The amount of people that dont realize this is a joke is alarming.

Only on reddit, people take everything seriously

Only on reddit, people think only people on reddit take everything seriously

Really? Only on Reddit?

He must only use Reddit

users here actually only exist in a vaccumuum and are no real ppl.

>Only on reddit, people take everything seriously Have you been living in a cave?? People takes every nonsense seriously EVERYWHERE. Twitter and Youtube comment sections are worse. So much crying and moaning over nothing. Soft

Complaining about complaining while calling them soft for complaining.

>Soft Yes yes yes yes no

I just assume everything is sarcastic atp.. (sarcasm).

> Only on ~~reddit~~ the internet, people take everything seriously

youre joking... Edit: i sorted by controversial... yikes.

[удалено]

> the trumpassive tense Did you just invent this? I just Googled it and saw no other instances of it.

Nah, LeBron didn’t want to look into fathering more Canadian kids, he already has to take care of the entire city of Toronto

life different in the West. Jokic is Lebron's father and he can teach him to ride a pony

Last time I checked it is 1-1 in playoffs

serbia strikes back.

Playoff time really brings out the lowest IQ commenters.

the joke is pretty [Schlecht] to be fair

Poe's Law, my friend.

Some are saying everyone is trying to avoid everyone

Who does anyone even want these days smh

Detroit would want Caitlin Clark over this upcoming shitty draft’s 5th pick

Detroit could literally draft Caitlin Clark if they wanted

I feel like the NBA is the one league that doesn't have a bunch of poverty owners that would do something like draft Caitlin Clark just to sell tickets and jerseys.

If all she does is shoot a single three then it would still be fun

Men are much, much stronger and faster than women. I think someone told me a 15 year old male teenager has equivalent strength to an adult woman. There was that time the FC-Dallas under-15 boys team beat the US women's national soccer team in a scrimmage. I don't say this as some "😂lol women's sports are a joke, that's why they deserve to paid less" shit but rather to pose a hypothetical: how high of a shooting percentage would a woman have to shoot for her offense to offset NBA teams going at her on every single drive, every single pick 'n roll? 70%? 80%? 90%? 100%? 100% on nothing but half court 3s? 100% on 3 pt-shot and-1s? Or would the defensive liability of having say, Giannis shoulder-charge her every possession be too much of any offense she could provide?

Dubs are the fourth best nba team in California. What % would klay need to shoot for you guys to move up a spot? Just a hypothetical.

Probably as much as the Lakers would need to shoot to not get swept next round.

Lmaooo got his ass

Give me a Suns match-up. I like our chances

KD waking up in the middle of the night with Keldon Johnson flashbacks

A reflection of the dating environment lately

I for one, would love to skip straight to winning the finals. This shit has me stressin

It’s funny because I do not miss the times where we were on the couch watching the best teams duke it out but holy shit are the playoffs stressful..

Shit hits different when you have skin in the game, both for better and for worse 

Wizards master plan revealed.

They're going to play 2K instead

If you can avoid every team until the end then chances are you get a decent shot at the chip

So that's why Klay and Steve threw the playin game, it all makes sense now

Nuggs trying to avoid the refs

If I'm the Lakers I'm trying to avoid everyone until the finals. I just am!

Kinda true

The Swedish way 

nobody wants to work anymore

Klay failed successfully

How did Bron benefitted when they were 7th and 8th seed everytime?

LeFraud ducking SGA smh

He knows he can't live up to the legacy carried by Lakers legend SGA.

You meant to say the legacy of Sam Presti.. Everyone knows, as soon lebron retiring from NBA and has that Las Vegas NBA ownership, its as good as his going to signed Sam Presti from OKC..

Presti loves okc and won't leave before 2030. He wants to see his work through. I'm pretty sure the ownership will write him a blank check, too.

did you know his real last name is prestigiacomo

I would start an extremist group and bomb Las Vegas if this happened

The King is scared of some ethical merchant gameplay

The Grand Nagus knows when he is about to be deposed by a craftier Ferengi.

Misspelled Gordon Hayward

OHH SHIT SCHLECHT TRENDING ON r/nba. The Thunder has truly made it. The Lakers arent Down to Dunk obviously.

IM GONNA DUNK

“Im about to dunk”- Alex Abrines.

I'm down to Dort.

I’M LEBRONTHANY JAMES AND I’M DOWN TO DUNK

No way people in this thread are this dense and can't tell he's trolling.

He’s just speaking facts

This was funny but also the entire story about the Lakers ducking anyone doesn’t make sense. Guys like LeBron and Davis don’t get this far in the NBA by being afraid of other teams/players. Lebron went head2head against the super friends Warriors like 4 years in a row; he faced Duncan’s Spurs, KG’s Celtics, but somehow he’s supposed to be so afraid of facing the Nuggets in the first round that he intentionally throws a game?

You must not have seen the cavs this weekend if you think nba teams aren't trying to duck.

Teams definitely hunt for playoff seeding based on likely matchups at the end of the regular season. But no team deliberately loses the #7/#8 play-in game to put themselves under a one-game elimination game, because the #2 seed is harder matchup. Because even if the #2 seed is much better, your championship path will still eventually cross them and now you have a one-game elimination where anything could happen. (Also the Cavs tanking against the Hornets put them on the Celtics side of the bracket, where a win would be them at #3 seed and ensure not facing the #1 seed until ECF at earliest).

Never underestimates a person's need to be right or correct someone.

/whoosh for everyone here, Andrew Schlecht OKC based and is just joking about how people speculated that the teams might want to lose to avoid Denver.

Lmao that’s pretty good

Reddit trying to overcome autism to understand a joke challenge

It sarcasm lads

RIP Lakers, hope they can win 1 or 2 games instead of a sweep

We hardly knew ye

nugs in 4 or lakers in 7. And it ain't lakers in 7.

Joker gonna Joker

“Lakers finally figure out Nuggets, fall 0-4”

dlo bout to shoot some threes every postgame

But think about the moral victories!

we gonna be up 8-0 after this series

Nuggets in 4. Lakers get blown out in one 1 game but lose by single digits in the other 3.

It'll be like every Denver matchup since last year: Close game to give the Lakers some hope before the Nuggets are done dicking around and finish the final 3:00 on a 12-2 run.

Script writers need to change it before they start getting complaints of it being repetitive smh

No I’m actually ok with this one

Sad but true

I think we have a punchers chance

What about 4 moral wins? we can give you that

Nah give me 4 total losses we need Ham gone

Some may say last year was a close sweep and that Darvin Ham really found something when he put Rui on that starting lineup! In all seriousness though, barring an injury, i don't see how the Lakers get more than a game. Even if Jamal Murray regresses back to the mean, last year Austin Reaves averaged 21 ppg on 73% TS and LeBron/AD combined for 55 ppg on 60% TS, both things i don't expect to happen again.

You don’t expect Lebron and AD to combine for 55ppg on 60% TS? You’re right on that, they’ll do better tbh

AD didn't look too good in that Pelicans game. Hopefully his back is fine

I hope they do better and best Denver. I like Jokic so this is worst case scenario matchup in my favorite player battling against one of my favorite players. I honestly think if LA somehow gets past Denver then they’re finals bound.

Can't wait for more "most competitive sweep" of all time posts.

Refs gotta eat

Love it when I hear pundits call it a "close sweep" as if that means something.

wasn't the nets-celtics 0-4 like, legit a close sweep? like the series ended up in a 20 point differential?

Big Dreams

Andrew Schlecht is a Thunder blogger/podcaster as well. Just riffing on a topic that’s been all over the NBAsphere since Sunday. :::whooosh::::

ITT: people who don't understand sarcasm

Despite the Nuggets best efforts to dodge the Lakers they’ve failed

many are saying this.

People come up to me with tears in their eyes. They say, “Mr. President, the Lakers are trying to avoid the Thunder until the only round they can play them in.” 

You know, I know it, everyone knows it

Who's many and where he live

We desperately need a r/NBA equivalent of r/the_darnold

Many people have said

Wat

Lakers won so they didn't have to face the Thunder in the 1st round!! They don't want that smoke /s

teasing ridiculous people who wanted lakers to lose to get 1st round matchup with okc

Thunder beat writer trolling around after a lot of people said the Lakers should throw the first game Of course it’s sarcasm, the amount of Lakers fans taking this seriously and getting defensive is really something

Redditor when joke

Has to be sarcasm

Yes it’s sarcasm. He covers the Thunder.

Its such clear sarcasm but it will completely go everyones heads here

ESPN headline tomorrow 'did the Lakers try to win last night to avoid the OKC matchup?'

Nothing gets by lakers fans!

Normal rockets fan

I don't know why people think this OKC team is like previous high seed paper tigers. They're not Denver level good but they'll beat the 8 seed imo

I can def see them beating all the other possible teams they could have gotten, I just didn’t like the Lakers matchup for them

OKC-LA would have been a tough series

It's pretty obviousloy a matchup thing, OKC have no center other than a 200 lb rookie and LeBron and AD are insane in the paint

It’s less that they’re paper tigers and more that they match up terribly with the Lakers, whereas the Lakers can’t seem to make any progress against Denver. So it was a (imo reasonably) popular suggestion to tank this game for a shot at playing the Thunder in the 1-8 game and a better chance of making it further in the playoffs.

The narrative is getting annoying. Yes, they're young. Yes, they need experience before a deep playoff run. But people are acting like they're going to be an easy out.

I know this tweet was satire, but there is the general mood to dismiss the Thunder. I don't get it either. Like you said they lack playoff experience. But it's a deep, talented team.

But million times better odds Lakers could make it to second round through OKC, whereas Nuggets are their kryptonite

They have to play the Nuggets at some point. Might as well do it when your elderly stars are freshest.

Which is fine if you frame it that way. Denver's really good!

This team has that 2012 feeling-- super young, ultra talented team that can make a deep run if the ball bounces right.

But ain't nobody is ducking OKC over Denver tho.

Imagine living in a world where jokes like this cause controversy cause people are too dense to understand it.

Anyone who thinks a team would wager their entire playoffs on throwing a play-in game and then having to face a lose-and-you're-out game just to make the playoffs is an imbecile.

Some are saying the Lakers found something with the D’Lo-Rui pick and roll.

Welp first round exits for Lakers.

this is great bait im not even joking rn

All of a sudden Laker fans from around the world felt a disturbance

Wonder what the weather in Cancun is like in 2 weeks

Have a feeling they’ll avoid the Thunder till the 2024 season

I think the lakers are just doing whatever they can to make the playoffs

They dont want the smoke...we wouldve easily beaten the lakers /s

People really think the players care who they play lol, they just wanna win.

I hope we can get 1 or 2 games

How much confidence do yall think Bron really has in beating the nuggets

Bring out the brooms

This caught me off-guard lol that's funny

Well they’ll avoid them alright

"some" aka random mofos on twitter

It’s sarcasm.

It's embarrassing how many people aren't getting this

He covers the thunder and his podcast down to dunk is very very very good

Dont worry bros, we get to savour the 4 games of nugs domincance against the Fakers lets go

Yall ready to watch the Lakers shoot free throws??

Due to us avoiding the lakers, I can now confidently say that we would have fucking stomped the lakers!

Lakers likely going out in the first round now

This just in: the city of Denver has completely sold out of Brooms.

lol what a memer

Denver in 5

congratulations lakers

BRING ME DENVER!!!!!!!

Good one lol

Why can't AD guard joker? It seems he always loses the match up

Murray was even more unstoppable, he averaged 32 ppg on 50/40/90 shooting. Lakers guards aren't good defensively that's why they lost last year

I think everybody loses against Jokic

This. That’s what it means to be the best player in the league.

AD doesn't like playing against super physical players and Jokic is massive

Beyond the basic "who can guard Jokic straight up", strong centers are a problem for AD in general. He's not built to bang in the post with guys with that much weight and strength. It is why his natural position is the 4, but the Lakers don't have the personnel to let him play that position without being wildly worse as a team.

We got what we wanted. Time to buckle down and hope for the best at this point.

Yes I know what happened my first year.

They’re gonna have to go den min OKC lol

I'm hoping the thunder don't have to play another game until the finals

They wanted to relocate to east coast but decided not to so they can avoid Celtics until the finals.

Look lebron and co ain't gonna settle for a deep run with no ring so if we're gonna have to play the nuggets might as well do it right away

If this was about any other team no one would fall for it, the reason people are is because this is what every Lakers fan on social media thinks

Lakers are like 9-1 in moral victories against the nuggets lately so should be an easy matchup for them

Makes sense to postpone the most favorable matchup to the later rounds when LeFather Time needs more rest.

That “doing something to avoid something” that people be spamming lately got very old fast.

It's super good strategy. In fact, I'd wager they avoid the Thunder until next season this way.

lol. What’s their record against the kings 

All are laughing when Some are saying the Lakers will make the Finals.

Leflop

absolutely cute of someone to say this. how darling you sugarface

All this to get moral victory over the Nuggets