Envision Gordon anchoring a second unit during 2018-19 preseason to include Terry, Marcus S, Aron & Daniel Theis
W/Al, Kyrie, Jaylen, Jayson & Marcus M starting
then, as season begins, rotation will start to develop by itself
but why not -- a wholesale substitution at start of 2nd qtr, just to let it all play out/shake down etc -- these are 2 Solid teams to have on the floor -- could see 8-9 guys w/24-33 mins per game next year (those are Sam Jones' and Larry Bird's #s)

But That Was Then & This Is Now 😮 -- no Shane Larkin does not help our cause (he, Semi, Abdel etc are also key next year) --
from a strictly medical point of view, Gordon is 100% -- he's at practices & champing at the bit, to put it mildly -- Kyrie coming along fine, Daniel is on the court shooting pregame
Biggest thing, there's no more being surprised by this young hungry uber-talented green team -- Cleve has ideal decoys for LeBron, esp Kevin Love -- great stuff -- let's go Celts

Envision Gordon anchoring a second unit during 2018-19 preseason to include Terry, Marcus S, Aron & Daniel Theis
W/Al, Kyrie, Jaylen, Jayson & Marcus M starting
then, as season begins, rotation will start to develop by itself
but why not -- a wholesale substitution at start of 2nd qtr, just to let it all play out/shake down etc -- these are 2 Solid teams to have on the floor -- could see 8-9 guys w/24-33 mins per game next year (those are Sam Jones' and Larry Bird's #s)

But That Was Then & This Is Now 😮 -- no Shane Larkin does not help our cause (he, Semi, Abdel etc are also key next year) --
from a strictly medical point of view, Gordon is 100% -- he's at practices & champing at the bit, to put it mildly -- Kyrie coming along fine, Daniel is on the court shooting pregame
Biggest thing, there's no more being surprised by this young hungry uber-talented green team -- Cleve has ideal decoys for LeBron, esp Kevin Love -- great stuff -- let's go Celts

Hayward most certainly is not at Celtics practices or anywhere near 100%. But he is working hard and getting there and did write a great article.

http://www.gordonhayward20.life/2018/05/11/believer/

Very strong game 1 performance for the Celtics. Played great at both ends of the floor. It was a near clinic to watch especially on the defensive end as they really got into the Cavs space. LeBron had about as weak of a game as any Celtics fan could hope for. Beyond one game it means little and Stevens will be sure to remind them over and over they can and must play better as the series goes on. But the Cavs know they are going to be in for a fight.

Just a note on last night's Warriors - Rockets game: Yeah, Kevin Durant was just unstoppable, he's all the press is talking about and rightly so. He had 37.

But consider this: Two different times in the second half Steph Curry CLEANLY stole the ball from James Harden close to mid-court. Both steals resulted in Warriors' fast break points and both were serious momentum-killers for Houston. Honestly now, when is the last time you ever saw that happen?? That HAD to have gotten inside Harden's head at least a little bit. And Curry is mainly known as a guy who
shoots three pointers. Let's not forget the rest of his game...........

What was that people were saying the other day? WHAT'S WRONG WITH STEPH CURRY?

Huh? Guess that question is over and done now, eh?????

Well well well. One more win for the Celtics last night and now one win from the finals. Jayson Tatum is a stud.

I'm hoping the Celts can close this out tonight. It won't be easy winning on the road for what could be Lebron's last game in Cleveland. I hope. The Celts are young, a game seven against the King would be a huge task.
LETS GO CELTICS!!!

Honestly I can't remember ever seeing the Warriors as flat out SLOPPY and careless with the basketball as they were in last night's game #5 playoff game vs. Houston.

As a Warriors fan, all I can tell you is this: If you think this one is over.............DIG IN.

The Warriors looked rattled, confused, out of sync and out of their game last night...again.

I don't know if they think they can just turn it on, or not, or its something else. The Rockets played tough defense and moved the ball around like the ....Warriors 😮

Now Chris Paul is out for game 6 which is too bad, cause I think, based on what I've seen, they could beat the Warriors this year, and I REALLY thought that wouldn't happen. Paul has a hamstring issue, so you know there will be no way he will be that effective, even if he plays, in a game 7. Houston has to hope Harden gets hot cause he wasn't

Boston is undefeated at home in the playoffs. But tonight they face the best player in the world, quite possibly the best player to ever walk out on the court. I could say this is going to be interesting, but that's a huge understatement.

Klay Thompson/Klay Thompson/Klay Thompson..........please bring some more of that MOJO to Houston tomorrow night............

No Kevin Love, so that means LeBron will be playing with supreme urgency
one team will go way ahead, then fend off a fourth-quarter rally
no way to call this one, except for this -- this game tonite, also all of them in the semis, don't hold a candle to GSW's 109-105 regular-season win over the Celts -- close game, hard competition, both teams killin' it -- you don't get that in playoffs -- let's go Celts

Drat. The Celtics could not get it done. The 3 young guards shot 8-42 and 3-26 from 3 and that sure is not going to get it done against LeBron in a game 7. James with his 35-15-9 though he did have 8 turnovers.

The Celtics could not get it done.

They were at home too, how was the officiating?

Great game last night and so far,tonight.

So far...pure fun and joy for hoops fans.(despite too many blowouts along the way)

Time for the negativists to attempt to not so subtly do their limited and predictable thing.

Let the joy rule!

Great game last night and so far,tonight.

So far...pure fun and joy for hoops fans.(despite too many blowouts along the way)

Time for the negativists to attempt to not so subtly do their limited and predictable thing.

Let the joy rule!

great game? teams jacking up 3's for no reason. the warriors mugging people and not getting called. glad the announcers were pointing it out.
-2 fouls on james harden shooting 3's that went uncalled
-a foul called as james harden is shooting a 3 and it goes in and the basket gets waived off. said it was before the shot. I saw a foul called on Houston where the warriors player took another dribble, 2 steps and shot and they said it counted as it was continuation.
-eric Gordon drove to the hoop and gets fouled by Durant and draymon and no foul called.
-bell for the warriors sets a clear moving screen to get curry open and no call. bell was actually walking backwards holding james hardens arm

that's just the tip of the iceberg

reat game? teams jacking up 3's for no reason. the warriors mugging people and not getting called. glad the announcers were pointing it out.
-2 fouls on james harden shooting 3's that went uncalled
-a foul called as james harden is shooting a 3 and it goes in and the basket gets waived off. said it was before the shot. I saw a foul called on Houston where the warriors player took another dribble, 2 steps and shot and they said it counted as it was continuation.
-eric Gordon drove to the hoop and gets fouled by Durant and draymon and no foul called.
-bell for the warriors sets a clear moving screen to get curry open and no call. bell was actually walking backwards holding james hardens arm

that's just the tip of the iceberg

Most laughable basketball post I've seen in a LONG time. Houston was 7-44 from three point range last night. Have you done the math? That's 16%. Meanwhile Durant had 34, Curry 27, Thompson 19. And you're blaming this Houston loss on the referees? HAHAHA.......thanks for the morning chuckle......
Problem with getting into a three point shooting contest with the Warriors is that the Warriors have not one, not two, but THREE of the greatest three point shooters of ALL-TIME. It showed in this series, it showed last night.............

reat game? teams jacking up 3's for no reason. the warriors mugging people and not getting called. glad the announcers were pointing it out.
-2 fouls on james harden shooting 3's that went uncalled
-a foul called as james harden is shooting a 3 and it goes in and the basket gets waived off. said it was before the shot. I saw a foul called on Houston where the warriors player took another dribble, 2 steps and shot and they said it counted as it was continuation.
-eric Gordon drove to the hoop and gets fouled by Durant and draymon and no foul called.
-bell for the warriors sets a clear moving screen to get curry open and no call. bell was actually walking backwards holding james hardens arm

that's just the tip of the iceberg

Most laughable basketball post I've seen in a LONG time. Houston was 7-44 from three point range last night. Have you done the math? That's 16%. Meanwhile Durant had 34, Curry 27, Thompson 19. And you're blaming this Houston loss on the referees? HAHAHA.......thanks for the morning chuckle......
Problem with getting into a three point shooting contest with the Warriors is that the Warriors have not one, not two, but THREE of the greatest three point shooters of ALL-TIME. It showed in this series, it showed last night.............

that's all anyone who knows anything about sports is talking about. the refs swung the momentum in the warriors favor during the 3rd quarter with those calls. the refs don't make you miss shots but they can sure swing momentum into a teams favor. of course you don't even mention draymond starting to help harden up off the floor and then dropping him. that's a clear technical foul for taunting. I've never seen a player start to pull another player off the floor and then left go of his hands and drop him.

are you saying though I made up those incidents and no one else pointed out those calls? since the announcing crew last night seemed to talk about it for minutes after each play I'm sure others noticed it. Houston lost by 9 points. lets do the math
-hardens 3 pointers waived off. should have counted plus 1 free throw. at worst that means the rockets lose by 6
-harden clearly fouled 2 times on other 3's. should have shot 6 more free throws. makes just 3 of them at worst and rockets lose by3.
-Gordon hammered at the same time by Durant and draymond on a layup attempt. should have been 2 free throws. he makes just 1 of them and rockets lose by 2
-bell "moving screen" called and curry would have never made that 3 since it would have been waived off and now that's a 1 point win by the rockets.

May I suggest a nice aged Swiss cheese to go with your whine, Matt?

Joy for the game can only be a good thing.
needs no apologies or explanations other than knowing
that the joy can come from the good and the bad parts of the game.
It's all a joy to me and I'm grateful for how fun the playoffs have been.

May I suggest a nice aged Swiss cheese to go with your whine, Matt?

its not whine because I have no dog in this fight. I barely watch the nba anymore. the product is terrible and predictable. the refs rarely enforce the actual rules of the game. the players whine nonstop to the refs about calls. the players are all pansies now compared to back in the day. all I did was point out missed calls by the refs that I noticed. I saw 2 missed calls against the rockets too that hurt the warriors but it only took 3 points away from the warriors instead of the 9 or more that were taken away from the rockets.

May I suggest a nice aged Swiss cheese to go with your whine, Matt?

its not whine because I have no dog in this fight. I barely watch the nba anymore. the product is terrible and predictable. the refs rarely enforce the actual rules of the game. the players whine nonstop to the refs about calls. the players are all pansies now compared to back in the day. all I did was point out missed calls by the refs that I noticed. I saw 2 missed calls against the rockets too that hurt the warriors but it only took 3 points away from the warriors instead of the 9 or more that were taken away from the rockets.

yada yada yada.

May I suggest a nice aged Swiss cheese to go with your whine, Matt?

its not whine because I have no dog in this fight. I barely watch the nba anymore. the product is terrible and predictable. the refs rarely enforce the actual rules of the game. the players whine nonstop to the refs about calls. the players are all pansies now compared to back in the day. all I did was point out missed calls by the refs that I noticed. I saw 2 missed calls against the rockets too that hurt the warriors but it only took 3 points away from the warriors instead of the 9 or more that were taken away from the rockets.

yada yada yada.

whatever. I've showed I know what I'm talking about. it been talked about for more than a decade now about refs favoring star players, not enforcing the rules, reviewing calls and changing them from right to wrong.

hi everyone, watch the hockey game instead. Much more entertaining.

Good points -- blown calls can-and-have unfairly tipped the momentum/balance of a game --
how is it that among such closely-matched teams, most of the games, as dadof2 pointed out, play out like an NBA vs college team --
Houston's no-show in the second half of game 6 was an el foldo I didn't think they had in them, even playing a great GSW team -- which itself had a couple along the way as well -- those Wide point-differentials......

that said, GSW & Cleve have mastered playoffs, proven to be top-o-the-postseason heap for a long time & nice going Rob

am Really looking forward to next year! C's are being Smart w/Marcus, a no-brainer -- he wants to stay, fans love him, they have the $ to do it, he deserves it & is all-but in the fold.....
Phila will also be better, but reverting to the present, yes indeed, it's the finals w/2 grizzled well-experienced hard-nosed warriors once again the last ones standing & eyeball to eyeball
all the best -- & 'wait . . year' 😮

it been talked about for more than a decade now about refs favoring star players

Yes, and it's nice to see that after 10 years or so in the league the refs are FINALLY getting hip to James Harden..........the forearm shove to clear space, the "run over the defensive player in the lane" move that for years would go his way...........now it's being called on him..........ABOUT time. And by the way, Klay Thompson had THREE fouls last night halfway through the first quarter. And you say the refs were biased against Houston? NO, I'm not saying they weren't fouls, I'm saying your cry of prejudice just does not bear out. Kerr elected to put Thompson back in the game and Thompson was careful not to foul but it was also obvious that it severely limited his defensive game. How could it not?

it been talked about for more than a decade now about refs favoring star players

Yes, and it's nice to see that after 10 years or so in the league the refs are FINALLY getting hip to James Harden..........the forearm shove to clear space, the "run over the defensive player in the lane" move that for years would go his way...........now it's being called on him..........ABOUT time. And by the way, Klay Thompson had THREE fouls last night halfway through the first quarter. And you say the refs were biased against Houston? NO, I'm not saying they weren't fouls, I'm saying your cry of prejudice just does not bear out. Kerr elected to put Thompson back in the game and Thompson was careful not to foul but it was also obvious that it severely limited his defensive game. How could it not?

they can't be too smart as the officials still allow LeBron to truck over people and then say he was fouled

Paul Pierce on The Warriors:

"This is one of the greatest teams we've ever seen. This is one of the five best teams that has ever played the game."

That said.........let's face it........the real NBA Championship this year was the Western Conference Finals, Houston vs. Golden State. Houston came SO close to dethroning my team.

Now where does LeBron go? My bet is the Lakers. Certainly won't be Boston.........they've got Kyrie Irving and we all know what already happened in Cleveland. Houston? I really doubt two dominant players like LeBron and James Harden could ever co-exist. The Lakers have some good young players, but not any one dominant player. Add to that, LeBron already owns two homes in L.A. Lebron surrounded by Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Julius Randle et al? Yeah, I can see it. Rumors of Lakers landing Paul George as well.

My very brief summary of this NBA season:

1)Cleveland trades one of its super-stars but is never is able to replace him
2)Houston adds a supreme talent but loses him when they need him most
3)The fully-loaded Warriors live up to expectations and take advantage of situations 1 & 2.

Amen.

Apparently Lebron played the last three games with a broken right hand (puched a whiteboard after game one)

Just how good is this guy? And if JR Smith doesn't brain freeze who knows

And if JR Smith doesn't brain freeze who knows

Great point and I made exactly that point last night to others at the game-watching party I attended. If Cavs take game one it's a different series but I still doubt they could take GS. After all, Smith didn't freeze in games 2, 3 and 4.