NBA Finals: OKC v Indiana | Page 3 | The Boneyard

NBA Finals: OKC v Indiana

HooperScooper said:
Two markets that aren’t going to interest the average NBA fan. OKC is a nice story and has the league MVP but are people going to watch? I’ll be curious to see what the ratings are.
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OKC is an incredible team. Pacers play one of most fun styles in nba. This is a hoops fans series.

ESPN will screw it up because they don’t know how to cover the sport, so we are likely to see LeBron BS at some point
 
HuskyHawk said:
The answer is probably a salary cap and/or a change to the max contract so that it’s less as a % of the Apron levels. But the players would never go for it. There’s no other pro sport where 3 guys can take up 80% of your roster expense.
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The cba is terrible. The players gave away flexibility for higher salary amounts. The owners gave away roster continuity/team building for cost certainty and constraints.
 
You gonna root for OKC. Most folks don't know the UConn association but will if they win it.
 
The biggest ratings issue is not going to be the small markets, it will be the fact that OKC is going to stomp Indiana. There were three teams in the east that I thought could have given OKC a legitimate challenge:

Cleveland - Did everything right, but the Garland injury was bad luck, and then various and sundry other injuries added up. This team should be back.
Boston - Overplayed its stars, along with bad luck on Porzingis, and blew a season of having the most talented starting lineup in the NBA.
Milwaukee - Giannis, Lillard, Middleton and a fresh Lopez could have given OKC a run, but the Bucks made a terrible trade with Middleton (should have waited until the summer) and Rivers overplayed everyone else.

Indiana is young and athletic, which is a huge advantage against a team like the Knicks but OKC is younger and more athletic. Carlisle has won with mirrors, and I don't see him pulling another rabbit out of the hat like he did with Dirk's 2011 Dallas team. I think OKC will win 4-1.
 
I think I'm rooting for Indiana b/c they need the help to make it a series. Regardless it should be entertaining fast break basketball. Indy prides itself on shortest time to get ball over halfcourt, their layups off makes in the last game vs Knicks was reminiscent of Marshall era UConn teams.

Indy needs some luck or 3pt shooting variance because OKC's defense is tremendous and offensively they are just as good if not better than Indiana. Realistically I think OKC wins in 5, someone would need to get hurt for the Pacers to have a shot to win the series.

P.S. I highly recommend the book "Boom Town" by Sam Anderson that ties OKC's history (Boom = weather, bombing, growth) and basketball together.
Boom Town on Amazon
 
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nelsonmuntz said:
The biggest ratings issue is not going to be the small markets, it will be the fact that OKC is going to stomp Indiana. There were three teams in the east that I thought could have given OKC a legitimate challenge:

Cleveland - Did everything right, but the Garland injury was bad luck, and then various and sundry other injuries added up. This team should be back.
Boston - Overplayed its stars, along with bad luck on Porzingis, and blew a season of having the most talented starting lineup in the NBA.
Milwaukee - Giannis, Lillard, Middleton and a fresh Lopez could have given OKC a run, but the Bucks made a terrible trade with Middleton (should have waited until the summer) and Rivers overplayed everyone else.

Indiana is young and athletic, which is a huge advantage against a team like the Knicks but OKC is younger and more athletic. Carlisle has won with mirrors, and I don't see him pulling another rabbit out of the hat like he did with Dirk's 2011 Dallas team. I think OKC will win 4-1.
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I think you underestimate how good Indiana's offense is. OKC in six is my prediction.
 
Certainly OKC's defense vs Indy's offense is the story here. The Knicks defense had plenty of lapses and bad stretches and there won't be two easy marks to hunt in KAT and Brunson. Meanwhile, OKC needed 7 games to dispose of a blah Denver squad in the semis. Wouldn't surprise me if this goes seven games too, largely because I'm not sold on OKC being as good as many think they are.

I will say OKC in six in a very entertaining series.
 
Lefty2one said:
Certainly OKC's defense vs Indy's offense is the story here. The Knicks defense had plenty of lapses and bad stretches and there won't be two easy marks to hunt in KAT and Brunson. Meanwhile, OKC needed 7 games to dispose of a blah Denver squad in the semis. Wouldn't surprise me if this goes seven games too, largely because I'm not sold on OKC being as good as many think they are.

I will say OKC in six in a very entertaining series.
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A blah squad with the best player in the league.
 
HuskyHawk said:
I think you underestimate how good Indiana's offense is. OKC in six is my prediction.
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Indiana plays with Pace. They pressure the defense on offense by going quick. They don’t F around like the Celtics, who play the slowest pace in the league. If you beat up Halliburton you can beat the Pacers. They can’t function without him. I would expect OKC to be super physical.
 
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SGA bricks the easy jumper, Haliburton drains the tough jumper for the win.

Pacers come from down big once again.

Really impressive. Haliburton has that clutch gene. It's pretty rare.
 
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Haliburton is 6-for-7 (85.7%) when taking a shot to tie or take the lead in the final 90 seconds of the 4th or OT this playoffs. That’s the most such shots in a single postseason since 1997.

This is a whole different level of clutch – never seen anything like this. I'm in a hotel on vacation with the wife and screamed "He did it again!" WAY too loud when he hit that shot.

I hate the word "unbelievable" but this postseason he's been unbelievable in crunch time.
 
Well this certainly makes the Knicks collapse look better. The team that was going to sweep fell victim to the same thing the did the Knicks. Granted not as bad but it took a lucky Haliburton shot to beat the Knicks.

He just beat his man today and got a good clean look at a 19-20 footer. NBA player should make that shot.

I was wondering why Dort was not covering him to start the game. Don’t get how Dort was able to cover and hang with Ant but was just flat out schooled on a basic pull up jump shot. Nothing special just fake a hard drive to hoop pull up from 20 and boom. I get with a one point lead he may have thought the play was to take it to the hoop but you got to be closer than that on a game winning shot. Maybe he thought Caruso was going to flare out as he looked like he may have been retreating and trying to drop to cover Siakam. But that bad miscommunication should not happen to a team that has been touted as the best defensive team ever.

No Dorture Chamber tonight!
 
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superjohn said:
I don't understand the OKC love.
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Well they did win 68 games to the Pacers' 50 and in arguably a more difficult conference. It was justified. But I will say that it does seem in sports when one team is a prohibitive favorite that the underdog seems to do better than expected.
 
superjohn said:
I don't understand the OKC love.
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They are a fun team to watch and play great D. I love SGA but he becomes a one dimensional ball hog too much at the end of games sometimes. I think Chet needed to be in at the end of the game for size.
 
Alot of playoff teams missed the boat not selecting him at the end of the first round, Nuggets probably still playing if they drafted him over Peyton Watson.

 
Great team effort by Pacers. 6 players in the teens for scoring and another with 9 points. 3 players in double digits on rebounds, 3 players with 4 or more assists.
 
Hunt for 7 said:
Well this certainly makes the Knicks collapse look better. The team that was going to sweep fell victim to the same thing the as did the Knicks. Granted not as bad but it took a lucky Haliburton shot to beat the Knicks.

He just beat his man today and got a good clean look at a 19-20 footer. NBA player should make that shot.

I was wondering why Dort was not covering him to start the game. Don’t get how Dort was able to cover and hang with Ant but was just flat out schooled on a basic pull up jump shot. Nothing special just fake a hard drive to hoop pull up from 20 and boom. I get with a one point lead he may have thought the play was to take it to the hoop but you got to be closer than that on a game winning shot. Maybe he thought Caruso was going to flare out as he looked like he may have been retreating and trying to drop to cover Siakam. But that bad miscommunication should not happen to a team that has been touted as the best defensive team ever.

No Dorture Chamber tonight!
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Not sure why everyone including SVP is saying that Dort was covering Haliburton on the last shot. That was Wallace!
 
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