NBA 2025-26 Season Thread: THE NY KNICKS ARE CHAMPIONS! BING BONG!

Or not!

Is this Hardens legacy game?!?!?

Incredible game - Harden and Kawhi have rarely been in that sort of form together at once. Awful outcome for Golden State to have to play again on Tuesday night - particularly with Butler limping like that at the end.

And of course this ended up set up so good for the Lakers…

Minny still a bad matchup in some ways, though I do agree they’ll have preferred that outcome. OKC / Denver / LAC better left on the other side of the draw.

I mean it’s not a walkover but Minnys strength is D and Edwards having the highest ceiling in most series.

Luka/Lebron are too big for their wings, too smart for Gobert to have max impact, and can both hit a higher level then Ant.

Now the basketball that matters begins.

I think it was clearly a good loss for GS, get houston rd 1 if they can win on tuesday

Minn has a lot of depth and Lakers have no center so maybe Minn can just bully ball them some but Luka, LeBron, AR for shot creation/playmaking vs basically Ant/Randle seems like a big gap but maybe Lakers defensive personnel is bad enough that Minn can have a great offensive series similar to vs the Suns rd 1 last yr, feels like the little reasons favor Minn but big reasons favor Lakers

I like Denver, I'm not buying Kawhi and Harden in the playoffs in the year 2025, sorry...And Denver would've been better down the stretch if Murray/Jokic just played more. They have no depth whatsoever.

Have to say, lads, love the thought of playoff ball. Mid-April is just ♥

Honestly, I think they would have been fine with the Lakers. Getting the days off for a veteran team is crucial. I'd have doubts about the Memphis game on Tuesday, particularly if Butler isn't 100%. Ja et al. have been massively disappointing the last couple of years, of course, but you'd think they can play with some freedom here...

I completely agree.

There was a massive difference between Kahwi and Zubac on/off the floor last night. Zubac and Kahwi had particularly strong plus/minus, but all the starters were positive and all the bench players were negative.

So again, agree - Clips going mid 40 minutes for Kahwi / Harden every game doesn't seem a recipe for success.

I'll gladly take the Clippers over the Lakers in a last longer. Up to $50. We can use point differential if they both go out in the same round.

Bet (although I respect your conviction)

I’m in Ireland, will PayPal work for payment?

booked, gl

paypal is fine

Nice one, gl!

I’ll take Clippers in 6 over Nugs.

Clippers pre-ASB were scratching around .500 with a top5 defense and below average offense that was basically Harden Iso/ Powell Iso ad nauseum.

Since then they’re Top5 in both offense and defense, and were #1 in offense the last month. Nugs since ASB are like a bottom 3 defense. They have zero answer for Harden/Powell and Zubac can actually take it to Jokic 1v1.

On the other hand it’s playoff Harden, Powell might have been just been on a heater, Kawhi could disintegrate, and the backup centers are Batum and Ben Simmons.

Pound the Jokic overs, but take Clippers for series.

Anyone saying it was a good loss for the Warriors haven't seen them the last week or so. Desperately needed the week off. Also makes OKC first round (or not making it at all) live.

0-3 all time in the play-in.

Also, apparently Harden is the best closer in the game now. smh.

Odds at the start of the season of a Ant/Beasley top 2 finish in most threes?

Fourth-team
Williams
Sengun
Zubac
Harden
Siakam

Fifth-team
White
Allen
Sabonis
Green
Booker

Sixth-team
Hart
Thompson
Young
Reaves
Herro

better off playing sengun and amen over luka and lebron

if they cant beat memph and get 3-4 days rest then they weren't doing much anyway

1 day off after an intense overtime game in which your best two players were both dinged up to play a much younger team that you have historical beef with and has zero expectations cause their season was so bad they fired their coach with two weeks left doesn’t sound great.

Bottom line, it’s one game where you’re like an 65-35 favorite at most.

Yea Jokic has obviously been *better* (imo) but if that's all it was based on then MJ and Lebron should have about 9 each. Team record and flat just mixing it up for the sake of it means it will (and should, based on precedent) be SGA

But Jordan and Lebron never had a season like Jokic just had.

But wilt did many times and lost it due to the team lack of wins .����
1962 for example was a real joke lol .
Russel wins the mvp but ends up being nba2 !
And it wasn’t even close lol .

https://www.basketball-reference.com/awa...

It’s going to be sga .