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I think the team needs someone like a Malik Beasley-type wing. Someone who can play similar minutes as White, start occasionally, but gives them more of an offensive look. Except for PP (who we just saw be unplayable in the last 2 series) the the rest of the normal bench guys are defense-first...

I would like to see Tatum’s rest align with when Curry and Poole are on the court together and/or when Wiggins is in the bench. They could run the offense through MS in the post or through JB after getting Poole switched onto him and he can then shoot over him. The current rotation of Tatum...

I suspect they want Tatum to be able to switch onto Steph when Draymond screens for him.

Hard to analyze the Nets playoff minutes given the minuscule sample size!

He’s as good as Smart on the perimeter against guards, but lacks the strength to guard guys like Jimmy. I suspect he will see a lot of time in the finals guarding Steph. I would like to see him and Smart get more opportunities to penetrate and make Steph work defensively. One thing I thought...

All 3 of Miami’s wins have come when they have been rested or coming off games where the starters have not had to play big minutes. And after the first 2 wins they have gotten blown out. I suspect that is not a coincidence. The style Miami needs to play to beat this Celtics team requires a lot...

Lebron went 3-14 in a home game the Cavs lost by 32 in a series tied 2-2 when Lebron was 2 years older than Tatum is now. Everyone called him a quitter and mentally weak after that game and series. Great players have bad games in big moments. Hopefully Tatum bounces back just like he has after...

The formula for success against the Celtics the whole postseason has been to generate a lot of turnovers and get easy scores off those turnovers. Assuming Tucker is playing, I think Spo might lean into playing his best defensive guys as much as possible and try to make this as ugly as possible...

I bet they use it to trade for an expiring deal (Barton, Wood) or 2 to create early season depth, while maintaining the salary slot(s) to expand their available options at the trade deadline next year.

I expect Miami will try to emphasize motion and ball movement on offense, particularly in this game to see if the Cs have picked up any bad habits after 2 iso-heavy series and also to prevent any tired legs they may have from being able to rest on defense.

Having Al, this version of Tatum, and much better overall shooting should allow the Cs to torch any zones thrown their way. But I fully expect Spo to use zone regularly as a change of pace.

Strus (who my phone wants to autocorrect to Syria) and Herro and hunt-able, but Spo does a great job hiding weak links and changing looks as needed. Will be the opposite of Coach Bud implementing a strategy and sticking with it no matter what.

And Lopez somehow -4.

I actually thought Tatum got better looks in game 5, particularly the first half. But in both games they seem to have found how to get him a bit of space at the top of the key, and to get him Matthews off him. Shots are harder to make in a game 7, but if Tatum keeps getting room to work, I think...

4-0 on fouls so far.

Grant and Tatum have a plus 3.9 rating in their 148 minutes together in the playoffs. That means in Grant’s remaining 35 minutes without Tatum, they have gotten smoked. Not sure how to find the net rating for those minutes, but it’s such a small sample size that it’s not very meaningful.

The Bucks with Middleton are better than the Nets, but without him they may not be. The Celtics have a bunch of guys who go can attempt to guard Giannis, but I expect it to mostly be Horford and Grant, with Rob and Tatum playing off the ball and trying to eliminate large portions of the floor...

Pritchard’s minutes were primarily with KD on the bench. I suspect one adjustment from Ime (and what I expected before game 1) will be to play PP when KI is on the bench.

My guess is the plan was for Tatum to come out for a minute or 2 at the 10 minute mark of the 4th, but the big Nets run made that difficult as they needed Tatum in the game to settle things down. I would guess next game Ime will stick to his rest plan more carefully after seeing how gassed...

He already said something not so subtle about it in his press conference: they were able to chuck him and put 2 hands on him more than the game warrants. I agree this could backfire. The small Brooklyn guards need to be able to be physical to have any chance against Tatum and Brown, whereas the...