Of course not. LeBron is not in LA to win championships.

If he can pull one off, that would be ideal, and he will keep working hard at it because basketball is central to his vision. But he is in LA for his brand, not for basketball reasons.

Another season like this past one & I wonder if that will actually backfire on him

I actually wonder if he even cares anymore?

I think he'll just about be able to cope in the face of his career.


I think people really need to get off their high horse when it comes to judging athletes (lack of) motivation. Guy wanted to go live and work in LA, whose to say he shouldn't ?

I wasn't so much thinking about him but rather about the outside opportunities the move seemed to suggest he was courting.

Does the LA stint failing actually diminish those opportunities rather than enhance them.


I'm not questioning his right to do so, I'm simply asking whether it might turn out to blow up in his fucking face. (Which, yes, would amuse me to no end for a guy that has seemed intent of late on epitomizing the need for many of these clowns to simply shut-up-and-ball). But regardless of how I feel about it personally, it seems like a pretty damned reasonable question. Nobody is above hurting their own brand.

Never really understood the whole "pursue his other interests in LA" thing anyway.

No matter who he played for, he could spend the entire offseason in LA. No matter who he played for, he'd be spending roughly half his time during the season on the road. So he's using that time when he has stretches of home games to pack in as much of his "outside interest" stuff as possible. Seems like there's no way that can be super effective unless he's completely ignoring family life (which seems to be a legit priority of his) and that whole keeping his game sharp, getting rest when he can as well thing.

Right or wrong, I always interpreted that as being more about making himself more beloved / ingratiating himself with the left coast entertainment crowd than about making it easier to "take a meeting".

Basically "see me up close, love me, do business with me"

He definitely cares. The real question is whether he's built a big enough bubble and surrounded himself with enough yes men he can still delude himself into thinking it's not hurting his reputation/legacy.

I'm not so sure. For me, the day he decided to go to LA was the day I realized he is content with what he's done basketball-wise. The best case for this Lakers team was sneaking into the playoffs and losing in the first round. Can't say I blame him either, to be honest.

So who had Lebron, Melo, Zaza Pachulia and Kyle Korver as the last four active players from the 2003 draft?

Heh, not me. I've been wrong about these things before, but I think getting rid of Walton in LA is a mistake. I don't think he was the problem, to put it mildly, and the general front office/roster stability issues aren't going away. I thought he was a quality coach who did an above-average job with the hand he was given. A lot of people seem to be forgetting how well the Lakers were doing prior to LeBron's injury this year.

He already thinks he's the GOAT so what else does he need to prove?

At the very least I don't see Tyronn Lue (if the rumors end up becoming fact) as anything but a lateral move if not a downgrade.


But that's not because Walton is good, though. I never felt he was anything but average at best.

As a general rule, I believe that the incoming head of a basketball team (president/GM) should probably bring in his own guy at the start. So with that in mind, I don't think firing Walton is a bad thing. If the Lakers don't do a Grizzlies style restructuring of the basketball operations and think the change of the coach is the answer, they are sadly mistaken.

Is there anyone on the planet surprised that Lue is the frontrunner for the Lakers vacancy?

I mean, as predictability goes this is pretty far up there.

I hope the Cavs hire Walton. I actually would have kept Drew, he coached his ass off. Not much you can do when 1/2 your roster is hurt.

I think the nets give philly a series. They play well against them this year and Embiid is hurt.

Beggars can't be choosers,the regular season just ended etc. etc. If I am Walton, I am going nowhere near a roster with JR Smith and Tristan Thompson.

JR will be cut or traded. We can probably get something decent for him since he's guaranteed at 10M less than salary. Tristan is expiring(finally)

Kings got Walton

That is the game that scares me for the Sixers. I don't like Butler being that ball dominate on that team.

Good match for that team.

As a fan, I have followed the Lakers through 10 championship seasons. I’m set if they don’t win again. However, they don’t know what the hell they are doing right now. Tyronn Lue is not the answer at head coach.

I really wish some team would tell LeBron and co. to shut the hell up and concentrate on playing, not being the GM.

Ummm, that was a Dwane Casey/ Demar Derozan type performance by the Raptors.

How does Riley still have a job when the Heat ran the #1 payroll in the league and missed the playoffs

Wait. Maybe I'm seeing their figures with Bosh included. Looks like they avoided the tax somehow.

"Never was there a better player, or a worse General Manager."

Isiah Thomas says hi

Ooh, ooh, I get to use one of my least favorite phrases in sports. He has earned the right to decide he wants to leave the job.

There are definitely other factors, the Bosh situation being chief among them. But he has been a part of the Heat organization for 20+ years, played a large role in three titles and made the Heat into the model organization in the town. He will decide when he wants to retire.

Blake Griffin out for a playoff game? Shocker!

On a seemingly unrelated note, my over under for Chris Paul tweaking his right hamstring is early in the third quarter.

Bwahaha.

Down 23 at the half, Clippers scored the third most points in a playoff half in NBA history (85) and beat GSW 135-131. (Milwaukee has the record for both a half and for 2nd halves, 87, back in 1978)

That was some craptastic effort and defense from the Warriors down the stretch... it’s becoming more and more likely that somebody knocks them off this year IMO. Just feels like there’s stuff lingering under the surface that has never really been resolved since the early season BS.

It was very enjoyable to watch at my restaurant. There was a Dubs fan making all sorts of noise at the bar when they were up big but he got a lot more quiet.

Not that it matters much. Clips might steal another game, but there is no doubt in my mind this will end up in a cruising series victory for the Warriors.

Cousins out for the season hurts the Warriors

Yeah, losing Cousins hurts. That being said, he can be a defensive liability, so it's not doom and gloom without him.

That's an ugly, ugly loss, but it might serve to wake the team up.

I entirely believe it will. Plus, losing Boogie basically just turns the W's into last year's team. Which I think finished pretty well, as I recall.

I could be wrong, but pretty sure the biggest playoff comeback win before tonight was the Rockets-Clippers game I went to a few years ago where Josh Smith caught fire in the 3rd Q and the Rockets came back from about 28.

I don't think it was 28 but it was a good number. I know the Rockets were down by double digits entering the 4th quarter.

The previous playoff record comeback was the Lakers over the Supersonics in 1989, overcoming a 29 pt deficit.

This one? Down 19.


https://blog.chron.com/ultimaterocke...pppers-game-6/

Don't forget about this one...

LA Clippers amazing 4th quarter comeback vs Grizzlies (2012 NBA Playoffs GM1) - YouTube

Clippers down 95-71 with 7:54 left. They finish the game 28-3 to win 99-98.

I watched that game too. Lots of fun.

This year"s Clippers team made a habit of getting down by 20 or more and coming back to win. They did it most famously to the Celtics in Boston right after the deadline, coming back from 28 in their first game with a fullish roster after the trade deadline. That same trip they also came back from 20+ down versus the Pistons and Hornets, and almost did it to the Wolves. Weird habit to develop.

I absolutely loved Doc Rivers telling a heartwarming story about some guy returning $2,000 in cash he'd dropped. Maybe it's per diem or something but must be a rich guy problem.

Yeah, that was one of the more tone deaf things I’ve heard in a while. I especially loved the “I’d have offered him tickets but he ran off” line.

Doc seems like the type of guy that would give free tickets and then send a 1099

What’s tone deaf about it?

I guess Embiid can use all these extra minutes.

So it's not a real good time to be a fan of Detroit sports teams. Not that I expected anything else against a really good Milwaukee team, but after that sweep:

** The Pistons have lost 14 playoff games in a row. That's an NBA record.
** The Detroit Lions have the worst playoff record among NFL teams in the Super Bowl Era and last made the NFC title game - the only time - 25 years ago.
** The Detroit Red Wings, after their glory days, are in the middle of a rebuild having had their record streak of playoff seasons snapped. Most are happy with bringing back Yzerman to man the GM duties though. Got a lot of work ahead of him. Dylan Larkin is good, but he's not THAT good.
** The Detroit Tigers are likewise in the middle of a rebuild after a good run of years with Cabrera, Verlander, etc. resulted in a number of post-season disappointments and two World Series losses. Bad ones.

We've had our share of success and then some overall. But uh … there isn't much to root for here. Michigan football isn't what it used to be. The college basketball programs are doing pretty well, Izzo had another fine year at MSU and UM continues to look like they are on an overall upward trajectory as a regular Top 10-15 team … but in the professional ranks it's real ugly.

60-31 at the half. Hopefully one more half away from the next round.

Dame is going to need to go for about 60 tonight. Really feel like the refs got an unofficial memo to make this series go 7

This is bad. Portland is getting screwed