2013 NBA Playoffs Thread

[Ghermez Agha]

we missed having an NBA thread for the regular season, so i think the playoffs deserves its own.

Should be a lot more interesting than last year, both OKC and miami were very heavy favorites to make it to the finals. they're still favorites this year but im thinking my knicks might be able to do something about miami or maybe even indiana, who knows.

same thing goes for OKC out west, the clippers could give them trouble potentially and obviously the spurs can even be viewed as favorites to make it out of the west. i think the west is going to be very very interesting....east will only get interesting in the second round.

its the last few nights of the regular season, and the only thing left that will be decisive is the battle between LA and utah for the 8 seed, anything could happen there but its definitely more of an uphill battle for utah being that their fate isn't in their hands anymore and memphis is a pretty tough team to beat.

GO KNICKS

[Wahid Dejagah]

Would've cheered Memphis if Haddadi was there, would've cheered Suns if they were in it, so I guess I'll support the Spurs!

[Ghermez Agha]

Wow I have no idea why I posted this here, sorry MODs can you please move this to the international sports thread please

EDIT: thank you MODs

[EKBATAN]

Miami got this

i dont see anyone beating them in 4 games

[Nariman]

Wow I have no idea why I poste this here, sorry MODs can you please love this to the international sports thread please

Sure, thread loved to the international forum

[SinaBahali]

can lakers still make it?

[Ghermez Agha]

Sure, thread loved to the international forum

Damn autocorrect on my iphone, always gets me thanks for moving the thread PK jaan.

can lakers still make it?

yeah, and their chances are looking pretty decent being that they're going up against houston at home whereas the jazz have to play memphis in memphis, but anything can happen realistically, its a pretty tough call.

[Darvish11]

Rockets really messed up last night losing to the suns. Harden started off red hot, then banged his knee and was awful for 3 quarters. It opened themselves up for a 1st round matchup with OKC if they lose vs LAL.

Big picture tho ill be amazed if the heat dont win it all. Caught sooo many breaks, pretty much every team in the east that could have given them a run has a key player out...Rondo, Grander, Rose, Amare (knicks probably better w/o him but he wouldve been a matchup problem)

[Ghermez Agha]

Rockets really messed up last night losing to the suns. Harden started off red hot, then banged his knee and was awful for 3 quarters. It opened themselves up for a 1st round matchup with OKC if they lose vs LAL.

Big picture tho ill be amazed if the heat dont win it all. Caught sooo many breaks, pretty much every team in the east that could have given them a run has a key player out...Rondo, Grander, Rose, Amare (knicks probably better w/o him but he wouldve been a matchup problem)

the bolded is totally false baradar.

people love to talk about statistics of how melo's and JR's numbers are higher w/o him in the lineup, but thats a complete load of crap given that the team needs such players to take over his scoring load. not saying that your reasoning, but thats the most common and it really gives me a laugh. cant stand when people say we are better w/o amare.

also let me add that i was not a fan of the melo and amare combo at first. but as soon as we got rid of that pest d'antoni and brought in woodson almost all of our major shortcomings faded. the team played defense finally, amare and melo played GREAT team basketball together, and amare stepped his game up on D. amare was only getting 20-30 mins a game, and then got injured.

having amare out of the line-up only has one advantage which is that melo is matched up with a PF most of the time that he is way quicker than, therefore it just makes scoring even easier for someone as gifted as him. other than that we are at a total loss, we need him back ASAP.

[Darvish11]

Zach lowe was on the BS report yesterday and talked at length about how due to defensive ratings/stats Amare on court was a net loss (bad D outweighed good O), and the key issue is what you mentioned in the last pararaph, how melo gets more time at the 4. The knicks are MUCH better with that lineup. The knicks record with/without amare shows that. I personally hate melo at the 3 because all he does is camp out on the perimeter and take bad shots. When you have him at the 4 it forces him to use his speed vs other 4s and makes him drive and get in the paint, which is far more effective. So when you have melo at PF the guy you need on the court at the 5 chandler. No room for amare in this lineup

[masoud nekounam]

Celtics have no chance vs the Knicks, New York takes the series 4-1.

[Masoud_A]

Why are we even talking about the Leastern Conference? Miami easily goes to the finals, who is gonna give them a hard time? The Pacers are overrated, the Knicks are a 3pt team and outside Melo they have nobody to step up. The West as always is where the action at, Clippers vs MEM is gonna be a hell of a series although both of them are pretenders. Spurs are gonna trump the Rockets/Lakers, I'd rather they play the Lakers so we could watch Duncan dominate the frontcourt and embarrass D12 ***** made ass. Denver are a really good team but losing Gallo will hurt them, their depth might help them big time in regular season but PO is where star power comes into play so I don't see them going further than the second round. OKC like Miami is the favorite to get to the finals but they will have to put on a dominating performance to do it since the route to the finals is much harder for them.

[Ghermez Agha]

Why are we even talking about the Leastern Conference? Miami easily goes to the finals, who is gonna give them a hard time? The Pacers are overrated, the Knicks are a 3pt team and outside Melo they have nobody to step up. The West as always is where the action at, Clippers vs MEM is gonna be a hell of a series although both of them are pretenders. Spurs are gonna trump the Rockets/Lakers, I'd rather they play the Lakers so we could watch Duncan dominate the frontcourt and embarrass D12 ***** made ass. Denver are a really good team but losing Gallo will hurt them, their depth might help them big time in regular season but PO is where star power comes into play so I don't see them going further than the second round. OKC like Miami is the favorite to get to the finals but they will have to put on a dominating performance to do it since the route to the finals is much harder for them.

first off let me say that i 100% agree with you that the east is a joke compared to the west, but c'mon its really not fair to downplay what the pacers and knicks have done all season long.

the pacers play amazing defense and team basketball, which is similar to what the knicks have been doing and have enjoyed a lot of success do to that and have beaten a lot of great teams. its not just a farce when you're doing it all season long.....

and about the knicks having nobody to step up other than melo, have you not seen JR smith? he took over every time melo was absent and hit two game winners, scoring 30+ many times coming off the bench, i mean this guy has transformed into a different ball player. the only guy who can take 6th man of the year over than him is crawford, which i wouldn't mind seeing being that he is one of my favorite players in the game. and as i already mentioned, the knicks play good team basketball....which means they dont rely on just one person. obviously if they don't have melo they wont be a threat to a top team like miami but they showed how good they play as a team in absence of him and amare (beat miami and denver without both).

gotta agree with the statement on the spurs, id love to watch them give LA a beat down. dont think it would be as one sided against houston though, they could give san antonio a bit of trouble with their speed but the spurs would clearly still be favorites there.

[Masoud_A]

first off let me say that i 100% agree with you that the east is a joke compared to the west, but c'mon its really not fair to downplay what the pacers and knicks have done all season long.

the pacers play amazing defense and team basketball, which is similar to what the knicks have been doing and have enjoyed a lot of success do to that and have beaten a lot of great teams. its not just a farce when you're doing it all season long.....

and about the knicks having nobody to step up other than melo, have you not seen JR smith? he took over every time melo was absent and hit two game winners, scoring 30+ many times coming off the bench, i mean this guy has transformed into a different ball player. the only guy who can take 6th man of the year over than him is crawford, which i wouldn't mind seeing being that he is one of my favorite players in the game. and as i already mentioned, the knicks play good team basketball....which means they dont rely on just one person. obviously if they don't have melo they wont be a threat to a top team like miami but they showed how good they play as a team in absence of him and amare (beat miami and denver without both).

gotta agree with the statement on the spurs, id love to watch them give LA a beat down. dont think it would be as one sided against houston though, they could give san antonio a bit of trouble with their speed but the spurs would clearly still be favorites there.

Forgive me if I don't give a shit about regular season head to head stats, and if you really believe J.R I'm a dumbass chucker Smith is gonna beast against MIA you have a surprise coming your way.

[EKBATAN]

EAST has been a joke as long as i can remember.....since the 1980s LOL