Playoff Live Thread (Game 4): Cavs vs Celtics
2024-05-13Whelp. We’ve officially enterest the surreal phase of this playoff series. Donovan Mitchell and Jarrett Allen are out tonight and LeBron James is in (the building). It feels a lot like LeBron attending Z’s jersey retirement ceremony in 2014 with the king in the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, and I’ve been contending for a while that there’s a combo forward sized hole in the Cavs’ roster for a reason.
The whole LeCircus definitely puts a strange spin on this game, and without CPJ or TY Jerome to fill in for DM, it will be up to Caris and Sam Merrill to absorb the minutes. Meanwhile, I hope Evan Mobley has spent the last 48 hours studying how to read double teams and pass out of the post when he gets collapsed in, which was a major reason Boston shut him down in game 3. I also hope the Cavs have been practicing open threes cause they sure missed a bunch, Saturday. With the Cavs auditioning for the king, I expect a weird vibe to lead to Boston playing with their food and the Cavs catching them in a Cavalanche (hopefully). Go Cavs.
Welp i guess we’ll see, but with Levert also questionable, Cavs will be missing 3 of their 4 top scorers for the season.
Gonna need some epic rearguard action to pull this shit off.
bummer.
Bleh. Hope they can at least put up a fight tonight. Will be a bummer if the wheels come off and the season ends with a blowout.
If it guarantees that JB is fired, then it’s worth it.
This is lebron like…jokic is making the timberwolves look silly. Rebounds out of nowhere…points off of broken offense…he nearly made a backwards shot at the end of the shot clock. This is nonsense. The haters can get bent. He is an actual nightmare.
agree
I love the Brendan Frasier movie where he gives interviews about “giving 110%” over and over. Jokic has arnold’s accent but gives the same interview. “We vant to vin”. Goddamnit he backs up his soft interviews. Murray is solid…a few nuggets make any impact. But doubting his impact is ridiculous. He stirs the drink.
He has three MVPs. Are there a lot of doubters?
i had the ANTMAN (and twolves) winning the series, after jumping to 2-0.. the big guy is making me a liar.. but i love and respect anyone who can confront a powerful trend and single-handedly reverse its direction.. epic.. like the homeric poems.. herculean.. and a second-rounder to boot !!
Same. Looked like it was gonna be a sweep. Credit must go to the Nuggs org as well for ensuring adjustments were made.
Shaq.
“He stirs the drink” – I am stealing this. Gold.
Originally said about Reggie Jackson in his late 70’s Yankees days
The straw that stirs the drink.
saw him many times at fenway in right field in the late 70s.. he had to wear a batting helmet to protect himself from nuts and bolts thrown by the boys from southie.. as an aside.. i loved guidry.. unhittable in ’78
I recall Reggie’s epic breaking up of a crucial double play in the PO or WS: on the throw from second to first, he looked like he was jumping back, out of the way, but managed to stick his belly out and deflect the ball.
yes, raoul broi.. he did the “bump”.. you remember that dance.. i bet you were a bump dawg.. with platforms ??
I was more of a Red Wing Irish Setter boots kind of guy in that era. Now I have feet issues from 50+ years of BB, so I am always in heavy duty running shoes. Hoka can’t be beat.
He and Paul are the only guys with 40 point, 10 assist, zero TO olayoff games, I believe. Though TOs did not get tracked until ’77-’78. So there could be some Cousy, West, Oscar games in there, but we’ll never know. Jokic is, by far, the best offensive player in the game today. And one of the best I have ever seen (MJ, Shaq, prime Duncan/Dream, Kareem). There is just nothing you can do. You cannot double because he is too good a passer. A smaller guy gets crushed in the post, and the very few guys who are big… Read more »
And it’s not like the T-Wolves D just collapsed across the board. They’ve still got Murray and Porter pretty well in check. They just ran out of answers for Jokic, and lost track of Gordon probably bc of the sheer amount of attention focused (futilely) on stopping Jokic.
Jokic makes nba players look like college novices. Its ridiculous. Producing that level should happen every few years from the ncaa. But…not even close. Towns looks like a groupie by comparison. But allegedly has the same skill set.
that is why I love sports — the astounding “who’da thunk it” plot twists.
Ant’s D troubles Murray…
Jokic was shooting under 40% with Gobert on him before last night.
And KAT initially with Gobert as the helper had been pretty effective.
But the end of G4 and G5 he just went bonkers. 40/10 with no TOs on, what, 22 shots? Nuts.
brunson putting on a show.. 42pts.. korbly took sexton in that draft.. aren’t special second rounders a sweet thing to behold
They are a wonder of any sport – impossible to predict and a lesson to all aspiring athletes that nothing is preordained, consistent effort and belief is a big part of the package.
should be a lesson to owners.. let dudes from the internet blogs submit their picks.. print them out.. put them in a hat, and let the owner dip his hand in.. save the $$ being wasted on the pretenders in the FOs
sometimes the FO gets it right. Like picking LeBron.
forgot about that long shot pick RAOUL bro.. thx
😂😂😂
Smarts and toughness and skill and work ethic are better traits than athleticism.
and they have a longer shelf life!
And the Mavs let him walk AFTER he got them to the WCF. So they could get Kyrie.
THAT is dumb.
for those defending garland’s sub-par performance in the playoffs (bettering his season avg in 3/11 playoff games).. josh hart has significantly bettered his season avg in 8/11 (that is EIGHT out of eleven).. i rest my case.. certain players rise to the occasion.. others, not so much (credit where credit due.. DG had a nice game in the latest loss)
He is playing more because Randle, OG, and Mitch are out.
Come on Buck, not the same thing.
Hart has been fantastic, but he is playing more minutes and Indy is so worried about Brunson, the Knicks are killing them on the glass.
how much did the brilliant brass-balled korbly save by not re-signing hard rock ? who did he bring in to back up JA ? sad.. i know NOMAD bro is crying on a daily basis over this nightmare of FO incompetence.. 13 rebounds tonight in what is looking like a go-ahead (3-2) knicks win.. he’s making what ? 3 mill ? 5 mill ?
you are the only guy that can predict the future, so you should have tipped them off.
actually NOMAD tipped me off about the high value to hard rock.. i just look at the box scores and connect the dots
I was with NOMAD on the HardRock bandwagon from day 1, considered it a no brainer.
At the time, not giving him a QA was said (by someone?) to be a favor for his agent. Anyone recall that? Or, what was the deal?
Me, too.
But Hard Rock likely wanted more PT. He was not gonna get it here.
QO, not QA.
Anyway, they could have matched the offer. As it turnes out, he would have gotten all the playing time he could use, because people were out with Covid and injuries.
Pacers effort on the boards tonight is especially pathetic.
It’s really mind boggling why teams don’t block out Hartenstein. He’s a good rebounder, but so many of these are just absolute gifts.
Pacers have a passion for turning the ball over. Not gonna lead to winning very much, but I respect the passion.
Pacers burn a challenge to overturn Brunson’s Shenanigans.
If DM plays in Game 5, I think we have a chance.
Doesn’t sound like that’s happening. I’d start Wade, shoot loads of threes, and pray to the variance gods. Wade has enough size to help when Mobley gets pulled from the rim, and he sets good picks. Mobley also looks like the ankle is bothering him…I know the Knicks have had it worse, but the injuries on this team, all season, are absurd.
Yeah, especially considering the relative youth of most of the rotation players. You’d expect lots of injuries to be a higher risk on an older roster. But we just can’t get a break it seems.
three years running the Cav’s star big men have had a lot of injuries and sick leave.
that is why it would have been so sweet if we had extended HardRock. that would likely have led to 5 to 10 more wins / year.
and why it is insane how so many want to give away either JA or EM.
variance gods.. nice.. what’s the std error ?
Pretty good effort from the squad. If we had Mitchell playing OR a halfway decent officiating crew, the series would be 2-2.
Dan Gilbert’s tweet is beyond awesome.
https://twitter.com/cavsdan/status/1790210540498829569
PREACH BUCKAROO PREACH——YOU ARE ON AN ALL STAR ROLL 👍👍——-FAMILY UP FOR AN EXTENDED STAY——— TAKING A BREAK FROM BASKETBALL/ CTB———ENJOY……….MORE BEER 🍺 PLEASE AND FAMILY TIME “ ———- WILL GET BACK WITH YOU ALL LATER—— IF I SURVIVE THE GRANDKIDS “ ENDLESS ENERGY “ AND “ THE “ MRS NOMAD s “ ENDLESS HONEY 🍯 DO LIST WHICH I “ PAWNED “ OFF ON MY SONS 👍🍺👍🍺👍🍺🤪——-LATER GUYS/ GALS —- GO CAVS
Enjoy, Nomad!
talk about hot n cold.. kyrie.. 20.. 8.. 20.. 8.. disappointment and inconsistency is everywhere.. doncic certainly not dominating either..
dallas just gave this series away.. sad but true..
Kyrie in single digits.
POs is harder. Teams elect to take stuff away & force other guys to beat them (sometimes).
Guys who consistently get you 25-30 efficiently are really rare birds. Top tier HOFer types: LeBron, Steph, Joker, KD, Embiid, Giannis, a healthy Kawhi.
Guys in the next level down struggle not infrequently. Tatum, Harden, Luka, Booker, PG, Davis, Russ, etc. MVP level guys.
Guys like Mitchell, Ant, Brunson, & SGA are in that 2nd tier (for now).