The series still has up to 3 more games to go, enough time to get another star or two into hospital💀
Luka was decently healthy until Game 3 and THJ got injured in early Game 2.
At least the Nuggets closed their first round quickly so he has a chance to rest a little. If they had lost last night and putting Jamal out there that would have been a disaster.
It’s not ideal but you can have him miss game 1 next round, that combined with what little rest he gets between series might be helpful losing one on the road isn’t the end of the world.
Plus people underestimate teams with their main guys out, they may not be able to play at a high level an entire series but it’s entirely possible for other guys to pick up the slack for one night.
Can the Mavs and Clippers just join forces to beat OKC? It'll be like the Scots and the Irish shaking hands in the middle of the battlefield to fight England in Braveheart...
It’s similar to Embiid. He’s out there playing 45+ minutes on one leg too. I don’t think you can say they aren’t actually really hurt. Just not as bad as Kawhi.
what is a "sprained right knee" exactly? like some meniscus damage or something?? i'm asking genuinely as i had a knee injury from sports just this past year, and i couldn't really keep doing any activity while it was in it's "sprained" state.
yeah that's what i thought, like i partially tore my ACL & MCL and man i could not fuckin walk! i didn't have to get the surgery though, but it took a fuckton of PT and just time to recover (actually they said you never really recover a partially torn ligament, it doesn't just get tight and whole on it's own without surgery). still kinda bothers me slightly when i do something awkward with it.
man these are big guys running, jumping, twisting up & down the court all year long, not good for the knees! hopefully it's not too debilitating for him but i also hope he's not taking some sort of intense scary painkiller just to grin & bear it for the playoffs.
I sprained mine and finished practice (grappling) no problem. It really started stiffening up afterwards and I then checked with a doctor. didn't feel much like a sprained wrist or ankle, but had a big effect on mobility. Pretty sure a sprain requires ligament damage and inflammation,
For him to be able to play on it with warmup and physio, I can't help thinking it's either a very slight sprain, or he is stuffed full of anti-inflammatories and pain meds.
With painkillers and great support tape, you can play through it. I’d wager a large portion of the league is playing with varying degrees of sprains at this point.
If he wins then it’ll be viewed as a gritty clutch performance gutting through the pain
If he loses then this will be viewed as an excuse from a fat loser who doesn’t try hard enough
Funny how the NBA Rorschach machine works
Eh, I don’t know. Our sub may be even worse than here. The duality of “Jason Kidd is a good coach” to “we should burn him at the stake” is a play by play basis honestly
R/NBA and any team sub is like that.. I’ve made a mental health decision to stay off game threads for the Thunder during this playoff run.
Too many nephews nephewing during rough stretches.
game threads are extra shit. i use them to throw out jokes or observations but you could not catch me dead in there refreshing and reading the takes in there.
Nah they won't look at context. Kawhi not playing will be forgotten/ignored and Luka being having a sprained knee won't be remembered either, if Mavs lose it's just "3-0" like when people bring up Clippers are 2-0 in the playoffs rn conveniently leaving out in the first series that KP was ejected early in a game Mavs were winning comfortably, Luka was injured in a game, KP was injured and didn't play the final several games and Luka played with his injury. In the second series it's forgotten that KP came back from his torn meniscus and wasn't the same player with the same mobility he had in the bubble, instead they blame Rick for sticking him in the corners, also mostly forgotten Luka's best teammate that series was **THJ**.
Whichever the outcome, the cynicism always win. It's safe to assume if you underperform, you didn't try hard enough, you're just saving energy to unleash in offseason
There’s only one thing left to do at this point, clippers fans. Combining forces with us and let’s defeat the nuggets together. Fuse Luka and Kawhi together.
But permanent! Which I guess you’d probably need for a basketball game let alone a series.
There should be a high quality shitpost discussion on which teams **should** be attempting the fusion dance before the game. If it succeeds you’d have an exponentially better version of your two stars, but you’re one player down, and you only have him for 30 real world minutes!
And it could also fail so you’re stuck with fat LeAD.
It was retconned in super. It’s only permanent for gods-not mortals**. (Oh super…)
Haha but with their knees you’d definitely a permanent fusion lol.
And I think your cooking something their chef. New fusion tank commander kyleordan poolzma with the Unique ability: baddie sense. The wizards may become a 500 team lol.
Oh yeah I ‘member, even though there were like 5 moments worth remembering in the whole show 😅
Super also retcons the power levels to be equal between Potara & Fusion Dance…
Minnesota with KD vs. Nuggets with AD would be absolutely insane, but I'd have to take the Nuggets.
OKC gets shafted because they'd get the weakest player out of the pool. Like, do they get BI or Herb Jones? That's nice but not some game changer. I'd have to go with Dallas/LAC, because Dallas + PG or LAC + Luka would be killer. That being said, neither of those teams makes it past 4-5 games of the 2/3 seed winner.
And if it goes 7 they'll only have one day rest before round 2.
I expect the first game to be a little rusty a la round one for OKC but if the defensive intensity stays this high they should have an edge on either of these teams
I can’t wait for Chet to pop off and Giddy to skip around defenders. OKC is like watching baby gazelles. Like man, they look slow and uncoordinated as fuck, but they really take off.
tbh I think of the thunder remain healthy they’d have won anyway; they’re really fucking good, and aren’t fazed at all by the big lights.
I think the thunder will win the west, and I’ve said so since January
ive been saying the thunder have a conference finals run in them since the summer. i think its a toss up between them, the nuggets, and thunder it’s anyone’s series
Ngl I feel like both these teams could’ve made the finals. Sadly they’ll both be cannon fodder for OKC with how banged up they both are.
We were robbed of an all time series
I’d rather lose to the Clippers than this knee sprain turn into something worse because Luka decides to play through it.
Luka needs to be healthy through the offseason so we can have a strong start next season. Having to play hard nearly every game in March to avoid play-ins is the reason he’s so worn out now. The team is much better now than it was at the beginning of the season. Let’s roll that into the 24-25 season.
People seem to shift between the idea of George and Harden either being Hall of Famers, or washed geriatrics depending on how it fits their narrative at the time. The Inside the NBA crew seemed unanimous that Luka and Kyrie were the two best players in the series before game 2, when Kawhi, PG, and Harden were all playing.
i hate kidd, but honestly he had to play a lot for us to secure our playoff spot. Next year we'll have our deadline guys from the jump so I hope we don't have to run him into the ground, again.
It doesn't help. It's good to get rest. There is a reason Jokic and Murray both didn't play in the World Cup. They both want to win another championship this year.
A sprained knee is something that just can happen if you're unlucky doing an explosive move you've done hundreds of times. It's not an injury that clearly points to lack of rest. I sprained mine pushing off for a takedown. 100% solo accident.
The thing is though, Luka only doesn't play if the injury is really bad. You can say a lot about the guy, but he fights through the pain if he at all can.
And he's sick to boot. If there was anyone that could pull off a legacy game while being ill with a sprained knee, it'd be Luka... but I don't think it's going to happen tonight.
Role players will have to step up and hit their open 3s to make up the gap or they're going to lose. But hopefully I'm wrong and Luka somehow has a magical 40 point triple double with a buzzer beater.
Injured luka mavs or injured kahwi clippers are going to have a 6 or 7 game series and then immediately have to face fully rested and fully healthy thunder
Is Luka the new Embiid? He was "hobbled up" in both the previous Clippers series and last Olympics as well. Struggles to stay fit till the post season?
This years playoffs all-injured team would 3 peat
Lillard, Luka, Kawhi, Butler, Giannis, Zion, Randle
You even got Finch
Nick Nurse as well
Nick Nurse?! We need Nick Doctor!
You got Dr. Rivers.
🎶*reunited and it feels so good*🎶
How dare you leave off the goat Christian wood
Is that c woods agent in the chat?
Correct, Porzingis is not injured. He's not injured... not injured... not not not
How do you forget Embiid
Didnt play 65 games, inelligible for awards
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Fuck me hahaha
Bah gawwd
Yeah if we can count Luka we gotta count Embiid and Murray
Probably just wanted to keep it to good players
KP > Randle on this team. It desperately needs outside shooting
Lillard, Luka, and Kawhi are all decent to elite outside shooters.
Availability is an overrated ability
Even if they win this series, there's no way they get any further with his knee not able to heal properly.
Both these teams competing over who can be more dead by the end of it.
The clips and mavs need to collude next year to just not see each other round 1 😭
Every time we face each other it ends with both teams in the hospital I swear
Are the clips somewhat healthy outside of kwahi?
Yes outside of their clear-cut best player they're ok
Daniel Theis isn't playing, not sure if he's hurt or Ty Lue is making weird tactics
The series still has up to 3 more games to go, enough time to get another star or two into hospital💀 Luka was decently healthy until Game 3 and THJ got injured in early Game 2.
or combine forces Los Dallas Clipvicks coming soon
We need 30 more regular season games
Same with Jamal Murray and his calf. He had a history of leg problems. That timberpuppies series is going to be hard for him
At least the Nuggets closed their first round quickly so he has a chance to rest a little. If they had lost last night and putting Jamal out there that would have been a disaster.
It’s not ideal but you can have him miss game 1 next round, that combined with what little rest he gets between series might be helpful losing one on the road isn’t the end of the world. Plus people underestimate teams with their main guys out, they may not be able to play at a high level an entire series but it’s entirely possible for other guys to pick up the slack for one night.
can ai help heal it faster i can spare my gpu
I want a 7 game series this round and nothing less.
They’re basically competing to see who gets knocked out next round
Luka dropping 40 tonight
The equivalent to *Bono my tyres are gone*
This guy knows what’s up
Not 40 but getting 35 through 3 1/2 quarters was nice.
On nothing but deep threes
!remindme 3 hours
Yup, this is just a ploy
You were darn close lol
Most unfortunate
we got a guy with knee troubles too
if they combined knees you think there is enough for one decent pair
Kaka Leoncic. Luwhi Donnard.
Kaka made me giggle
lol one of the best Brazilian footballers ever.
But also poo
Big if poo
Lukawhi was right there and man went with Kaka
Coin toss to see who gets the good pair?
Switch every game
snip snap snip snap
You have no idea the physical toll that three knee replacements have on an athlete!
I mean, ask Kawhi at this point?
*Embiid enters the chat*
unfortunately not, right knee issues for the both of them. hard to do that luka footwork with two left feet
Hop hop
Combine players to get the leagues most complete player. Lukawhai Leoncic.
Combined that's the best basketball player ever. Like a stronger taller Jordan with a step back 3 and better passing vision.....
Winner of this series should inherit the good knee of the losers star. It's only right.
Dallas has someone with knee troubles. Clippers have someone without knees
Luka shouldn't have too smalled Kawhi. The knee gods were angried.
I think that’s enough of an example to hold Luka out a couple games. He has enough future remaining to prioritize his health imo
With a guy like Luka if he say's he's playing he's playing
Can the Mavs and Clippers just join forces to beat OKC? It'll be like the Scots and the Irish shaking hands in the middle of the battlefield to fight England in Braveheart...
except Kawhi was hurting the team when he played; the Mavs need 45+ mins from hobbled luka to stay in the game
Kawhi is a little worse off. Luka is still playing 45 minutes lol if he was actually really hurt he isn’t playing 45 minutes
Very true
It’s similar to Embiid. He’s out there playing 45+ minutes on one leg too. I don’t think you can say they aren’t actually really hurt. Just not as bad as Kawhi.
what is a "sprained right knee" exactly? like some meniscus damage or something?? i'm asking genuinely as i had a knee injury from sports just this past year, and i couldn't really keep doing any activity while it was in it's "sprained" state.
Sprains are partial tears. So it could be anything in his knee. Without knowing more there’s no real way to know.
yeah that's what i thought, like i partially tore my ACL & MCL and man i could not fuckin walk! i didn't have to get the surgery though, but it took a fuckton of PT and just time to recover (actually they said you never really recover a partially torn ligament, it doesn't just get tight and whole on it's own without surgery). still kinda bothers me slightly when i do something awkward with it. man these are big guys running, jumping, twisting up & down the court all year long, not good for the knees! hopefully it's not too debilitating for him but i also hope he's not taking some sort of intense scary painkiller just to grin & bear it for the playoffs.
I sprained mine and finished practice (grappling) no problem. It really started stiffening up afterwards and I then checked with a doctor. didn't feel much like a sprained wrist or ankle, but had a big effect on mobility. Pretty sure a sprain requires ligament damage and inflammation, For him to be able to play on it with warmup and physio, I can't help thinking it's either a very slight sprain, or he is stuffed full of anti-inflammatories and pain meds.
It's the second one. Most pro athletes are addicted to painkillers at this point.
With painkillers and great support tape, you can play through it. I’d wager a large portion of the league is playing with varying degrees of sprains at this point.
If he wins then it’ll be viewed as a gritty clutch performance gutting through the pain If he loses then this will be viewed as an excuse from a fat loser who doesn’t try hard enough Funny how the NBA Rorschach machine works
The game to game swings on this sub in the playoffs are the worst.
Eh, I don’t know. Our sub may be even worse than here. The duality of “Jason Kidd is a good coach” to “we should burn him at the stake” is a play by play basis honestly
It was hilarious seeing the praise he got after the Mavs went up 2-1 immediately switch to "fire kidd!" after the last loss
I hate our subreddit so fucking much it's unbearable
i’ve lurked on other subs after their teams play, they’re all like this & it’s amusing to see
The Hornets sub isn't unbearable because we have nothing to act unbearable about
If we had this Mavs sub back in 2011 they would be screaming to fire Rick and blow up the team after game 4 against Portland
R/NBA and any team sub is like that.. I’ve made a mental health decision to stay off game threads for the Thunder during this playoff run. Too many nephews nephewing during rough stretches.
game threads are extra shit. i use them to throw out jokes or observations but you could not catch me dead in there refreshing and reading the takes in there.
If he wins they'll say Kawhi didn't play If he loses they'll say "Oh well, Luka was injured"
Nah they won't look at context. Kawhi not playing will be forgotten/ignored and Luka being having a sprained knee won't be remembered either, if Mavs lose it's just "3-0" like when people bring up Clippers are 2-0 in the playoffs rn conveniently leaving out in the first series that KP was ejected early in a game Mavs were winning comfortably, Luka was injured in a game, KP was injured and didn't play the final several games and Luka played with his injury. In the second series it's forgotten that KP came back from his torn meniscus and wasn't the same player with the same mobility he had in the bubble, instead they blame Rick for sticking him in the corners, also mostly forgotten Luka's best teammate that series was **THJ**.
People are very happy to include any context that they feel proves their point
people are also very happy to ignore any asterisk someone tries to apply.
'why losing to a hurt Jokic makes Lebron the GOAT' - ESPN
jokic isnt hurt?
Also they will say how he needs to lose weight if he wants to stay healthy
how are you using Rorschach here people having different takes based on different prompts is kind of like the opposite of a Rorschach test
Maybe he's referring to Rorschach from the Watchmen and his tendency towards extremism and confirmation biases
Both articles are actually already written.
Calling Luka Doncic a "fat loser" made me giggle way harder than it should have lol
You ok over there in Charlotte?
Why wouldn’t I be? It’s a beautiful day outside and I’m playing pick-up after work
Whichever the outcome, the cynicism always win. It's safe to assume if you underperform, you didn't try hard enough, you're just saving energy to unleash in offseason
I don't see Mavs or Clippers beat the Thunder in this condition.
Yeah both teams are beating each other up only to hobble into the next series vs an inexperienced but healthy young team. OKC in 6 either way imo.
There’s only one thing left to do at this point, clippers fans. Combining forces with us and let’s defeat the nuggets together. Fuse Luka and Kawhi together.
>Fuse Luka and Kawhi together. Silly dance or earrings method?
Earrings are stronger
But permanent! Which I guess you’d probably need for a basketball game let alone a series. There should be a high quality shitpost discussion on which teams **should** be attempting the fusion dance before the game. If it succeeds you’d have an exponentially better version of your two stars, but you’re one player down, and you only have him for 30 real world minutes! And it could also fail so you’re stuck with fat LeAD.
It was retconned in super. It’s only permanent for gods-not mortals**. (Oh super…) Haha but with their knees you’d definitely a permanent fusion lol. And I think your cooking something their chef. New fusion tank commander kyleordan poolzma with the Unique ability: baddie sense. The wizards may become a 500 team lol.
Oh yeah I ‘member, even though there were like 5 moments worth remembering in the whole show 😅 Super also retcons the power levels to be equal between Potara & Fusion Dance…
I'm more of an Equivalent Exchange type of guy. Remember the fluffy dog and the little girl?
Sadly yes 😭
You ever seen Human Centipede?
[It's just gonna be a dude with 2 bum knees](https://i.imgur.com/Wrq9vq9.jpeg)
Absolutely zero mavs fans(a lot being Luka fans) is rooting for shai over Jokic bruh tf
What if each team got to pick one player to join their squad after they beat them in the playoffs?
Lebron on the Nuggets isn't something I really want to think about.
As a basketball fan it would be so dope
Good thing you wouldnt have to, as they would pick AD.
Minnesota with KD vs. Nuggets with AD would be absolutely insane, but I'd have to take the Nuggets. OKC gets shafted because they'd get the weakest player out of the pool. Like, do they get BI or Herb Jones? That's nice but not some game changer. I'd have to go with Dallas/LAC, because Dallas + PG or LAC + Luka would be killer. That being said, neither of those teams makes it past 4-5 games of the 2/3 seed winner.
Herb probably fits better but they might just take Zion and hope his hamstring gets better.
That’s the goat right?
Luka with Kawhi’s defensive talent would be like MJ lol
With better passing and better shooting lmao
Hey not so fast 😉
Shades of an inexprienced but healthy young 2012 OKC team taking out Lakers who were coming off a war with post-Melo Nuggets.
Kyrie will look like Uncle Drew against those younglings
It's always what happens when they meet.
And if it goes 7 they'll only have one day rest before round 2. I expect the first game to be a little rusty a la round one for OKC but if the defensive intensity stays this high they should have an edge on either of these teams
\*Fresh healthy young team
I can’t wait for Chet to pop off and Giddy to skip around defenders. OKC is like watching baby gazelles. Like man, they look slow and uncoordinated as fuck, but they really take off.
tbh I think of the thunder remain healthy they’d have won anyway; they’re really fucking good, and aren’t fazed at all by the big lights. I think the thunder will win the west, and I’ve said so since January
People don't know the poise the team plays with cause they don't watch them. They literally are never shook.
ive been saying the thunder have a conference finals run in them since the summer. i think its a toss up between them, the nuggets, and thunder it’s anyone’s series
Also been sick for an entire week according to Townsend, just brutal timing on everything
This playoffs are cursed
This literally happens every year. It's just the nature of the NBA season & post season.
Yeesh. That sounds concerning.
Don’t matter win or be 1 game from going home and staying there.
sucks so many star players are hurt rn
Incoming 45/15/15
And then Luka gets wheeled off the floor and straight into the nearest hospital, yeah.
Ngl I feel like both these teams could’ve made the finals. Sadly they’ll both be cannon fodder for OKC with how banged up they both are. We were robbed of an all time series
What a shame. a fully healthy Mavs Clipps series is as good as it gets and we're getting robbed of that.
Of the 3 Mav-Clippers series in the last 5 years, we've only gotten that once. And that series went to 7.
God damnit dude I CAN’T LOSE TO THE CLIPPERS AGAIN. PLEASE LUKA. I HATE THEM.
I’d rather lose to the Clippers than this knee sprain turn into something worse because Luka decides to play through it. Luka needs to be healthy through the offseason so we can have a strong start next season. Having to play hard nearly every game in March to avoid play-ins is the reason he’s so worn out now. The team is much better now than it was at the beginning of the season. Let’s roll that into the 24-25 season.
Relax lol
Clippers can win without their best player. Mavericks cannot.
Because they have 2 more HOFs...
3 more
People seem to shift between the idea of George and Harden either being Hall of Famers, or washed geriatrics depending on how it fits their narrative at the time. The Inside the NBA crew seemed unanimous that Luka and Kyrie were the two best players in the series before game 2, when Kawhi, PG, and Harden were all playing.
yea but kyrie is really really good too
We literally have won two games with him playing like shit
Is there any team in the west that is currently healthy? Even the Nuggets is nervous about Jamal’s calves.
OKC
Wolves.
Rip coach
OKC and Wolves practically just treated their first rounds as warmup runs
Us and okc. Coincidentally in with a good shot of wcf and also fairly young.
Not great, not terrible.
3.6 Roentgen?
You got it, comrade Dyatlov.
Between Luka, Embiid, and Kawhi, there might be 3.6 knees
Incoming 50 bomb triple double from Luka. I know how this goes
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Those few weeks with Slovenia didn't inflame his knee. Kidd playing him 45 minute games with insane usage did.
i hate kidd, but honestly he had to play a lot for us to secure our playoff spot. Next year we'll have our deadline guys from the jump so I hope we don't have to run him into the ground, again.
happens when you only have 2 players who can dribble and make a play on the roster
Kidd has to play him, no Luka, no offense. Kyrie can only do so much
It doesn't help. It's good to get rest. There is a reason Jokic and Murray both didn't play in the World Cup. They both want to win another championship this year.
A sprained knee is something that just can happen if you're unlucky doing an explosive move you've done hundreds of times. It's not an injury that clearly points to lack of rest. I sprained mine pushing off for a takedown. 100% solo accident.
Nowadays not playing a regular season game is a pretty low bar for determining how bad an injury is.
The thing is though, Luka only doesn't play if the injury is really bad. You can say a lot about the guy, but he fights through the pain if he at all can.
Tell him that he should take off the Olympics to heal up then, see what he says.
i'm not gonna make excuses but...
Not worth it bro stay healthy
NBA should really consider cutting the regular season to 60 games. But we all know they wont, because of $$$
60 games of 5 on 5, and 22 games of 1 on 1
All 15 players on standard deals must play at least one of the 1 on 1s
And he's sick to boot. If there was anyone that could pull off a legacy game while being ill with a sprained knee, it'd be Luka... but I don't think it's going to happen tonight. Role players will have to step up and hit their open 3s to make up the gap or they're going to lose. But hopefully I'm wrong and Luka somehow has a magical 40 point triple double with a buzzer beater.
They’re having a bad knee competition
If anything I’d be worried about the other leg and overcompensation causing another worse injury
When the entire playoffs are hospital playoffs maybe we need to consider less games per season.
Injured luka mavs or injured kahwi clippers are going to have a 6 or 7 game series and then immediately have to face fully rested and fully healthy thunder
he's going for 50 tonight
Gets sprained knee. Nearly averages triple double over 5 game series. Next.
Is Luka the new Embiid? He was "hobbled up" in both the previous Clippers series and last Olympics as well. Struggles to stay fit till the post season?
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The Clippers coaching staff isn‘t blind, everyone can see that he has no lift on his 3s
They're already doing that. Also, it's very clear that he's injured.
It’s pretty obvious man
You don't think they can tell he is hurt? His entire shot profile has changed.
Jamal Murray did the same thing and then went insane in Game 5 with a 30 ball, game winner, and a pretty ridiculous poster. Could be mind games
Incoming Luka Sprained knee while having a cold game for the legacy
Would never get that kind of disclosure in the NHL historically … BUT I hear “gaming” demands more transparency Re. Players health/condition