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2022-23 Basketball Thread


Pariah

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4 minutes ago, Pariah said:

The Rockies pulled off one of the most extraordinary runs in MLB history to reach the 2007 World Series, where they were swept by the Red Sox.

 

FTFY

 

I've felt the wait killed them, as they had a 9 day layoff.  It killed their roll...they were a freaking 21-1 (!!!!) before that.  5 back in the loss column, with 14 to play...and caught the Padres for the WC.  (And the Padres played solidly, going 9-6.)  Win the tie break game.  Sweep the 2 NL series.  It was a dream!!! stretch.

 

Til they had time to wake up.....

 

Game 2.  In Boston.  Happened to ALSO be opening night for Great American Beer Festival in Denver...a CRAZY!! night inside the Convention Center.  Yeah, I was there that year.  Couple TVs got set up.  Picture was pretty bad, but it was packed around em.  And it was neck and neck...Sox won 2-1.  Wasn't there for game 3;  Saturday at GABF has 2 sessions, the afternoon session is when the medals are announced.  It's the bigger one.  I was at that one...which tended to make hitting the evening session...impractical, shall we say. :)  And the least attractive;  lots of the best stuff is gone, the reps are all tired, they're ready to call it.  And if you'd hit both Thursday and Friday night?  At GABF, there was no limit on how much you could have, per se...and a WHOLE lot of not just good, but STRONG!!! beers.  Sam Adams had Utopia there...it's ~ 18%.  Dogfish Head had a bunch of odd special bottlings, usually 10+%.  Pizza Pro Solana Beach, Tomme Arthur's starting point before starting up Lost Abbey...Shark Attack, a triple red.  WOW.  More barleywines and imperial stouts than you could count.

 

Yeah.  NOT a good idea to try to repeat after only a few hours.  And the taste buds were generally feeling hammered;  this was also the height of the Hop Bomb trend, so it wasn't just the alcohol that did it.  

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I just saw an interesting graphic about the Heat-Nuggets series, pointing out that the Heat have not won in Denver since 2016:

 

Denver, Colorado: 5,280 ft

Arikaree River (lowest point in Colorado): 3,315 ft

Nikola Jokić : 6 ft 11 in

Mean elevation of Miami: 6 ft

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1 hour ago, Pariah said:

I just saw an interesting thing: If the Nuggets win the title, they'll be the first Western Conference team NOT from California or Texas to win since the 1979 Seattle Supersonics.

 

Curious, but also note:  Cali and Texas teams make up almost half of the conference.  LA, LA, Golden State, Sacramento;  Dallas, San Antonio, Houston.  

 

Since Seattle in '79, the other teams to make the Finals...

--Trail Blazers lose to the Bad Boy Pistons, and Michael's Bulls

--Seattle, then Utah twice, to the Bulls...the 2nd Threepeat

--OKC loses to one of the last real Big Three...Wade, Bosh, James

--Phoenix loses to the Bucks

 

By the same token...Denver's only the 8th non-Cali, non-Texas team to even make the Finals, in 44 years.  But, this is also somewhat distorted, because it largely comes down to the Lakers and Warriors.  Lakers have made the Finals 26 times while in LA, 17 times in this period.  The Celtics...only 8 in this period, and that's the most of any team in the East.  

 

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Aaron Gordon goes for 27.  Bruce Brown comes off the bench for 21.  This, after game 3 where Christian Braun kicked in 15 off the bench, including a big spurt.

 

Denver is simply more versatile and overall more talented.

 

13 point win to take a dominating 3-1 series lead.  Not a lock;  Miami could get hot again, but probably the series wraps up Monday.

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From what I read earlier, this is pretty much like paparazzi and movie stars...there are people who think they have a right to intrude, so they can profit from it.  Given the rise of social media, and the potentially lucrative monetization...yeah, it's not surprising.  Griner's an easy target, unfortunately.

 

Some of this is likely related to the WNBA being cheap.  The teams DON'T fly charter without specific exceptions to do so.  Griner has one...but not the team.  That's awkward, to say the least.  Fly charter, and most of this should be avoided.

 

But based on their treatment...women's team sports don't rate even 2nd class status.  Wasn't long ago when there were comparisons between men's Final Four rooms, facilities, and swag, and the women's Final Four.  Or the fact that WNBA players *frequently* feel a need to play overseas to make decent money.  The USWNT's pay, versus the USMNT...despite being one of the most dominant teams in their sport, on the planet, versus a total non-entity, in the MNT.

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3 hours ago, Cygnia said:

Is ESPN giving the Nuggets ANY credit/notice?  Right now, their focus is only "how the Heat can bounce back!"

 

Of course not.  First, there's no story in talking about the Nuggets, until after they win.  That's when you can start comparing them.  There's no way to generate buzz, either.  The first mission for these particular talking heads is to drive up ratings, and therefore, they have to try to sell the Heat.  Actually...no.  For the morning talking heads, on the day of the game?  It's not their first mission, it's their only mission.

 

They *have* said...the Nuggets are better, deeper, taller.  The heavy expectation is the Nuggets will win the series, and they've said that...occasionally.  To be sure, there's a Heat bias there, but some of it's trying to elevate the David vs. Goliath aspect, #8 seed making the NBA Finals for the first time, all that.  Some of it is, I think, East Coast bias...particularly SAS, who's got a major bias towards the East generally, with the Heat being...oh, what, #3?  After the Knicks and Sixers.

 

I very rarely watch the morning shows on ESPN.  And not because I'm a night owl and retired, so I often Don't Do Mornings...but because silence is preferable.  CERTAINLY, it's preferable to any SAS rant.  AND they've incorporated Mad Dog Russo, who ranks just behind Cowherd on the condescension scale.  I can tolerate some of the others;  JJ Redick does a good job sometimes of puncturing SAS' bloviations.  But generally, it's simply not worth it.

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Nuggets play a horrible first half...can't throw it in the ocean, a boatload of turnovers, serious foul trouble...but the Heat can't take advantage.  They've got a lead, but...not what it should've been.  Nuggets still play tight, but so do the Heat in the 2nd half, so the 4th in particular is extremely tight.  Around 30 seconds left, Nuggets up 1, the Heat have a ragged possession;  they're forced into a poor situation with really only one pass...and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope reads it, for an easy steal that results in making 2 FTs (NOT a given, as they'd mostly shot only about 50% from the line), and a 3 point lead.  Butler throws up a challenged, rushed, off-balance (read:  bad) 3 pointer that doesn't go;  Nuggets get the board, make 2 more FTs.  Heat misses a desperation 3 with about 10 seconds left;  when it misses, they let Denver run out the clock.  The air was pretty much all out of their balloon.

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