2021 NBA Playoffs Gamethread
- Thread starter JohnnyTheBone
- Start date
Booker has become one of my favorite players in the league. And yeah, the whole Lakers thing.
In what sense? Utah and Phoenix are both really good, and match up well against the East teams (unless Harden is back).
Oh yeah, I just assumed that Harden will be back at some point and this whole thing will look silly
He’s done his hammy 3x in the past two months. If he does return there is a better chance for hammy #4 than him being a difference maker.
Yeah, and things will look a lot different when the Nets are playing teams with shooting and shot creation, as opposed to whatever the hell is going on with the team from Wisconsin.
Even in the East, Embiid is looking better than I thought he would, and I have no clue how the Nets plan to handle him.
I would disagree. Embiid labored last night on the knee. Doc tried to cut his first-half minutes and might try to sit him down for Game 4 or 5, depending on how the big center responds after a full weekend off.
Philly’s title hopes hinge on a knee that is already wounded.
https://www.inquirer.com/sixers/danny-green-injury-joel-embiid-knee-sixers-hawks-game-four-20210612.html
Embiid being out for multiple games is really the only hope the Hawks have in this series. I only watched the first half last night before going to bed, but the Hawks offense looked so stilted and labored - too many one-on-five long-distance shos with nobody banging the glass for a rebound, not enough ball movement - that I can't see any way back. Nice coaching change by Doc to contain Trae on defense.
Interesting, I guess I should watch with the sound on: with the sound off he looks pretty awesome
I was referring only to Harden. I think the Nets are fine without him in this tournament though.
I had the sound off, too. But I read the Philly paper each morning. Embiid is always one bad fall away from disaster. He tries to play like a small forward trapped in a 7-foot, 280-pound body. So he is always one step away from injury.Interesting, I guess I should watch with the sound on: with the sound off he looks pretty awesome
Kinda funny that for all the moments of drama, the playoffs have gone straight chalk so far. Not one team with a worse regular season record has won a series yet (ATL was a nominal lower seed than NYK, but they had the same record). And that looks to be continuing this round, though the Bucks and Clips still may have a bit of life.
So ... Utah over Philly in the Finals?
Edit: If you count the play-ins, the only team with a better record to fall to a lower seed has been ... the Golden State Warriors.
So ... Utah over Philly in the Finals?
Edit: If you count the play-ins, the only team with a better record to fall to a lower seed has been ... the Golden State Warriors.
I love Embiid (flopping free throw antics aside). It's hard not to. But if I were a Sixers fans, I'd always be worried that his size and style of play is careening toward a bad end. Anyone can get hurt of course, and he can still be a productive player when he loses a few miles off his fastball, but he really throws his body around in frightening ways for a guy with that body.
Yes, that's the troubling feeling that defines a 76ers fan during the Embiid Era. I have decided to just enjoy his awesomeness and be prepared for him to go down on any play. He's favoring the right knee now and needs more help from his teammates. We saw that last night with six players in double figures and everyone playing defense. Atlanta is just now realizing how tall and long the 76ers are. Trae Young will get his points but Simmons has blocked a couple of his deep threes and the 76ers are finally stopping the lob play from Trae maybe every third time.
After the horrible season Philly endured last year, I'm really appreciating a team that looks for each other on offense and covers on defense. Doc has got them to believe in that whole team thing. Not sure how he did it. Just being Doc, I guess.
Not good losing Danny Green but it gives them better options against Trae Young, both on offense and defense. Korkmaz can shoot it, Thybulle can chase Young when Simmons passes him off. That’s what happened after Green got hurt early last night.
Agreed. Athletic said as much earlier today. But everyone has injuries. Next man up. When Embiid goes down, next man up is screwed.
They did last game with Zubac and played Cousins off the bench as well. Their best lineup is small so sticking one of them in the middle hurts them.
Derrick Favors is the modern day Chris Wilcox. Looks like a player when in uniform, can physically compete.......but doesn’t do much else for you.
It's funny that teams don't even bother to try and take advantage of this anymore. Despite the Clips going small, Rudy only has 10 on 5 FGA.
It may be smart not to disrupt their normal offense though. That isn’t Goberts game and then it takes the ball out of Mitchell and the other 3-pt shooters hands.
So many blowouts, I was pretty pumped for these playoffs and I’ve watched most of the games. The level of play is exciting, guys trying ten times harder on D than they do all season, but blowout after blowout is bumming me out.
Kyrie leaves to the locker room with what looks like an ankle injury. Moving gingerly but under his own power.
Yeah, he was walking gingerly. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back sometime this series, but he'll be compromised.
Giannis looks so lost---he keeps barrelling into guys. Of course, he gets that call in the regular season...
Classic low lateral ankle sprain for Kyrie, hard to know by watching the grade. Return to play also depends on the status of the ligaments pre-injury, lots of these guys continually get acute on chronic sprains.
Wouldn't be surprised if he can come back fairly quickly, though he may be compromised a bit.
If the Nets get bounced because of some poorly timed injuries..... well what a shame that would be
Wouldn't be surprised if he can come back fairly quickly, though he may be compromised a bit.
If the Nets get bounced because of some poorly timed injuries..... well what a shame that would be
In the regular season he isn’t competing against playoff level defense. I’m beginning to feel Giannis may go down as one of the more overrated superstars the NBA has seen. How do you build an offense around him?
His lack of midrange game and 3 point game is just so glaring in the playoffs.
He can't just do his aggressive drives forever, too easy to get a charge again him.
Any possession Giannis shoots a fall away 17 footer or a 3 is a win for the D.
I agree. He has shown absolutely zero ability to adapt his game this year and last---still doesn't have a jumper, won't post up, just keeps barrelling into the paint and hoping no one sees it coming and sets up for the charge. If he committed to passing sooner it'd help, but a lot of things he hasn't shown would help (like a post game, or a jumper...)
He's the modern day Shaq. Smaller and a better shooter, but compared to today's players he's Shaq - stronger and more athletic than anyone guarding him, he's overwhelming in the paint and makes it impossible to referee. More so than Shaq, his outside shooting (particularly his free throw shooting) hurts him in the playoffs and down the stretch keeps him from being a viable option as the opponent will just foul him. Shaq didn't win until he got Kobe, and Middleton is no Kobe. We'll see.
You just hate to see it...Classic low lateral ankle sprain for Kyrie, hard to know by watching the grade. Return to play also depends on the status of the ligaments pre-injury, lots of these guys continually get acute on chronic sprains.
Wouldn't be surprised if he can come back fairly quickly, though he may be compromised a bit.
If the Nets get bounced because of some poorly timed injuries..... well what a shame that would be
At least you could run an offense with Shaq posting (and that was the key to the Lakers, not Kobe, when Shaq was trying). Part of the problem with Giannis is you have to spread everyone else on the perimeter to give him lanes to drive, and then there's no other decent shots available for anyone! He isn't even drawing doubles and passing out on the drives.
Shaq was a force without the ball whereas Giannis is not. There wasn’t really a way to prevent Shaq from getting the ball deep in the paint whenever he wanted. We have seen that this isn’t the case with Giannis in defending him with a “wall.”
I think this is underselling Giannis quite a bit. He's worse in the playoffs than in the regular season for reasons mentioned above, but since becoming a superstar (not counting his second season) Giannis has averaged 25.7/12.0/5.3 in the playoffs while shooting .524 from the field. Those are excellent numbers, he's just not one of the best scorers in the league like he is in the regular season, and his lack of range and poor shooting from the line really hurt him in the closing minutes.
Kyrie out for the game, the Bucks absolutely need to win today.
*edit - Shaq was definitely more unstoppable when he wanted a bucket, but his FT shooting was bad enough that the way to stop him was to foul him. Giannis is bad at the line but not that bad (yet...bad trend line)