NBA Playoffs

[NVGiant]

On 5/30/2023 at 10:08 AM, thelawlorfaithful said:

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2023/5/30/23742059/heat-celtics-caleb-martin-jimmy-butler
 

Caleb Martin might not be a miracle, but his Game 7 for the ages, helping lead Miami to a stunning 103-84 victory, on top of tremendous production and efficiency over a week of high-leverage competition, was definitely a basketball phenomenon.

In a game-high 45 minutes, Martin scored 26 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and went 11-for-16 from the floor. The numbers alone are impressive, but the context is remarkable. Martin averaged a career-high 9.6 points per game this season. He didn’t play a second in Game 7 of last year’s conference finals, benched for the first time in that entire playoff run. Now, as someone who started only one game for the Heat since the All-Star break before Game 6, he was almost voted the MVP.

What he did in this Game 7 will be the stuff of legend. On the biggest stage of his career, in a hostile environment that was ear-drum-mutilatingly loud 10 minutes before the opening tip, Martin outplayed Boston’s two All-NBA forwards. There are top-15 players in this league right now who will never do what he did through most of this series, let alone Monday night. According to Second Spectrum, he finished with a 72.7 effective field goal percentage against Boston, a postseason high in any round from any one player who took at least 75 shots. In the series finale, at least half of his buckets were timely, challenging, and against elite defenders who took away what he initially wanted to do. 

Still, Martin stopped runs. He closed quarters. He drilled stepbacks late in the shot clock. He missed four of his first five shots, and the first make was a one-handed putback that came after he beat Jaylen Brown to the ball off a box out. Martin was fortitude and resilience personified, a walking back-breaker who repeatedly sucked the air out of TD Garden. “Caleb definitely made a name for himself,” Bam Adebayo said…

…To say Martin outperformed expectations would be a slight understatement. His quantified shot-making in this series was +19.4, which is higher than any other player in these playoffs for one series (minimum 75 shots). That number is an absolute monster, but it doesn’t even fully capture just how consistent and relentless Martin was in a game that, short of the actual Finals, couldn’t possibly have had bigger stakes…

…

“To the untrained eye, he just looks like he’s an undrafted guy who has been in the G League, who has started with Charlotte and now he’s here,” Butler said. “Started on a two-way contract. That’s what it looks like to y’all. To us, he’s a hell of a player, hell of a defender, playmaker, shot-maker, all of the above.”

And if Martin can be this phenomenal for two more weeks, Miami may just shock the world … again.

He and his brother still come back to Reno in the summer to put on a basketball camp.

Only two times can I remember being this proud of a former player ... back when Kap led the 49ers to the Super Bowl and when Lyle Overbay (who was a friend) made it to the big leagues. What Caleb is doing is just awesome, and it couldn't be happening to a better representative of the school.  

[thelawlorfaithful]

On 5/30/2023 at 1:01 PM, NVGiant said:

Only two times can I remember being this proud of a former player ... back when Kap led the 49ers to the Super Bowl and when Lyle Overbay (who was a friend) made it to the big leagues. What Caleb is doing is just awesome, and it couldn't be happening to a better representative of the school.  

Even Muss took off the hog red for him

[NVGiant]

On 5/30/2023 at 2:57 PM, thelawlorfaithful said:

Even Muss took off the hog red for him

Haha. Love it!

[4rowsup]

He looks thrilled. 

[jdgaucho]

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/jimmy-butler-story-no-part-has-been-easy/ec9wdqjeonn244pr5xicn2xa

 

“Jimmy Butler came out of high school with nobody recruiting him. He had to go to a tryout for Tyler Junior College, dude. A tryout. At the end of the day, he had a scholarship,” veteran talent scout Van Coleman told TSN. “Mike saw more than just the player that is in front of him: What does his skill set say? How hard does he work? The different pieces that you look at to see where he can go. I think Jimmy was playing power forward in high school, but Mike saw other things. That turned into him coming there, him going to Marquette and going onto the NBA.

 

[jdgaucho]

Joe Pasternack's a proud coach with two of his former players, Miami's Gabe Vincent and Denver's Aaron Gordon, facing off in the NBA Finals.

https://denvergazette.com/sports/denver-nuggets/ucsb-s-joe-pasternack-on-two-players-who-will-play-important-roles-in-the-nba/article_09af8d44-ff40-11ed-9e14-8f705297aa24.html

 

“We would have practice from, say, 2:30-5 every day and he’d go back at night with a manager and a manager would put a parachute on his back and Aaron would run and drag him to increase his leg strength and power,” Pasternack told The Denver Gazette. “He was worn out. He was doing double days at night time, not just coming in and shooting, which he was obsessed with getting better (at), but he was so driven — the most driven athlete I’ve ever coached — (that) I had to say, ‘Aaron, you cannot do this. You’re going to hurt yourself and overwork yourself, which you won’t be ready for our games.’”

 

...On the other side is Heat point guard Gabe Vincent, whose final year at UC Santa Barbara was Pasternack’s first.

Despite tearing his ACL late in his junior season and undergoing a coaching change a short time later, Vincent stuck it out at UCSB and rehabbed as hard as possible, making his way onto the court the following season. 

“It’s an incredible story,” Pasternack said. “Gabe and (with) the culture of college basketball, could’ve said, ‘You know what, I’m going to redshirt next year and I’m going to transfer.’ To really show you who Gabe is, his character, his loyalty not to me but to the university, he stuck with it. He was part of a team that was tied for the most games (won) in the history of the school and also was part of a team that tied the biggest turnaround in NCAA history his senior year — a team that went from six wins to 23 wins. He was the leader of that team. He was the glue who held that team together.”

[jdgaucho]

Caleb and Strus are 0-fer to start the Finals.  Denver will sweep if they are cold.

[gold-n-brown]

On 5/23/2023 at 7:08 AM, gold-n-brown said:

Give me the Nuggets in five.   Heat have no match up for the joker.

Bump?

[jdgaucho]

Denver's just the better team.  Herro wouldn't have changed the outcome.

[Wyobraska]

I never thought I'd see the day the Nuggets win a title. 

[Stealthlobo]

On 6/10/2023 at 12:40 PM, Wyobraska said:

I never thought I'd see the day the Nuggets win a title. 

Coming from New Mexico it's kinda crazy living in a city now that wins National championships in back to back years in a major sport.

[SJSUMFA2013]

[Swoll Cracker]

On 6/10/2023 at 12:27 PM, jdgaucho said:

Denver's just the better team.  Herro wouldn't have changed the outcome.

Butler and Adebayo are nice players. The others played like the journeymen they are against the likes of players like Gordon and Porter Jr. I like Herro but not enough to make anywhere near the difference over 7 games.

[Bob]

On 6/10/2023 at 3:10 PM, Stealthlobo said:

Coming from New Mexico it's kinda crazy living in a city now that wins National championships in back to back years in a major sport.

Couldn’t make sense of your post then I realized you were talking about hockey. Oh.

 

anyway, The nuggets are awesome! Such a likeable team. They grew together and made it happen! They can do it again next year too

[Stealthlobo]

On 6/13/2023 at 7:43 AM, Bob said:

Couldn’t make sense of your post then I realized you were talking about hockey. Oh.

 

anyway, The nuggets are awesome! Such a likeable team. They grew together and made it happen! They can do it again next year too

Trust me, I'm not the biggest hockey fan either (hell, I don't even understand all the rules), however, seeing the electric atmosphere of Denver supporting the avalanche last year and nuggets this year was really fun and exciting.

[jdgaucho]

On 6/13/2023 at 3:08 AM, Swoll Cracker said:

Butler and Adebayo are nice players. The others played like the journeymen they are against the likes of players like Gordon and Porter Jr. I like Herro but not enough to make anywhere near the difference over 7 games.

 

Gabe and Caleb both struggled in these Finals.  They had an excellent playoffs overall but had little impact vs Denver.  Strus also had a series to forget.

[HiCountryCowboy]

On 5/23/2023 at 2:13 PM, Claude G said:

I got Denver winning the title at 4-1 from a bet I made in late April.  Should I do any hedging?

Boom! Big $$$$

[renoskier]

thought I'd put this here instead of starting a new thread...

new "out of the box" idea and another good event for Las Vegas

Las Vegas to host Final Four of NBA's new in-season tournament

www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37966379/las-vegas-host-final-four-nba-new-season-tournament-sources-say

The Final Four of the NBA's new in-season tournament will take place on Dec. 7 and 9 in Las Vegas, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski on Wednesday.

Statistics will count for the league's regular season, except for the championship game of the event, Wojnarowski reports.

All teams will participate in the group stage, which will consist of six groups total -- three per conference -- and chosen by a random draw based on teams' winning percentage the previous season. Each team will play four games in its group, with the six group winners making the knockout stage, along with two wild cards who finished with the best winning percentage and not first in their groups.

[Bob]

It's like the Carabao Cup of the NBA?

[RSF]

On 7/6/2023 at 11:16 AM, Bob said:

It's like the Carabao Cup of the NBA?

sorta, kinda.  The Carabao Cup, as well as the FA Cup, are completely separate competitions.  This NBA tournament is using regular season games as the group stage.  only the knockout stage final is extra.