BGleas

Completely agree. Kemba is a team-player and leader. He may lack some things compared to Kyrie (ball handling, finishing in the paint/at the rim, etc.) but he more than makes up for it by not pounding the ball as much, moving the ball more, at least playing with effort on defense and being an infinitely better teammate and leader. With Kyrie, it's not even that he's not a leader, it's that he actively looks to tear the team down. He's actively working against what the organization, coaches and other players are trying to do.

Celtics looked awful last night for about 2 and a half quarters and then the offense finally came alive and they rolled the Bucks the last quarter and a half, in a game without Jaylen Brown. It’s still weird, and this goes back a couple seasons, how the Celtics have these just huge offensive droughts. But man, they’re good when Kemba, Hayward and Tatum are all “on” at the same time. Side note, In the games I’ve been able to watch, Hayward looks much closer to the old Hayward. He’s not 100%, but he’s a lot closer than he was last season, and it’s great to see for him.

Yeah, I don't think it was a strategy, more likely a combination of bad defense and bad officiating. When you're fouled shooting it doesn't count as a field goal attempt, which is why he only had 1 fg attempt in the quarter.,

I wasn't watching and haven't read about the game, did the coach say it was strategic?

I'm stupid. You're smart. I was wrong. You were right. You're the best. I'm the worst. You're very good-looking. I'm not very attractive. 😀 I wanted to believe so bad...

Definitely a better performance last night. Kemba had a rough first 6 quarters of the season, but the C’s looked real good in the second half when he finally caught fire. Kemba’s attitude and leadership is just such a breath of fresh air for the team, especially compared to Kyrie. Tatum still doesn’t look great, been really inefficient and you can clearly see the loss of Horford. Not having a big to stretch the floor is hurting. But yes, this is going to a much more enjoyable team to watch, and it’s good to see Hayward looking closer to his old self. I watched a lot of Toronto’s first game and obviously all of last night, and I’m really impressed. This is a definitely a playoff team and while a title/Finals appearance probably isn’t going to happen, they can be a second round team.

I also heard the ESPN praising Andrew Wiggins 22 points in that game, saying KAT is going to need him to be a consistent, star scorer like that for Minnesota to do anything. Wiggins was 10-for-27 and something like a -19 in an overtime game!?!? Thats awful.

Just hope this isn’t his last shot. I don’t think so, as I’m sure the league saw what he did in Dallas. I know the Kings are better than they have been, but still if you’re not getting run in Sacramento it’s not a given another team is going to give him a guaranteed deal after this year.

They actually played decent the first quarter and a half, but then were awful. Just couldn't hit shots or free throws, and also took a lot of bad shots. The Sixers length definitely bothered them.

No first half run for Yogi in their game against Phoenix. Cory Joseph got all the backup pg minutes.

Ugh, just got done watching the Celtics-Sixers game. The Celtics were just awful. Good news, Hayward looked good. Had some of his explosiveness back which was really good to see. Bad news (at least for me) everyone else was absolutely terrible. Tatum, Brown and Kemba were just horrible. I'll give Walker a pass, he really wasn't bad he just couldn't make a shot. Worrisome for the Celtics though is that Brown and Tatum were just bad. Tatum looked like an absolutely stud against LeBron in the ECF as a rookie, then was really up and down last year, and of course it's just one game, but for at least tonight he looked much like last year with just more shots. But with all the bad, in a game where the Celtics shot 20-for-30 from the foul line and 7-for-26 from 3, it was a close game until about midway through the 4th. You just can't hang with a good team when you shoot that bad, especially on the road. At least it's the NBA, just 1 of 82. On the Sixers, there going to win a lot of regular season games just by sheer talent of their two best players and that they play a very unique style in the current NBA, but I don't trust them for a second in the playoffs as currently constituted. They don't have a single guard on the roster, and no Ben Simmons is not a guard. The have very little perimeter shooting. Their length on defense is absolutely impressive and intimidating and gave the Celtics fits, but their roster just doesn't fit for winning a title or making the Finals. If they make the Finals it will be because the East is just bad, not because the Sixers are that good.

At least for one day I can say that the Lakers are the worst team in the Western Conference...

Granted his career is in its absolute infancy, but not a great start with injuries already derailing him for summer league, training camp, the preseason and now the start of the regular season. Going to be interesting to see if he gets much time with Tatum, Brown and Hayward ahead of him and Smart getting minutes on the wing as well. Javonte Green made the roster too and he looked really good in the preseason.

He’s looking good so far. Still a bit of an afterthought in their offense, but looking more aggressive when he does get it.

But you'd think there would be even more of an outcry for college players that are guaranteed to go high in the NFL draft to shut it down, as opposed to what we're seeing in basketball. While football gets mentioned, everything around paying players and players shutting down in college seems to be centered on basketball, when football brings in the most money and carries the most risk. I get that it's easier to project talent in basketball and maybe it's the guaranteed contract aspect, but again we're talking about the top 1% in both sports. There's a far greater chance of Tua getting hurt in football and never getting paid than there was for Zion in basketball. There was even talk of Langford shutting it down last year, you'd never hear that about a mid first-round pick in football, except for bowl season.

Agree. I just find the difference in media outcry funny and hypocritical. I mean last year the media was going crazy about Zion playing and calling out the NCAA, Duke, etc. for taking advantage of college kids, using them to make millions and billions and far worse undertones. Now with football it's 'hurry up and get back QB #1, Bama needs to win another title'.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but curious about all the calls last winter/spring for Zion to 'shut it down' during the college season to protect his investment and avoid injury, yet Tua (Alabama QB) had ankle surgery between the SEC Championship Game and the playoffs last season and now just had another ankle surgery midseason, yet nobody in college football is screaming that he should sit out the rest of the season and not come back? Sorry, this might not make sense here, but I kind of view it as a professional sports question, even though it's about college guys.

Guess these guys aren't getting traded for each other. I wasn't hoping they would, but it was one of the options when it seemed Sabonis was upset.

Agree. Not sure why he hasn’t stuck. When I see him play, he seems very similar to someone like Gerald Green.

Love it. We just got done watching it with our kids and they loved it too. My 6th grader is going to be Dwight for Halloween.

It’s so weird, I’m predisposed to want to root against Edwards, but now he plays for my favorite team, and taking the IU/Purdue thing out of it he really is a likeable guy.

As someone that is 6'6", I think there should be a 6'5" (I'm willing to negotiate down to 6'4" but it stops there) or taller requirement for sitting in the emergency row on an airplane. Waivers can be given to the spouses of the tall people if they'd like to sit together.

Youth basketball coaches that full court press. Double pet peeve if you full court press and then fall into a zone defense.