Still think this is most likely a 4-2 Hawks series win, they are definitely more talented and have been awesome at home down the stretch, I think 19-2 in their last 21.
2021 NBA Playoffs Gamethread
- Thread starter JohnnyTheBone
- Start date
The return of Spidah and presence of Grayson "Ted Cruz" Allen is enough to make root for the Jazz in this series.
I see Mitchell and I see just a guy who is pissed he sat last game and despite not being 100% and frankly not being the most gifted player, is just such a dog and has a nasty streak that it just feels infectious and it rubs off on his teammates. I don't know if it's something you can teach, but I'd love to see Tatum show that kind of intensity and aggression.
I'll be there on Friday night with my son. I'll give you a full report.
When teams are scoring a lot early on, I try to guess to myself what Lawler’s Law would be for that game, how much will one of the teams need to score to safely win that game. UTH/MEM I guessed 135 early on, right on with a 141-129 final.
A lot of Hawks fans are pretty furious about Playoff Nate McMillan after last night...
View: https://twitter.com/MikeConti929/status/1397741208680558592
View: https://twitter.com/MikeConti929/status/1397741873591169025
I'm torn - if Atlanta had made a normal percentage of shots in the 3rd and especially 4th quarters, there's every chance they would have won. But those quotes are not a good look, and it was obvious in the moment to me (as I posted here) that Trae wasn't on the floor enough and that Atlanta looked horribly ineffective without him.
Also, John Collins had 0 points, 0 assists, 2 rebounds and 5 fouls in 15 minutes last night. (And that was on the back of 12 points, 7 rebounds and 0 assists in 35 relatively low-usage minutes in Game 1.) Am I crazy, or is every game taking millions of dollars off his next contract at the moment?
View: https://twitter.com/MikeConti929/status/1397741208680558592
View: https://twitter.com/MikeConti929/status/1397741873591169025
I'm torn - if Atlanta had made a normal percentage of shots in the 3rd and especially 4th quarters, there's every chance they would have won. But those quotes are not a good look, and it was obvious in the moment to me (as I posted here) that Trae wasn't on the floor enough and that Atlanta looked horribly ineffective without him.
Also, John Collins had 0 points, 0 assists, 2 rebounds and 5 fouls in 15 minutes last night. (And that was on the back of 12 points, 7 rebounds and 0 assists in 35 relatively low-usage minutes in Game 1.) Am I crazy, or is every game taking millions of dollars off his next contract at the moment?
Lou Williams had a great stretch filling in for Trae in game 1, so that’s probably what he was thinking, but interestingly we have two coaches here who have been very good regular season coaches and awful playoff coaches in their careers.
Last night Thibs finally made the blindingly obvious move of benching Payton in the second half, but Rose said after that Thibs told him along with the rest of the team at halftime and that he’s 32 and he had to change his warmup routine after coming off the bench all season which wasn’t the easiest thing for him (not to mention 31 straight minutes of game action).
Last night Thibs finally made the blindingly obvious move of benching Payton in the second half, but Rose said after that Thibs told him along with the rest of the team at halftime and that he’s 32 and he had to change his warmup routine after coming off the bench all season which wasn’t the easiest thing for him (not to mention 31 straight minutes of game action).
Philly fans back in the arena immediately do Philly fan things. Security almost had another Artest situation on their hands:
View: https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1397721494466215937?s=20
View: https://twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1397721494466215937?s=20
What, you don't believe in Heat Culture? Cheap shots when they're losing, IG workout videos when they're up. Fuck the Heat and fuck Pat Riley.
Unrelated, but DWade remains a dirty ass scumbag for dislocating Rondo's shoulder.
Way to compete, Heat. Down big late in the 3rd, they (a) run clock instead of going for the 2-for-1; and (b) swallow the ball at the buzzer instead of heaving.
Bucks seem to have crushed the life out of them.
Bucks seem to have crushed the life out of them.
"It looks like Anthony Davis is going to be all right" the announcer states when they come back from break, without a drop of irony.
Enjoying the defense in Lakers/Suns. 39-39 with 1:45 to go in the 2nd Quarter. Meanwhile Denver leads Portland 39-30 at the end of the 1st Quarter.
This will come as a surprise to few, but DEN even without any healthy scoring guards is targeting Kanter and just COOKING him. (a fun -15 in 5 minutes)
Yeah, his injury is a killer. They look like a different team.
As a tangent, how much better is this Celtics team with a healthy CP3 instead of Kemba? A lot better I'm sure, Paul is so good and has aged amazingly well.
Of all the injuries to major players this year, I'm not sure any is more impactful than Jamal Murray being out for Denver. If he's playing, they are a legit title contender lots of good supporting players around Jokic.
POR/DEN game was 99-94 with 3:49 left. If you had taken the under on 227.5 you were feeling pretty good ... until they combined for 42 points in the last 3:49.
By way of comparison, the Lakers and Suns combined for 28 in the third quarter.
By way of comparison, the Lakers and Suns combined for 28 in the third quarter.
Kanter was so bad last night I’d be surprised if he sees the floor much the rest of the series. Plus they didn’t have any timeouts left to make substitutions.
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One thing about this Lakers team... man they play really good defense, and they play really hard on that end. I respect that a team with their stars plays so hard on D, much like the 08 Celtics in that respect.
Zach Lowe had a good article on why the Bucks have been able to dismantle the Heat in this series. Basically, by going from Bledsoe to Jrue Holiday, it has allowed them to run more successful Giannis screen-and-rolls that has opened up the floor for everybody else. Bledsoe wasn't nearly the shooter or passer that Holiday is, so teams cannot ignore him the way they ignored Bledsoe when it came to containing Giannis on screens. Holiday is also a real natural ball-handler, which Bledsoe was not. That allows Giannis to play more off the ball, which means more screens, more post-ups and more cuts to the basket; all things that make him more dangerous than holding the ball on the perimeter, looking to make a play.
https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31516350/how-giannis-antetokounmpo-milwaukee-bucks-feasting-miami-heat-comes-next
https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31516350/how-giannis-antetokounmpo-milwaukee-bucks-feasting-miami-heat-comes-next
If prime Lebon is on a team, it's not an all time bad team.
2007 Cavs, on the other hand, were bad relative to their finish in the playoffs.
Even the Celtics in their current state will have a tough time giving a worse effort than the Heat gave last night (but, heck, they may give it the old college try!). And there's a lot to harp on Danny Ainge about, but it's looking like Tyler Herro ain't one of them.
I've never seen a kick in the balls (from Davis to Crowder) get less play from the media. While I 100% support ejections and banishments for dumping popcorn on a player; I think I'd rather get a few kernels of Orville Redenbacher in my hair versus a shod foot from a 7 footer.
Crowder would have helped the Suns if he got kicked out sooner. 1-7 from 3 point range; and 2 or 3 of the misses didn't hit the rim.
Agreed. They make opposing offenses work so hard and they seem to be able to get stops when they are needed. Its really impressive.
I dunno. Crowder pretty much locked down LeBron all night. Asking anything out of a player offensively when given that type of defensive assignment isn’t a realistic expectation for a player such as Jae.
As bad as Kanter was last night, he should have been down there in front of Jokic. Covington was giving up 5 inches and around 50 pounds in that situation. Jokic just pinned him underneath the basket...
I have wanted Stotts gone for a few years and if they don't move on from him, I'll be livid. I've had it with his shitty rotations. They need to give Lillard some real help. I think the time has come to move CJ and I just don't see Nurkic being the big that you need.
The Blazers are a frustrating team to watch. Literally no defense and they just expect Dame to be a god in every playoff game. Hopefully, they can win on Saturday. As for Denver, Jokic is just so good. Shame that Murray got hurt because that team probably comes out of the West.
I disagree, without a TO down 3, soon to be 4-5, you need gunners. If Morris makes a FT you are stuck with Kanter while trying to get quick points. You can't make a sub on the basis of "what if this guy misses both FTs and we need to get a board" You set the best lineup for all eventualities, and every one except Morris missing both it's much better to have another shooter.
Something that was really unexpected was that throughout the regular season Thibs basically wanted to do nothing less than play Obi Toppin, and yet so far in the postseason he has given him a real run and he has played well. This was a cool moment from the other day:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEyEU82Rr1M
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEyEU82Rr1M
