It would be way up there .
Especially considering it’s the NBA which historically has less upsets then any other sport
Of course a teams clear best player going down in the first minute makes the game go in a completely different way. Who knows how it unfolds if that doesn't happen.
How is this even a debate? Should be universal opinion that we have no clue what would happen. Not like Celts were getting worked before he got injured or anything, they just won the previous 3 games, including the last game where they shot 7/35 from 3 and still won.
He was implying that it was the reason they lost the game, or at least that's how it looked. Maybe I misinterpreted.
Seems very hard to believe that the play determined who won/lost. Celtics weren't immune to playing like that with a full squad. They struggled against that zone in this series when Tatum was fully healthy.
Bunch of round the horn passing and chucking 3's probably isn't changing much even with a healthy Tatum. They just do that dumb shit sometimes.
Heat were the thoroughly better team last night, came out with a much better energy and game plan. Frankly it could have been a lot worse than it was.
Yeah, could've gone like it did in the first 3 and lost or Tatum could've played well and that 8 point lead going into the 4th is a lot closer and they win like the last 3.
Who knows? It is obviously a pretty massive development. We're talking a little more than Malcolm Brogdon here (who also was a huge loss, but again Heat had guys hurt + it is Brogdon you get him for a late 1st because he's probably gonna get hurt. Otherwise he'd be a starter somewhere)
Having a better gameplan, more energy, better execution whatever obviously is somewhat a byproduct of the other teams best player being fairly useless.
It isn't an excuse or anything, that's just sports. Celts had a lot of deficiencies prior to the point he got injured that caused their margin for error to be so slim but to just say the best player on the team and 1 of the best in the league going down definitively isn't changing the result is presumptuous
"Denver struggling quite a bit in general. They should win their first series now, but it likely ends there"
"Nuggets like to choke around this time of year"
"Could be a 6-7 game series. Denver hasn't looked good for a while, and they can't guard Minny's two best players"
"The Nuggets don't benefit from the big market flashy-ness or public love, but that doesn't affect the line very much. Their pricing has seemed pretty fair relative to the other teams in the West. In fact it might be a little bit on the pricey side. They are the 4th- best team in the conference most likely. They haven't been playing particularly good basketball for a while, especially on defense. They had a great stretch mid way through the year that gave them some breathing room in a pretty packed West."
