Running 2017-18 NBA regular season thread

Especially at the free throw line:

So that's the number one overall pick?

 

Watched about two minutes of Blazers-Cavs last night and happened to turn on right when Nurkic flopped hard, feigning that he caught an elbow from LeBron. In the course of flopping, though, he caught a real elbow from Jae Crowder and ended up on the ground for a few minutes. Karma.

 

I would have loved to see the Sixers pick Dennis Smith. Could have had a legit Big 3 in a couple of years.

 

I’m a little behind in reading my New Yorkers but there’s a nice piece in Talk of the Town about Enes Kanter and his politics regarding Turkey.

When he takes a political stand he has blood at stake, his family lives in Turkey.

So when journalists write about the brave stands NBA players take in seeking racial justice I hope they would use Kanter as an example too

 

Did Shelley Smith just say that Chris Paul has a "pornstar mustache"?

 

Rockets and Clippers was tense on the court and off it tonight.

Sources: Rockets push into Clips' locker room

 

Stay classy, Cleveland.

 

If I heard it right on Sportscenter while on the treadmill (1000 of this morning's 1300 calories), one of the Rockets, perhaps Paul, said they shoved into the Clipps' lockerroom trying to get some of the post-game chicken.

Something to that effect, anyway. If that's what I heard, that is funny.

 

Unless the temperature inside the visitor's locker room was also about 121 degrees, Red Auerbach says the Cavs were pikers.

 

There's no better 2 hours of sports-watching than tuning in to an NBA game and checking out the athleticism on display...but, man, this season's drama is over already. About the only thing that will be mildly interesting to me will be to see if the Cavs can get it together and make it to the Finals again, for LBJ's 8th-straight. But at this stage, that looks unlikely.

The west is going to be yet another Dubs cakewalk, and the other mildly interesting question marks at the season's quarter-point (can the Rockets contend with the Warriors, can the Lakers make the playoffs) have already been answered in the negative.

 

I don't know about the Dubs cakewalk. Sure, they're ahead of Houston now, but the only time they played with both teams at full strength, Houston won in Oakland. I will agree that Houston is the only team in the West with a realistic shot at beating Golden State.

The East playoffs should be interesting, though whoever wins the West will probably breeze to a 4-1 or 4-2 Finals win.

 

Celtics beat the Warriors in their only meeting this year and the Celts may very well have Gordon Hayward back for the postseason. The Warriors have struggled against Boston going back at least two years.

I don't think the finals are a cakewalk at all.