There’s a strong case to be made that this was the right call by the voters, since most advanced metrics really do not like Thompson

Adding Kawhi and Danny Green to the mix would improve just about any team’s defense. Gasol too.

I noticed that too. He still had a good game, but he looked passive and slow to react tonight.

Maybe you were right after all. This was an impressive win for sure. Raptors’ D has been suffocating, and their bench was huge tonight. If they can keep this up, I will gladly eat crow.

But hey, teams were stupid for not immediately lining up to pay this guy $400,000,000.

I was pissed at him last year. I don’t like when athletes force a trade. To me, if you sign a contract, you should play it out. If you didn’t want to play for a team, don’t sign with them. It seemed so out of character for Kawhi to pull that stunt. I’m still really confused by it.

I’ll be happy if I’m wrong. I’m cheering for the Raptors, because I love Kawhi. But everything I’ve seen from the Raptors and the Bucks all year, including in the playoffs, tells me the Bucks are the better team. They are really well-constructed with all of three-point shooters they’ve got around Giannis. Their…

It seems clear that the Bucks are the better team. Giannis only scored 12 last night, and it still took double OT and a herculean effort from Kawhi to get a win at home. Frankly, I’ll be surprised if this series goes 6.  

Man, those two plays in double OT, starting at about 1:34 of the highlight clip, were incredible. Amazing that he could muster the energy to pull those plays off after everything that he did that game.

But hey, the contact was only “marginal,” so no biggie by Iggy.

Not a Portland fan, but I am rooting for them in this series because I’m sick of the Warriors. Though this version minus KD is reminding me of why I fell in love with the Warriors in 2012-2013 when they gave a scare to the Spurs in the playoffs. I do like Dame and McCollum (and Kanter, for some reason). Can’t stand…

You are very smart person.  Probably good looking too.  

I saw that. “Marginal contact?” They also said that this chest bump by Looney with 37 seconds left was “marginal” and not a foul. https://official.nba.com/last-two-minute-report/?gameNo=0041800312&eventNum=2259

Seems like the Padres have got some promising players. I hope Petco doesn’t rob them of all their confidence.

I start my post with that because I was replying to someone who talked about watching it in slow-mo. Not sure I understand your second point - are you saying refs never make mistakes?

Oh, I get that. But Portland’s defense was also just incredibly, excrutiatingly bad down the stretch last night. Really slow (or no) rotations. Multiple miscommunications. There was one play where Dray had the ball at the top of the key, Steph ran around Iggy (it wasn’t even really a screen), both Dame and Evan Turner…

I never said you had to watch it in slow-mo to tell it was a foul. It looked like a foul to me in real time. The ref was 3 feet away from the play and had an even better view. My point was that after you do watch it in slow-mo, it’s disingenuous to try to argue that it wasn’t a foul.

Making contact while you’re reaching in is a foul. Hooking your arm around the offensive player’s arm is a foul. Even if Lillard extended his arm a little, that’s still a foul on Iguodala.  9 times out of 10 that gets called as a foul on the defender.

I’m not sure how you can watch that in slow-mo and honestly say it’s not foul on Iggy. In general, the refs let the Warriors get away with a lot of contact in the last 2 or 3 minutes. I’m not blaming the refs for this loss. You would think after the 10th time in a row, Portland would figure out some way of defending…

Right now, I think Giannis is a significantly better player. Kawhi is incredible, but the Bucks exposed his one weakness (a pretty big one) - lack of playmaking. Middleton did a good job defending Kawhi, but the Bucks were also sending help a lot. Kawhi should be able to find someone for an open shot out of that, but…