Sports - NBA Discussion Thread #33 - Page 15

**stlavin95** · 09-21-2021, 02:37 AM

They sure are

**canflam** · 09-25-2021, 03:38 PM

Yeah. I was watching game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals between Indiana & New York & wow I had forgotten how well the Pacers played overall I think in that game, but that 4th quarter was brutal for them. Patrick Ewing was incredible, but still Indiana should have won that series I think. Larry Brown was head coach of them then. Great roster they had & were up 3-2 in that series.

OK, so I learned today that N.B.A. Leagues Pass is available through Amazon Prime, which is fantastic I think! It's 1 less thing on a cable bill. I don't need League Pass for an entire N.B.A. season, but for maybe around or at half of it I feel like would be fine. Being on the west coast I'm not always at home to watch sports quite frankly at 4:00 P.M. or 5:00 P.M. Pacific Time though.

Preseason games will begin on Monday October 4th. It still doesn't seem like the N.B.A. Finals were very long ago. Ben Simmons is I think going to boycott essentially playing games this season. at least until he's traded from Philly. Good luck to whichever team makes a trade for him.

***NikNak*** · 09-27-2021, 10:19 AM

Preseason games already? Wow. Time passed quickly.

The Indiana Pacers were hella good back in the day.

**stlavin95** · 09-30-2021, 07:30 PM

It seriously did

kayrey · 10-05-2021, 09:09 AM

They started!

Anybody watch? I only caught a bit of my Raptors' game. It's obviously early but the team looked good. Scottie Barnes had a nice game.

***NikNak*** · 10-06-2021, 02:14 PM

I haven't started watching yet.

**canflam** · 10-06-2021, 03:58 PM

I saw some of the Warriors/Blazers game yesterday. Already injuries. Cody Zeller broke his nose yesterday. Here's more on this from Blazers Edge:

Powell, Zeller Hurt as Blazers Fall to Warriors

The Portland Trail Blazers suffered a couple of potential injuries in Game 1 of their preseason schedule, a tilt against the Golden State Warriors on Monday night. Guard-forward Norman Powell and center Cody Zeller each left the game for health reasons. Neither returned to action.

Powell left the Blazers first pre-season game partway through the third quarter. The Trail Blazers would tweet that Powell was suffering “right hip discomfort”. Head Coach Chauncey Billups would relay in the post-game press conference that pulling Powell was precautionary, and that the hip was simply “bothering him”.

Just a few minutes later in the third quarter, Blazers center Cody Zeller took a shot to the nose from Andre Iguodala coming down from a dunk. At the time, Sean Highkin of Bleacher Report tweeted:

Cody Zeller caught an inadvertent elbow to the face from Andre Iguodala coming down from a dunk. Looks to be in a lot of pain.

Zeller immediately motioned to the bench and trainers came out with towels to cover his face and, presumably, staunch the blood.

Blazers radio host Jay Allen would later tweet:

Chauncey Billups says he thinks Cody Zeller broke his nose tonight. Will get more tests, but that’s the early diagnosis.

https://www.blazersedge.com/2021/10/...-nba-preseason

Ugh. That is some awful fortune. Players need to watch when they come down from dunking. I did not see that play where Iguddoala dunked & then apparently broke Cody Zeller's nose, but my guess is that it was avoidable. Just wish Zeller a speedy recovery.

In other news, a memo has stated that N.B.A. players will not be randomly drug tested this season.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...testing-season

Also, here's more on rule changes that are happening this year in the N.B.A.:

NBA rule changes 2021, explained: Referees will no longer reward 'abnormal' moves from foul-hunting stars

During the first quarter of Monday night's preseason game between the Trail Blazers and Warriors, Stephen Curry tried to take advantage of a mismatch on the perimeter. The two-time NBA MVP created some space against Portland forward Nassir Little and appeared to be in position to shoot a 3-pointer, but instead he jumped forward to create contact with Little in an attempt to draw a foul.

As Trail Blazers TV analyst Lamar Hurd said during the broadcast, "Not this year."

That no-call served as the perfect example of foul-hunting that the NBA is hoping to eliminate. The league changed its rules ahead of the 2021-22 season in order to discourage offensive players from making "overt, abrupt or abnormal non-basketball moves."

Essentially, NBA referees will no longer reward offensive players who launch themselves into defenders. But how will they know when to blow the whistle?

That no-call served as the perfect example of foul-hunting that the NBA is hoping to eliminate. The league changed its rules ahead of the 2021-22 season in order to discourage offensive players from making "overt, abrupt or abnormal non-basketball moves."

Essentially, NBA referees will no longer reward offensive players who launch themselves into defenders. But how will they know when to blow the whistle?

NBA rule changes: What is (and isn't) a foul?

During an appearance on "The Crossover NBA Show," Monty McCutchen, the NBA's vice president of referee development and training, told Sports Illustrated's Howard Beck that the league knows teams are always searching for the most efficient ways to score. That means plenty of corner 3-pointers, layups and free throws. It's only natural that players would seek out contact, particularly on shots from beyond the arc, if they continue to earn trips to the charity stripe.

Now, the league is incentivizing what McCutchen calls "good play."

"If you're placed at a disadvantage through good play, then therefore a foul should be called, offensively or defensively," McCutchen told Beck. "We're not trying to take away every pump fake. We are trying to take away a pump fake that then leads to an abnormal launch angle that the defender never would've hit the offensive player had this offensive player not taken this abnormal launch angle.

"We want to balance out the ability of a defensive player to compete with passion with an offensive player who can compete with passion, and when we find that balance, good competition is the result."

You can see the differences between "good plays" and "non-basketball moves" in the clips below.

Abnormal launch angle

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/...o9zznivoev48do

This seems like they are going in a positive direction. I also would like traveling & goaltending in the N.B.A. to be correctly called more often this season.