Western Conference Playoffs - 1st Rd Discussion Thread

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by Majingir

LeBron upset over officiating. I didn't see the game, but was it as bad as he claims? Supposedly it's the Lakers first game having more fouls than their opponent since March 2nd (also against Denver), so is this just a case of them being mad that things didn't go their way call wise for the first time in over a month.

I only saw two iffy calls..

LeBron no call on a drive right after he was called for a foul on Murray for arguably less contact. Like so little it looked like the lakers might challenge. Those plays happen like 20 times a game both ways though. That’s just one example in particular LeBron could complain about for himself as it was him fouling and him not getting the foul call. But they were essentially just routine 50/50 plays that always happen throughout any game.

But the main one was the DLo play. DLo was hit in the face on a shot and it was called a foul. Denver challenged and won and the reason was the ball already left his hand and the hit was marginal.. which makes no sense to me, I’ve never seen that happen. It would have been one thing of it was a no-call on the floor and they didn’t feel it was enough to make a call, but to reverse a call where you have video showing a defender hit a player in the face was a first for me. And I didn’t understand why the release mattered. If they changed to a non-shooting foul fine, but that’s a loose ball foul all the time, players in someone landing space is a shooting foul after the release, it was just a combo of things that didn’t really make sense especially when to overturn a call it normally has to be overwhelming obvious that it was the wrong call. My thought during the game was it was risky for Denver to challenge because what if contact to the face gets upgraded, but the whole thing got wiped.

I thought the game was officiated fine though. And this whole “Lakers blaming the refs” thing is getting overblown for them bringing up the weird review. But that’s what people do when it’s LeBron lol.. Twitter isn’t blowing up with people ****ting on Nurse for saying he tried to get a timeout. But LeBron says one thing about the replay center and all of a sudden it’s him making some giant excuse saying it’s the only reason they lost. But we know how that goes any time LeBron says anything, he might as well be answering every question with “it sucks we lost” or “I’m glad we won” because he literally can’t win with social media.

Ultimately the replay didn’t dictate the game, and I’m sure LeBron is in no way insinuating that the replay cost them 20 points either. But they have a reason to be justifiably mad/confused because it’s not something you normally see and any extra possession when they were sliding in that game could have been huge for them.

[DamnYanks2]

I guess one of Jokers brothers punched a fan last night lol

[JazzMan]

Gobert's been the best player in this Wolves/Suns series so far

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by JazzMan

Gobert's been the best player in this Wolves/Suns series so far

Goberts on court impact has always been reflected well in every impact metric and advanced stat there is. He’s just always been relatively easy to game-plan out of games in the postseason. I said this in game 1, but if Phoenix can’t exploit him in that way they are basically toast.

[DamnYanks2]

The Suns are trash

[DamnYanks2]

We see mose of these teams are capable of playing pretty solid defense if they want to.

[ojandpizza]

Quote: Originally Posted by DamnYanks2

We see mose of these teams are capable of playing pretty solid defense if they want to.

I honestly feel like most teams do during the season too.. the biggest issue we have now is the plays they don’t we take them and make lowlights and plaster them all over social media and pretend those plays represent every single play up the floor.

Not that the defensive intensity and focus doesn’t pick up come playoff time. Players don’t get caught catching breathers nearly as often. Especially on a consistent level. But this lowlight trend is ****ing annoying. Just like the we done with the 80s crap.

[ojandpizza]

Luka for the lead