dude (other than his cheap shove on CP3, which is a different category since it’s outside of a play).

I took the time to rewatch the OKC grizzlies game and also our game 3 last night and there may be a reality where we can compete with them. I know that Chet and J-Will didn’t play in that last game, but our game plan was effective and we likely would have won without that terrible no-call when Zu got fouled at the end. We are far better now than we were then and in a slower paced playoff game there may be matchups to exploit. They don’t have anyone who can guard Kawhi and he should have his way in that series. I can also see Dunn, Kawhi and DJJ disrupting their perimeter passing schemes and Zu roughing them up inside. OKC should rightfully be favored. But a month ago I would have had them sweeping us and now I’m not so sure about that.

Let’s get game 4 tomorrow so my predictions continue to manifest lol.

So, yeah, if the NBA won’t police that dude, other teams will have to do it. Edey started keying on Dort yesterday and I expect Memphis is going to have something to say to him in Game 4. If we end up playing OKC, we are going to have to send messages, the basketball equivalent of a brush back pitch. I guarantee you if we have some momentum in a key game in that series, Lu Dort is going to strike. No one is going to tell him to do it. He just knows that’s how and why he gets paid in the NBA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bM-Y4UoiAY

Send a message that attempts to take out athletes with kicks, jabs, football style hits and other non-basketball maneuvers will be penalized. NFL has made strides in this area with respect to protecting the QB, and to a far less effective extent, protecting players against head shots. NBA can address this too,