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Forums - Sports Discussion - 2022 NBA Offseason - Rest in Peace Bill Russell

Angelus said:
Chris Hu said:

Its pretty much official this years Sun team is the second best Suns team ever. Don't think the Suns team that got to the finals in 1976 was that good. Don't think any of the Nash and Stoudemire Suns where better. So only the Barkley lead team that lost to Bulls in the 1993 finals was better.

Idk...those mid 2000 Suns were pretty damn good when they were firing on all cylinders. 

Even if they don't make it to the finals I think they will win 3 games in the WCF which will make them better then any of those teams.



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Chris Hu said:

I don't think there that team; also I don't think any team ever won two back to back seven games series.

The '94 New York Knicks, the '08 Boston Celtics, and the '13 Miami Heat might be able to help you out there. They all won back-to-back Game 7s. The '88 Lakers even did it 3 times in a row. And the '94 New York Knicks came just 1 more win (1 less stinker from John Starks) away from doing it 3 times in a row as well.

However, all those teams did it at home. None of those Game 7s were won on the road. And to your point, the one thing that all those teams had going from them is that they had this tenacity, this grit, this hard-hitting mentality that was able to kick them to another gear and perform at that special level I mentioned earlier in order to win. It's not a coincidence that 3 out of those 4 teams I mentioned went on to win the championship. 

You could say they had the "Championship DNA" even though the Knicks obviously didn't win the title. I wouldn't say the same thing about the Clippers. With the exception of Kawhi, none of those guys strike me as having "Championship DNA."



Chris Hu said:
burninmylight said:

The Bucks managed to make Brooklyn's two stars look somewhat mortal for the first quarter and large periods of the second half - not going to say that they bottled them up or anything implying that Irving and Durant couldn't have popped the lid off at any time. Durant was 11-28, and Irving was 9-22. Every team in the league will take those shooting numbers from them on any given night.

Not only that, but a lot of the shots that Nets role players were hitting left and right in the first two games weren't going there way last night. League leading 3P% Joe Harris was 1-7 from behind the arc and 1-11 overall. Blake Griffin only took three 3s in the game, whereas he made four in Game 1. Man, Bruce Brown had the game of his life though. He was freaking killing it in the second. After the Bucks built up a 21-point lead, he was largely responsible for getting it back down to single digits when he and Durant kept running the same play over and over to get him clean looks right at the goal. Finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

The Bucks also finally got the rebounding  battle in their favor. Blake Griffin doing his best Rodman impersonation those first two games, but the Bucks outrebounded the Nets 56-50 and shut off the pump on all of those second chance points they were getting in the first two games. They weren't going to win a single game allowing the greatest offense in the league today so many extra opportunities.

Still, because Giannis personally hates me, he felt the need to take eight 3s last night, most of them with at least 15 seconds on the shotclock or so. And Lopez was once again relegated to being a lowly pleb hanging out on the elbow or above the break instead of gashing his defender in the post like he had no problem doing in Game 1. He had JOE FREAKING HARRIS on him at various points, and I'm screaming at Coach Bud and the Bucks to get him the ball!

I cape up for Giannis a lot on t his site, mostly because of a certain person who pretends to know basketball yet clearly doesn't watch a minute of it,  but I will be the first one to say that he is an 82-game player, not a 16-game player. That booty of his gets super-clinched in June, where he suddenly forgets how to shoot free throws, or even get them above the rim. All of the good habits he's spent the season working on, like finding open teammates when there's a wall in front of him, or a few shot types we think he's added to his arsenal all go out of the window, and he goes back to caveman ball. The Bucks cannot win a championship as currently constructed, and Giannis is not a #1 on a championship team as currently constituted.

Don't kid yourself I'm pretty sure I have been watching basketball longer then you have since the early 90s to be more precise.

SportsCenter highlights don't count. ~_~



Chris Hu said:
Angelus said:

Idk...those mid 2000 Suns were pretty damn good when they were firing on all cylinders. 

Even if they don't make it to the finals I think they will win 3 games in the WCF which will make them better then any of those teams.

Would it though...? Which of these western conference teams is better than the 05 Spurs? I'd argue it's none of them. Can't really fault the Suns too much for losing to them.



burninmylight said:
Chris Hu said:

Don't kid yourself I'm pretty sure I have been watching basketball longer then you have since the early 90s to be more precise.

SportsCenter highlights don't count. ~_~

I don't have cable so I don't watch SportsCenter.



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Angelus said:
Chris Hu said:

Even if they don't make it to the finals I think they will win 3 games in the WCF which will make them better then any of those teams.

Would it though...? Which of these western conference teams is better than the 05 Spurs? I'd argue it's none of them. Can't really fault the Suns too much for losing to them.

Not only that, but Joe Johnson missed the first two games of that series.

But you cannot talk Suns-Spurs without bringing up 2007 semifinals matchup:

Game 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvkKdXLwt0U

Ama're Stoudemire and Boris Diaw get suspended for Games 5 and 6 after Robert Horry hip checks Steve Nash into oblivion: https://247sports.com/nba/san-antonio-spurs/Article/amare-stoudemire-phoenix-suns-san-antonio-spurs-2007-nba-playoffs-suspension-boris-diaw--119716915/

The Suns got screwed.



Now with Kyrie dealing with an injury and its looking KD might have to go solo (for a bit anyways), Brooklyn/Milwaukee has turned into a very different series.



Barring catastrophe, the Suns should be punching their ticket to the Western Conference Finals in 12 minutes.



If the Nuggets pull of this comeback without Jokic, I'm going to start thinking that he stole the MVP from Embiid.



Well, it's official. The Phoenix Suns are going back to the Conference Finals (Come on, Ticketmaster, where are the ticket sales?!?)

The Suns will have A LOT of time to rest up and make sure they're prepared physically and mentally. So, if you're Phoenix, who are you hoping makes it out of the Jazz/Clippers series?