Let's talk basketball!

@csl316: The Clippers have become out rivals these past few years with the demise of the Lakers, so it's natural as a Warriors fan to dislike them. Also a lot of the Warriors-Clippers games involve a lot of trash talking and dirty play.

Also, that was quite possibly the greatest comeback I've ever seen in any sport. The basketball gods spat in the face of that off the ball foul! My Warriors are the team of destiny! :DDDDDD

But hats off to New Orleans. If they're healthy, I have no doubt they can get home court next year. They just need to fire Monty.

All I know is, the sequence at the end of that 4th quarter was outstanding.

Me as a Raptors fan this entire series.

I am a big Mavs fan.

I am not too happy.

Someone hug me please

@jiggajoe14: Well you guys did have a often injured but still alright Danny Granger and Paul George on that team. It's hard to figure out where Kwahi would've fit when the Pacers still had needs at point guard.

@magris said:

Hell yes! The last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter was completely unbelievable, especially the last shot(s) from Curry. Monty deserves to get fired after that poor example of coaching. Why they didn't foul is beyond me. And to hear him come back after the game and state that they players 'didn't execute the game plan' is a slap in the face of the NOLA players and fans.

I agree that the Pels, though, can and should be a Western Conference contender if they can manage to reorganize coaching staff and keep Davis, Gordon, Pondexter, etc. With Brooks being fired, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see Monty get the boot so they can keep Davis and the fans happy.

EDIT: Also, what a horrid performance by the Clippers last night. I mean... damn. They looked like a completely different team. I'm not sure if that was a display of the Spur's dominance and bench prowess or the lack-thereof from the Clipps. Kawhi was absolutely amazing to watch. I hope we can contain him in the inevitable matchup in the WCF.

Underdogs just refusing to lose tonight.

Lets go, Pelicans! Remind the Warriors about a playoff loss so they have the urgency to avoid the feeling in later rounds!

Kevin Love out for the Cavs with an injury? From the highlights it looks like he was grasping his shooting elbows

He got wrapped up with Olynyk and pulled his shoulder back. I almost did the same thing a couple days ago and I'm kind of glad I let go.

Perkins with a cheap shot, Smith with a cheap shot... For such a powerhouse, I'm surprised they're getting this dirty.

Wow kinda surprised many Celts fans showed up down 3-0 to the Cavs. I'm just going to take a guess and the Red Sox are playing games outside of Boston this weekend.

I don't know about you guys, but the Wizards sweeping the Raptors is a ridiculous upset to me. I'm not surprised that they won, but the fact that they were so dominant was completely unexpected.

So is the next round vs. the Hawks (probably) going to be competitive? Or was this one-sided series just a matter of match ups?

Mavs are getting salty as fuck right now. Dwight is going to work.

Don't worry in four years Andrew Wiggins will find his way home... or Anthony Bennett...

Here's the weird thing, I'm actually not that surprised. The Wizards pretty much looked like the same ones that eliminated the Bulls last year + Paul Pierce. They were slumping their way into the Playoffs and then all of a sudden, they win the first game on the road and then proceeded to beat the team that was favored in the match up just like last year. The Wizards are dangerous when motivated but I expect them to lose again against a really good team like the Hawks. They actually match up really well for the Hawks size and talent-wise but for whatever reason, the Wizards would find a way to disappoint after a strong showing.

A few points:

• Spurs and Clips is the ONLY game that is really worth watching.
• Paul Pierce might be the only guy who is ever going to score in the next series...and the Wizards are going to lose again because of it.
• Kelly Olynyk will now be known for that one time he ripped out Kevin Love's shoulder (or rather he kept holding on to his arm and Kevin Love pulled it out of the socket while trying to escape)
• Mavs should have removed Rondo sooner...seriously. He was pretty much the wrench that was clogging up the machine. He clearly couldn't care any less that he was in the Playoffs.

I underestimated them last year, too. Bulls had a bunch of momentum into the playoffs but got their asses kicked (which I attributed to just fatigue at the time). This year, it may have been deceiving with Beal missing time and Gortat slumping a bit.

People were rooting for my Bulls to play Washington to avoid the Cavs in the second round, but I wanted none of that after last year. I expected competition but this sort of domination caught me off guard, which makes me even happier we drew the Bucks.

The Hawks aren't looking unstoppable now, so the next round should be a good one. Granted, Atlanta should get to the conference finals no matter who comes their way. Only now it looks like they might get there a little beat up.

@csl316: As a fellow Bulls fan, I just hope that they can just get this over with the Bucks and have this be the year where they finally, finally get past LeBron. Granted, no one has ever passed LeBron in the East but here's hoping it actually happens.

On an unrelated note, BLACKHAWKS VS WILD III. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BOY that's going to be real messy.

Update: 2006 Stoudemire came out to play tonight...along with his bad free throw shooting.

@gaspower: I can watch Hawks vs. Wild every year, to be honest with you.

Lets go Nets!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd also like to point out Kevin Love is the same person who broke his hand doing knuckle push-ups. Ain't Olynyk fault Love is made of glass.

@i_stay_puft: Brandon Roy will forever have the best "heyyeyy," yells in history. So loud and clear.. Every time haha

I don't know who these people are and what they did with my Wizards team, but I hope they stick around instead of disappearing like last year. I'm already steeling myself for the Capitals Game 7 Choke and I don't want to get my hopes up too high for this other team that's playing in the phone booth.

You've learned The Truth.

The Celtics fans are great, especially for the Playoffs. They will chant a losing team off the floor just to show appreciation. They had done it before and did it again this year.

That bucks game was great. Kidd gonna do more than fine.

If the Bulls deliver another wet fart on Thursday, I'm gonna dig into this bottle of tequila my buddy brought over.

I'd like to think having 4 of the Wizards starting 5 in the front row helped the Caps break their Game 7 curse. The universe is just trying extra-hard to spite me now.

Also, kinda surprised we don't have a hockey thread with the NHL playoffs happening.

The Immortal Jon Bois, Breaking NBA2K. Read it. Now.

@dochaus: I'm surprised we don't just make this a general sports thread.

Over at Deadspin, staff writer Greg Howard lays waste to the so called "Black Grantland" site known as The Undefeated Jason Whitlock is EIC of. It's a very behind the scenes look errr... cat fight that's currently happening between the EIC Whitlock and what it seems like the majority of the staff. Simply put it looks like a shitfest, where Whitlock looks like a man way over his head and has an inflated ego of himself.

My favorite part so far is that in Whitlock so called playbook one of his goals is to push a story about how Lebron is a global athlete who has past Jordan and is now reaching global phenomenons in tenth with Muhammed Ali. The crazy part about it is that he even states that he's fairly close to Lebron's inner personal business associates.

http://deadspin.com/here-is-the-insane-playbook-for-jason-whitlocks-black-1700506507#_ga=1.20644920.1265280910.1419280898

LMFAO as the Clippers halftime show seems like something Steve Ballmer would pick thinking they're still pretty hip.

Hip or not, I'm sure Ballmer was fucking stoked about it.

Yea I was surprised to see Redfoo out there - he's been over here in Aus being a fucking idiot on The Voice or X-Factor or some crap reality show - this exposed him to copping a lot of flak for his terrible music

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/redfoo-takes-to-radio-in-a-14minute-rant-on-his-controversial-song-bloggers-and-crazy-women/story-e6frfn09-1227122932481

Side note tho: hopefully Bulls close out the Bucks, though nice to see the Bucks be competetive. Love being out saddens me as a Basketball fan, but gladdens me as a Bulls fan

Side side note: Fucken Spurs. They just keep playing well - don't seem to be any less solid than prior years. I was glad to see Patty Mills playing like a boss 1st Quarter, even though I'd have preferred Clips to win

@csl316: http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/redfoo-booed-1700870131/+bubbaprog

Bulls/Bucks

I can't comprehend what is happening right now.

O_O;;; what channel is it on?

@i_stay_puft: CSN or TNT.

They've been up by 10 since like 5 minutes in. I think 46 was the biggest lead, Giannis got ejected, this is all nuts.

OH crap but the NFL draft is happening...

@i_stay_puft: Yeah, I thought of going downtown but this game was a must win!

Which turned into a 120-66 win. Hot, DAMN.

Why was Giannis ejected did he pull a Dwayne Wade and kick someone in the groin?

@i_stay_puft: Ran from half court after Dunleavy shot and just shoulder charged him. Like a full speed charge in Tekken.

Ah, so he pulled a Laimbeer.

Streamable of the Giannis charge.

Gif of more angles.

To be fair, Dunleavy was getting under their skin the whole game. But like Ernie talked about, it's about being mentally tough. I'm just glad the Bulls went back to playing their game after that. Best way to piss off someone that wants to rattle you back is to just ignore them.

And let's just ignore Jimmy blocking shots during a time out.

As a Clippers fan, I fear this series with the Spurs will be the end of me. Team fought hard to get a Game 7 on homecourt, but then you look back at Games 2 & 5 and imagine what it would be like to go through that for the third time, only this time with everything on the line.

I want the Clips to beat the Spurs so bad, but I doubt they will have the composure to beat them in a game 7. The Spurs are just such a boring team to watch and have had their time in the sun, while the Clips are exciting and seem to have a lot of players that will be a big part of the league for years to come.

I haven't seen the likes of that before - pretty funny all round. I personally hate people just sauntering onto the court and shooting at breaks (at any level of basketball), just because I'm a bit of a boring spoil sport - that's pretty amusing

Chris Paul left to the locker room late in the first quarter. So far no word on his injury but he was holding his leg.

He's back out there now - hamstring strain - hopefully doesn't impact him too significantly