2022-23 NBA Game Thread
- Thread starter Deathofthebambino
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Him for not playing when they needed by him most? Definitely can’t blame Lebron’s 8 turnovers and 8-21 shooting…
Think they win @ Minnesota on Friday? Their next 6 games are against teams with winning records, this could get ugly (uglier) in a hurry.
Lebron is 11 years older than Simmons, but at this point I have no idea which guy ends up retiring first.
Here is what's even funnier:
LeBron signed an extension with a raise over 5%, which means that the Lakers cannot trade him for 6 months from the date of the extension (extend-and-trades are limited to 5% raises). So the trade restriction expires on Feburary 18th, exactly 9 days after this season's trade deadline, lol.
I just flat out cannot figure out why either side did this extension. It made no sense to lock themselves into this relationship given how bad the team is.
Orlando has to be the happiest 0-5 team ever. Banchero is getting lots of experience and has played great, and the team still sucks enough to be in the lottery for Wembanyama.
One thing I've noticed about League Pass this year is that I cannot choose which feed I get. Anyone else frustrated by this?
I may have experienced something different than you but I found a menu item that looks like a faint dialogue bubble that allows you to toggle the feed. It wasn't an intuitive/easy interface either.
Thanks, I just found it (using the Roku app).
If I hit the pause button it brings up the timeline. Above that are three icons for Streams, Games and Stats. IMO, this is actually better as it's easier to switch broadcasts and games.
Good ringer article on the 76ers (lack of) defense: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2022/10/27/23426997/philadelphia-sixers-joel-embiid-james-harden-defense. Maybe not such a good idea for Embiid to take a couple of months off during the summer. From the article:
Far more detrimental to the Sixers, so far, is the undeniable fact that their defense is hot junk. Only four teams are giving up more points per possession and it doesn’t take a long look under the hood to see why. The Sixers have yielded the highest opposing 3-point frequency so far, with a contest rate of 53.6 percent—third worst in the league, according to Second Spectrum—against all field goal attempts.
The Sixers are keeping offenses away from the basket, but every opponent so far has slashed them when they get there, shooting a collective 76.6 percent. This is happening whether Embiid is in the game or not, which will either prove to be a fluke or the portentous sign of a looming catastrophe. Want to blame Harden? Philly is allowing a whopping 138.9 points per 100 possessions when Embiid is on the floor without his notoriously lethargic costar.\
Regardless of who’s playing, Philadelphia has been ineffective in the half court and—read this next part slowly because it’s important enough to ultimately decide how dramatic in-season changes should be in Philadelphia—own by far the worst transition defense in the NBA. When I say “by far,” I mean that the league average for points added per 100 transition plays is currently 3.4, and Philly allows 9.3. Off live rebounds, teams are scoring 1.7 points per transition play. Memphis is the second-worst team, at 1.43.
With YED mixed in! And the Bruins the best team in hockey.
On the '6ers: I hate the compulsion to read a lot into net ratings through five games — the Celtics and Warriors have both been pretty craptastic defensively so far, e.g. — but is anyone surprised a team built around a big 3 of Harden, Embiid, and Maxey is having defensive issues, especially on the perimeter? Like, when so-called "expert" John Hollinger proudly picked Philly as his Eastern champ, would he actually have bet his house on them over Boston and Milwaukee, or was he just selling clicks? I'd normally assume the latter, but then we're also talking about the guy who came up with PER.
At some point, teams built around aging & fragile superstars will collapse like a House of Cards. Father Time is undefeated.
The Lakers legitimately look like toast. Just hoping they stay somewhat relevant so they pull the trigger on completely mortgaging their future. Myles Turner/Buddy Hield aren't saving this season.
Philly/Nets will fight back but aren't a threat to a healthy Celtic team in the playoffs.
The JAYs will be hot knives through those buttery-fading stars by April/May.
In their last 3 losses, Kyrie and Durant have combined for 76, 60 and 74 points. It seems unlikely that the Nets continue on their current pace (16-17 total wins), but it's just as unlikely that those two guys, ages 30 and 34, are able to keep this up all year.
I watched the game last night and Kyrie and Durant played brilliantly on offense; but the Nets can't play defense at all. They don't have a stopper on the team and while Simmons made a good play to rob Luka and force OT, the reality is that nobody could stop Luka, and he could get a favorable switch at anytime and go to work, and Dallas had enough shooters on the floor to make them pay if they doubled Luka. It was very similar to the Celtics playoff series, where it seemed like whenever Tatum or Brown really wanted to get to the basket and score, they could.
One thing I've noticed these last few years that in the switch-heavy era of defense, and how teams will sag off of any non-shooter, teams are often only as strong as their weakest player, and both the Nets and the Lakers have a lot of weak players, respectively, on both ends of the floor. For the Nets, Kyrie is a massive liability on defense and Simmons a liability on offense, and those are presumably two of their three best players! Plus, the pace has been up the last few years and so guys can still get their numbers and give off the impression that they are just as good as they ever were, so players like Kyrie, Durant, LeBron, Davis, Harden, etc. can still look good on the stat sheet, but their teams haven't been winning.
Yeah, they're pretty much screwed offensively if/when one of them misses some time.
Granted the author took what I'm sure are most egregious clips, but the one thing I noticed is that half (or more) of the team doesn't seem to be putting much effort into defense, particularly transition defense. I mean Embiid is apparently too out-of-shape to run; Harden never runs; Maxey apparently is watching everyone else and not running; and while Harris might be running, he's not very fast. Even after made baskets seems like if the other team sprints, they are going to get easy shots.
Here's some more video - juxtaposed with Zach Lowe talking about PHI's transition defense.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz1QI1BNis4
On the Hoop Collective, Bontemps characterized their transition D as "reprehensible", which feels apt.
In other game action, Charlotte lost but took the Knicks too overtime. I for one did not have Dennis Smith Jr. rejuvenation on my NBA bingo card.
Embiid is resting a ”sore knee” tonight so Maxey went off on Toronto in the first half with 27 points. Hit all 10 shots from field, including 7 threes.
The Warriors really have no interest in playing defense this year. They've been getting away with it for the most part, but they're going to have to tighten things up before the playoffs if they have title aspirations.
Edit - they just gave up 34 first quarter points to Charlotte. Yeesh
View: https://twitter.com/BontaHill/status/1586501769013522438?t=j1_ya_gOYfqGRnn6FDUxhg&s=19
Edit - they just gave up 34 first quarter points to Charlotte. Yeesh
View: https://twitter.com/BontaHill/status/1586501769013522438?t=j1_ya_gOYfqGRnn6FDUxhg&s=19
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Sounds familiar.
Portland seems very high on Sharpe:
Winslow says he and Sharpe usually arrive early and shoot together before practices and shootaround.
“I think what I’ve noticed is, it’s just easy for him. He makes everything look easy,” Winslow said. “He just has that God-given talent that you can’t teach, and it makes it look so nonchalant. But it’s not that he doesn’t care, it’s more that the game comes to him so easy because he is so super-skilled.”
“I heard Dame say it earlier this year, he was saying like, Shaedon is the type of talent that could take us over the edge of being a fringe playoff team into a full-blown playoff team fighting for a championship,”
https://theathletic.com/3741791/2022/10/29/trail-blazers-shaedon-sharpe-2/
Yeah, I’d noted that at the time, here in Boston he constantly had that deer in the headlights look and he even developed a slight hitch in the shooting motion that looked like a panic twitch to me. Playing for a team that wants to lose is probably the best thing that could have happened to him. Maybe he can convince himself that he belongs in the NBA this year.
Same with the Celtics (who have been a bit worse on defense than the Dubs through 5), right? Something tells me both teams will figure things out on that end over the next five months.
Aside from the Nets impending implosion...
Benedict Mathurin with 32 points in 33 minutes, 8-16 from the field, 6-9 form 3, 10-10 on FTs. 20 years old, should have been taken #2 after Paolo.
Highest scoring games by a rookie this year:
1. Mathurin - 32
2. Banchero - 29
3. Mathurin - 27
3. Banchero - 27
5. Mathurin - 26
Benedict Mathurin with 32 points in 33 minutes, 8-16 from the field, 6-9 form 3, 10-10 on FTs. 20 years old, should have been taken #2 after Paolo.
Highest scoring games by a rookie this year:
1. Mathurin - 32
2. Banchero - 29
3. Mathurin - 27
3. Banchero - 27
5. Mathurin - 26
Sixers 3-4
Heat 2-5
Nets 1-5
Blazers 5-1
Jazz 5-2
Spurs 4-2
Mavs 2-3
Lakers 0-5
The west especially off to a topsy turvy start. I love it.
Two quick notes in defense of Simmons' brutal start:
-People are sick of rust being an excuse for his offensive incompetence, but he's not the only star who missed last year and is struggling offensively. Kawhi went from averaging 24.8 ppg on .622 TS to 12.5 ppg on .569 TS, Murray went from 21.2 ppg on .592 TS to 12.4 ppg on .477 TS, and Zion went from 27.0 ppg on .649 TS to 22.0 ppg on .522 TS (Simmons has gone from 14.3 ppg on .584 TS to 5.6 ppg on .446 TS). Simmons is for sure the worst of that bunch, but he was the most offensively challenged to begin with, and he's on a new team.
-It's fair to criticize his defense, but I think that people and media expecting him to be a DPOY candidate again might be expecting too much. I've posted this here once or twice, but an all-nba level rim protector (Embiid is one of a just a handful) can make perimeter defenders look MUCH better than they actually are. They can play tighter D on opposing shooters and over play passing lanes knowing that any mistakes are more likely to be cleaned up. For the first time Simmons is experiencing life without that, and it only makes sense that even if hadn't taken a long break, his defense would suffer now compared with the past.
-People are sick of rust being an excuse for his offensive incompetence, but he's not the only star who missed last year and is struggling offensively. Kawhi went from averaging 24.8 ppg on .622 TS to 12.5 ppg on .569 TS, Murray went from 21.2 ppg on .592 TS to 12.4 ppg on .477 TS, and Zion went from 27.0 ppg on .649 TS to 22.0 ppg on .522 TS (Simmons has gone from 14.3 ppg on .584 TS to 5.6 ppg on .446 TS). Simmons is for sure the worst of that bunch, but he was the most offensively challenged to begin with, and he's on a new team.
-It's fair to criticize his defense, but I think that people and media expecting him to be a DPOY candidate again might be expecting too much. I've posted this here once or twice, but an all-nba level rim protector (Embiid is one of a just a handful) can make perimeter defenders look MUCH better than they actually are. They can play tighter D on opposing shooters and over play passing lanes knowing that any mistakes are more likely to be cleaned up. For the first time Simmons is experiencing life without that, and it only makes sense that even if hadn't taken a long break, his defense would suffer now compared with the past.
Okay, the Warriors’ D DOES totally suck right now. Another foulfest tonight on a B2B in Motown. Cade and Stew destroyed us inside, and they rained threes.
I’m confident they’ll figure it out, though. Steph. Dray, Wiggs, JP, Loon have all looked great. Not so much Klay, but he’s always started slow.
I’m confident they’ll figure it out, though. Steph. Dray, Wiggs, JP, Loon have all looked great. Not so much Klay, but he’s always started slow.
Kerr seems comitted to giving the bench run. That seems, in part, to be contributing to their results. Also, Klay is struggling to start the year but its still too soon to react imo.
No JRich. No Vassell. No problems
The Spurs handle the T-Wolves from start to finish
Old friend Romeo Langford gets the start, plays 34 mins, and guards AntMan (18pts)
The Spurs handle the T-Wolves from start to finish
Old friend Romeo Langford gets the start, plays 34 mins, and guards AntMan (18pts)