Looks like forgone conclusions everywhere except with OKC Portland and San Antonio Denver.

Philadelphia - Toronto
Boston - Milwuakee

Golden State - Houston
OKC/Portland - San Antonio/Denver

How you feeling about your Celts E90? They coming strong as predicted so far.

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Boston aint looking good at all. Pacers are terrible without Oladipo and they were in.prime position to win 3 of those games. Bucks are gonna smoke them in 5.

okc such a disappoinment.

Very much so.

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lets just call it what it is. completely unacceptable performance from Russ. not even just bad. just straight up unacceptable.

And this the only team that Golden State claimed they feared

That talk was always nonsense. I remember hearing stephen A trying to push this once too...it was always garbage.

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Yup. George clearly hurt and Russ sits back to let the scrubs take terms leading.

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Bucks in 6 or 7. Really gonna miss Smart in this series.

Westbrook needs a shooting coach. He needs an entire summer devoted to his shooting.

It's really his only problem. The bad decision making wouldnt be such a problem...if dude could make more shots as a whole.

Otherwise, if you arent surrounding him with a bunch of shooters, you aint gonna win, but then again, surrounding your star with shooters is the go to solution for literally every team in this age.

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While true, it doesn't excuse the poor decision making.

Harden has the same poor decision making. Hell a lot of greats too...but you cant criticize a decision when the shot ends ups falling. He's gotta improve his shooting.

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alot of those were open rhythm shots. he just missed them all. so I guess I agree. improve your shot if your gonna shoot that much.

Can't argue the point. BUT, since he can't shoot like harden, he can't be making those decisions. This late in his career his shooting is not going to improve markedly.

Its ego. I say you cant be elite without making those type of decisions. At that position he's gotta be up against the lilard, hardens, and curry's of the world. That position range pretty much correlates to the best shooting talent in the league. So he gets sucked into those decisions by opposition and ego. I think its more realistic for him to improve his shooting than to drop his ego.

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Anything is more realistic than that.

Truth. He's too stubborn a player for him to reach his full potential, and its a shame.

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Hey Austin, Looks like its raps vs sixers.........

lets look at the personnel matchup.

Siakam vs Harris: Harris is really nice. This gonna probably be the most important matchup of the series. It's been pretty simple. When either of these guys go off, their teams win, and both guys can do a bit of everything, and are the same size. Might give the edge to Harris on experience only but not by much.

Embiid vs Gasol/Ibaka: Embiid is too good to not have the edge here. But i think he can be had by the combination. Gasols finesse and Ibaka's power.

Butler vs Leonard: Now Im not sure if this will be the matchup since both teams may tinker, but in crunch time there is no reason to believe it wont...since ben simmons cant shoot. Easy, Kawhi is the better basketball player. Jimmy could find a worse matchup outside of the nba finals than Leonard.

Green vs Simmons: Simmons the better all around player, Green the better 3 shooter and probably push on defense. They may cancel each other out to a degree. But edge to the talent in Simmons. The ball will go thru simmons and Im not sure Green will be able to handle that much attention as a defensive focal point.

Lowry vs Reddick: I read a state about how Lowry is putting up top 3 defensive stats for PGs this post season. I predict that Lowry is going to absolutely terrorize JJ Redick. JJ's offensive output will drop if Lowry sits on him, and JJ can't stop Lowry at all. I expect big things from Lowry in this series.

Bench: Raptors got the edge. Deeper team, van fleet, powell, Ibaka, turn over machine lin...lol, and anunoby if he comes back.

And home court? Raps should have this in 6 or 7. If they are a real east threat, in 5.

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Damien Lillard is stupid.

For real. When i seen him out that far with like 4 seconds left...I pretty much said game over before the shot even flew, you knew what was coming.

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at that juncture i literally said out loud, "wtf you doing?" Then soon as he put it up i immediately thought "watch that bullshit go in."

in hindsight i guess it was the perfect shot cause it was probably the cleanest look he'd be able to get off on George.

He was also probably thinking if he miss, they was gonna wax okc in OT with george having 5 fouls and Russ having 4. The game was a wrap, okc squandered the lead and momentum.

That team needs shooters, bad. For all the talk about russ coming up short....dude dishes 10 times a game on a team devoid of shooters other than george. If he has spot up shooters, there is nothing to suggest that he wouldnt pass the ball to them. He heaves shots more than he should partly because his teammates arent good shooters. You cant trade that fuckin guy, find him some fuckin shooters.

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Not buying this at all.

If he had, if he had. We're talking about a guy who's had Kevin Durant, James Harden, Paul George, Melo, Ibaka, Oladipo, Reggie Jackson, Kevin Martin and more. Westbrook is Steve Francis 2.0. He plays as hard as Kobe. Fast and furious like A.I. Yet he's missing something and it's more than a 3point shot. This guy got benched in 4th quarters to Eric Maynor who's nowhere to be found in the league. OKC got rid of their enigma in Melo and was to hang their hat on defense. Not so much. Some players aren't system players, they are the system. Westbrook's system's outdated.

Iverson did more with less. Only had Aaron Mckie to help on offense. Even high volume, low percentage shooters like A.I. and Harden win with their style. Somehow OKC has to make changes and its not with their players. That core is locked in under contract. Its with their style of play.

RJ is hard to argue here.

Iverson made it to one finals and got ran out of it. That was also a different league. Russ could have done what Iverson did in that league with that team and that coach.

Russ and Kevin were a game away. They were quite close. Right now there are no shooters on that team. None. The logicnis quite simple...you pass to a shooter..they hit the shot. His numbers tell you that he passes. They dont hit shots. George is the only one who can..but hes not a spot up...hes a rhythm shooter. They never had spot up shooters in OKC. They need some. Harden isnt a spot up. Neither is Durant. Nor was Ibaka at the time. Neither is Melo. How are you even mentioning Melo still? Howd he work in Houston?

Russ draws doubles despite not being a good shooter....and demonstrates he can hit the open man. Spot up shooters, compliment that.

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