Official 2016 NBA Playoffs Thread: Conference Finals: Warriors / Thunder | Cavs / Raptors

[Chester McFloppy]

What the hell are those

http://m.nike.com/us/en_us/pd/jordan-westbrook-0-low-shoe/pid-11150344/pgid-11254285

nurse shoes

@rck3sactown can you confirm?

 

[a-friend]

OKC end it tonight please

Only reason I'd be upset is because Barkley :/ dude is never going to shut up lol

He never would have been wrong about his jump shooting teams don't win Chips theory if GSW had to play SAS or OKC last year. He won't even mention the fact that the teams they did play in route to the Finals had 1/2 their Backcourt and then when they did reach the Finals that team had 1/2 their Backcourt and 1/2 their Frountcourt, because he understands injuries and staying healthy is as much a part of winning the Chip as having elite Offense or Defense, so rest assured, if they lose to a Fully Healthy OKC or Cavs with them having a Fully Healthy team as well, bruh, you are right, he will never let you hear the end of it.

He'll bring it up every night next Year in the Playoffs, each night mentioning it like he's never said it before.

 

[rafabio]

Love the Warriors, Admire the Thunder

Everybody adores the Golden State Warriors, but the Oklahoma City Thunder might be worth your love, too​

View media item 2045663Russell Westbrook, center, and the Oklahoma City bench react during the first quarter of the Thunder’s Game 4 win over the Golden State Warriors. Photo: mark d. smith/Reuters


Forgive me as I voice a somewhat unpopular idea at the moment: I am very, very excited about the Oklahoma City Thunder.

I know: You’re a Golden State Warriors nut. Everybody’s a Golden State Warriors nut. I don’t blame you. Golden State is adorable. I love them, too. I live 2,900 miles away from Oakland in New York City, and, even here, the Warriors feel 19 times as popular as the two disastrous local outfits, the Knicks Madison Square Garden Comedy Store and the whatchamacallits in Brooklyn. Some days you see more Warriors gear on the street than Knicks or whatchamacallits swag. I’m not kidding. New York loves Golden State. Brooklyn loves Golden State. Europe loves Golden State. Golden State loves Golden State. The Warriors are like basketball pizza. They’re like basketball Taylor Swift. Don’t pretend you don’t like Taylor Swift. Come on. I know there are like 12 Taylor Swift songs on your iPhone right now. Don’t lie.

But if you like the Warriors, you’re kind of bumming right now. The Oklahoma City Thunder have Golden State woozy on the ropes. The Thunder are up three games to one and need only one more victory to finish the Warriors and advance to the NBA Finals. If you love Golden State, this is a rattling, unfamiliar feeling, because basically everything this season has gone Golden State’s way. Until this week, they’d not lost two games in a row. They already pinned down the league’s all-time best regular-season win total, 73, doing it with great drama in the final game of the regular season. You know that friend on Facebook who seems to have that annoyingly perfect life and you’re not even secretly mad because you like him or her so much personally? Those are the ’15-16 Warriors.

And I haven’t even gotten to the best part: The Warriors have Steph Curry. Steph Curry! The basketball star that even grandma has a crush on. Great-grandpa loves Steph Curry, too, and great-grandpa hasn’t liked anything since Eisenhower was in office. What’s not to like about Steph Curry? Average height, skinny as a noodle… plays like they found him on Mars. Your pedestrian geometry of basketball does not apply to Steph Curry. The man can score from anywhere. It’s helped him win the past two league Most Valuable Player Awards, and become, without reservation, America’s most beloved active athlete. Please don’t say Bryce Harper. No. Brock Osweiler? No.


View media item 2045664Stephen Curry watches from the bench during the second half of Golden State’s Game 4 loss against Oklahoma City on Tuesday. Photo: larry w. smith/European Pressphoto Agency


And yet Curry, too, appears not to be playing like himself. He injured his right knee earlier in the postseason, and there’s suspicion that he’s more hurt than he’s letting on, that he’s not able to dribble and cut with quite the same precision, and be the same, supernatural Steph. Curry’s coach, Steve Kerr, insisted after Tuesday night’s Warriors loss that Curry is “not injured,” but that’s the kind of thing coaches say. We all know what Steph Curry can do, and outside of a second-half flurry in Game 2 (the one game which Golden State won), he has not done it. Something must be amiss.

And now the Warriors might not make the Finals. The end could come as early as Thursday night. I feel like I’m announcing summer might be cancelled.

However, here’s an alternative, if somewhat controversial thought, if you’re willing to take a chance: OKC is just as fun. They might be worth your love, too.

(I’m not talking about hardcore Warriors fans here; trust me, I don’t expect longtime Golden State people to Thunder Up. I’m talking to newish Warriors fans, who’ve jumped on to the phenomenon recently and for whom the sudden allegiance-shift will feel less sacrilegious.)

Let’s start with the obvious stuff: The Thunder lineup features two of the best players in the game in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Durant, of course, is the remarkably fluid 7-foot scoring machine who won an MVP just a couple seasons ago. Westbrook is a relentless point guard and fashion plate who plays as if he got bit by a radioactive spider 10 minutes before the first quarter.

Having a pair of players like those two should make the Thunder reliably great. But there have been times in the past when Durant and Westbrook have not appeared to be reading off the same menu, and Oklahoma City has underachieved.

This is not one of those times. KD and Russ have been bonkersville good. This may be the apex of their marriage.

View media item 2045665Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, right, and guard Cameron Payne celebrate Oklahoma City’s win. Photo: kevin jairaj/Reuters


But it’s not just them. It’s Steven Adams, the New Zealand-born center who looks like an extra from “Mutiny on the Bounty” and has thrived despite Golden State doing its best to put him in an assisted living home. It’s Serge Ibaka. It’s Andre Roberson. It’s Dion Waiters, a mercurial star in his own mind suddenly igniting things off the bench like that old Detroit sparkplug Vinnie Johnson. The over-performances go on and on. I’m really starting to wonder if every player on OKC has been bitten by a radioactive spider.

Because the Thunder are not simply beating the beloved Warriors. They are chasing them out of the gym with a flaming battle axe. It’s as if the Thunder are offended by all the love for the Warriors. (I definitely think Westbrook is offended by the Curry love—Curry probably doesn’t even shop at 10 Corso Como!)

Oklahoma City beat Golden State on Tuesday by 24. They beat them Sunday by 28. This is following a conference semifinal in which OKC rolled over another beloved club, the San Antonio Spurs, in six games. The Spurs had won 67 regular-season games this year. They’re considered one of the most smartly-composed outfits in sports. And they’re coached by God himself, Gregg Popovich.

I don’t expect that any of this will make a Warriors fan feel better. I don’t expect anyone to stop wearing his or her Curry jersey. It’s just to say there’s another basketball story in Oklahoma City.

And right now, it’s pretty fab.

Write to Jason Gay at [email protected]

 

[IATT]

I think Jordan would have been fine if he was around today.. Even though he was doing dirt, his vices are normal stuff NBA (and most dudes) do anyways

He was like a politician with his stuff.. But it ain't like he was out there preaching family values or religious stuff

Probably would have just been more low key with his stuff





Barkley is who I would be worried about.. Dude has calmed down ALOT.. He wouldn't be able to take the 24 hour news cycle questioning him

 

[cashbanks]

"What’s not to like about Steph Curry? Average height, skinny as a noodle"


in what world is the average person 6'3 180?

 

[Armada]

I think Jordan could have possibly survived todays media too but I think the perception of if people hated him would change. It's a question to some people if Jordan was even hated even by some people back then, even some people that watched basketball in the late 80's-90's just have this idea that everyone liked him because of his career. Today its not even a question if there are people who hate Lebron, Kobe, Curry even KD, we know cause we see it documented everyday not just by reporters but everyday people.

 

[IATT]

A lot of people hated Jordan in his time.. But like any dude who won as much as he did, he had his fans and bandwagoners

The rape scandal caused Kobe to embrace certain things and then act certain way in advertising and towards the media..

I don't think Jordan would have gone to that extreme, but I see him being sorta similar.. Generic PC answers in press conferences and/or interviews.. Marketing would pretty much be the same

And still think he would be on the whole 'republicans buy sneakers too'

If he had social media, it would probably be run by a PR firm that over analyzed everything before it got put out

 

[son nelly]

Things always sweeten post retirement.

 

[Armada]

A lot of people hated Jordan in his time.. But like any dude who won as much as he did, he had his fans and bandwagoners

The rape scandal caused Kobe to embrace certain things and then act certain way in advertising and towards the media..

I don't think Jordan would have gone to that extra, but I see him being sorta similar.. Generic PC answers in press conferences and/or interviews.. Marketing would pretty much be the same

And still think he would be on the whole 'republicans buy sneakers too'

If he had social media, it would probably be run by a PR firm that over analyzed everything before it got put out

I feel you i'm not saying there where not people who hated him just saying that if his career was today we would see and read the hate a lot more cause a large majority of people have a platform to express their feelings these days where as back then it was just reporters pretty much. Not that there would be more hate we would just be exposed to it more from everywhere.

 

[IATT]

Actually the more I think about it..

Magic is the guy I would be worried about in this day and age.. He had the happy go lucky smiling image and obviously was doing his dirt behind the scenes

 

[kingfoamnyc]

These playoffs suck.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

These playoffs suck.

Last years too

 

[Chester McFloppy]

I got $3.75 on the Warriors tonight

Any takers?

 

[Jokegeta]

They really talkin bout how far Bron could take Philly 

in the east, bron can take anyone to the finals. as long as that PP, KG, Ray Allen Celtics team isn't there, no one is stopping lebron in the east

 

[licensed to ball]

I got $3.75 on the Warriors tonight

Any takers?

If you're serious Slide into my DM's on Twitter

 

[Chester McFloppy]

I got $3.75 on the Warriors tonight

Any takers?

If you're serious Slide into my DM's on Twitter

View media item 2045709

 

[everysingletime]

"What’s not to like about Steph Curry? Average height, skinny as a noodle"


in what world is the average person 6'3 180?

I would say the weight is average lmao

 

[datznasty]

C'mon mane, MJ got a baby but that ugly below AWG mistress who also had Dale Davis caught up. The members of the media knew about it and his other vices, they admittedly didn't report on things like that. Sam Smith has spoken about it numerous times. They'd get on him for his bad tipping, gambling debt, punching a teammate, etc. if it was the same "gotcha" media culture we have now. He also used to reportedly have his own private locker room in the locker room because he was shy (was part of how his return to the Wizards was confirmed, when they started building it).

 

[Jokegeta]

Jordan would have been killed in this media age,
To be honest Im honestly surprised Lebron and Kobe survived this type of age.

Kobe with the Rape trail in 2014 would have caused that man to retire LMAO

Lebron got killed when he had no rings

 

[a-friend]

The folks that signed Jordan's pycheck were probably on Jordan's payroll. He was safe for the most part.

"MJ used to tell Johnny that “Tiger Woods is an idiot. I tried to help him, but the kid’s gonna get caught.” (we all know how that turned out). In order for a girl to get to MJ, she needed to go through 4 undercover former narcotics detectives just to speak to Michael. She had to be approved by all 4 to make sure she wasn’t gonna say a damn word about MJ to anyone. So there’s MJ, not the greatest character guy, but he sure was pretty smart."
-excerpt from the email of Bachs dinner pal

 

[Air Pope]

Jordan can't even deal w/ the crying meme of him. Y'all giving him way too much credit. This era is ruthless w/ the internet & media

 

[licensed to ball]

Any ideas with what I should do with Chester's $3.75 tomorrow?

 

[Armada]

Find a couple quarters on the ground you should be good for a Wendy's 4 for $4 after tax now.

 

[a-friend]

Any ideas with what I should do with Chester's $3.75 tomorrow?

Put it on a beer for some Thot at the next Ball game you attend

 

[theknowledgeableprofessor]

I got $5 on Warriors also to make it fun slide in the DM