Jayson Tatum’s fellow son of St. Louis, the one and only Nelly, is performing at halftime of Game 3 of the NBA Finals in Boston tonight. I don’t know if Tatum requested a little pump up music from (probably) his favorite rapper or if Wyc think JT and the team needs a little extra juice going into the 3rd quarter, but I like it. If I’m the Celtics I’m letting Nelly put on a 45 minute set like it’s the Super Bowl halftime show. Just let Nelly play “Heart of a Champion” 12x in a row like he’s Jay-Z and Kanye in Paris, solely to get Tatum fired up.
It’s impossible to not wanna run through a wall after hearing that absolute banger, even though Tatum was like Deuce’s age when the Sweatsuit album dropped back in 2004…
True story: “Heart of a Champion” was the Power Song on my Nike+ app back in 2007. And if you don’t know what a Power Song or a Nike+ app are then I have successfully flooded this blog with enough 10-15 year old references for one day.
NBC Sports – For the first time in his young career, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum has been named to the All-NBA First Team. Tatum was voted to the exclusive club alongside Milwaukee Bucks center Giannis Antetokounmpo, Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić, and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić. He received 49 first-team votes, 47 second-team votes, and three third-team votes for a total of 390 points.
The 24-year-old is the first Celtics player to be selected to the All-NBA First Team since Kevin Garnett in 2008.
I have been calling this since 2017, just *weeks* into his rookie season, but Jayson Tatum can now officially call himself an All-NBA First Team player. Superstar. Is an MVP trophy next? He’ll be going head to head with Luka Doncic for that trophy over the next decade, but I’d be shocked if he doesn’t put at least one up on his mantle if not more. But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves since we’re just a few days removed from Tatum having more turnovers than baskets like he did in Game 3. Granted he followed that up with 3`1/8/5 and is averaging 27.2 points per game in the playoffs thus far.
If the Celtics don’t take care of business though and get bounced in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Heat for the second time in three years then this all becomes kind of hollow. So hopefully this motivates Tatum to show out and ride his greatest personal accolade ever into his greatest team accomplishment ever; a trip to the NBA Finals.
Now, let’s check some receipts!
Jayson Tatum is going to be All-NBA one day. #Celtics
In a weird, pandemic interrupted season that stretched 11 months and 27 days the Celtics went from an unmitigated disaster last summer watching two max contract players leave for nothing to landing Kemba Walker and going on a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite all the missed opportunities that arose once the NBA season resumed, the Celtics accomplished what so few teams ever can; rebuilding on the fly. As Kemba said in his post-game press conference last night, “This is our first year together, we are going to have some time to grow.” He’s not wrong.
Now that the back patting is over, lets take a look at the epic choke job the Celtics completed last night. For whatever reason this team struggled mightily when it came to neck stepping time. Whether they’re too young, lack a killer instinct, or just don’t have a defined closer on the team, whatever it was, this team struggled to finish games. We saw it in the Raptors series that they were lucky to escape in 7 and it carried over to the Eastern Conference Finals where the Celtics blew late leads in Games 1 and 2. The latter of which led to an all-time dysfunctional locker room blowout before winning Game 3, dropping Game 4, and winning Game 5 to force a 6th and decisive game. It looked like Boston’s talent was going to do what it had in the previous round, overwhelm their gritty opponent. They even forced the Heat to go away from their vaunted zone defense as the Celtics finally figured out a consistent way to penetrate and disrupt.
However, when it came to crunch time the Celtics once again WITHERED. The Celtics defense imploded as the Heat scored at will.
The Celtics closed out Game 6 with a 159.1 defensive rating over the final nine minutes, allowing the Heat to score on 10(!) consecutive possessions in one stretch. On one last crunch-time collapse: https://t.co/SltOwilYtp
BRobb also tweeted out the Celtics’ clutch stats (idk ask BRobb for the definition of that one) and they’re just as bad as you’d expect.
Celtics final clutch stats against Heat over five games (19 minutes of clutch play) Offensive rating: 85.3 Defensive rating: 150 Net rating -64.7 https://t.co/SltOwilYtp
With 9 minutes to go in the game and Boston up by six, the Heat went on a 26-6 run to officially stomp them out. Even worse was their absolutely moronic, panic stricken shot selection down the stretch.
Jayson Tatum makes a two point shot to make it 102-103 with 5:40 left. Next possessions
Kemba missed three Tatum turnover Kemba missed three Tatum missed three Smart missed three Tatum missed tech FT Jaylen missed three Smart missed layup Kemba turnover
Where the hell is Brad Stevens during all that? The Heat went on something like a 19-6 run before he decided to call a timeout with 4:30 remaining. By that point though it was too late and too big of a hole and then the C’s really were forced to start jacking up 3’s.
One of my biggest complaints, but it’s probably more about the league in general than the Celtics specifically, is there insistence on chucking threes even when they’re clearly not falling. Boston went 15-46 (32.6%) from 3 for the game, 4-22 from 3 in the 2nd half, and an atrocious 2-14 in the 4th. In the 4th the Celtics shot 37% from the field including 14.3% from 3. Meanwhile the Heat shot 66.7% from the field while only taking 3 three pointers in the 4th and nailing them all. For the game the Heat went 13-27 from 3 for a 48.1% clip, nearly 16% better than the C’s.
The Celtics never had an answer for Bam Adebayo all night. Daniel Theis fouled out again while getting worked by the “point center” and rookie Grant Williams probably did the best job covering the big man, but Bam was just on another level dropping 32 and 14.
I also want to point out that while I respect Jimmy Butler’s MJ-esque toxic competitive streak, I also would have been fully on board with Jaylen Brown getting ejected for knocking him out after that dirty play under the hoop.
No foul was called because the NBA officiating is hilariously inconsistent, but don’t let that fool you. This was a dirty, dangerous play and could have seriously injured Brown. Don’t be surprised if these two get into a scuffle down the line because I guarantee Brown will not forget about that play.
So where do the Celtics go from here? This is definitely a team at a crossroads with no clear path to improvement. Bench scoring is obviously a need, they need more defined roles, but more than anything the Celtics need to add some veteran grit and balls. Every great team has veteran players and character guys that can consistently get buckets and/or act as a mentor to younger teammates. Think Eddie House, James Posey, Sam Cassell, and PJ Brown on the ’08 Celtics. They need to add some grit to their bench rather than filling it with all their mediocre draft picks from the last 3 years who can’t create offense. Danny Ainge has created the greatest G League team ever assembled with all those draft picks, but that has not translated to consistent productive NBA players outside of Smart, Tatum, and Brown. Three core players no doubt, but the C’s have failed to develop much in the way of bench talent. That is only made more glaring when the C’s are getting lit up by rookies like Tyler Herro in Miami, who the C’s apparently loved pre-draft.
Grit seems to be the main thing they lacked this postseason as the Celtics routinely blew late leads only to get bailed out by the skin of their teeth on talent alone. Well that string of luck came to a swift end last night as the Heat showed them what a team with a lead is supposed to do. It steps on your neck and closes it out.
So do the Celtics looks to reconfigure their roster or just hope the deep playoff run provides valuable experience? Felger and Mazz producer Jimmy Stewart was floating rumors of a potential Marcus Smart trade last week if the C’s got bounced.
"I get the feeling that Marcus Smart might not be here next year." – @IAmJamesStewart after hearing from his mysterious sources.
Getting a W on Saturday night would help with a lot of this, but it sounds like a #Celtics power struggle is occurring between Smart, Brown, & Tatum. pic.twitter.com/UMpgsxpRFq
I think Tatum is completely untouchable at this point as he should be. He definitely needs some more seasoning to his game (stop routinely settling for fadeaway threes) and generally has some maturing to do, but you don’t trade elite talent for no reason.
Other than that they could move Jaylen Brown but I just cannot get on board with trading him or Smart. That would be a MASSIVE “addition by subtraction” gamble that I would not be willing to take and I dont think Danny Ainge would either.
There was speculation that the team lacked clearly defined roles and too many guys thought it was their team. Theres only one basketball and if everyone wants to play hero ball and take the last shot then you’re going to run into trouble.
It’s not a hot take but I think their best bet is to hope yet another brutal postseason exit helps their young core build the testicular fortitude required to make the jump next year. I keep thinking of that scene from “The Last Dance” documentary where Michael Jordan details how he got his brains beat in by the Celtics and Pistons for years before finally getting over the hump. Even with 6 rings on his fingers, Jordan admitted those early struggles were necessary to give him the experience and the drive to finally break through.
The most unfortunate part though is this was the easiest path to the Finals the Celtics were going to have any time soon with a depleted/dysfunctional Philly team, Giannis getting knocked out early, no Kawhi or LeBron in the East, oh ya and the Nets will be rolling out Kyrie and Kevin Fucking Durant next season. So while I want to preach patience, I can understand if Celtics brass doesn’t feel the same way.
We don’t even know when the next NBA season will begin thanks to the COVID interruption. Training camps for next season would have normally started around now, but Adam Silver has hinted at a Christmas or even January start for the 2020-21 season. Until then we’ll have plenty of missed opportunities to regret as we watch LeBron James inevitably win another title. Hopefully this Celtics team uses that as motivation and comes back ready to take over the East and finally, legitimately threaten for the Larry O’Brien trophy next year.
And just like that the Boston Celtics are one game away from elimination in the Eastern Conference Finals. One more underwhelming performance and the Celtics will be on the wrong end of a gentleman’s sweep. It’s infuriating to watch because before Game 4 the Celtics led for the large majority of minutes played only to blow leads late. Game 4 itself was just a sloppy game for Boston all around despite the near miracle comeback in the closing seconds.
Jayson Tatum was AWFUL in the first half going 0-6 including four three pointers to go into the half with zero points, which was the first time he’s done that all season. He must have found a bottle of Michael Jordan’s Secret Stuff from Space Jam in the locker room though as he dropped 28 points in the final 24 minutes of the game.
His explosion in the second half just made Tatum’s first half struggles look even worse by comparison though. He is arguably the most talented player in this series and he was constantly dribbling out the shot clock and settling for shitty fadeaway threes. So much so that the studio analysts at halftime wondered aloud if he was injured. Why is a 6’8″ career 83% free throw shooter not attacking the rim if his shot isn’t falling? That is something that Tatum needs to understand better if he is going to take the next jump to superstardom.
This team still struggles mightily against the zone defense that my high school team used to play. Marcus Smart seemed to be the only player capable of driving and effectively kicking the ball out to shooters. It was something that Van Gundy pointed out during the game as Smart was the only player that was looking at the rim as he drives before kicking it out. Otherwise the defenders are just waiting for the outlet pass. The Celtics have been rendered completely helpless against the most basic defense for long stretches of this series. The broadcast team even suggested this may be the longest a team has ever stuck with a zone defense in any playoff series ever. Ay caramba.
If not for Gordon Hayward this team would have already been en route to their offseason vacations. While he didn’t light up the stat sheet in Game 3 he was a tangible force moving the ball and making a couple clutch shots. In Game 4 he was much more comfortable shooting the ball as he finished with 14 points. Hayward is the only player the Celtics can bring off the bench to consistently get buckets at this point, which is killing them. The rest of the bench had 8 combined points on Wednesday night. In Game 3 the bench scored a combined 11 points outside of Hayward, a respectable 16 (9 from Kanter) in Game 2, and 18 in Game 1 with 11 from Brad Wanamaker.
Tyler Herro is a goddamn baller, plain and simple. To be honest, we probably should have expected this dude to become an assassin based solely on his Draft Night fit.
Allegedly Danny Ainge was set to take the Kentucky shooter at No. 14 in last year’s draft before Pat Riley snatched him up right before the Celtics at No. 13 overall. I don’t know if I believe that as Danny tends to draft project athletes with high ceilings more than shooters, but goddamnit has Herro made it hurt to watch what could have been. He absolutely crushed the Celtics in Game 4 with a cool 37 points and was generally unstoppable with a clean look.
Marcus Smart continues to be the ultimate enigma making incredible and boneheaded plays within seconds of each other. Like when he laid out onto the floor to knock a loose ball to Jaylen Brown, who was then fouled. The Celtics then inbounds the ball at half court and Smart gets the ball only to immediately lose his handle and turn the ball over.
The No. 1 most hated play of the night goes to the C’s doubling the ball handler late in the 4th and leaving Goran Dragic wide fucking open for a 3 on a night where he scored 22 points. And you could see on the replay that Smart thought Jaylen Brown was going to rotate and cover the shooter as he was visibly upset and clapping at the young forward.
The officiating was generally awful both ways, but hey Tony Brothers was on the court so did we expect anything less? I also don’t get the Hayward foul call on this three pointer from Goran. I know he is technically “in the shooter’s space” but jesus christ what’s he supposed to do there?
The final play of the game was also a disaster. Down 3 with 1 second remaining the Celtics were out of timeouts so it was kind of a fire drill hail mary play, but I still hated what they came up with. Needing a TB12-esque picture perfect throw the Celtics opt for center Daniel Theis to make the inbounds pass. I understand Theis isn’t really a 3 point threat there, but he’s also the worst passer on the floor being asked to make a pinpoint cross court pass with 1 second remaining. Not surprisingly he heaved one into traffic that never had a chance.
Is Bam Adebayo hurt? He was holding his wrist constantly in the last few minutes of the game after a collision with I believe Jaylen Brown under the hoop. He stayed in the game, but even the broadcast made note of how he was constantly waiving off the athletic trainers despite being in obvious pain. If Adebayo is injured that would be a huge factor in a do or die Game 5 as the Celtics have had no answers for the big man.
So the Celtics have an off night before Game 5 on Friday night to consider whether they have the fortitude required to push this series to the brink. They’ll need to win three straight against a Heat team that has been tough to beat when it comes to neck stepping time in the 4th quarter. If the Celtics bow out in five it would be a huge letdown, especially in a season where the path was seemingly cleared for them to reach the Finals. No Giannis, no Kawhi or LeBron in the East, just a scrappy Heat team led by a guy in Jimmy Butler that is on his fourth team in four years. After some serious collapses down the stretch and the much publicized blowout in the locker room after Game 2, if this team doesn’t make a series out of this I would not be surprised to see Danny make some tough decisions with the construction of this roster.
Until the final buzzer sounds though I’ll hold out hope just because we’ve seen crazier things happen. In times like this I like to think back to that infamous Kevin Millar quote back in 2004. “Don’t let us win today.”
The Celtics fell to Toronto 125-122 in a double OT nail biter Thursday night that ESPN deemed an instant classic, but it seemed like more than just the Raptors were going against them.
Despite holding the Raptors scoreless over the final 4:23 of regulation, Boston still couldn’t escape with the win.
I’m not going to put this loss entirely on the refs because Kyle Lowry played out of his mind with 33 points, including the go ahead bucket in double OT, and Kemba Walker was a no show with 5 points on the night. The refs were garbage, but I need to reiterate once more; Kyle Lowry BALLED OUT last night.
The Celtics were a mixed bag around Kemba’s atrocious offensive performance. Jaylen Brown was unstoppable in the first half with 21 points, but cooled off to finish with 31 (on 30 freakin shots) He did dominate the boards with 16 rebounds though. Despite finishing with 29 points, Jayson Tatum was largely inefficient going 9-21 from the field. Marcus Smart quietly went off for a triple double (23 pts, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) including SIX three pointers. The man is an enigma and the C’s would be lost without his energy, his balls to take 3’s he has no business making, oh and his NBA First Team Defense
Granted he is a bad, bad man with the ball in his hands, but Lowry was flopping all over the place last night. I do find it interesting how the national broadcast describes it as Lowry “selling” fouls whereas Marcus Smart is just a flopper.
Lowry nearly killed Jaylen Brown under the hoop too. Credit to Brown for not getting up and slugging Lowry right here. This easily could have been a technical because this is how dudes get seriously injured.
Jaylen Brown scary fall after Kyle Lowry undercuts his legs in game 6 of Boston Celtics vs Toronto Raptors! Full clip and Jaylen Brown first half highlights: https://t.co/TFcD8p64Uzpic.twitter.com/mOADWKSmvu
It just undermines your confidence in the game because the NBA always seems to find a way to extend a series in the interest of more compelling storylines.
Speaking of the garbage ass refs, there were a host of questionable calls down the stretch that saved the Raptors time and time again.
in a four-second span:
1) The Kemba non-foul call 2) Giving the Raptors the timeout instead of jump ball 3) The foul on OG 4) Which was not in the act of shooting? 5) It took 1.3 seconds off the clock???
Kemba not getting a foul as he got hacked going for a layup at the end of regulation was criminal too. I could only find the video from a dude in Colombia, but this guy is obviously pretty pissed off too.
TODAVIA NO LO PUEDO CREER ES INCREIBLE ES UN FOUL CLARISIMO A KEMBA WALKER HIJOS DE PUTA… pic.twitter.com/xweKNxRI8v
That could have easily been a tech. Jaylen Brown was especially unhappy with Nurse after the game saying “Grown men should be able to control themselves. Especially the coaching staff.”
But thats enough acting like someone pissed in my Cheerios as the Celtics need to shake it off and get ready for war in Game 7. Luckily we’re in the Bubble so the C’s don’t need to travel to Jurassic Park for a do or die game, but this is probably the biggest game in a lot of these guys’ careers. Brown and Tatum weren’t expected to topple LeBron James in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2018, Brad Stevens wasn’t expected to reach the Finals with a bunch of young guys and Al Horford, and Kemba Walker wasn’t expected to do much with that sorry Charlotte team. But they sure are expected to win this series and they will never hear the end of it if they lose tomorrow.
This will be a massive missed opportunity if they lose Game 7 with a path to the Finals cleared for them. With the Bucks getting knocked out early, the Celtics just need to take care of business Friday and then “all” they have to do is beat Jimmy Butler to reach the NBA Finals.
NBCSports – LeBron James joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami promising multiple championships. But the Heat lost in the 2011 NBA Finals then lost three straight to trail the Celtics 3-2 in the 2012 Eastern Conference finals. LeBron was labeled a choker who didn’t deliver in the clutch.
Then, he turned in a performance for the ages – 45 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a victory in Boston.
How did LeBron summon that level of focus and execution?
LeBron on Instagram Live:
My mentality was, if we lose, Pat Riley may break us all up. And I didn’t want that. It might be the quickest breakup in basketball history.And not only might they break it all up, my legacy is going to take a huge, huge hit if I don’t go out here and perform at an all-time high. Win, lose or draw, I had to be focused. I had to lock in and lead us to victory. Didn’t know if it was going to happen that way, but that was my mindset.
Despite an unprecedented run of dominance in Boston across multiple sports over the past 20 years, it’s the bitter defeats that stick with me most. I vividly remember sitting at my future father-in-law’s house in 2012 watching LeBron James rip my heart out as he went God Mode for 45 and 15 in Game 6. Just an absolutely unbelievable, singlehanded display of dominance. And it knocked out the already exhausted legs of the aging, proud, veteran laden 2012 Celtics. I’ve written about how that Celtics squads was one of my all-time favorite Boston teams many times.
Led by three Hall of Famers in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, but all three were well past their primes. This was a full four years after the Celtics won Banner 17. This wasn’t the 2008 Celtics, this was the Grit and Balls Celtics.
KG was 36, Ray was 36, and Pierce was 34-years-old at this point so this was going to be their last run at a chip and everybody knew it. It’s impressive they even got that far after winning just 39 games in the regular season that year.
People forget the C’s actually went down 0-2 in this series before ripping off 3 straight wins and putting LeBron on the ropes, which was oh so sweet at the time. KG and the Celtics broke LeBron two years before and legitimately bullied him so bad he left Cleveland to team up with his super friends. After the most ridiculous display in pro sports history (AKA the pre-season dynasty predicting rock concert)
LeBron and co. proceeded to get worked by Dirk and the Mavs in the 2011 Finals.
0 for 1.
So if the Heat lost yet again in Year 2, with LeBron, D-Wade, and Chris Bosh all on massive contracts, I very easily could have seen Pat Riley saying F this whole operation. Would that have been an overreaction? Yea sure, but this is Pat Riley we’re talking about not Brad Stevens.
To think we were THIS close to imploding that mini-dynasty less than 24 months into its inception like a cheap folding chair. That Game 6 literally gave birth to the LeBron James we know today. It essentially washed away the choker tag as LeBron evolved into the most dominant player in the world that night.
Yes, LeBron swung the sword that decapitated the end of the Celtics’ run and won his first NBA title in the process. But lets not forget the following season, if not for Ray Allen’s dagger 3 in Game 6 of the Finals the Heat lose to the Spurs in 2012.
I remember watching this game at T’s Pub on that crappy projector screen, turning to Big Z and saying “Well Ray just won the Finals for LeBron.” They still had to go to OT just to win Game 6 and then win Game 7 on top of that, but the hardest job was already done by Jesus Shuttlesworth.
The Heat then lost to the Spurs in 2013 too. That would have made the Heat 1/4 in the Finals with the Super Team, which would have made LeBron an ugly 1/5 in his career up to that point. Add that with losing 3 out of 4 to the Warriors in Cleveland and LeBron could easily be 2/9 in the Finals. So a couple of butterfly wing flaps one way or the other and LeBron could have left Miami with just one or even zero championships. Imagine that?
Now I love watching LeBron play, I understand I am witnessing one of the greatest to ever play the game, but goddamn was it fun to root against LeBron with KG and Pierce wanting to bury the guy more than anybody every single night.
The Roni strikes again. This now makes the NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, XFL, Fast and the Furious, March Madness, the Boston Marathon, and now the biggest golf tournament in the world all postponed and/or cancelled. I literally prayed to the golf gods and the twitter gods yesterday when a commercial for The Masters came on…while I worked from home amid mass hysteria.
What the hell are we all going to watch now? Everybody better start enjoying books real quick because there’s not much else left. I’m not a doctor or a scientist so I’m not going to question the decision because there is obviously a massive health crisis happening in this country right now. It’s probably for the best to just punt on the spring and we’ll all regroup for the greatest summer of TV programming ever created. Imagine the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup Finals, The Masters, MLB, and NFL Training Camp all going on at the same exact time? It will make Sweeps Week look like public access television in comparison.
With that being said I am left here to twiddle my thumbs and scroll through twitter all day and night. Theres only so many World Star videos a man can watch and I’m already pretty over the Toilet Paper heist stories. My advice is to watch *everything* in your Netflix queue, even that shit you don’t actually care about, but tell yourself you do because you’re cultured. Like that documentary on yoga thats been sitting in my queue for months. I’ve done yoga once in my life so why did I save a documentary on yoga in my queue? Because I had zero intention of watching it unless oh ya know the entire country shut down and every sports league ceased to exist for the foreseeable future.
So that and mass amounts of video games will be played. The big guns at EA, Sony, Activision, Microsoft, Nintendo, Rockstar etc. would be wise to offer some discounts on their titles because I am liable to buy half a dozen vidyagames right now.
This is like the reckoning for all of our short attention spans. We’ve all been constantly stimulated by TV, internet, sports, and our phones 24/7 for the past decade and now we’re all being forced to entertain ourselves for the first time. Godspeed boys.
Last night the Raptors went up 2-1 on the Golden State Warriors in a wildly entertaining NBA Finals game, but late in the game Kyle Lowry dove into the front row for a rebound and some fan took it upon himself to try and give Lowry the business.
Lowry actually said on SportsCenter this morning: “He reached over & put his hands on me for no reason then he said a couple vulgar words to me & repeated them.”
To which I would agree with in a normal circumstance. Some 6’1″ dude diving into your lap would be problematic if you were just riding the T. But, this ain’t a normal circumstance. No you’re sitting courtside at the NBA Finals. You paid an EXORBITANT amount of money just to sit courtside for fucks sake. So for this guy to act shocked and disgusted when he wasn’t even the one who actually took the hit is preposterous. Lets look at the tape.
Kyle Lowry was shaking his head after a courtside fan pushed him when he fell into the crowd. pic.twitter.com/5SwQv3hdnN
Its actually the lady in the yellow that takes the entire collision on the chin. Look at that. Look at where she starts and where she ends up.
Kyle Lowry comes flying in and we see the woman’s head go back..and to the left.
Back and to the left.
That lady got absolutely SMOKED and its this dickhead next to them in the blue polo who’s become rattled by the entire series of events. He’s basically Ari Gold without the witty one liners.
This old rich white guy is lucky Lowry didn’t just snuff him right then and there. I mean have people already forgotten about the Malice at the Palace??
That was a monumental event and will forever be the precise moment in time that historians point to as to why you never fuck with a professional athlete. Its one thing to call a guy a bum from the sidelines, its an entirely different thing to put your hands on him. Once you do that you’re on your own man. If you don’t remember Ron Artest, thats a you problem.
I’m more focused on Queen Mallory making power moves and demolishing Grammy winning rappers.
Mallory Edens has really blown up recently, probably due to our humble website blogging about the Queen on a regular basis, but she just jumped into the stratosphere by putting Drake in a bodybag. Sitting court side rocking the Pusha T shirt, she just put Jimmy back in a wheelchair.
For anyone who doesn’t follow internet rap beefs, Drake and Pusha T got reeeeaaaal personal last year. Pusha T legitimately outed Drake on a diss track for secretly fathering a son with a porn star. Pusha rapped about Drake’s boy, 40, probably dying soon because he has Multiple sclerosis. Yikes. KFC actually had a really thorough breakdown of the beef if you’re interested in all the deets.
So for Mallory to wear that shirt right in Drake’s face is a power move. Drizzy seems smitten by the move and to be perfectly honest its hard to blame him.
Bend the knee for the Queen and save your kingdom.
With the NBA playoffs now underway, a handful of The 300s team members have taken the NBA bracket challenge. The picks are in, and here’s what we’ve got for finals predictions. We’ll routinely check in after each round is finished and see who actually knows what they’re talking about. Here’s what we’re looking at for finals predictions:
GRENGA
FINALS: BUCKS vs. THUNDER WINNER: THUNDER
The Bucks were the best team in the NBA this year, and Giannis is unstoppable. They are getting healthy at just the right time, and although last years ROY Malcolm Brogdon will miss the first round, they won’t need him. I think the Celtics will give them some trouble in the second round, but I’m just not sold that the Celtics can play consistent enough to beat the NBA’s best team, especially since they only finished the year one game over .500 on the road. The Bucks dominated Toronto in the regular season, so I don’t think they’ll have a problem with them when they eventually meet up in the ECF. As for the Sixers, that process is still going.
In the West, the Thunder have a long road to the championship, but I think this is their year. Paul George is playing out of his mind, and when you combine his MVP-caliber play with constant triple-doubles from Westbrook and a defensive post-monster in the form of Steven Adams, I think they have what it takes to beat anyone in 7. They swept the season series against Portland, the Nuggets are set up for an early exit with the youngest team in the playoffs, and I think they matchup against the Bucks as well as anybody. The biggest question is whether or not they play the Warriors in the WCF. I have the Rockets topping the Warriors because they won the season series, but I might be falling for a trap. Honestly, I’m just sick of the Warriors and want any excuse to root against them. We’ll see how it goes.
BIG Z
FINALS: RAPTORS vs. WARRIORS WINNER: WARRIORS
“Short and sweet here. I’m going with the Warriors. The NBA is a top-heavy league and there’s no reason not to take the favorite. As for the Celtics, I think they’ll make it past the Bucks to the Conference Finals because they’ve got so much talent. I think they’ll fall to the Raptors in the conference finals though, because when the going gets tough I think they’ll ultimately pack it in. This will mark 3 straight championships and 4 outta 5 for Dubs.”
JIMMY LIPS
FINALS: BUCKS vs. ROCKETS WINNER: BUCKS
“Milwaukee — the league’s best team in the regular season — has a cupcake path to the Finals. The Bucks went 14-2 against their division this season and neither of those 2 losses were at the hands of the Pistons, who lost all four contests by an average of 14.75 points. Being that I have the Victor Oladipo-less Pacers beating the Celtics in Round 1 (in 7 games), the Bucks 14-2 record against the Central still applies here. Now, the Pacers did top the Bucks back in late December, however that was Milwaukee’s third game in four nights. When the Bucks meet the Raptors in the ECF, it’ll be the first time they’ve been there since George Karl was at the helm in 2001. In games in which Mr. Leonard played, the teams split the two meetings but haven’t played since January 31. That shouldn’t matter overall and Milwaukee should advance to its first Finals appearance since the 70s.
Out West, spoiler alert: the Rockets are beating the Warriors in Round 2. This is a healthy Rockets squad and they will get the Warriors a round earlier, assuring they are fresh. Houston took 3 of 4 during the regular season, including the classic at Oracle on January 3 that went to OT thanks to The Beard. They’ll meet Denver in the WCF because there isn’t a strong enough case to build for OKC beating a formidable and hungrier team like the Nuggets in a 7-game series. The Beard and CP3 get the Rockets to their first Finals appearance since 1995 when they won back-to-back chippers with some guy named Olajuwon at center. Rejoice, NBA fans. We will get to see this season’s top two MVP candidates face off in June. Milwaukee swept the season series. And yes, I know, CP3 didn’t play in one of those games.
Bucks in 6. The Greek World Order begins this summer.”
RED
FINALS: CELTICS vs. WARRIORS WINNER: WARRIORS
“I’ve got the Celtics making it through the toughest road in the East, going through the Pacers, Giannis and the Bucks, and Kawhi and the Raptors before falling to the Warriors in the NBA Finals. The Celtics match up with the Warriors better than any other team in the NBA, but its hard to pick against the team that is one Kyrie Irving circus shot away from being back to back to back to back champions. Warriors in 6.”
The 300s 