OT: NBA Opening Night
I hesitated to create this thread because I know there is a vocal group of anti-NBA fans on the Blog. Nevertheless, I know some of you - like me - love the NBA and are excited for the new season.
Two great games are on tonight:
- Boston at Cleveland
- Houston at Golden State
The Celtics - Cavs game had some early drama. About half-way through the first quarter, Gordon Hayward went down with a horrific-looking ankle / leg injury. In just a matter of minutes, the Celtics went from top competitor in the East to - idk, man - competing for #5? Very sad because by all accounts Hawyard is a good dude.
Any who, thought those of us that enjoy the league can post up stuff here.
October 17th, 2017 at 9:52 PM ^
Celtics really need some shooting, only Kyrie can shoot 3s reliably.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:05 PM ^
Side note: Las Vegas will be getting a WNBA team as San Antonio will be relocated. Man, we went from "no pro team will ever come here!" to having 3 pro teams in less than a year. All it took was for hockey to open the floodgates.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/10/the-wnba-is-heading-to-vegas
October 17th, 2017 at 10:17 PM ^
you can thank Gary Bettman!
October 17th, 2017 at 10:29 PM ^
I still don't know how many tourists will decide to check out a hockey game (or WNBA game) instead of the casinos.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:45 PM ^
First 3 games have seen strong attendance but that is to be expected with a new team. I was at the Wings and Bruins games. I'd say it was extremely close to half of the arena being full of the road teams fans. Only time will tell how this is going to work. This may not necessarily be a bad thing as if the local turnout starts dipping the tourists would still roll in. I don't think the team would care as long as the $$$ is rolling in.
October 17th, 2017 at 9:52 PM ^
The Hayward injury was horrible to watch, yet they kept the live shot on him while he sat there in shock over what had just happened.
October 17th, 2017 at 9:54 PM ^
Worst opening night ever. Hayward injury completely zapped the mood. Smh.
Eastern conference is pretty much pointless to watch now.
However, Celtics seem to have weathered storm and are making a game of this.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:00 PM ^
After the injury, the Celtics just mentally did not look like they were in the game. In fairness, I really can't imagine having to go back onto the court and play after seeing something like that. I may not drive to the basket as hard as I might have!
Nevertheless, they looked great in the 3rd and Kyrie seems rested for the 4th. Hopefully it's a great ending!
October 17th, 2017 at 9:54 PM ^
Celics screwed themselves over by trading their entire team. I’m a huge Lebron fan, but I think everyone can agree the Celtics have no shot at competing with the Cavs this year.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:16 PM ^
That trade wasn't about this year.
I won't argue that the Celitcs may have overpaid for Kyrie, but they did it with the future in mind. Thomas is coming of a serious hip injury and on the last year of his contract, they brought in Hayward on long term deal, have a chance to negotiate and sign Kyrie long term now (this is huge because Boston historically has trouble attracting FA's), and already have two young potental stars in Brown and Tatum.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
No one on the celtics, except for Kyrie, is championship material. Their roster consists of Kyrie and 13 other role players, including Hayward. Hayward had all the pieces on his team to lead them on a playoff run last year and couldn’t. Especially now that the Cavaliers have Isaiah Thomas , LeBron, and D Wade, the Celtics just don’t, and will never for at least 5 years, have the starpower to match up with the Cavs.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:33 PM ^
that you included Hayward as a role player. He's a star.
Cavs has gotten worse. D-Wade is meh and is on the downside. Isaiah Thomas had a great year but he got exposed in the playoff defensively.
If Hayward can get back healthy for the 2nd half of the season, the Celts can absolutely win the ECF. They have one of the best coach in the league in Brad Stevens. Kyrie is just getting better as a player.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^
How did the Cavs get worse?
They added a crap ton of depth especially on defense.
They can sleepwalk through the season and prep for the playoffs, especially with Gordon out for the Celtics.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:59 PM ^
from trading away Kyrie(though Nets 1st round pick helps tremendously), got Jae Crowder who is a role player(also is an okay shooter) and Isaiah Thomas who can give them that offensive boost(but is really bad defensively). They added Derrick Rose who is a shell of himself, D-Wade is getting older and is on the downside of his career, Jose Calderon who doesn't give them anything other than taking care of the ball.
Where is the defensive upgrade other than Jae Crowder whose effort has been on and off?
The only reason why the Cavs is still good is because of LBJ. Without him, they're a pretty bad team.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:06 PM ^
Jeff Green and Crowder.
Along with Shump, they got some defensive pieces that can run around with the Warriors.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:08 PM ^
and lol at Jeff Green. He's not a good defender.
They have no chance of beating the Warriors. None at all. The Warriors got better which is crazy considering they're already loaded.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:57 PM ^
Doubt he's back at all this year. Just hope he comes back next year close to the same player. Just a gruesome injury.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:34 PM ^
I mean, will the Cavs have this firepower after this season?! Rose's and Wade's contracts are each one-year; and, I'd be shocked if Lebron is not in a Lakers uniform this time next year. Cleveland has put together the pieces for a one-year run. If they don't hit it this year, it'll take them years to rebuild.
October 18th, 2017 at 9:11 AM ^
I think they'll be lucky if Rose and Wade can make it through the season healthy.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:41 PM ^
Are you trying to make a point about this season or 5 years from now?
Hayward might not be a superstar, but he's much more than role player. Second, this Cav's team won't be the same 10 months from now, stop kidding yourself with the 5 year shit.
LeBron is a free agent, literally with the player option, every year he wants to be and that will only change when he wants it to. This isn't even considering the fact he might not be playing five years from now. Thomas is on the last year of his deal, Wade signed a one year league minnimum to play with LeBronONE more season, J.R. Smith almost didn't come back this year, Kyle Korver won't be around much longer, and Tyrone Lue probably won't be the head coach anymore.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:59 PM ^
Hayward is a star...Brown and Tatum are emerging and Horford is a nice secondary piece.
They weren't going to win the East, but they were better and clearly the next best team.
You're acting like D. Wade is something special...he's going to play 50-60 games and he's only going to play half the game anyway. Same with Rose.
The Cavs got deeper which is why they're better. But let's not act like Dwayne Wade is soooo much better than Jaylen Brown at this point in their careers.
Both teams got better in the offseason, for different reasons.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:52 PM ^
This makes no sense...the Celtics are better this year than they were last year. Or at least they were for 5 minutes into this game.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:54 PM ^
Jaylen Brown is a lot better, Jayson Tatum is legit. They had a REALLY good team. They just weren't the Cavs or Warriors. But they were right there with the Rockets, Spurs, and Thunder before the injury.
They were also built to beat the Cavs a lot more than last year's team was.
October 17th, 2017 at 9:55 PM ^
As a Butler grad who overlapped with Hayward, I’m devastated. This was set to be the next chapter of his career and it will need to wait at least a year.
It was also the most gruesome basketball injury I’ve ever seen. I saw Paul George’s but not the Kevin Ware one.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:03 PM ^
I was really excited to see what he could do on a team (and market) like Boston. It seemed like his career was destined to take off this year, especially with Kyrie dishing him the rock. Hopefully he can come back from this next year...very sad.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:07 PM ^
Marcus Smart is playing out of his mind right now.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:20 PM ^
Smart has had a great game. Celtics are definitely going to be relying on him much more this season with Hayward out...
October 17th, 2017 at 10:11 PM ^
NBA threads other than very occasionally in the post-season, I will say this:
It's going to be nice to finally hear the Pistons PA announcer yell "DEE-troit BASKET-ball!" again in the city of Detroit.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:12 PM ^
As I’ve ever seen.
Shitty way to kick off the season. The game, however, has been excellent
October 17th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
Basketball is better than soccer, so I welcome these threads.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:15 PM ^
an Australian would say that
October 17th, 2017 at 11:11 PM ^
He's from New York.
October 18th, 2017 at 6:29 AM ^
I only reside in Manhattan.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
You guys are young, do you not remember the Shaun Livingston injury? That was way more ugly.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:23 PM ^
You could hear Hayward’s ankle break on the broadcast
October 17th, 2017 at 10:26 PM ^
I'm a Warriors fan, so the injury is almost always referenced by local TV crews anytime he enters a game.
Nothing against Livingston, but - in the NBA - it's rare to see a super star, like Hayward, go down with such a terrible injury. Aside from Paul George (which I didn't see - only heard about), I'm not sure I can recall an injury like Hayward's in the last 10 years or so...Could be wrong though...kinda shooting from the hip on that statement!
October 17th, 2017 at 10:22 PM ^
Tatum is going to be one hell of a player. Dude is going to grow up real fast with the Hayward injury.
Gonna get a lot of playing time.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:30 PM ^
Feels like a playoff game
October 17th, 2017 at 10:46 PM ^
To heck with Cleveland.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:47 PM ^
That was a pretty good game. It was looking like a blowout, but luckily in the NBA big leads can disappear fast. Hopefully the Rockets and take out the Warriors, so at least for 1 night they can be bad at basketball.
October 17th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^
And the Knicks have already been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs...
October 17th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^
All this talk about the NBA IS HURTING MY EARS
October 17th, 2017 at 10:51 PM ^
Go warriors! Bay area represent!
October 17th, 2017 at 11:12 PM ^
Warriors play amazing ball.
Them and the Spurs always fun to watch on both ends of the floor.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:16 PM ^
When they are all clicking
October 17th, 2017 at 11:22 PM ^
Is unreal
October 17th, 2017 at 11:25 PM ^
Damn...that lead disappeared pretty fast! Looks like Klay is getting an early start on justifying a max contract next year! He's been lights out in the first quarter.
October 17th, 2017 at 11:32 PM ^
James Harden is really amazing.