GA, Butler, Embiid, and Caruso.. knicks are probably the biggest threat remaining
Point taken, but we already know that the ceiling with Trae is "flukey ECF run, and probably should make the Finals except can't beat a Giannis-less Bucks team after going up in the series"
"Stepped on his foot" is that what we're calling this?
WTF. I'm trying to imagine how angry I would have gotten watching Grant Williams do that to Marcus Smart last year. (There's nobody on the current team who fits the Great Oaf role well enough for the comparison to Drummond to work.)
I agree Drummond is making an effort to get back and Caruso is just standing around, Drummond probably can't see him around the offensive player until too late. Not sure why Caruso isn't helping on D until the big can get back anyway?
Agreed. Who is it that Caruso is defending, while going the opposite direction of everyone else on the court? Weird. Is there a Hawk just standing in their defensive halfcourt out of the frame he was minding (Trae?)
I assume that was his plan, but the weird part is re-watch the clip. The reason he gets run over is Drummond can't see him, but he doesn't see Drummond because he's got his head completely turned looking at the sideline, it's very weird. I have no clue what he's doing. He goes to midcourt, gets in the crouch, Fernando runs right by him, but he's also not looking at Murray who is like at the FT line walking it up, he's staring to his left.
It’s more than wind, Embiid can’t leave his feet either. He’s basically 2022 Robert Williams in terms of knee power.
Opens up playing time again for Duncan Robinson? Oh, yes, I forgot. He's dead. Jaylen Brown killed him a few weeks ago.
DNP-CD. He scored 10 points against Houston on April 5th, that's the only time he's been in double digits in the past month (.222 from 3 over that stretch). He'll certainly play tomorrow now, especially if Rozier is still out as their only hope really is that he gets hot.
Bigger clip below. Caruso was looking at the ball handler as I presume that's who he's going to guard. Drummond was focused on Fernando as HRB says but he should have seen Caruso.
He turns his head way too much to be just looking at the ball, then is coming back to Murray, can't tell if he was checking to see if the wing got picked up, or looking to the coach, or maybe the other defender on the wing said something to him. But yeah, just two guys looking the wrong way colliding.
Looks to me that he's looking at the guy on the wing to make sure he knows what's going on to that side - whether he's going to keep running or set a pick or what not.
Maybe if he actually showed up in the regular season they wouldn't have to worry about a play-in game. Hmm.
How that one didn't make Shaqtin A Fool, I'll never know. One of the dumbest-looking plays I've seen all season.
I also hope in the GS season debrief they note that if Draymond had not dumedassed his way to suspension they might not have been in a one game and out situation
They won by one in a game where Butler was completely hobbled down the stretch. Butler stood in the corner on several possessions and was basically a decoy.. so only Herro was basically shooting.. and he was left wide open a few times. For as good a coach as Spoelstra is.. not sure why he didn’t take Butler out earlier.. not that Robinson is the answer but at least he wasn’t hobbled and could shoot threes credibly, which is what they seemingly needed.
MIA scored 17 points off 11 PHI TOs in the 1st half. Some of the TOs were horrific. And as Nurse said in one of his interviews, the problem was that PHI was just standing around trying (and failing) to throw the ball around the zone instead of attacking the zone through dribbling and then trying to pass the ball.
Fair points.. but it’s a bridge too far for me to try and see this game as a positive going forward against the Knicks. Miami was the 8 seed for a reason and without Rozier they were even worse.. Philly did come back but I think you could argue they should never have been down that much to Miami to begin with. I guess we’ll see going forward.. glad that one less of Philly or the knicks will come out of that series though.
Embiid is just an impossible variable here. On one hand, he looks incredibly slow (especially on defense). On the other hand, he still averaged 30/9/5 with a TS% of .641 after coming back in the regular season, and Philly has won 9 straight games (and they might have needed all of those wins in order to make the playoffs). Does he look slow and winded because he's rusty and/or out of shape (in which case someone could argue that he'll get stronger as the playoffs go on)? Or does he look slow and winded because he's still hurt (in which case this either ends with him getting re-injured badly enough to knock him out for good, or Philly eventually crumbles when they come across a team that can play on both ends of the floor).
I have a healthy respect for Embiid, but I do agree there's a good chance that NY has the best player in this series, and that matters given the rest of the rosters.
Hartenstein is going to be problem for Embiid and Philly if Embiid can't box out or defend down low.
