NBA Playoff Thread

[SpongeWorthy]

Dwight Howard can now have a Baby Mamas vs. Kids 5 on 5 pick up game.

[Cubswin11]

Mike Brown signs a 5 year $20mm contract to go back to Cleveland.

[ConstableRabbit]

Boston is smaller?

Yeah, I'd call it a "smaller major city". It has about the same population as Milwaukee.

 

But as Tim mentioned, its metropolitan area is substantial -- about 4x larger than Milwaukee's.

 

It's metropolitan area is larger, but it also is the only city with its own region supporting the same team. There's 14 million people almost exclusively in support of the Boston teams. Milwaukee is right down the street from Chicago with Minnesota to the West and Detroit to the East. The heart of Milwaukee support is basically just the 5+ million people in Wisconsin. I think the closest comparison to New England may be Arizona, which is the only game in town, for miles and miles. But that is a much more spread out population, and a huge portion of it is transplanted from other locations.

 

For sports support conversations, Boston does not belong in the "smaller city" discussion.

Normally, yes, but the discussion was around support in the context of attendance, not how large or widespread the fan base is. It doesn't matter if the Celtics fan base stretches to Vermont: a dude living in Burlington isn't going to a Wednesday night game at the Garden.

 

Boston isn't even a top 20 city population wise, but it's top 10 when factoring in metropolitan area. By that measure, I shouldn't have referred to it as a smaller major city.

[UMFan83]

Boston is smaller?

Yeah, I'd call it a "smaller major city". It has about the same population as Milwaukee.

 

But as Tim mentioned, its metropolitan area is substantial -- about 4x larger than Milwaukee's.

 

It's metropolitan area is larger, but it also is the only city with its own region supporting the same team. There's 14 million people almost exclusively in support of the Boston teams. Milwaukee is right down the street from Chicago with Minnesota to the West and Detroit to the East. The heart of Milwaukee support is basically just the 5+ million people in Wisconsin. I think the closest comparison to New England may be Arizona, which is the only game in town, for miles and miles. But that is a much more spread out population, and a huge portion of it is transplanted from other locations.

 

For sports support conversations, Boston does not belong in the "smaller city" discussion.

Normally, yes, but the discussion was around support in the context of attendance, not how large or widespread the fan base is. It doesn't matter if the Celtics fan base stretches to Vermont: a dude living in Burlington isn't going to a Wednesday night game at the Garden.

 

Boston isn't even a top 20 city population wise, but it's top 10 when factoring in metropolitan area. By that measure, I shouldn't have referred to it as a smaller major city.

 

Maybe not Burlington but I know Celtics fans routinely come from VT, NH, ME, CT and RI to go to Boston sporting events. I knew a guy when I lived in Concord, NH that had season tickets to the Bruins and would go to maybe 30 games a year, and thats like a 1.5 hour drive. Although Concord isn't in the defined Boston metro area, it is very much the hub of the region and people act like they are from Boston and talk about Boston like they are from there.

[Cubswin11]

Maybe not Burlington but I know Celtics fans routinely come from VT, NH, ME, CT and RI to go to Boston sporting events. I knew a guy when I lived in Concord, NH that had season tickets to the Bruins and would go to maybe 30 games a year, and thats like a 1.5 hour drive. Although Concord isn't in the defined Boston metro area, it is very much the hub of the region and people act like they are from Boston and talk about Boston like they are from there.

My girlfriend's family moved out to Avon, CT when she was like 12 and she went to middle school/HS there and then she went to Boston University for a year before transfering to a school here in Wisconsin, that we met at, to be closer to her family who had moved back to the Rockford area that they are originally from.

 

She very much acts like she was from Boston her whole life even though she only spent one year at BU and lived in CT for just the 6-7 years her family moved out there (she was born in Wisconsin but grew up in Rockford before the move to CT). So I can back up these claims of what you are talking about here and it can get annoying.

 

I know, cool story.

[Smack]

Yep, my company has an office in far northern Maine and they're all Boston fans for every sport. It's around a 6 hour drive to Boston from there.

[SpongeWorthy]

http://i.imgur.com/kp87jKB.jpg

[Cubswin11]

We gave ourselves a game in OKC! Houston was just down like 15

[cubbyvirus00]

I love watching this slow death that the Lakers are enduring.

[Guest]

I love watching this slow death that the Lakers are enduring.

 

A rare time we agree.

[Banedon]

http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/2529333/destROYed_medium.gif

[wolf stansson]

Russ Westbrook tore his meniscus and is likely done for the year. The finals just got way less competitive.

Sure would be nice to have an elite swing guard who can distribute and score with the best of them. A cool beard would really be icing on the cake, too.

[SpongeWorthy]

That's what imb gets for puffing his chest in the Bulls thread

[imb]

i bet westbrook plays again before rose does

[GammonsPocketTweets]

Didn't Westy play the entire half on the bad knee? Couldn't he just gut it out for the rest of the playoffs? TWTW?

[bcl412]

Miami's good and clearly has the ability to win a bunch of championships because of their talent. And they did dominate a really good OKC team last year in the finals and a good Bulls team two years ago when they were healthy, but it would be nice if their challengers stopped having serious injuries to key players.

[Derwood]

#neehurding

[CubColtPacer]

Miami's good and clearly has the ability to win a bunch of championships because of their talent. And they did dominate a really good OKC team last year in the finals and a good Bulls team two years ago when they were healthy, but it would be nice if their challengers stopped having serious injuries to key players.

 

It is strange how this has turned into a war of attrition. 6 teams currently in the playoffs have All-Stars out (Rose, Kobe, Westbrook, Rondo, Granger, Lee). Then you have Gallinari out for the Nuggets and even Lou Williams/Pachulia out for the Hawks.

 

So out of the 16 playoff teams, 7-8 of them have a significant player out for the season/indefinitely. That doesn't even begin to get into the players that are hurting but trying to play through it which is usually the main injury storyline of the playoffs.

 

I do expect in this case that Westbrook will be back in time if they make the Finals though. They're saying potentially weeks depending on what they find in surgery.

[Guest]

Warriors got screwed on that 5-second call. Hope it doesn't hurt them.

[cubbyvirus00]

I love watching this slow death that the Lakers are enduring.

 

A rare time we agree.

 

Well death was quick for them tonight

[rawaction]

Miami's good and clearly has the ability to win a bunch of championships because of their talent. And they did dominate a really good OKC team last year in the finals and a good Bulls team two years ago when they were healthy, but it would be nice if their challengers stopped having serious injuries to key players.

 

It is strange how this has turned into a war of attrition. 6 teams currently in the playoffs have All-Stars out (Rose, Kobe, Westbrook, Rondo, Granger, Lee). Then you have Gallinari out for the Nuggets and even Lou Williams/Pachulia out for the Hawks.

 

So out of the 16 playoff teams, 7-8 of them have a significant player out for the season/indefinitely. That doesn't even begin to get into the players that are hurting but trying to play through it which is usually the main injury storyline of the playoffs.

 

I do expect in this case that Westbrook will be back in time if they make the Finals though. They're saying potentially weeks depending on what they find in surgery.

Isn't Amare out for the Knicks too?

[illiniguy]

Miami's good and clearly has the ability to win a bunch of championships because of their talent. And they did dominate a really good OKC team last year in the finals and a good Bulls team two years ago when they were healthy, but it would be nice if their challengers stopped having serious injuries to key players.

 

It is strange how this has turned into a war of attrition. 6 teams currently in the playoffs have All-Stars out (Rose, Kobe, Westbrook, Rondo, Granger, Lee). Then you have Gallinari out for the Nuggets and even Lou Williams/Pachulia out for the Hawks.

 

So out of the 16 playoff teams, 7-8 of them have a significant player out for the season/indefinitely. That doesn't even begin to get into the players that are hurting but trying to play through it which is usually the main injury storyline of the playoffs.

 

I do expect in this case that Westbrook will be back in time if they make the Finals though. They're saying potentially weeks depending on what they find in surgery.

Isn't Amare out for the Knicks too?

He was listing stars that were out, not role players.

[bcl412]

Miami's good and clearly has the ability to win a bunch of championships because of their talent. And they did dominate a really good OKC team last year in the finals and a good Bulls team two years ago when they were healthy, but it would be nice if their challengers stopped having serious injuries to key players.

 

It is strange how this has turned into a war of attrition. 6 teams currently in the playoffs have All-Stars out (Rose, Kobe, Westbrook, Rondo, Granger, Lee). Then you have Gallinari out for the Nuggets and even Lou Williams/Pachulia out for the Hawks.

 

So out of the 16 playoff teams, 7-8 of them have a significant player out for the season/indefinitely. That doesn't even begin to get into the players that are hurting but trying to play through it which is usually the main injury storyline of the playoffs.

 

I do expect in this case that Westbrook will be back in time if they make the Finals though. They're saying potentially weeks depending on what they find in surgery.

 

Not having the best players in playing in the playoffs sucks. I didn't like even when Bosh went down last year and Rondo being hurt this year and I'm far from a Celtics or Heat fan.

[Guest]

harden looked pretty bad at the end of that game

[SpongeWorthy]

Steph Curry is just cheat codes sometimes. Cross half court and shoot.