Alrighty, It's the 2012 NBA Playoffs Thread
 

Any predictions?

West
Spurs/Jazz Spurs in 4
Mavs/Thunder Mavs in 6
Clips/Memphis Griz in 5
Lakers/Nuggets Nugs in 7

East
Heat/Knicks Heat in 4
Boston/Atlanta Boston in 5
Chi/Philly Bulls in 5
Pacers/Magic Pacers in 4

Nuggets have no chance

Spurs, Thunder and Lakers all take their series' with ease

Heat and Chicago as well in the east. The other three series' dont matter, none of those teams have a shot to make the finals.

I'll give you the Lakers having the best few guys in the Series, but the next 10 most talented guys play for the Nugs.

Pacers in the Finals.

AND in the West Spurs and Okie take there series the rest don't matter as those teams have no chance of making it to the Finals either.

I can see the Knicks/Heat series going six. The Heat have been horrible against the three all season long. It would not shock me if Novak, Smith etc get hot in a couple of games.

Oh fuck. D Rose is hurt. Don't want to see this at all.

something in Rose´s knee just went wrong, ugh ... :(

Rose might have to re-invent himself. He's only great if he can stay on the court. His style of play is clearly making him too injury prone.

Rose may not have anything ending in CL left.

Thibodeau has to quit with the win at all costs mentality. They will never win a championship with him as coach because he cannot manage players' minutes. A minute 20 left, up by double-digits. Why is Rose even in there? And Deng has 40+ minutes. And he's done this since he's been the coach. I thought he liked his bench? Apparently, not so much.

Paxson and Del Negro got into it over Noah's minutes after he got hurt but apparently he has a love jones for Thibodeau so doesn't say anything. The Bulls window is small, very small. This year or next because when Rose can no longer go to the hole he becomes a mediocre PG.

Why is JR Smith handling the ball ? I don´t care that they have no PGs left, as a coach you have to find a way not to put your team in a position where they depend on Smith to make decicions beyond "should i shoot now or take another dribble and then shoot ?"

Well, I think he needs an off-season to get himself entirely healthy. The stuff this year, as speculated by many close to the situation, is that the varying injuries have been a cumulative impact from trying to rush back from earlier injuries and over-compensating.

Early word on this one is that it is MCL/ACL/PCL/something-CL and that he is done for the year. Which would also mean no Olympics. Which would mean he will have a lot more time than he wants to get himself fully healthy. Prior to this year, I think he had missed 5 games in 3 years or something like that.

Long term, almost all the hyper-athletic players have to transform their style of play as they age. But I think it is a bit premature to say that is the case for someone who is 23 years old.

@BreakingNews Chicago Bulls PG Derrick Rose has torn ACL and MCL in left knee, will miss remainder of playoffs

Iman Shumpert just got carried off the court.

What is your star player doing in the game with 1 minute left and a 12 point lead? Kudos to whoever the coach is.

Haven't seen this reported anywhere.

Still unconfirmed but...

Fantasy Basketball Breaking News - Rotoworld.com

Umm Coach Spo, when are you putting in Juwan Howard, Dexter Pittman and Norris Cole?

Confirmed ACL tear now.

Wonder who the Heat will play in the Finals?

They played well without him, but yeah, they have no chance at a title without him. Sad to see.

Eastern Conference playoffs just got that much more uninteresting.

Nobody sits with a 12 point lead and 1 minute left. It's stat padding time, if anything. And you aren't gonna close out a game with CJ Watson.

Am I the only one that doesn't have a problem with Chandler getting a flagrant on his screen on Lebron? I mean he jumped into Lebron when he had his back turned. There's no way he would have done that if Lebron was turned around.

Glen Davis hurt his ankle earlier in the week but ESPN's sideline reporter said that he was elevating well in the layup line. He can't do that when he's healthy though.

I just want to throw up for the next 2 months.

Go Oklahoma?

If your go-to guy is Glen Davis, you likely won´t win a playoff game. Orlando definitely putting up a good fight, but that just can´t work even with Indiana looking out of sorts offensively.
Hibbert close to a TD, 8/13 and 9 blocks so far

terrible news on Rose ...

SVG is a hell of a coach. I know which direction I'd take that team in...

Why the hell step up and shoot a long 2 in that spot? That makes no sense.

Well, i´ll be damned.

Because Collison is an idiot.

Well based on today's events:
My predictions
West
Spurs/Jazz : Spurs in 4
Mavs/Thunder: Thunder in 7
Clips/Memphis Griz in 6
Lakers/Nuggets Nugs in 6

East
Heat/Knicks Heat in 4
Boston/Atlanta Boston in 5
Chi/Philly Philly 6
Pacers/Magic Pacers in 7

Still think the Pacers will win this series because surely they can't look as f-ing bad as they did in the last 4 minutes of that game. What an absolute mess. I know they don't have that one stud, but they have too much talent to fold tent like that. This Orlando team isn't that good. They looked beat in the 4th and the Pacers just said, Nah, you take this one. Ugh.

I just looked at his stats and Ibaka has averaged 5.5 Blocks per 36 minutes since the all star break and 6.5 in 15 game sin april (4.7 bpg in 26 mpg) which is pretty much insane

I have to put today with the 2003 NLCS as the worst sports day as a fan I've had. The injury is devestating. Derails a fun contender and likely alters Rose's career forever. It hurts more since he shouldn't have even been out there.

I get you frustration at that, but be honest : How often has a superstar ever been taken out in that situation ? It was afterall only 11 with 1,15 or so to go, it wasn´t totally in the books really.

They were up 20 with 4 minutes left when they put him in. The game was not in doubt, Philly had pulled starters.

ok, i missed that as i missed the 4th up until about 2 to go


Mavs with a great first half, even with Dirk having a bad game.

Damn, for being such a historically great passer Kidd has some amazingly stupid TOs

In the next 10 or so years, someone's going to invent a knee brace that drastically cuts down on ACL and MCL injuries and doesn't reduce quickness. There's millions to be made there so it's only a matter of time as it's an injury that cuts across all 4 major sports

SI

Confirmed ACL tear for Iman. 66 games+125 or so days= Fucked up playoffs.

This is the biggest issue. For all the talk about how well they played without Rose throughout the season, it makes no sense that CJ Watson, Mike James and John Lucas to play 11 minutes combined when the team is up 20.

It's just a freak injury. Rose hasn't played very well since January. I don't see anything wrong with him out there trying to get some work in. He has only been shooting around 40% of late and the team needed him to get his head out of his ass offensively. Sometimes basketball guys get hurt making basketball plays.

I think it's an entirely different situation than if the Giants are playing Eli up 3 TDs in the 4th quarter. The level of danger is so much greater in football, and that doesn't translate to basketball. Rose could have gotten injured like he did in warmups. Tibs was going to need Rose to be Rose in order to win. Getting some reps in when you're up is a good way to get back into the groove.

Obviously armed with the results, the debate is skewed. I just think based on all of Rose's injuries, it should have been more about managing his time on the floor and getting the most out of him during that time.

You can't get hurt on the bench. I know it can happen at any time, but the more time you are out there, the higher those odds get. Meaningless minutes is just an unnecessary risk.

Thibs has done this all year and told the media they don't understand the game when he s questioned. Maybe now he understands the question. It's a decision that altered Rose's career, Thibs legacy, and an entire franchise.

My (loud) complaints about Thibodeau's game management skills have been going on for two years. Just ask my wife. And probably my neighbors, too.

The absolute worst thing that could happen has been realized, not just for this year, but likely for a career. Rose still wasn't anywhere near 100% so why play him in that situation especially when you (allegedly) trust your bench?

Two years running the Bulls have the best record. That really helps now as they are not likely to get to the finals. Again. And the championship window is officially closed on this Bulls team.

Bad year for Chicago fans: Blackhawks done, Bulls likely done, and bad baseball.

When does football start?

terrible loss for the Mavs, they had this game all wrapped up and then just gave it away ...

Spurs looking good to start, especially Manu.

For the Jazz i´m happy that Hayward has developed so nicely, really fun to watch him play.

Can't wait to hit the Celtics game tonight. Here's hoping they fare much better here than they did in 2008, where I saw them lose three times.