Tag: Playoffs

Nostra-Dan-us’ Way Too Early NBA Playoff Predictions

… or “How the Golden State Warriors Will Win the 2019 NBA Finals”

If you spend your free time like I do this time of year, skimming through the internet searching for NBA news, you’ve probably run across a few “regular season predictions”. You may have even seen a few posts on Twitter with someone’s “end of season award predictions”.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The NBA is insanely easy to predict. It’s even easier when you understand which story-lines the league wishes to see, and what is within the realm of possibility for them to orchestrate.

The Golden State Warriors will be your 2019 NBA Champions. Kevin Durant will join Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal as a Three-Peat NBA Finals MVP. Everyone knows that. But how will we arrive at that conclusion? More importantly, when the outcome is already predetermined, does anyone even care anymore? (I hope so, I have a lot of writing to do).

Follow me, reader, as I, Nostra-Dan-us, gaze deep into my crystal ball. Deep, past the end of the regular season and all of those other prediction posts you have read. All the way to the NBA Finals!

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Did #RefWatchParty Actually Work?

We all had our expectations of how this experiment was going to shake out, but did anyone correctly predict the result?

We all thought it was a joke. Even I had my reservations about it when I heard the news.

But the NBA did the unthinkable. Following heavy criticism after the first two games of this year’s Finals, the league responded by having @OfficialNBARefs, the Twitter handle representing professional basketball’s referees, live tweeting during Game 3 last night. With the internet, who is always both crazy and angry about everything.

It sounded like a terrible idea from the word “go”. The first two games were so bad that, forget the internet, hoop heads everywhere would have ripped the refs a new one in-person. Upon hearing of the news, my mind jumped to some of the terrible calls from the previous games, and how the referees’ Twitter would handle rabid, spiteful fans demanding explanations for some of the worst officiating we have ever seen (or at least in recent memory). How could the referees Twitter attempting to explain away a call that pissed off the entire internet help anything?

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Fixing the NBA Playoffs

No, not the Tim Donaghy way… What do all three players in this “Finals” image have in common? All were able to compete for the NBA Championship this season. They also shared a 0% chance of winning it.

The first round of the NBA playoffs completed this past weekend. We had some surprises along the way, with sixth seeded New Orleans sweeping the number three seed in Portland, as well as seventh seeded Milwaukee nearly upsetting Boston. Cleveland and Indiana also went to a crucial Game 7, and these three series have been a joy to watch.

It reminds me of other great first round moments, like in 1994, when the eighth seed Denver Nuggets upset the Seattle Supersonics, becoming the first team to do so in NBA Playoff history. Or how about 2007, when the eighth seed Golden State Warriors stunned the 67-15 Dallas Mavericks, becoming the first eighth seed to do so in a seven game series? Boston vs. Chicago in 2009 was also great, setting records for most games requiring overtime (4) and periods played (7). We could even go back to 1989, as Michael Jordan hung in the air longer than his defender Craig Ehlo of the Cleveland Cavaliers, to hit the game and series clinching buzzer beater. All great and unforgettable moments.

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