The Suns and the Pelicans are tied up at 2-2.
I have no idea who's going to win the series.
I’ve enjoyed watching the Suns/Pelicans — One thing I can say about the Pelicans, they never give up
The Heat won their series 4-1 over the Hawks.
Miami Heat are looking good. What's the deal with injuries to Butler and Lowry? ESPN reports both are day-to-day.
Meanwhile the Warriors clinched their series against the Denver Nuggets with strong defense tonight, outscoring Denver 32 to 20 in the fourth quarter. Curry and Gary Payton II made timely shots late in the game.
Although they still have a long way to go, the Warriors appear to be gelling at the right time. Prior to game 1 of the playoffs, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green had played together for a grand total of only 11 minutes this season!
How about that Draymond Green ejection in yesterday's game between the Warriors and the Grizzlies?!!
Lot of controversy, to say the least.
Many NBA players tweeted that the penalty was too harsh. In term of actual damage done, a flagrant foul 1 would have been the right call. As there was no real harm caused to Grizzlies player Brandon Clarke, Green should have been allowed to continue playing.
Although all that might be true, I'm not sure Draymond has much to complain about. When you are jerking people down by their jerseys, you're not playing basketball anyway. And if you don't want to play basketball, well, maybe you should just head back to the locker room.
More to the point, if it's close at all, Green should not be placing his fate in the hands of the refs.
I thought that Green’s ejection was consistent with the way the game was ref’ed. Terribly one-sided, almost as if a fix was in. A jump ball at the end of the game when it was clearly off of a Grizzly player? At least the NBA admitted it in their L2M report.
I’m not entirely sure that Green was pulling him down. One can argue, and I will, that he grabbed the jersey to keep Clarke from falling.
I saw two tugs. The first was pulling down, with an intent to disrupt Clarke's shot. The second was pulling up, in order to soften the blow when Clarke hit the court.
That first one could have been dangerous.
The jump ball was messed up! I'd like to see a rule change that would require the refs to go to video replay in that circumstance.
Sweet. I never thought to look up the L2M reports before. Here's the Last Two Minute Report for the Warriors/Grizzlies game:
https://official.nba.com/l2m/L2MReport.html?gameId=0042100231
Sure enough, the NBA admits the jump ball with 4.8 seconds remaining was an error. The ball should have gone to Golden State.
The report also notes that Curry traveled with 17.5 seconds remaining, but the refs did not call it. The ball should have gone to Memphis.
The report contains video for both incidents.
Curry’s travel and other things like that are really hard to see in real time. Being in the right position is a big part of being a ref and missing the out-of-bounds play leads me to think that the baseline ref was out of position.
Definitely a call that critical should have been reviewable in my opinion.
Miami Heat are still looking good. They won the first game of the Eastern Semifinals vs the 76ers.
Yeah, the Suns won their first game as well, but not by a whole lot.
Did anyone see Luka Dončić fall on his neck when dunking?
It looked really bad, but luckily he didn't get injured.
There was a brutal flagrant foul 2 in tonight's game between the Warriors and Grizzlies.
Dillon Brooks of the Grizzlies took a full wind-up, and clubbed Gary Payton II of the Warriors across the side of his head, knocking him to the ground. Payton tried to break his fall with his left arm, and injured his elbow. He had to leave the game, and soon thereafter, he went to the hospital for treatment. According to ESPN, Payton was diagnosed with a fractured elbow.
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/injuries/_/name/gs/golden-state-warriors
This made the Draymond Green flagrant foul 2 from Game 1 look very soft.
Brooks was ejected, but in my opinion, he should also be suspended for one or two games at least.
Best wishes to GP2.
Dr. Brian Sutterer has a YouTube channel where he covers sports injuries.
Here's what he had to say today about the Gary Payton II elbow fracture:
I've long felt that the fairest way to punish a player when an egregious foul causes injury to another player would be to suspend him—at the minimum—for the same amount of time as the injured player is out.
Is that crazy?
[Edited to fix typo]
regarding injury suspensions linked to player participation:
1. what if the injured player never plays again in the NBA (retires, maybe) ?
2. or the injured player “holds out” to get money from the flagrant fouler?
3. or the IP dresses for one game, but does not play, because it is evident
his injury has not healed and, therefore, he returns to the injured list.
Those are all legitimate issues. As for number 1, you could limit the suspension to the current season and/or playoffs. With number 2, are you talking about extortion? Pay me or else I won't return to play? I'd call the cops. I'm not sure how to deal with number 3.
I'm hearing talk on the news about a potential one-game suspension for a play that most likely will end Gary Payton II's season (and maybe worse). That's going to be an advantage for the Grizzlies, because Payton is the Warriors' best perimeter defender, i.e., Payton is one of the Warriors' best options to slow down Ja Morant.
Consider last night's game. If Payton had been able to play, he might easily have stopped Morant on two of his scoring drives. That would have cut Morant's point total from 47 to 43, and swung the victory in favor of the Warriors.
And now, for the price of a one-game suspension, the Grizzlies will have solved their Payton problem for the rest of the series. Instead of being punished for injuring Payton, the Grizzlies are being rewarded.
Doesn't seem right to me. And it's not just the NBA. It's the NFL, and a lot of other leagues, as well. I don't have all the answers, but the current system seems unfair.
yes, 2 is bribery or extortion (pay for play).
and it would done within that NBA “code”
which the coach talked about.
i believe the one-game suspension is not a one-and-done.
the NBA can extend (definite or indefinite period) it.
Stay tuned...
KeepingItLight, you are right.
the NBA has us “tuned in”.
who would have predicted
a flashlight forum thread
about the NBA?
maybe we should start a Kentucky Derby thread….
Bob Baffert banned (six-time winner as an owner).
Yeah, but how many of those wins were done cleanly?
I don't think we'll ever know because the guy did get banned for having a history of doping horses.
...
The Suns won big time last night.
The Warriors lost on Tuesday, but I don't know the details behind the loss.
The Heat are up 2-0 against the 76ers.