TheHooperNBA

 Trae Young says 'see you in Atlanta' after Knicks win in MSG Trae Young acts as a villain as the fans enjoy in MSG. A fan was banned indefinitely after she spat on Trae Young during a PANDEMIC. NBA players should be better protected. At this rate, just remove the courtside tickets as some Philly fan dropped popcorn on Russell Westbrook. Anyways, back to the game. Again, Julius Randle did not have the best of shooting nights and D-Rose starred. Reggie Bullock also stepped it up with 15PTS and 4 3PM. Trae Young had a good game but players like Clint Capela, John Collins and Gallinari did not play well.  Led by Derrick Rose’s 26 PTS, 4 REB and 4 AST, the Knicks defeated the Hawks, 101-92, in Game 2. Julius Randle added 15 PTS, 12 REB and 4 AST for the Knicks in the victory, while Trae Young tallied a game-high 30 PTS and 7 AST for the Hawks in the losing effort. Here are some takeaways: 1) Clint Capela and John Collins scored 4PTS and 0PTS respectively, wayyy below their season a

Milwaukee Bucks crush Miami Heat again Milwaukee crush Miami 113-84 with bad games from Jimmy Butler and a bad scoring game from Bam Adebayo. Giannis got a whopping 17 rebounds and Khris Middleton topscored. Jrue Holiday took the role of a playmaker and had 12 assists. This W makes the series 3-0 and this was a series that everyone thought would go to 6 or 7. Unless the Heat pull off a miracle, that is not gonna happen. For all we know, the Bucks might sweep them. This is definitely a better team from last year with 2 players shooting above 45% from 3 in Bryn Forbes and Bobby Portis, two new additions.  Led by Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 17 PTS, 17 REB and 5 AST, the Bucks defeated the Heat, 113-84, in Game 3. Khris Middleton (22 PTS, 8 REB, 5 AST) and Jrue Holiday (19 PTS, 12 AST) added 41 PTS for the Bucks in the victory, while Jimmy Butler tallied 19 PTS, 8 REB and 6 AST for the Heat in the losing effort. That is it for this recap. I am not usually going to have takeaways in 3-0 series

 Ice Trae becomes the villain at MSG as Hawks snatch Game 1 The energetic MSG crowd wasn't enough for the Knicks to beat Atlanta as "Ice Trae" hits the game-winning floater to silence the MSG crowd. It's surprising that the Knicks came close to beating the Hawks even with bad shooting nights for both RJ Barrett and Julius Randle. Well, it might be because, and I think Kenny over at Called Game said this, Alec Burks transformed into Klay Thompson in the 4th quarter as he scored 18 points in the 4th quarter. The Knicks rightfully said something mentioned in a tweet I've attached below. AB stands for "A Bucket" pic.twitter.com/9uaycuF68n — NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) May 24, 2021 The veterans came out to play as D-Rose and Alec Burks combined for 44PTS>  Here are some takeaways: 1) Of course, RJ and Julius have to play better. I am pretty sure Randle will play better in Game 2. 2) The veterans need to play like they are right now. Just continue this comb

 Clippers get embarrassed by Luka Doncic and the Mavs The Clippers were the favourites...Not anymore. They lost BOTH games on their home and now they gotta go to Dalls.  There have been 426 playoff series in which one team led another 2-0. The team facing that deficit has won only 27 of those series, or roughly 6.3 percent. But Kawhi is no stranger to 2-0 deficits. He was on the championship Raptors team and was down 2-0 against the Giannis-led Bucks and won the series without losing a another game. But that series was different. The Raptors lost when they were on the road and won 3 of the 4 games at home afterwards. This series, they have to win at least 2 on the road to try to beat Dallas as a 3-0 or 3-1 comeback really is improbable. But it is possible and Kawhi has witnessed the wrong side of it, blowing a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets in the bubble last year.  Anyway, back to this game, Luka played well again with 39 points.  Led by Luka Doncic’s 39 PTS, 7 REB and 7 AST, the No. 5 Dalla

 76ers beat red-hot Wizards as Tobi stars The Wizards' plan worked and Embiid got into foul trouble early in the game. But then something the Wizards weren't expecting happened. Tobias Harris took over in the 1st half in the Absence of Embiid. He was literally unstoppable, posting 28 points in the first half. The Wizards played well even though Westbrook had a really rough night. If Westbrook can up his game, the Wizards, might pick up a game or 2 against the one seed.  The upset is really improbable, with Ben Simmons' defense, Joel Embiid's 2-way game, and Tobias Harris' offense in the playoffs. But the Wizards are red-hot, so anything is possible.  Led by Tobias Harris’ playoff career-high 37 PTS, the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Washington Wizards, 125-118, in Game 1. Joel Embiid (30 PTS, 21 in the 2nd half) and Ben Simmons (6 PTS, Playoff career-high 15 REB and 15 AST) helped lift the 76ers to the victory, while Bradley Beal (33 PTS, 10 REB, 6 AST) and Russel

 Blazers pull off the upset in Game 1  The Blazers beat the MVP of the league and the Denver Nuggets in game 1. Carmelo Anthony provided a big boost off the bench against his former team and Damian Lillard had 34 points and 13 assists. CJ McCollum chipped in with 21 points. The Blazers held Nikola Jokic, the MVP, to just 1 assist compared to his season average of 8.4 assists per game. Damian Lillard led the Trail Blazers with 34 PTS and 13 AST, while Carmelo Anthony added 18 PTS (4 3PM). Nikola Jokic paced the Nuggets with 34 PTS and 16 REB, while Michael Porter Jr. contributed 25 PTS and 9 REB. 1. Nikola Jokic has to keep up his assisting game. He has to average at least 8 assists in the playoffs. The only playmaker they have after him is Facundo Campazzo who is not the guy who averages 10 points and 10 assists. 2. Denver has to up it's defensive game and stop Damian Lillard without giving up too many assists as was the case in game 1. 3. The 3-point shooting and defense has to be

 Memphis Grizzlies vs Utah Jazz Game 1 Recap The 1st seed vs 8th seed is generally a breeze for the 1st seed. But not the case this season. Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies are going to give Utah some problems. They take game one with Dillon Brooks starring.  Donovan Mitchell was not in the game and when he comes back, he can take the scoring load and win the games for them. But until then, this Jazz team will have to win games behind Rudy Gobert's rim protection and scoring contributions from Bojan, Jordan Clarkson and Mike Conley. They weren't favoured to win the title due to lack of playoff experience, but they were expected to get out of round 1.  The Memphis Grizzlies are looking to upset the Jazz and this is the best start they could have got. This'll boost Dillon Brooks and the Grizzlies' confidence.  Dillon Brooks  had 31 points and seven rebounds and the  Memphis Grizzlies  beat the  Utah Jazz  112-109 Sunday night in the opening game of their first-round pl

 Dallas Mavericks vs LA Clippers Game 1 Recap The Los Angeles Clippers are the favourites, but the Luka Doncic-led Mavericks team stole the first game from Kawhi and PG.  Luka was predicted to give the LA Clippers a bit of trouble, and he did just that posting a 31-point triple double. Tim Hardaway Jr. continued his hot streak with a good game on 5-9 3pt shooting. Dorian Finney Smith had a good game as well, posting 18 PTS. Dallas got the win in a rough shooting night for Kristaps Porzingis, who shot 4-13 from the field. If he can play well, Dallas has a chance of advancing to the second round.  Luka now has 3 triple doubles in 7 postseason games, which is impressive. If he continues on his hot streak with KP supporting him, they might as well be considered the favourites. This is from a bit of a biased standpoint as I am a Mavericks fan. But still, you never know what tricks Luka has up his sleeve. 1. The Mavericks offense was flowing, with Doncic drawing double teams which led to ass

Milwaukee Bucks vs Miami Heat Game 1 Recap The Milwaukee vs Miami series was always going to be interesting, and the first game lived up to the hype. The OT thriller was really fantastic to watch as Khris Middleton scored a midrange jumper with 0.5 seconds left to put the Bucks up by 2 in OT.  Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo didn't have the best of games but Duncan Robinson made 7 threes on the way to 24 points and the vet Goran Dragic scored 25 for the Heat. Jimmy Butler scored the game-tying points in regulation. Goran Dragic also came out clutch as he hit a three to tie it up with 20.6 seconds left. But alas, they were defeated by Khris Middleton's midrange jumper.  Middleton finished with a game-high 27 PTS, along with 6 REB and 6 AST for the Bucks, while Giannis Antetokounmpo added 26 PTS, 18 REB and 5 AST in the victory. Goran Dragic tallied 25 PTS, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, while Duncan Robinson added 24 PTS, 2 AST, 2 REB on 7-13 3PT shooting. 1. The Heat offense failed without

Revisiting The Thrilling And Eventful 2020-21 NBA Regular Season The 2020-21 injury-riddled regular season has seen teams rise from the bottom and fall from the top. The Eastern Conference finalists are at No. 5 and No. 7 and the 14th seeded team last year is the 5th seed. The Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns have emerged as contenders out of nowhere. Needless to say, this regular season has shaken things up a bit. Some of the drops are due to injuries as in case of the Lakers who caught the injury bug and missed Anthony Davis and LeBron James for part of the season. They made their way into the playoffs and are looking to upset the Suns in the first round.   Excitement had increased for the regular season due to a newly introduced play-in tournament in which teams seeded 7-10 entered a 'play-in tournament'. The Lakers beat the Warriors and the Grizzlies upset the Warriors to clinch the 8th seed. Stephen Curry carried a team which, according to LeBron James, was a lottery-bound team.