Is "Baller" Trademarked Yet?

On January 23 rd , I published a post prior to the Celtics’ game discussing what is wrong with them and why I lost hope in them.  At that time, they were 23-24 and just blew a game against the Trail Blazers (who had the worst defense in the NBA at that point) where they didn’t score a field goal in the final 7:21.  Since then, the team went 28-7 in the remainder of the regular season to finish 51-31 and swept the Nets in the first round of the playoffs.  Further, in 22 games since the All-Star break, they went 22-5 with a league best 12.7 Net Rating per ESPN.  Now that we’ve analyzed what has gone wrong for them to start the season, I think it’s only fair to redeem myself and evaluate what has gone right for them since.  All stats are per basketball-reference.com unless otherwise noted.   Their defense has been elite A lot has been made by many writers and analysts about how good their defense has been this season.   While most have focused on h...

Now that the NBA regular season has ended, we have arrived at the Play-In and Playoffs!  In this post, I have made my predictions for who will win each series.  As a note, I am assuming that Covid-19 is not a major factor, though that can dictate some series considering rising Covid numbers.   Play-In Games East Brooklyn Nets (7) beats Cleveland Cavaliers (8), clinch 7 seed While the Cavs are certainly not a team to sleep on in most situations, it will be more difficult for them to win if Jarrett Allen is unable to play (as I expect).   With that, you get a great offense and a poor defense facing a good defense (though great if healthy) and underwhelming offense.   I think the Nets will have difficulties matchup up against both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving (though Irving has struggled since returning full-time), though this isn’t a lock.   Atlanta Hawks (9) beats Charlotte Hornets (10) This game could wind up being very close, as the two te...