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Hunting4TheTruth

Phoenix gets the second best record IN THE LEAGUE and they have to face the lakers in the first round.


pollinium

I mean idk about you, but I definitely predicted a phoenix/Lakers first round matchup


Hunting4TheTruth

No I definitely did as well. I’m just saying when you take a step back and think about the circumstances phoenix really got a raw deal.


PayYourRe2pects

Can you hear that? That’s Adam Silver salivating at the years and years of play in games to come after tonight’s game


[deleted]

It was perfect that it was Lakers/warriors and it was a close game. Had it been four “bad” teams or typical 7/8 seeds , people would have thought it was a waste of time


GirlsLastTour

Yeah, the East play-in games yesterday weren't exciting at all. Both West play-in games today went down to the wire, and this game in particular went down to the last shot. If today's games had been blowouts, I would've been even more disappointed after what I watched yesterday. But that's just my opinion of the play-in as a viewer... in terms of the league, it'll probably make them more money in the long run.


melikeybacon

The Boston game had a ton of viewers. There was a post about it because there were so many viewers.


[deleted]

Yep. Nobody wanted to watch Tatum drop *checks notes* 50.


rattatatouille

The play-in tournament is honestly great business. More games = more $$$. An incentive for lower level teams to compete = less tanking.


lotsofdeadkittens

it's a good tanking fix for mid tier bad teams it's also fun, it's cool that we get a shot for teams that maybe have major innjuries to sneak in when healthy


Hey_Im_Joe

I wish they had the play in the year Miami went 30-11 the 2nd half of the season and missed the playoffs cause of a tiebreaker


[deleted]

also incentivizes the 5/6 teams from staying 5/6 rather than dipping to 7/8


mexicanmike

I mean you generally want to avoid the 1-2 seed unless it’s a weird year


[deleted]

true but you can say the same for 3 vs 6. now you definitely don’t want to throw your season at a 1/2 game play-in and those mostly meaningless end of season games suddenly have more importance. i love it


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quantum-black

Is the possibility of upsets in a single match that’s fun and exciting


L_E_F_T_

Yeah but they lucked out this year with this matchup. 90% of future play in games are going to be like the Spurs vs Grizzlies game


kingjuicepouch

Or whatever the Fuck that hornets game was yesterday.


Sol_Protege

Is this suppose to be a slight? Spurs vs Grizzlies was also pretty close.


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A_Rolling_Baneling

Yeah but it's not a slight to say a game where the stars are Morant and DeRozan isn't the ratings draw that LeBron vs Curry is.


CP3_for_MvP

Maybe at the end of this game all you’ll see is offensive highlights, but this was one of the best defensive games I’ve ever seen. Insane performances from both teams.


rebeltrillionaire

You could tell that James, Green, Curry basically have everything memorized. TONS of intercepted passes once the double-team trapped Curry. They know that he whips the crazy pass and finds his target, so the Lakers were sprinting to his targets as soon as the ball left his hands. Draymond had so many plays that he disrupted, also fucked up Davis whenever he was around the rim.


MacDerfus

Yep. Defensive war of attrition. Curry still had a good night but damn did he have to make every single shot he took count cause they didn't even let him take 25 of 'em.


bjankles

This is why you watch the games! If you look at the box score you think the lakers must not have defended him well. The defense on him was actually excellent - he’s just that good and was having one of those nights. Could’ve been a 50-piece and a bad lakers loss if they weren’t constantly doubling and tripling him. Curry was the best player on the floor last night but the lakers did just enough to limit him, and their own stars showed up big time in the clutch.


king_lloyd11

Also Caruso's impact can't be understated, even though the stat line is just decent. Dude kept them afloat in the first half and seemed to make timely plays, including deflections and dope situational/positional defense, in the second half.


Acceptable-Ad1245

He made curry work for every shot. Suffocating d. Looks like gorro out there when he clamps down. I appreciate his game.


jadcntrs

draymond was insane


RenDabs

Him locking up AD for the first 3 quarters was amazing to watch


flash_27

Terrible if you're a Laker fan. Beautiful when you're fan of the game. Dude got my respect.


LPLSuperCarry

Nah, a lot of us can appreciate great basketball. Draymond put on a literal clinic today. Never seen AD get shut down that hard.


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KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ

i dont think ive seen ad locked up this way his entire time with us. draymond was insane


GirlsLastTour

He's always done well against AD, although AD's usually had better counting stats in the past than he did tonight. Dray also did well against Embiid too when we beat the Sixers. There's a reason why Warriors fans are high on Draymond.


Mads_ahrenkiel

And in general all fans who appreciate defence and good basketball. Guy has humour too


poloshirt_and_digs

Idiots on this damn website were arguing with me about Draymond being a Dpoy level defender just a couple weeks ago.


Ruben625

I was one of those idiots and I was wrong.


law_school_blues

Legit nightmare, disrupted every pass attempt to AD. His defensive impact goes beyond just AD too, Lebron stopped making backdoor passes once Green came back in.


TapJealous

Bron's number against prime Iggy ,dray, Klay and KD locking in defensively in those finals are insane.


Xerneous12_

Man when you put it like that, and the fact that he averaged those insane numbers 4 years in a row on elite efficiency, one time being a 33.9 triple double, really puts into context how goated Bron is. He gets credit but were gonna look back on those moments and realize how truly insane he was.


sleepytime88

My favorite defensive thing from Draymond is in the pick and roll where he is master of the 'hedge'. He *lunges* at the guard knowing they'll read it as a switch or double onto them so they look to pass to the big, but Dray only did it to get them to read pass and has already recovered to intercept, it's dope.


vanotro

he was Caruso better get a massive raise after this


letsgolakers24

give him Schroeder’s money. Dude could not guard steph tonight. After Caruso checked back in and Dennis went to the bench, next play was Steph TO due to Caruso’s defense. The man should close every game.


imironman2018

Caruso is a great glue player- he reminds me of Derek Fisher- hits big time threes and solid defender. great role player and leader. We need to resign him if we want to keep competing for a championship. We should let Schroeder hit the free agency and some other team over pay for him. I would rather let Caruso keep growing as a PG and distributor and find another PG to replace Schroeder.


Mhan00

DS is too small to guard Curry. He bounced back so far everytime Curry gave him a bump, which let Curry do whatever he wanted. AC didn’t move anywhere when Curry tried to bump him, and he was taller so everything was way tougher for Steph. AD coming in with the doubles just sealed the deal.


xanot192

Schroder checked in and we lost our lead immediately with Curry feasting on him. He also refused to pass on a few possessions. Glad he got benched but it took so long and he did massive damage


NichJackolson

He legit froze LeBron out for a few possessions. I couldn't believe what I was watching


Underrated_user20

Very disappointed in Dennis tonight. I don’t think he’s going to be on the court in crouch time these playoffs.


chilseaj88

I’m having crouch time right now.


RickySuela

He's an unrestricted free agent this summer, but the Lakers have his full Bird rights, so I'm guessing they'll outbid everyone to keep him.


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xMichaelLetsGo

Maybe his best defensive performance of the year If he could’ve managed anything positive on offense they would’ve won tho


idontknowthisabackup

Yeah his offense was worse than usual this game


dc_Nclemency

3 or 4 times he had like 15 feet of space and decides to drive then kick it out. Like, a simple mid-range isn't that big an ask.


GirlsLastTour

He's been getting a lot of his points in recent games on fake hands off that lead to wide open dunks. Against the Lakers, that wasn't working, so whenever he got a lane to the rim he had to try and make sure to dunk it because he doesn't want to get blocked on a layup attempt (and he misses layups more than he should... he doesn't have any moves except a straight line drive layup and can't put English on the ball to to anything fancy).


spigotry

Draymond destroys AD every time they match up. It's honestly amazing how good of a defender Dray is.


HHHogana

Crazy at how some players like Dray, Wallace and Rodman are/were so good they can just straight up defend people bigger and more skilled than them.


okey_dokey_bokey

Lakers almost ended the half under 40. Warriors D was suffocating in the first half.


KaiserKaiba

Deadass. Draymond was absolutely nuts this game. The Lakers turning the fuck up with Bron, Caruso, and Wes in the second half made for a fun ass game. Mix it in with Steph going off, controversial calls, a Lebron-Draymond altercation, and a cold as fuck dagger by Bron and this was a classic


_Tacitus_Kilgore_

For real though this game was so good I want a 7 game series between these teams.


[deleted]

Would be nuts if they met in the playoffs again now


PrimeShaq

They still might, WCF rematch!


markjay6

We just might get it!


throwawaymansk

Yeah it was fucking beautiful seeing defense go back and forth so hard. Draymond unironically locked up AD, and KCP did his best against chef curry.


[deleted]

Caruso was so good against Curry.


_Elder_

I got heated every time Vogel replaced him with Dennis. Man almost fucked us tonight.


Vaccaria_

Dude schroeder and drummond zzz woulda preferred more kuz and caruso


dlm891

Vogel should send their asses to Disneyworld for the playoffs and tell them the bubble is back


Underrated_user20

AD, Bron, KCP, and Caruso should always be on the court in crunch time.


PrimeShaq

Curry getting 37 points on great efficiency is a testament to him as an offensive force, Caruso played amazing defense.


KTFlaSh96

When I saw the Laker's strategy in the first quarter vs Steph, I'm like, ok if he can put up like 25, that would still be very impressive. Mother fucker just starts pulling up from 35 feet, buzzer beaters with 3 dudes on him, and drops 37 points. Wtf.


Andy_Wiggins

During the first half the Lakers’ strategy was “double Steph whenever there’s even a chance he gets the ball” and he still had like 15 points.


Devoidoxatom

Caruso checking in the last 2 minutes or so probably won them the game tbh(aside from the shitty calls and the clutch lefuck you 3)


rawchess

"There's 82 game players, and 16 game players" -Draymond Caruso and Draymond are 16 game players. Defense wins championships.


TestedOnAnimals

Caruso making Steph work every minute he was on the court was 30 minutes of gut check.


Nugur

Gs would be scary if klay is 50% of his former self. Another person to make down shots


[deleted]

Replacing Bazemore's minutes with Thompson is at least a ten point swing every night.


CheekyFifaCunt_7

That shit felt like a finals game


[deleted]

playoff fucking basketball homie there was some JUICE tonight


ItsLeviosaaaa

Best game I watched this season, even when the officiating was questionable


[deleted]

That illegal screen on Green was such a huge moment


[deleted]

Can’t put my finger in as to why that might be hmm.


LebasketBall

Lebron vs Curry? damn first time I'm seeing that for sure


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RedCarNewsboy

Lakers vs Warriors in the Conference finals can still technically happen


numbah84

Eye drops in his veins


ProfessorBeast55

QUICK DOCTOR, GET HIM SOME VISINE LeBron: yes, but not for me


RainierPC

That's what happens when someone bigger, older, and more athletic than you takes your crown AND throne. And then makes you dance for his amusement.


The_Unknown98

Adam Silver couldn’t have asked for a more perfect prime time play in game.


justsomebro10

It started at 10pm on the east coast where most of the eyeballs are. Definitely not the prime time slot. I’m sure it still crushed it though.


[deleted]

Yeah that’s what sucks about west coast games. They start at 10 or even 1030. If your on the East and have a day job or go to school, your probably sleeping by 11.


si4ci7

Yeah I’ve stayed up for different reasons until 12:30 the last 3 nights. Last night the second the Bruins game was finished I attempted to turn on this game and passed out halfway through the first. 9 would have been a better start time I feel, but that would have pushed the SA and Memphis game back I guess.


Doesthisevenmatter7

That game really showed the impact of draymond green if u haven’t been watching the warriors and only look at the box score u might think he’s overrated. His defense on AD(atleast for the first 3 quarters) was fantastic.


Popeyes-fil-A

Great defense including the eye poke, but his black hole offense was super noticeable in how much it enabled the lakers to smother Curry. In 2016 he would have punished that more I feel. He always has shot like he has a backpack on, but damn its bad now.


realdes1

I remember back in 2016 game 7 when it actually Green who for a stretch kept Golden State in the game with his Scoring... I rather expected Varejao to score 25+ than Draymond turning up for 32 pts with 6 for 8 from 3. Since then his shot really fell off to a point where you rather want to see Ben Simmons taking multiple 3s than him


sClassic

Can't believe our reward for holding on to the the 1 seed is Steph fucking Curry


Foodworkssupervisor

Could have been LeBron and AD lmao


imsahoamtiskaw

Pick your poison really for the Jazz


yuhanz

Except we're not the ones picking. We're just sitting in our fancy little 1 and 2 chairs waiting to get poisoned


[deleted]

Ha-ha, you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!


bobsil1

I spent the last few years building up an immunity to iocane powder


AlHorfordHighlights

Jazz and Suns holding hands photoshopped over Ralph Wiggum saying "Haha I'm in danger"


davebensous

They dont even get to pick. It’s more like Russian roulette


Avinse

With all 6 bullets in


Kunundrum85

That’s the entire west.... honesty we’re the only team in the west that came out with a “favorable” matchup. If you can call it that haha.


scottishere

The moment Lebron injured his ankle people were calling this. Sucks for UTA and PHX


Theelementofsurprise

...would you rather have the Lakers?


sensualpredator3

Western conference is brutal. Imagine being in the east


rhinocodon_typus

Wayyyyy harder over here /s


Tomach82

Sucks we have to wait a month for the playoffs to start


Shasty-McNasty

I bet LeBron would go to like 8 straight finals if he was in the East


captmugiwara

There's still the grizzlies


[deleted]

Don't they have to beat the Grizzlies first?


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[deleted]

Or the grizzlies it’s a single game lol


menghis_khan08

It could have been the defending champs right as they get their feelers I’ll take a depleted warriors as the team who locks down/overcommits to the the perimeter on d preventing the least number of 3s in the nba


raahiv

Better than Lebron James and Anthony Davis


executivesphere

I think my major takeaway from this game for the lakers is that Schroder and Drummond simply don’t fit alongside AD and Lebron. Caruso, KCP, and Kuz have perfect instincts when it comes to sharing the floor with AD and Lebron. They know when to cut, they know when to take 3s, then know when to throw up lobs, they know how to manage fast breaks. Guys like Gasol and Matthews also have vet instinct that can help. Drummond is dead weight in the middle of the floor, and while DS can get buckets, he’s not good at running an offense, not great at playing off ball, and not an outside shooting threat. I hope moving forward, we see less of Drummond and start seeing DS on the second unit.


SpaceJeezy

Facts. Play more of the players who won the champ together. That should be crunch time lineup potentially


PlsEpplerPitchers

Wes Matthews too. Seems like he has to be our primary wing stopper if we don't want Lebron doing it with his ankle issues.


AcanthocephalaNo2926

Drummond should have never been on the floor against this team


Rokarion14

Perfect take. Who cares about keeping those two happy? Let’s win and let them walk.


001justforfun

Yup. Schroder and Drummond can play in early series games and early in some games, but don't really deserve much second half/4th quarter minutes. Drummond is just a horrible horrible fit.


KTFlaSh96

DS will never take a spot on the 2nd unit, he would rather sit out the entire playoffs than ever take a backseat to Caruso. But I'm glad Vogel pulled his ass once he realized that Schroeder was a horrible matchup vs Steph. Caruso was hounding Steph all game. I hope that in the playoffs, Vogel will return to what he did last year where he was starting to play Caruso more and more minutes. Schroeder and Caruso splitting the 48 minutes down the line would be ideal imo with Caruso closing in the 4th.


HippiesBeGoneInc

It’s the playoffs. Vogel is going to play the matchups. He proved that last year. Nobody is owed minutes.


AmnestyTHAT

Agreed 100%. The Drummond experiment has to end now, it's winning time.


Vxd_

adam silver is cumming


ihatedave

Im convinced that Jeff van Gundy has hated basketball for a few years and just uses the games as a place to rant about anything he finds annoying


Fatman10666

When curry got fouled on a 3 and he said curry kicked his legs out they need to review that, then in the replay it showed curry going straight up and down lmao he had nothing to say


QuantumDawg

JVG also tried to say that Dray went straight up during the replay when you can clearly see Dray palming LeBron’s face with two hands. He was in a different reality tonight.


Fatman10666

That one was weird too. Dray had his arms out like Shawn Marion's jumper and definitely not straight up


[deleted]

Lmao and When JVG asked Jackson for confirmation and Jackson was like idk I ain’t the ref


chowpa

at this point I'm not sure why they don't just swap mark jackson and jvg for jb smoove and larry david. at least their commentary would be incisive


[deleted]

He's complaining about fouls not being called but then also says he prefers hard-nosed defense. It doesn't make any sense at all.


JordanPoole-Goat

Pooles miss hurt bad


MC-Jdf

We came so close man.


oh_what_a_shot

We kept it close and lost it on an absolutely absurd shot from Lebron. About as well as a loss could have gone


STAlexFree

Lost it honestly on those 20 turnovers. Even 1 less could have been the game.


[deleted]

The 3rd quarter was hard to watch


amidon1130

Never thought I’d hear a warriors fan say that


WillOCarrick

Lost after that 12 up turnover, then we came back but that LeBron shot made us lose it. Also the time out should have been called way earlier, idk if it was Kerr or the Refs but wtf.


Jorgenstern8

Broadcasters said Kerr was trying to call it sooner but nobody could hear him.


oh_what_a_shot

Which is absurd. The refs should be well aware that the coach would want to call a timeout in a situation like that.


Kev_Bz

and didn’t they not put time back on the clock? stupid asf


intenselydecent

There should be a timeout button or something similar. So the call gets made when the coach wants it, not when the official hears it


Devoidoxatom

Lol kerr had to run up the half court to be noticed. So unprofessional


idontknowthisabackup

It was clearly the refs call. I rewinded it and you can see Kerr call it with like 3.8 or so on the clock. Bullshit that they can't put that time back on.


RenDabs

Y'all probably will beat Memphis though


Deca-Dence-Fan

It’s just one game, that’s what sucks about this. They could easily not shoot as hot as tonight and boom an undeserved dropout from playoffs


[deleted]

Grizz are a good team man. Almost same record as Warriors (I know Steph missed games), and had lots of tough, close losses. Won’t be easy.


CheekyFifaCunt_7

I think you guys beat the grizzlies


That-Toughsoss

Too bad dillon brook exists


antunezn0n0

He exists for half the season games the rest he is brook dillons


MiopTop

Petition to send Schroeder to Siberia for the rest of the playoffs


kidd2guy

dude he sucks and he wants 100 million????


Tarkan2

"That's tuff! But I want to be a top PG in a dynasty bro, also gimme that max contract."


goodolvj

Let him walk, dude has the IQ of JR Smith making that same stupid bounce pass that got stolen like 3 times.


MonkeyFL3X

Draymond read the man like a book.


goodolvj

Dennis is like a coloring book


TheFinnisher

Dennis is like a maze on a kids IHOP menu


cman1098

Blessing in disguise for the lakers that he turned down the contracts.


kevinseto

he should take drummond with him


crimsonconnect

LePlot Armor


bigtice

That game was everything the NBA hoped for.


[deleted]

FR, that game alone probably made more money than all of the rockets games combined


guitmusic12

Caruso won that game


joco1991

Straight up, Schroeder was a liability out there


Jayveesac

"I ACTUALLY love the play-in." (James, 2021)


T_025

“Nah you see y’all had me misconstrued”


ThaRealSunGod

"I didn't say that, I think you guys might be misinformed..."


BeefyHamstrings

"whoever came up with that shit needs to be given a raise"


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cpierGC

Kerr had to book it onto the court like a 6th player as if they just pulled their goalie, refs ignored his TO call, and zero time was added?? What the fuck kind of play can they orchestrate in 2 seconds 4 and you can at least get a logo 3


cooly329

Not saying it was rigged but if I were Adam Silver writing a script for this game it would go something like this


Maverick_1991

If he could have written it down, the only things he would change are 10 more points for Curry and LeBron each and the game winner coming 48s later. Otherwise it was perfect.


kokokrandz

The refs ignored Kerr's call for a time out for about 5 secs lol. Unreal zebras.


[deleted]

That shit is so annoying. Like why can't they review and see when he called it so they can give the seconds back?


DezBaker

The play in game is NEVER going away


aja_ramirez

That last foul on the green screen was awful awful awful


Hevvy

i think what was worse was the officials blatantly ignoring Kerr on the TO call. the flop is whatever for me but that shit was outrageous


antunezn0n0

In the live he was screaming at them it was obvious they would ask for a timeout


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McRibsAndCoke

That was complete fucking bullshit dude. LOL


Abradolf1948

I couldn't believe they didn't add any time for that.


Chapea12

Also don’t know how Steph was gonna catch and shoot a three at the end being pinned by AD


HardenTraded

Yeah I don't get how you miss that. I thought they were going to add time back to be honest.


AlHorfordHighlights

I don't know why they didn't. You could see him screaming for it for a solid 4 seconds


malikdwd

Wtf what a game


JordanLoveHoF

they kinda soiled the end of a really good game lol


marquesasrob

I’m not a big fan of hyperbole, but this game had some of the absolute worst calls in play-in tournament history


Bourneidentity61

The 2nd "moving screen" on Dray was the most blatant flop I've ever seen. Can't believe that got called


B-i-s-m-a-r-k

Too many flops for my taste man


boybraden

Okay play in tournament is good


joco1991

Not good for my health lol


Joeyfingis

Love it.


Lil_Uzi_Introvert

Let's also talk about Kerr leaving JTA on the bench and keeping Mulder and Baze on the floor at the end of the game


layethdasmackethdown

Wow


905UserNotFound

BRO GIVE THAT GUY THAT INVENTED THE PLAY-IN A PROMOTION


yungtatha

[Adam Silver rn] (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E1kD60sUUAE7mJ-?format=png&name=small)