Game Thread GAME# 72: NUGGETS @ BLAZERS - MAY 16, 2021 - SUNDAY, 6:00, NBCSNW

no, it's in the other thread

 

i don't think we will want to lose. LA is not losing these two games and we don't want to get into the play in.

 

Dallas can also choose to tank, and i bet they will to avoid the Clippers. In that scenario, Portland wins against Denver, Clippers lose to OKC, and Dallas loses to Minnesota. We end up as the 5th and play the Clippers at 4th, Dallas at 6th plays the Nuggets at 3rd

 

Crazy?
They still played the Lakers to the final minute.

 

Yep, the Laker win today took care of that. We need to win and we need the Clippers to prefer playing Dallas and Utah instead of Portland and the Lakers.

 

60/40 they wont sit starters.

 

One underlying story is that all the games that will decide 3-7 tomorrow are all starting at the same time: 6 PM PST. I have to imagine this was done by the league on purpose to build the suspense. Out of all these teams, only the Blazers and Lakers are guaranteed to be trying to win. The other teams may be trying to win or lose but it depends on what some of the other teams do. Usually one or two games will be done or close to done by the time the night games start, so teams can have a general idea of what they want to do, but they can't really do that tomorrow. Will be interesting if some teams rest players in the second half or some stars suddenly get "cramps" in the 4th quarter in a tight game depending on how the other games are going.

 

I guarantee that, if the Clippers are losing to OKC, the Mavs will pull of their whole team in the 3rd quarter or 4th against Minnesota and tank back to the 6th seed, they will do scoreboard watching on Sunday, assuming we are leading the Nuggets. Unfortunately for us, we have to win no matter what, but Dallas can tank during the game and lose on purpose to get a 3/6 matchup against Denver

 

That is the most likely outcome since the Clippers will definitely be tanking against OKC as they did last night against Houston. They have already shown their weak ass dishonorable hand. This means that the Mavs will be tanking in order to play Denver as they are better off doing that without Murray than playing the Chippers after Leonard and George have finished resting and healing their fake injuries. That leaves the Blazers playing the Chippers in a 4/5 matchup. This league is a joke and every single tanking team should be fined in the neighborhood of $10 to $40 million for being chumps and destroying the integrity of the game. With the reffing as bad as it is, the integrity of this garbage league is already questionable, so all this tanking merely solidifies the league as a refuge for guys who don't want to play every game and can take off as often as they want ala Kyrie Irving with impunity.

 

What about if mavricks tank and loose but clippers beat okc and we beat Denver? Then clippers are 3rd and mavs are 6th? And we are 5th denver 4th? Not sure...actually I believe Clippers will have hard task loosing to okc even if they tried i think they still beat okc. So mavricks cant fuck around or they end up playing clippers

 

ah yes that pathetic division. Who the fuck has ever cared about division? I just dont get how we have tiebreaker over mavs but because of 3 way tie they get tie breaker because of their division

 

None of this matters anymore IMO.
The Blazers should shut it down.
Not one starter should see the court tomorrow as well as Kanter and Melo.
Simons, Elleby, Little, RHJ, DJJ, Giles, Blevins, TJ Leaf

That is an 8 man rotation and they are mostly well rested and healthy. Lets these guys play all out every minute.

 

Denver is gonna tank. They'd be stupid not to. Hope it adds to the bulletin board material for the playoffs.

 

Blazers have a minutes template in their recent past:

 

Nice!

I do understand there are chances of things happening differently. Just my gut feeling that it really won't matter in the end as much as resting the players and avoiding any further injuries.
Also as that game shows. The bench can go out and win a game. We have some players that can ball.
Simons
Little
Jones
Jefferson
Giles
Can all contribute. Even Elleby had a pretty decent game this year.
It would be a fun game to watch for me.

 

I agree with what you say, but you are assuming that the Clips will try to play a real game against OKC. They didn't against Houston. They would be fools to try to set up a matchup with the Blazers, not so much because the Blazers are so good, but more so because they are better than the Mavs. So, why would the Clips try to get a 3/6 matchup with the Blazers when they can tank and get a 4/5 matcchup with Dallas. That is, unless the Mavs get cute and tank against Minn when they see that the Blazers are winning and the Clips losing. They will then tank and shoot for the 6 spot to get the depleted Nuggets and let the Clips and Blazers slug it out with full squads.