great debut by 'Bron but I love Lillard. Continues to fly under the radar but he's beautiful.

Took over and won the game.

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They need 1 more player to take another step. Hart and Ingram looked good. I think they'll look good by Dec.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Lillard auditioning for that rumored mid-season trade to the Lakers.

The defense will continue to be suspect. There is nothing they can do about that. Lebron doesn't try at this stage and i don't think they have enough firepower in that conf to compensate for it.

Portland is not a good defense team either and they have no shot blocking. This was a good team for them to score points against.

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Yup. Iirc LeBron's teams always start out slow his first year with them. That was a solid debut considering it was on the road against the 3 seed in the West last year.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

They weren't that strong of a team. Got swept 4-0 in the playoffs. Games were blowouts too.

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They matched up horribly with the Pelicans, but they were obviously a strong regular season team, and we are talking about a regular season game last night.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

To be honest all those teams 3-8 were about in the same boat record wise There were better teams behind Portland but each of those teams had injuries to key players and Portland didn't. Strong teams don't get swept

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Man you will argue anything. OK, you're right, the Trailblazers suck and no team should ever lose to them. Good talk.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

"To be honest all those teams 3-8 were about in the same boat record wise There were better teams behind Portland but each of those teams had injuries to key players and Portland didn't."

That statement is absolutely true

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Its not about arguing but you tend to make excuses when it serves your purpose. Its a disagreement. You disagree quite a bit but somehow when you do it is perfectly fine.

You pride yourself on being a pot stirrer but when it goes the other way you complain about it. Portland wasn't that strong of a team if they got swept.

You are the same guy that argued that a series OKC-Utah wasn't competitive (though it came down to the Final minutes of Game 6) but a series in which the 3 seed is swept is meaningless.

Its inconsistent.

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It is true of course, but it has no bearing on what I initially said, which is that losing a road game in Portland isn't really indicative of a bad team. Portland is a good team, especially at home, and the Lakers losing a close game there on their first night playing together as a new team is expected. That's all I was saying, and it's pretty hard to argue it, but of course LTG wants to litigate all of last year over that one comment.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

What's inconsistent? See my post above to Nas. I don't care to get into semantic games about how good Portland is or isn't. They're a good team and losing a road game to them is no big deal. That's it. Not everything needs to become a multi paragraph argument dude.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Yeah but not every disagreement needs to be considered an argument either. I gave an opinion. That's it but for some odd reason you have difficulty when things that you say are challenged. It happens. We will see how it goes but they will be about a 7 or 8 seed. You think that is good but when it is a team you dislike say OKC finishing 3-4 as i remember they are hot garbage. If I was in the mood I'd bump it but I really am not. It is inconsistent that is all. Its funny how that works.

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You can't find any quote of me saying a 7/8 seed is a good team. I don't think the Lakers are gonna be very good this year, I'm just very confident they will make the playoffs. 7/8 seed sounds right.

None of my views have been inconsistent regarding how I look at teams.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

When OKC to G.S. to the wire about 3 years ago you ripped them a new asshole. When Westbrook won I think 46 or 48 games without Durant you ripped them a new asshole. Portland won about the same number of games last year and yet they are a good team. OKC won 1-2 less games last year and they were ripped all year long. That's hypocrisy. There are other instances but a lot of times i let it ride for the sake of harmony. Portland benefitted greatly from injuries to key players. They were not a "true" 3 seed. If they were they would not have gotten swept. They were blown out in fact. That ain't a good team. This year I have them to be no higher than 7th. We will see how it goes. They are ok but I doubt seriously that they finish anywhere near 3 this year.

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There are 3 really good games on tonight. Cavs-Bucks Jazz-Warriors and Celts-Raptors. Some of the teams with really good young talent are playing as well.

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Kinda like the way the new Bucks arena looks with the green

Kawhi playing like hes gonna compete all season. I'm pretty conflicted about this. Fuck him though for forcing his way out of SA. Still kinda want him to reach his potential and dominate Durant tho.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I guess this means we can't sleep on the Raptors. M-V-P

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

who is coming out of the east? what is your prediction as you are the NBA expert here?

Wolves and Cavs looking like they've ran a marathon. Refs are blind too

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Like always I will say that Bagels is the NBA expert here.

I think Boston is coming out of the East but if Kawhi is fully engaged they can easily best Boston and possibly GS.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Jimmy Butler and Andrew Wiggins actually communicating like good teammates should coming out of a timeout.

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wow GS? why? Isn't GS even more stronger than last year's team?

Gs should easily win the title. Kawhi is the only player, imo, of cancelling out Durant in a series. Lebron doesn't have it defensively to do it at this age. I think that's what it will take. And if he can do it the Raptors can throws swarms of 3 point shooters, rebounders, and defensive swing men at GS on top of it. I don't think it's likely at all but it's a scenario I consider plausible if Kawhi is playing at 2017 levels.

I also would give Boston a punchers chance in that series but it's tough because as good as guys like Jaylen and Tatum are they don't have that Kawhi level defender as a wing.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I'm not a prick...hope Simmons is okay

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

McGee looks like a different player. Rondo is a great facilitator.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Ball picked up 2 nice fouls in about 10 seconds.

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Ball looks like shit

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!