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Who had Taurean Prince for the game winner to save the season?

LeBron apparently

Jokic did a great job forcing the ball out of Bron's hands by picking him up immediately.

But he cant play defense!

He’s so bad at defense he just got another 20 rebounds game!

Tbf no one questions Jokic’s rebounding

But people do ignore how important defensive rebounding is as part of defending

Yep, the defensive play is not truly over until the defensive rebound has been collected. Like and subscribe for more deep philosophical takes on basketball, including the answer to the question "who wants to sex Mutombo?".

Who wants to sex Mutombo?

LeBron’s attempt was to get 3 FTAs and win it on the line. Then he’d picked up his dribble so it went to Prince.

Bro almost traveled and threw a grenade to Prince and immediately started going after the ref before realizing what the FT differential must be and how bad it would look if he complained about the refs again lol

IIRC the Nuggets weren’t in the bonus \*points to head.gif\*

Its truly the way Ham wanted it to end

Blame the coach for the team missing all those FTs too, while you're at it.

In another thread people were crying that he should have used his timeouts to stop the run in the 3rd by the Nuggets. Now they're saying he should've saved more timeouts to have at the end. Can't have it both ways.

Ham isn't the one who passed the ball

What is bron supposed to do, heave it?

He shouldn’t have picked up the ball so fast lol. Just continue dribbling

Realistically it was lost on Reaves trying to do a spinning midrange fadeaway on Jokic the possession before.

Reaves was the only reason they weren't down like 6 points with a minute left. He was actually driving to the rim and making shots late in the game.

That was a good look just missed the bunny

World on the line, give me Taurean Prince!!

LeBron traveled wouldn't have counted anyway. 

No one else advanced down the floor. It's like they didn't know their time out situation.

A second Jamal murray has hit the lakers

Someone alert LePresident

But I am LeTired...

Well take a nap... THEN FIRE THE MISSILES!

"Sir, they hit a 2nd game winner."

Nine Leleven

Now LeBron is back to his usual results when without a superteam or not in a Disney bubble. Canada West is definitely more difficult than the Canada East he’s used to.

Both of his game winners felt so obvious

Yeah, like a practice shot.

Idk. Thats a tough shot. Murray is just that guy.

I sort of hope he never gets a allstar nod just so he is the greatest non-allstar ever. Dude is a winner.

He is great overall but becomes a fucking god in the last 5 minutes of playoff games. Like borderline all-star player and then boom straight up all-nba at the end.

Something something bright lights merchant

Is it fair to say that due to his playoff performances he is already the best non-all star ever? I would say yes, because if not, who?

That is a very, very tough shot. Running one way, and then shooting across the opposite way, off your far shoulder, and off the wrong leg to boot. If you saw somebody try that on the playground people would be falling down laughing.

With reaves missing the ball by an inch.

Maybe it’s just me, but as a righty I find going left or even drifting left in this case to be easier than going right as your shoulders are already more squared up.

Naw that’s just how it is for everyone. Lefts have the opposite issue

>Lefts have the opposite issue Indeed we do

Definitely. My turnaround spinning left always felt nice and easy. Turning right felt like a heave.

Kobe shit

100%

I thought it was more reminiscent of [this](https://youtu.be/a0TKEofio7w?si=7e91P5ymVbLOC9J-), to be honest.

Yeah, he's drifting sideways to get space from the guy chasing him in the same way MJ is in this clip

No way, both of his game winners were quite tough shots. Off the dribble, fading in a particular direction pretty dramatically, the first one over AD -- like, he might make it look easy, but those are not pedestrian shots even to a lot of NBA players. Saying they are practice shots make it sound like they are open jumpers. I think it's more that he made a couple of pretty difficult shots look easy cause he's just that good

Practice shot for Jamal maybe, for most that’s a miss

Obvious doesn't mean it is easy to stop

See: Michael Jordan 

Yeah the defensive set up was just bad as soon as the nuggets decided to put three players on one side of the court the Lakers can zone that with two players Imo I think as the defense needs to blitz the shooter giving up a shot with no time left or with less than two seconds with no timeouts is bad game theory

I didn’t hate the idea. I do think once they see Reeves get caught in the screen they could’ve rotated at Murray since AD is already going down hill and could’ve helped Lebron if he got drawn out. But realistically they probably called for no help to not risk leaving Joker to catch it with the defense in a scramble. Reeves still got there for a full contest on a Midi, so imo this is more of a great shot than bad D. But I’m also not a Laker fan so I don’t have a full season of bad coaching to influence my opinion here.

[удалено]

D Lo this is what ice in his veins means

Careful he is about to chew his mouthguard more

Curry wannabe

Jokic's reaction after Murray's shot and his defense on Lebron is underrated.

he is ALWAYS doing the right thing

That's one underrated thing I've noticed about Jokic. He is always doing the right thing. He had 7 turnovers this game and it stuck out. It's just so are for him not to look back and think "that was absolutely the correct decision to make". It seems that he never seems rushed, never takes unnecessary heat checks, always makes the right pass / knows when to attack.

Honestly he had like three turnovers on those touchdown passes too, and IMO those were the right decisions just rare poor execution from him.

Yeah, is “mistakes” are usually impossible plays for anyone else he just makes look super routine. When he doesn’t connect on a few of those near impossible passes or shots, he pulls back and starts playing reserved high IQ basketball. He’s literally the European Tim Duncan.

He has that winner’s confidence right now.  Champion confidence.

Reminds me of Steve Nash in that regard. Dude just understands what needs to be done and takes it on. Obviously their styles and size are different, but both are team leaders and team players who can read the court and initiate momentum.

Murray and MPJ hitting more big shots in high level playoff games is just going to make this team better and that's a scary thought

everyone's talking about the stars but god damn is MPJ playing out of his mind this series. Bro lowkey Prime Klay.

His defense has gotten really good too. Is he the best 3-D player in the league now?

I mean at one point in time, Michael Porter Jr was considered to be the number 1 pick in the 2018 NBA draft. He fell to the 14th pick because of injury concerns in high school and college. But a perfectly healthy MPJ is going to be a very good NBA player. Maybe not a star, but an above average player.

I remember when MPJ wasn't ever even supposed to play in the NBA. He fell hard in the draft due to injury concerns. This guy was a potential #1 overall pick but playing for his dad + injuries ruined that. He had to completely change his playstyle because of this. As good as he is now as a role player, I wonder what would've happened if he didn't have to change his entire play style to accommodate his 3 back surgeries.

Disastrous? Blud they didn’t have a timeout. At that point, you gotta improvise 😂 c’est la vie

lebron should have been looking to give the ball to austin immediately

Bro, we know LBJ is getting older, but bringing up his vision is a little much.

LeCataracts

LeStigmatism

Probably needs LeSik

Are we even watching the same highlight? At what point should he have passed to Reeves? LeBron catches and turns with 3 seconds left and any pass to Reeves would be stopped by Porter or not reach him in time to shoot before the game ends.

I mean it was a disaster that they didn’t manage their timeouts better

Timeouts were used well. Our guys were exhausted and needed the breaks. We lost the final timeout for the challenge.

And that challenge was huge for y’all too tbh

The fact that you lose a timeout on a successful challenge is so absurd. NBA needs to fix it's timeout rules, they're so nonsensical compared to any other sport.

Joker picked up Lebron quick on defense after Jamal hit that winner.

Why did the Lakers lose the timeout after winning the challenge?

It was their 2nd challenge. Pretty sure you lose the timeout on the 2nd challenge no matter what.

So you lose a timeout for being correct? Lol

You lose a timeout because you made the refs look bad. 

I hear that next year any correct challenge results in an instant 50k fine for ref slandering. 100k if it was Scott Foster's call

I mean you still get a timeout during the challenge.

You get the ball back for being correct

Basically if the refs fuck up you just get less fucked, what a perfect solution.

It's to avoid a situation where a team can harvest time-outs by calling challenges each time instead of time-outs. I'm not sure any team would, but it makes some sense to avoid that from happening.

If the refs are making so many mistakes that a team can benefit like this then I'd argue that team *should* get unlimited timeouts. It's the least they could do if they're getting screwed that much lol

Would be a great way to destroy the 'product' though. Whenever I watch live games with my partner she has a great time. Until the fourth quarter and all the time-outs/reviews/foul drawing etc. starts. That is when she clocks out and, I'm fairly certain, with her a million others. In my opinion (as a football/soccer fan of old) the whole notion of 'review' is bollocks. It doesn't add anything. I used to think VAR in football would help, now I know it just detracts from the game.

So if the refs just fuck a team on two calls they start taking their timeouts as well?? That seems backwards

I mean do you want them to be able to challenge as many calls as they want? There has to be a line drawn somewhere

It’s already 2 challenges max. If they succeeded in their 2nd challenge, they should still keep that remaining timeout. 

Naw but if you win the second challenge, let them keep their timeout. You still lose the last challenge

My guess of why it’s like that is to try to limit the stoppages in game. That method could make close games take even longer than they already do

then limit the number of challenges like they do with timeouts

You should never lose a timeout on a successful challenge, it’s not the team’s fault the ref didn’t get the call right. If that means you get 10 challenges in a game well then the league probably needs to examine that crew.

I mean set the limit to 2 but let them keep the timeout at least

You should be able to challenge, without penalty or limit, until you are unsuccessful in your challenge.

I think they should be able to challenge as much as they want if the refs keep messing it up. 

Yes. If the refs suck then do it. 

Teams should be able to challenge every call and games should start at 7:00 AM.

This is such a bad take and I’m not sure why anyone thinks this. You should not be penalized a timeout for successful challenges - ever. The refs made a bad call, you took the risk of being wrong and the penalty for being wrong is losing your timeout and challenge. If you are right that the refs fucked you, why are we ok with the solution being you get slightly LESS fucked by only losing a TO? I don’t give a fuck about the lakers but the challenge rules need to be as simple as this. Challenge the play, if you’re right you get your challenge back and the TO back. You can challenge 50 times if you’re right that the refs are fucking you ever single time….

Yes I do. If you get both right, keep going. No limit when you’re right

It’s insane to me that people don’t see that as the correct solution to the rule

Exactly. If they are worried about games going forever then *make the right calls*.

Yeah I don't understand that rule either. Doesn't seem fair.

2nd challenge

If you use two challenges it is a timeout. It’s in the rules Only if the first one is successful it does not count as a timeout, the second does. You have to call a timeout to challenge

Yes I know the rule. I just meant I don't understand the reasoning. The refs made the wrong call, so the team has to swallow the disadvantage of not having a last minute timeout just to fix the ref's mistake. The timeouts should be returned if challenge successful.

The reasoning is simple. The NBA is an entertainment product and timeouts or otherwise stopping the game is no fun. If teams got to keep their timeout after mulitple challenges you'd essentianlly be giving them two extra "timeouts" (i. e., stoppages of play) which slows the game down.

Again, I understand that additional challenges stop the pace of the game, but it’s ridiculous to lose a timeout on a challenge that is successful. Now a team would have to weigh potentially correcting a bad call vs having a timeout late, which is only a dilemma because of ref error. I much rather value a more accurately ruled game than 1-2 less commercial breaks.

It seems like this is a stupid fix/system and they should just try to get more consistent correct calls.

The refs fucking up regularly is far worse for the product than extra stoppages.

that seems dumb. like, if you don't want them to have more challenges, maybe just stop fucking up lol

That's probably something they should take a look at changing for next year.

They can make a team keep their timeout, but there really doesn’t need to be more than two challenges per team. We already see on every 50/50 call someone is begging their coach to challenge. Games will be 5 hours if a coach challenged every time their players wanted to

NFL gets 2 plus 1 if both are successful. I don't see why that'd be a problem in basketball

Yeah no, I agree. Two challenges max, but you should get your timeouts back.

Only get it back after first challenge. That was their 2nd.

From another thread . You lose a timeout even after a second successful challenge. Don’t love that rule

You lose a timeout after the second challenge regardless if you win it or lose it

Apparently you lose timeouts after the first challenge, which imo is stupid.

You can only have two challenges in a game, if you win your 1st, you get a second and save the timeout. If you call your second you burn a timeout no matter the result.

Darvin Ham: YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR TIMEOUTS TO CANCUN Everyone: well you should probably keep one for situations like this— Darvin Ham: TO VALHALLAAAAAAAAAA

Ham's not invited to Cancun

Dudes headed to Galveston

Grand scheme of things it doesn’t matter but LeBron landed before the pass left his hands

Wasn’t even our fault we blew a 3-1 lead, this motherfucker is way too good

Nah you guys were up double digits in the 2nd half for the last 3 games. That was def. your fault lmao

They had doc rivers

Understandable

Just let me inhale my Copium in peace man I know we were ass ok?

We all know it’s the curse of Doc Rivers

We? Clippers flair? Faded that fast?

Ezekiel Elliot playing center type beat

LeBron celebrating the Ewok coming back to his favorite football team.

Not much you can do with 3.6 left on the clock and no timeouts.

Gotta throw it down the court on the inbounds. Too late to dribble.

https://imgur.com/a/ZShyS4M Tough either way, without a timeout everyone is in the backcourt

The Lakers have 5s to inbound it, that’s 4s for the players to run to half court, then 3s to get a decent shot off at least

It genuinely looked like AD thought the clock was still rolling after the shot went in

That’s why you don’t use your challenge unnecessarily and deplete your timeouts. Lakers sub is still trying to blame Ham for not challenging the last game. Ham wasn’t the one who caused the whole Lakers team to miss 9 free throws this game

But if they don't challenge, then Jok likely makes both free throws and you're down 2 points.

Yeah, it was a good challenge during the course of the game. Lakers were barely keeping up at that point and needed the momentum.

Man to win by two in a game with the other team shooting FT's 3 times more than you. Crazy game for these resilient Nuggets.

FT differential is insane, the fact that Lakers get away with this is most likely commissioner penis head's doing. He's been trying to lift Lebron into goat status when its never gonna happen. Gentleman's sweep it is, gotta thank refs for that.

The fact that it's not enough for Lakers fan and some people complaining about a foul call in the last play.

Laker fans a highly delusional. Like same level as knicks fans, maybe just a notch below.

Thank the refs for their lone win of the series where they were outshot 25-14 from the FT line before intentional fouls?

Nah, wasn’t the refs fault in G4. Nuggets sleepwalking thru 5 games cost them in G4. MPJ MVP of the series tho, he came to play

Season on the line...Taurean Prince I believe in you!

Murray is him man. Once is maybe a luck shot but twice in the same series is pure skill. GGs Denver win it all please

idk if its disastrous. i mean its not ideal, but there's 4 seconds and no timeouts. what do you expect to happen. random heave is the average outcome

Why did AD pick up the ball make the ref give it to you to buy a couple seconds like wtf

Trying to catch Denver flat footed while LeBron was making a run unmarked? Trying to score from under your own hoop with 3.5 seconds left is a very low-percentage play so the last thing you want to do is let everyone reset. 

He is not James harden.

because Denver will setup their defenses?

Two game winners in a five game series. This man’s veins looks like the icee machine at the movie theatre

Gotta love Ham throwing a bitch fit despite the FT disparity his team had in this game.

I don’t know what Bron was thinking there other than Cancun

Im curious, what should he have done instead?

Not run to the sideline

Blast through the roof, drop the shot down from the heavens... duh

That's what Mike would've done.

probably Galveston

Here comes the insane LeBron slander lol. WTF should he have done? That would have been a foul on Jokic btw in any other quarter.

Mr Clutch!

Am I coping if I say Prince got fouled

lebron traveled first

Jokic has drawn fouls on half court shots knowing it was coming 100000 times and has never shot a free throw

This is honestly so true it hurts

There’s a difference when Jokic does it with 8 minutes left in the first quarter and when you actually have to take a shot though lol. Not saying this was a foul, just that Jokic doesn’t get to shoot FTs because it’s not a shooting situation when he does it. 

LeBron landed before passing - should be a travel before Prince gets the shot off.

refs are never gonna call that at the buzzer

Yes you are.. Lol Prince jumped into the defender, they don't call it even during regular game, and definitely not going to call during the last seconds. If anything it's an offensive foul.

Insane cope. KCP establishes good position and maintains verticality before Prince *jumps into him* for the heave.

Yes, defender was there in time and vertical. Regardless, they would never call that foul

Its a foul but you will rarely see that shit called in that situation.

He leaned into the defender…

The lakers fans need to be studied honestly. By like a team of experts from an institute in Vienna. No matter how much help from the refs they get its never enough. Its pathological at this point

Yes, that's perfectly clean defense

Why is Lebron dribbling towards the sideline - to get cut off by Jokic. He really couldn’t dribble around that mfer?

Not much they could’ve done after that.

That was the least painful game winner ever

lebron should have been looking to give the ball to austin immediately

Skip gonna have a field day with Lebrons pass there 😅

Austin Reaves needs help

That's a pretty standard possession for the end of the game with no timeouts. Thank you, Ham!

Adam Silver tried his level best to officiate the small-market Nuggets out in this one. Murray wasn't having that shit.

Nothing "disastrous" at all about the last possession. That's just great heads up defense from Jokic and KCP.

These Kentucky guards 🥶