And they have a ton of fouls leading to easy points and their 2 best players being on the bench with quick fouls to show for it.
2022 NBA Playoffs Gamethread
- Thread starter JohnnyTheBone
- Start date
Philly is looking like a matchup nightmare for them. Well, Embiid is looking like a matchup nightmare for them.
yeah, though honestly I thought there was a good chance whoever they faced was going to smack them. TOR was a team that won with max effort and playing guys a ton of minutes, and even then, in a messy East they came 5th. In the playoffs they had no real way to get better, where most other teams could tighten the rotations, give a little more effort, etc.
I wouldn’t write them off yet especially in Canada. Maybe Embiid gets worn down or something. I actually like the Raptors short rotation in the playoffs. They have to figure out something with Embiid though.
Seems like defenders have a little less fear of Harden driving but damn can he still deliver a dime.
I like the short rotation, I'm saying that when you run the playoff rotation all year it means you don't have rotation moves to make for upside, and suddenly the group you got to run for 5-7 minutes a game against bench units is playing starters when everyone else goes to playoff rotations.
I think they're a pretty good team, but they just have no answer for Embiid, and they don't have enough perimeter playmakers
Edit- also they have to crush the non-Embiid minutes, and they are decidedly not doing that so far this series.
YOu know how sometimes the Celtics this year (Mostly early) would get unhappy with the officating and melt down. Nick Nurse is doing that right now, except the calls have generally all been correct, which makes it worse. He just threw away his challenge for no reason on a clear blocking foul.
Has Dinwiddie played a good game of basketball since he beat the C's on KG Day? Every time I see a Mavs game, he looks like the worst player on the floor.
When people say "centers are irrelevant, you can just grab one for minimum" they should be forced to watch this game.
Centers matter less than they ever have. And not having a quality big is absolutely fatal and unrecoverable if you hit the wrong matchup
Centers matter less than they ever have. And not having a quality big is absolutely fatal and unrecoverable if you hit the wrong matchup
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Frank Thomas, Doug Flutie, and Andy van Slyke pimping testosterone supplements. Flutie pops out of the surf carrying a board saying he feels younger than ever. Andy van Slyke must have an amazing agent.
Brunson is cooking Utah.
It is insane how poorly constructed that roster is, they have zero plus defenders on the perimeter now that Conley fell off.... Clarkson and Mitchell might as well not even jog back
It is insane how poorly constructed that roster is, they have zero plus defenders on the perimeter now that Conley fell off.... Clarkson and Mitchell might as well not even jog back
Kleber/Brunson are a combined 23/35 from the floor, and 14/20 from deep for 63 points. Unreal how these two guys have literally kept them in the game all by themselves.
DAL doing what literally every team does in the playoffs to Utah... go 5 out so there is nobody for Gobert to defend, then hunt Mitchell and Clarkson (or really anyone on the floor who isn't Gobert or Conley).
Helps that Utah plays garbage team D, chasing everywhere, Gobert leaving his man to help, wide open 3s everywhere.
Helps that Utah plays garbage team D, chasing everywhere, Gobert leaving his man to help, wide open 3s everywhere.
the warriors with steph, klay, and curry are extremely fun to watch right now
edit - replace either steph or curry with poole
edit - replace either steph or curry with poole
A couple years ago maybe.. but yeah.. the calls and non calls were a factor.. homers may disagree.
edit: looked to me like Steph was allowed to hand check the hell out of the guy he was guarding with zero calls. And is there really anyone other than Warriors fans that thinks that the Warriors have the best five man unit in the NBA? Honest question.
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I really really hope Rob comes back healthy and we can settle that question one way or the other this June
Man, fuck playing Golden State, they’re a nightmare to defend. They can obliterate a double digit lead in the blink of an eye.
Klay, Curry, Poole and it really doesn't matter who the other 2 are because those three are cooking right now. There is no way to defend all of them.
Poole is so deadly with a step. He is so great at finishing too. Damn the Warriors are deep at full strength.
I'm sure it was the 2016 finals.
Can we fast forward to the conference finals in the west? If they can stay healthy, a Warriors/Suns series would be incredible.
Dude, that’s five posts of you whining about the refs in this game without making a basketball point. Interestingly, you’re the only poster in this thread who has noticed them.
But sure, you have to be a “homer” to think these two beatdowns have less to do with the refs than with the basketball brilliance of Steph, Poole, Dray, and Klay (and yeah, the fact that Denver is a really weak team outside of the MVP).
Jordan Poole’s brief playoff career: 59 points on 29 fga. 8 assists and 5 rebounds tonight for good measure. As DoTB says: a star.
Apparently TOR doesn't have anyone who can guard Maxey either.
Plus when TOR sends multiple guys to offensive boards and they don't get the rebound, PHI killed them in transition.
Hopefully Nurse can figure some adjustment to at least give PHI a game but right now, PHI knows exactly what it wants to do and has been doing it well.
Yep. :,-(
Kerr now 79-28 career in the playoffs (.745) Best playoff winning percentage by a pretty wide margin (Phil Jackson #2 at .688). Unless you count Ime Udoka and Chris Finch at 1.000…
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFajWZ92IAA
unless Mike Malone is hiding a bunch of wings that can guard the perimeter in the locker room Denver is fucked.
Better off calling 1-800-DOUG-MOE
As far as Joker's -23 that's just the current MVP getting run off the floor in the playoffs... it's pretty wild that it's not just Gobert anymore
the board has debated versatile wings vs. BIGs for years. If people can't see the future value of Tatum by now they'll never see it.
And yet, just a few hours ago we saw Embiid just flatten a team that is entirely big wings. Gobert is the only plus defensive player in Utah's rotation, so the smart team in the playoffs moves him around because no one else can stop them. In this series, at least 4 of the top 5 players (including a two-time MVP still in his prime) are playing for GS. It really doesn't matter what Jokic does, an MVP on a 6 seed surrounded by mediocrity should lose in round 1, especially if his opponent is as healthy as they've been all year. It's about talent, it always is.
I'll always agree that for team building, versatile wings are king - a team starring Tatum or Durant is easier to upgrade than a team led by Embiid or Jokic - but when it comes to actually winning, I don't see it.
when was the last team, led by a dominant Center, actually won it all?
I'd guess the 2007 Spurs, with Duncan at the 5. Called the Greatest PF of All Time by some
I just want to jump in here to say that the 76ers' red Phila uniforms (that they wore last night) are sooooo sweet.
Even on that team, Duncan didn't play all that much at center. In the playoffs, the Fabricio Oberto/Francisco Olsen center tandem started every game and averaged 32 minutes.
when was the last team without a high quality defensive 5 who won it, though?
you are describing it as a binary choice and I don’t think that’s so. You need wings—and they are the most critical element these days—but 5s aren’t fungible either. As noted by someone else, just ask the Raptors
The 2016 Cavs lacked a high-quality defensive center. Tristan Thompson played the 5 for them in the playoffs. He was ok but hardly a dominating interior presence.
Unless you're counting Draymond Green as a center, the Warriors' Durant teams didn't have a good defensive 5. The 2015 team had Bogut but had to bench him in the Finals.
The reason why teams with dominant centers haven’t won titles is because dominant centers are a unicorn. There just aren’t that many, and even those that exist tend to be injured a lot (including, of course, Embiid). I’m of the thought that you can win a title a lot of different ways, you just need the appropriate talent.
