Tag Archives: nba sports playoffs

With injuries being a problem in these last few years of the playoffs in the NBA members of the media and around the league have spoken up about the NBA season needing to be shortened to prevent injuries in the playoffs. Former NBA player Richard Jefferson dislikes the idea, but other than Jefferson media members like Stephen A Smith, Skip Bayless, Shannon Sharpe and many others say the league is wearing on players too much by the time the post season hits, to be real about it I feel the same way, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has spoken publicly about the possibility to shortening the regular season and creating a midseason tournament which I think is ridiculous but if you have a good enough reward for the winner of that mid season tournament it could be a good thing. 

    Many media members are requesting the regular season gets shortened to 60-65 games which I think is the sweet spot for having a long enough season and still giving the players the necessary rest they need to prevent major injuries. Now this change couldn’t happen for a couple years until the NBA’s tv deals are done but they could begin negotiating with the players to at least get a grasp of what each side wants.

There’s a couple ways to fix the NBA season and here’s a couple change that could be made 1. Players have been sitting out more and more for “load management” throughout the season and fans have been upset considering their the paying customer and wanting to see the star players 2. Players suffering major injuries are keeping players out for the post season due to a lack of rest and 3. With the 82 games there’s no urgency for the players to play hard and no reason for the casual fan to watch all 82 games if nothing is at stake for their team at any given night.

The Boston Celtics take game 1 of these NBA finals in the bay area with a miraculous 120-108 win. The Celtics rallied back in the fourth quarter to come back and win it, thanks to Al Horford’s big night with six threes made and 26 points Boston used that as jet fuel to blow out the Warriors in the fourth. With Jayson Tatum being doubled and trapped most of the game the C’s role players game up bi making 21 three’s, fifteen just between Derrick White, Marcus Smart and Al Horford, Tatum had a below average game in his standards finishing with just 12 points on 3-17 shooting {17.6% FG, 20% 3PT} but having 13 assists and just 2 turnovers, so Tatum didn’t necessarily win you the game but he made the right basketball plays to get you the win. 

Now for Golden State, the Warriors overall played pretty well but some were better than others, Stephen Curry played great having one of his better finals game finishing with 34, 5 and 5 assists with 3 steals as well, Curry came out swinging with 21 points in the first quarter, Curry did cool off after that but still had 13 points in the remaining three quarters but none less the Warriors role players and other stars didn’t come to play, Klay Thompson did not have a great game finishing with just 15 points which isn’t going to be enough, Klay needs to be averaging at least 20 in this series. Draymond also took too many shots {12} which isn’t really his cup of tea as a “enforcer” Draymond should be taking 6-8 shots a game and looking to find other players open looks. Jordan Poole also needs to step up, Poole hasn’t had a good stretch of games since the first round against the Denver Nuggets, Poole scored just 9 points and that’s becoming a regular for him in these playoffs thus far.

This is going to be one of the better finals the NBA has had in years, with the league’s best defense in the Celtics versus arguably the league’s most explosive offense in the Warriors this matchup will come down to who folds first, the Warriors offense? Or the Celtics defense? Since the all-star break Boston has been seen as a top 3 team, and many would say the top team in the playoffs. Boston has really come a long way since the first half of the season and has been playing better with more experience between the players and rookie head coach Ime Udoka. Many have been wanting Boston to break up this young core as it was imagined they were not talented enough to get past the true contenders in the east let alone the west.

The Golden State Warriors have much of the pressure to win this series, many people in the media are pushing the narrative that Boston is “playing with house money” as they weren’t expected to get this deep into the playoffs. Much of the media is putting lots of pressure on Warriors guard Stephen Curry for this is his likely best chance to win the championship and get awarded his first finals mvp, many would say this finals mvp would put Curry in an elite class, possibly in the top 10 of all time players to play basketball.

The Boston Celtics have advanced to the NBA finals with a 100-96 win over the Miami Heat. Jayson Tatum received the Larry Bird eastern conference mvp trophy, this game was down to the wire in Miami Sunday night, with Jimmy Butler just coming up short to make the potential game winning shot. Butler played great last night finishing with 35 points and 9 boards and played all 48 minutes of the ball game, this Miami team needs a little shake up as they dont have any great scorers besides Tyler Herro who was injured for most of the series and Jimmy Butler but he’s not considered to be a “scorer”. Bam Adebayo played well last night finishing with a double double of 25 and 11 boards, Bam was one of three Miami Heat players to score in double digits with Jimmy Butler, Bam and Kyle Lowry who doesn’t look the same as he once was.

Not to take away from the Celtics as they did win the series with Jayson Tatum, Jalyen Brown and Marcus Smart combining for 74 points, we all knew Tatum would get his points but Smart and Brown combining for 50 just them two was huge for Boston last night. Grant Williams also scored in double digits with 11 points and shot rather efficiently {62.5%} and also had 6 assists as well. The Celtics will now face off with the Golden State Warriors for the NBA championship starting on thursday June 2nd.

In this list we will be handing out these NBA playoffs awards, from MVP, best defensive player, best scorer, most disappointing, most disappointing team, most improved and most impressive team.

Most Valuable player: Luka Doncic

    With what Luka has for a team around him and how far he took this team in this western conference, I think Luka should be the playoffs MVP.

Best defensive player: Jrue Holiday

    Jrue Holiday put up great defensive performances against Boston and the Chicago Bulls, even though the Bucks got bounced early Holiday still had great defensive performances. 

Most disappointing player: James Harden

    Considering James Harden had the expectations to take the 76ers further in the playoffs than Ben Simmons did, this was an awful playoff performance even for Harden’s standards. 

Most disappointing team: Phoenix Suns

The Phoenix Suns were easily the most disappointing team, they were considered the best team in the league and got bounced in the second round to basically Luka Doncic and a bunch of B- to C+ players, and had a historically bad meltdown in game 7 against the Mavericks.    

Most Improved player: Luka Doncic

    Luka is on here winning his second award with most improved player with the sole fact on before these playoffs Luka couldn’t win a playoff series so he won back to back playoff series and beat the best team in the league in the Suns.

Most impressive team: Memphis Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies had to make it on the list on the sole fact that they were the youngest team in these playoffs and went the distance with the now western conference champion Golden State Warriors without Ja Morant for two games and Derrick Brooks for essentially two whole games.

Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat force a game 7 with a 111-103 win. This was a back and forth game but Miami pulls ahead at the last minute to take the game, Jimmy Butler had one of his many superstar moments in the playoffs finishing with 47, 9 and 8 with 4 steals, Butler was struggling for the last couple games since injuring his knee in game 3 of this eastern conference series but showed up last night. Kyle Lowry also came to play finishing with a double double of 18 points and 10 assists, this was Lowry’s first game that he’s truly played well in these eastern finals, Bam Adebayo has been looking very pedestrian finishing with another game under double digits with just 6 points on only six shots.

This game is going to be a bloodbath in Miami for game 7, with the Celtics having much of the pressure to win this game Jayson Tatum will have a chance to show why he’s a superstar in this league, Tatum last night did finish with 30 points on high efficient shooting {75% FG, 57.1% 3PT} on just twelve shots as well, Al Horford on the other hand did not play great finishing with just 3 points on 1-8 shooting which is unacceptable in a close out game. Jaylen Brown had a decent game finishing with 20 points and also filling up the stat sheet with 6 boards, 5 assists and 3 steals. Boston will most likely be the favorites heading into game 7 on sunday night and I expect them to close the Heat out.

The Golden State Warriors close out the Dallas Mavericks 120-110 to advance to the NBA finals, they’re sixth trip in the last eight years. Luka and the Mavericks played great in these playoffs and will be back next year, Luka had a pedestrian game for his standards with 28, 9 and 6 on awful shooting clips {35.7% FG, 23.1% 3PT}, Spencer Dinwiddie had a good game finishing with 26 points but it still wasn’t enough to survive Klay Thompson’s huge night with 32 points, Klay had one of his great games last night and that’s just what the Warriors needed. Kevon Looney had an exceptional game finishing with a double double of 10 and 18 boards, Looney has been huge in this series and has really come along as the Warriors go to big man. 

The Warriors were up big for the most part in this game until Dallas rallied back in the third quarter to cut the lead to single digits, Stephen Curry also tweaked his ankle early in the game but returned shortly after just shaking it off, with the finals not starting till june 2nd Golden State has plenty of time to rest up and get fully healthy to play the winner of the Celtics vs Heat series, Gary Payton ll is also likely to return sometime in the finals after suffering a elbow injury in the second round against the Memphis Grizzlies. Six different Warriors players scored in double digits last night including Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, Kevon Looney, and Andrew Wiggins.

With last night’s win the Boston Celtics are one win away from the NBA finals, Boston cruised to a 93-80 win in Miami to take a 3-2 series lead. Jaylen Brown finished with a game high 25 points on a good shooting percentage {52.6 FG, 55.5% 3PT}, Brown also had a monster dunk in the fourth over Bam Adebayo to put the game away. Jayson Tatum struggled once again with 22 points on poor shooting but almost had a triple double with 12 boards and 9 assists, even though Tatum put up the 22 he still hasn’t been very efficient this series, Al Horford also contributed with 16, 7 and 5. 

The Heat need to pull together to win these next two games, Jimmy Butler hasn’t looked the same since the knee injury he suffered in game 3, Tyler Herro has now missed back to back games with a quad injury, the Heat just don’t have the firepower to win any of these games on offense, if you go back and look at this series the two games Miami has won they’ve won off of Boston’s mistakes and turnovers, and that’s what the Heat have been all year. This Miami team needs to be shaken up this offseason, potentially trying to get Donovan Mitchell who would be a great piece to pair with Jimmy Butler and take the offensive load off Jimmy.

Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks win game 4 to cut the series lead down to just two games, even though Dallas won last night it’s not going to change the series outcome, teams down 0-3 in a series are 146-0 when leading 3-0. Luka Doncic had a good game finishing with a near triple double {30, 14 and 9} but with poor shooting {38.5% FG 27.3% 3PT} Dallas finally hit some shots last night with key role players stepping up like Dorian Finney-Smith with 23 points, Reggie Bullock with 18 and three other players scoring in double digits. The Mavericks led most of this game and never looked back as Golden State took out their starters midway through the fourth quarter.

Golden State seemingly has one of these games every series this postseason where they just drop a game they easily could have won, now i’m not saying they have to be perfect and sweep every team but it seems to be the Warriors need some extra juice in some of these games. Steph Curry had an alright game finishing with just 20 points on decent shooting {43.8% FG, 40% 3PT} nobody else on the Warriors scored over 20, but several players did score in double digits, it just wasn’t enough for Golden State to eliminate the Mavericks on Tuesday night. Jordan Poole has been quiet for the last couple games, since the first round Poole hasn’t played well and has shown he isn’t ready to take that next step yet that some media and fans thought he was ready to take.

The Boston Celtics tied up the series at 2-2 with an astounding win 102-82 Monday night in Boston. This was more of the Heat’s mess than Boston playing well, none of the Heat’s starters scored in double digits, in fact the starters shot 7-37 in the first half and the Celtics were already up 24 points going into halftime. Jayson Tatum did play well finishing with 31 points, 8 boards and 5 assists, after having an atrocious game 3 with 10 points and 6 turnovers Tatum was due for one of these games. Five different Celtics players scored double digits which has been good for this well rounded team, the C’s also had a block party with 11 to Miami’s 2. 

Victor Oladipo was the Star player for the Heat last night finishing with 23 points off the bench in last night’s loss, Oladipo should be playing more minutes and Heat head coach Erik Spolstra has acknowledged that, the opposite goes to Duncan Robinson whos been virtually unplayable for Miami this postseason, I don’t see were Robinson fits in the long term plans for the Heat, especially since he’s making $90 million over the next five seasons, Robinson is a liability on the defensive end and the Heat have plenty of shooters who are much cheaper.