Tag: damian lillard

#RushHourRap – J. Cole – p u n c h i n ’ . t h e . c l o c k

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Teeterin’ between enlightened and insanity
Now that I’m rich, I feel nobody understandin’ me
All I can do is cut the mic on, holler at you
Can’t let the fame scare me off from speaking candidly

p u n c h i n ’ . t h e . c l o c k kicks off with an incredibly insightful clip of Damian Lillard, after dropping 61 points, speaking about the necessity of doing the hard work when nobody’s watching, which helps illustrate the picture that J. Cole is trying to paint with his entire album here. It doesn’t matter how far he’s come, he still needs to put the work in every day if he wants to be the best. Check out the first 2 minutes of the video below that Cole put together documenting the creation of The Offseason and you can literally feel his passion as he explains the concept of the album to 21 Savage.

“Do you really wanna look back 10, 20 years from now on this music shit and be like the reason you didn’t make it in music was because you didn’t put in the work?…One more time before I leave, before I fill like I’m fulfilled in this game, let me try and reach new heights from a skill level standpoint.”

I’ve always had an affinity for J. Cole dating back to my college days when I was downloading The Warm Up and just playing it on loop in my dorm room. To watch one of your favorite artists come up from putting out mixtapes to minting his sixth straight Platinum album with The Offseason is incredibly satisfying. Hopefully he keeps putting out these elite level rhymes, but even if he retired today J. Cole has already cemented his status as one of the best to ever do it.

Team USA Better Assemble the Next Dream Team After This Disaster at the FIBA World Cup

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ESPN – The U.S. will leave the World Cup with its worst finish in a major international tournament, assured of finishing no better than seventh after falling to Serbia 94-89 in a consolation playoff game Thursday night.

The previous worst finish for a U.S. men’s team in 45 tournament appearances was sixth at the 2002 world championships. The Americans — the top-ranked team in the world — will be either seventh or eighth in China, depending on the outcome of their consolation finale Saturday.

Just a couple of days after getting bounced by France in the FIBA World Cup (Team USA’s first loss in 13 years, snapping a 58 game winning streak), they were officially embarrassed today, losing to Serbia in the consolation game. So no gold medal, no bronze medal, now not even a 5th place finish for the most disappointing Team USA in my lifetime.

I understand its just FIBA, I really shouldn’t care. Maybe I care more because half the team is made up of Celtics and it reflects poorly on my hometown team’s chances this season. Sure. Or maybe its just embarrassing for the US to send a team of kids and scrubs to represent the country before getting their teeth kicked in. This ain’t the 1980 USA Olympic Hockey team.

This team was in trouble from the second that Turkey game ended last week and we all knew it.

I also get that its become more and more popular for NBA stars today to obsess over their bodies and to manage their workload. The NBA season is long and LeBron can’t lead Team USA every single year, but where was James Harden or Anthony Davis? Steph Curry? Kawhi Leonard? Russell Westbrook? Kyrie Irving? Paul George? Klay Thompson?

Even guys like Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler, and Damian Lillard could’ve carried this team to gold. So its a tough spot to be in because the US is expected to win gold every single year, but we invented the damn game and have more than 90% of the best players in the world. I don’t think being the best is asking all that much.

USA Basketball better look at this as more than just a down year; its am embarrassment to the sport. I have enough embarrassment to go around from the US Mens Soccer Team, but at least they’re just not very good. The basketball team can and should dominate. So bring me the next Dream Team. Bring me an outrageous collection of talent and just run other teams out of the gym. Its time for the USA to re-establish its dominance on the hardwood.

NBA Conference Finals Preview and Betting Lines

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Here we go guys, this is where the fun really starts. Two of these teams are just four W’s away from the NBA Finals and thank god we won’t be subjected to Golden State vs Cleveland V. No mas. Just look at Rocky as the best example of this. Rocky 1-4 were all awesome and exciting flicks with Rocky 5 being one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. So I’m psyched for some fresh blood this year. But I digress, lets take a look at the Conference Finals matchups.

Golden State Warriors (1) vs Portland Trail Blazers (3)
(Game 1 – Tuesday at 9 pm)

In what ultimately made little difference for the Rockets, Kevin Durant will be out yet again for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday night. Durant is one of the top 3 players in the entire league, but lets not forget just how stacked this Warriors team still is with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. Thats a 2x MVP, a 5x All-Star, and a 3x All-Star/Defensive Player of the Year. Soo yea the Warriors are still in good shape.

It doesn’t sound like Durant is particularly close to returning either though and if he misses multiple games in this series then it starts to become a legitimate threat to the Warriors’ NBA Finals streak.

Unless you’re watching a ton of NBA games, I don’t think many casual fans realized just how good the Portland Trail Blazers are. Everyone knows how good Damian Lillard is 25.8/4.6/6.9 with a ridiculous 28.4 in the playoffs, but his shot just was not falling in Game 7 (13 pts).

Enter CJ McCollum, who is a bad, bad man. After averaging “just” 21 points per game in the regular season, McCollum has jacked that up to 25.6 in the playoffs, including 37 points in a ridiculous Game 7 performance against Denver.

Don’t forget about the brother on brother battle we’ll see with Steph Curry vs Seth Curry. Okay so maybe its not that big of a matchup with Seth only averaging 7.9 ppg to Steph’s 27.3 in the regular season but hey it’s still pretty cool to see two brothers playing against each other in the Western Conference Finals. Man, genetics are a trip.

While I can’t pick against the defending champs until I see them stumble, I really really like this Portland team. I just don’t know if they’ll be able to defend all of the Warriors elite shooters. If Durant misses a couple of games and Lillard and McCollum can keep scoring in the 25-30 points range each night, then I think they’ve got a real shot to dethrone the Warriors.

 

Milwaukee Bucks (1) vs Toronto Raptors (2)
(Game 1 – Wednesday at 8:30 pm)

The Kings in the North now turn their gaze towards conquering the East, which won’t be easy if you saw Giannis Antetokounmpo dropping 30 and 40 point games on the Celtics in the second round. There’s a reason the Bucks were the No. 1 seed in the East and why Giannis was my pick for MVP.

Kawhi Leonard is what Kyrie Irving wants to be when he grows up. Kawhi has singlehandedly willed this Toronto team from an annual playoff disappointment into one on the brink of the NBA Finals. He also produced the biggest shot in Raptors history with the immediately iconic Game 7 buzzer beater three over Joel Embiid.

After being acquired by the Raptors in a risky one year rental he’s proving exactly why it was worth the risk for Toronto. He’s averaging 31.8 points per game in the playoffs, up from 26.6 in the regular season, while also leading the team in rebounds per game at 8.5. This guy is getting it done all over the court.

He literally made Joel Embiid cry for christs sake. And I love Embiid so thats not a knock, but do you know how badly you have to rip a guy’s heart out to make him cry on the court?

Giannis showed just how borderline unstoppable he can be though after personally breaking the Celtics’ will to live. Now do I think the Celtics played garbage defense and failed to adjust to Giannis (and his goddamn spin move)? Yes. Does that mean I think any less of Giannis’ dominance? Hell no.

The Bucks destroyed the Celtics in games 2-5 in a gentleman’s sweep, but had huge performances from guys that aren’t exactly household names like George Hill, Pat Connaughton (did you know he’s from Massachusetts?!), and Ersan Ilyasova. Thats not exactly a second unit I would bet my mortgage on, but the Bucks moved like a well oiled machine with everyone playing a specific role, so what do I know? They were the No. 1 seed after all.

We’ll also get more of Mallory Edens on national TV too and thats never a bad thing.

Ultimately, the 2019 Finals could very well be the long-predicted battle between the Warriors and Bucks, who are -550 and -300 favorites to oust the Trail Blazers (+375) and Raptors (+250), respectively. Any bettors out there looking for a great mobile betting experience prior to betting should check out this site. In terms of valued odds, you could definitely do a lot worse than Portland at +275 to win Game 1 vs Golden State. The Blazers have been road warriors in the playoffs and won’t be at a size disadvantage with Kevin Durant out. Golden State is susceptible when opponents beat them on the offensive glass, and Portland is the third-best offensive rebounding team in the league (regular season and playoffs).

While I’m bummed the Celtics bowed out like absolute dogs, we’ve got some awesome storylines to keep an eye on in the Conference Finals regardless. Who ya got? Tweet me @The300sBoston and let me hear it.

ICYMI, Damian Lillard Was Incredible Last Night

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I’m glad I stayed up to watch this one. What a game. Being down 3-1, the Thunder were desperate for a win. Dame Lillard had all the answers. After going down by double digits early, CJ McCollum picked up 3 fouls in the first 9 minutes, and it seemed like the Blazers might not be on their game to start. But Lillard stepped up and made his case for the best point guard in the league. After last night, I’d have a hard time disagreeing with him. Just looks at these shots:

Lillard dropped 50 points last night, including 34 in the first half.

 

Dame scored 16 in the first quarter, then added another 18 in the second. In that first half, he hit 6 threes, all of which were contested except one (which was from 30 feet out). He made off balance shots, tear drops, fadeaways, step-backs, you name it. He was on fire. The second half was no different. As soon as it started he hit another 30 foot bomb. He finished with 50 points, 10 threes, and this absolutely insane buzzer beater:

A 37 foot contested step back three?!?! Are you kidding me?!?

Paul George actually didn’t play bad defense on that. He stepped up with about 4 seconds left after realizing he wasn’t going to drive, and got a hand in his face. I mean, look where he’s shooting from! The balls on Lillard to take a shot like that. YUGE!

Anyone else notice how Russ did a lot of talking Games 1-4, then only talked shit to his teammates in Game 5?

Now, I stupidly took the Thunder to go all the way in a previous blog, and I’m here to vent about my embarrassment at that pick. I said Paul George was going to be the guy to lead this team to the promised land. I love the guy, but it’s hard to reach your full potential when ballhog Russ is busy sucking ass. Westbrook was absolutely atrocious last night. Probably the worst triple double I’ve ever seen. At first look, 29-14-11 seems pretty good. But that’s it. If you watched this game, you saw a player who wouldn’t pass when he needed to down the stress, who was barking at his teammates, and who took a TON of bad shots. He missed at least 3-4 layups when trying to push in transition, but instead forced himself into one-on-three “fastbreaks” where he blew the shot and then forced his team to play transition defense. He chucked a bunch of quick threes, which he has and continued to struggle with in this game. And down the stretch, he wanted to be the guy with the ball in his hand when everyone in the world knew it should be Paul George. Well, Russ missed a bunch of shots late, played garbage defense on Lillard, and will forever be known as a regular season star and playoff bust.

Image result for damian lillard waves bye gif
Bye Russ! Bye bye!