Fixing games to get paid more I can easily see. Doing it to get it over with faster is way less of an incentive, and since it will go against what the NBA wants you probably won’t be getting anymore playoff games the following years if you’re cutting series short and hurting NBA bottom line.
They could also point out that Nic Claxton missed as many FTs as the entire point difference in the series.
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They could. It wouldn’t be evidence of anything other than Claxton is atrocious at FTs, but yes, they could say that
Claxton shot 59% in the regular season and is a 53% career FT shooter, so that’s bad but not 4-22 bad. Clearly Nets ran way below expectation here - so to just dismiss that level of bad variance is a pretty bad take.
If Claxton even shoots 40%, Nets win games 1 and 4.
The Celtics didn’t have any great games against Brooklyn and have a tendency to play down to the level of opponents.
No I agree with that 100%. I wouldn’t say that’s evidence that Boston isn’t very good and Brooklyn just sucks, though.
Fair enough - I might have misunderstood your point.
I do agree Celtics (and Nets) are both being underrated as media has chosen to go with the Nets suck story as opposed to Celtics are good.
Seems crazy to me that Warriors are favorites right now, despite the fact they are beating up (and not even that badly) a depleted Nuggets team while Celtics just handled a solid Nets team. Plus Celtics were largely without their third? best player who should be back to full time back next round.
It’s a backlash against the media’s desire to make Boston into the greatest team ever in every sport and proclaim this as a dominant performance that it wasn’t.
Not sure where you’re seeing that, but much of the sports media is ready to crown the Celtics based on this first round performance.
I probably watch too much crap like First Take where SAS is non-stop bashing Kyrie and the Nets. Also just read the Ringer Nets recap, with their take being the Nets just weren’t that good:
“As it turned out, there was no monster under the bed, no terror hiding in the play-in tournament; in the end, the “Team the Favorites Don’t Want to Play” never existed. The 2021-22 Nets died as they lived: much better and more compelling in theory than they ever managed to be in reality.”
Also, as noted above, Celtics aren’t even the title favorites right now.
They are the East favorites at a similar level to the Warriors in the West. The media also gave a ridiculous DPOY award to Marcus Smart when he’s not the best defensive player on his team or the best defensive guard in the league.
Meanwhile, all the media focus in the East right now is on Boston, while Miami and Milwaukee are playing really good basketball, with one being the #1 seed and the other being the defending champions. But you’d never know that based on media coverage.
Durant shouldn’t be in the conversation for top 5 player in the league. Kyrie isn’t a top 20 player. Steve Nash isn’t a good coach. Aldridge and Griffin are wastes of playoff roster spots. Lol Ben Simmons.
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Heat probably have been disrespected all season - maybe since they don’t have a true star.
Bucks are good, but they just lost their second best player who probably will miss most of the series with Boston, so think it’s fair to have a full strength Celtics team as favorites.
I think Warriors are favorites because experience and the death line up looks unstoppable. Kerr hasn’t run it a lot, but when he does they absolutely crush the Nuggets.
I think Kerr is limiting how much they run it because they’re fully in control and he doesn’t want to give teams a lot to scout. Kerr does weird shit like that
I think its a flip between them and the Celtics. But its too early to tell a lot. Need to see how both look in their next series.
Levine in health and safety protocols. Seems unlikely he’ll be available Wednesday.
Bucks overrated because they won the chip during the most injured playoffs ever ( I saw a legit source back this up on reddit ) and that was fully healthy and Middleton playing out of his mind.
Giannis is insane but I don’t think they’re up there with warriors/celtics/heat
Giannis hyperextended his knee during the East finals and basically won them the title on one good leg.
This is literally the type of disrespect of the Bucks I’m talking about. There isn’t another team in the league that has performed at as consistently high of a level as the Bucks have over the past four seasons, or a player who has consistently performed at the level Giannis has, but that one title they got with their best player on one leg was just lucky. gmafb
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The Nets were not good but when you’re missing your 3rd/4th best players on a top heavy tram you have no chance.
Portis vs Dray please.