Well there's one prediction right. Maybe I should have said "puts us on tilt."
You shut your mouth. We're only a James-Durant-Curry rolled ankle trifecta away from winning the title.
Well, Stevens could start Smart and Rozier and full court press them right from the start, then bring IT off the bench early. Or is that going too far...??
My bad. I thought Rozier was taller. (He plays taller?) Green is listed at 6'7", which I also didn't realize.
This probably deserves its own thread.
Maybe the issue isn't effort but the fact that the starting five for the Wiz is markedly better than the starting five for the Cs?
Dont broken jaws get wired shut so they can heal properly? Is there minute level of broken-ness that does not require that?
A lot of it is in fact effort. How do you think they all of a sudden closed the rebounding gap against Chicago? It takes a certain mindset to be a good rebounding team and when they decide they want to put the effort into rebounding they do a decent job of it. The defensive rotations falter when multiple players aren't doing their job. Being good at defense takes all 5 guys working together and that hasn't been the case. Yes, the Wizards took advantage of the IT matchup and good on them for doing so. But that doesn't explain the open 3 point shooters or players getting beat 1-on-1 off the dribble against someone other than Wall who is very tough to stop.
Just to be clear, you think that for some reason, an entire team - who we have lauded this past year for playing hard almost every night - all of sudden decide that they are not going to play hard in the most important games of the year? Because if I read you correctly, you're not saying one person didn't play hard but the entire starting lineup and perhaps most of the bench.
I'm with wade boggs chicken dinner on this one. Effort is a typically lazy explanation we turn to when things aren't going well. I'm sure everyone involved feels that if they had just focused a bit more or tried a bit harder outcomes would be different. But that doesn't mean that it was a lack of effort which led to the outcomes.
We'll agree to disagree and I respect your position on this. As a whole, this team plays hard but they can go through stretches looking like they are going through the motions on both ends of the floor. Players are always on and off with shooting the basketball but should never be off with defense and rebounding. You can control how hard you play D and rebound. That's just a personal feeling on my part having been around the game and listening to different coaches' philosophies. The only thing I can think of for not sending anybody to the offensive boards is that it's Brad's plan is to stop their transition game at all costs.
When I question effort, it's on the defensive end and on the glass. Those are areas that teams can control.
Depends on whether he fractured his maxilla (upper) or mandible.(lower). If her fractured his maxilla when he got his tooth knocked (quite possible), the surgeon would likely go in and repair and fixate the maxilla (titanium screws and/or plates/wires). A small mandibular fracture without separation of the fracture doesn't necessarily need fixation (when he hit his chin in game 2). If this story is true, my leaning would Leforte ! fracture of his maxilla.
Rondo was tearing up our backcourt getting wherever he wanted with the ball forcing our defense to rotate/switch. The Bulls also forced us to move our feet defensively with ball movement. All that ended when Rondo went down resulting in our bigs being in better position to rebound. It wasn't as much about effort as it was being out of positon to keep the Bulls off the offensive glass.
Great call!! I was just coming here to posting similar as an option. While it is baffling to me why Stevens went back to Green and even went to Amir at all, to me the obvious defender who is versatile enough to switch on Wall is Jaylen. I'm pleading with Brad to start him in Game 4.
Not whining here, but another difference in the games you mentioned is the way the referees called the contact on IT4. In the first games he didn't get bumped/bodied without calls. In the last game I think the amount of contact he was experiencing was higher, without the same quantity of the calls. Again without complaint it seemed his focus was off due to any of 100 understandable reasons - I think it showed on the free throw line if nothing else.
Let the record state that Popovich also started my draft binky 20-year old Dejounte Murray at the point guard position on the road in this game last night. Kawhi even tweeted out how he did a nice job being thrown into the fire on the road. If you want to talk about coaching decisions making an impact in a game look no further than Pop last night and to Brad being 3 games behind in his thinking as we dug a deep hole all 3 games thus far.
Bradley of all of them enjoys making the back door cut even if he doesn't always finish well. I think that's where IT4 could grow his game next - his passing game. He generates so much attention that if his passing were a bit better he could be just as devastating but I think the offense might flow around him better. I'm not meaning he doesn't pass but that I think it could be a real weapon for the team.
Not sure if this was posted elsewhere but the Celtics denied this:
That's a shame for the Celtics, he was great for us this series so far. Only guy were IT could be consistently hidden and a disaster on defense.
This is true, but this further weakens their already shitty and thin bench. Wall and Beal will be playing like 45 minutes a piece.
Yeah, if Gortat gets to do what he does on every screen, Morris gets to throw Horford into the crowd, Olynyk is allowed any screen that doesn't involve a bulldozer, a catapult, or a rubber chicken. I could be convinced on the chicken part.
Agreed, it's either on, or it's not - leave the whining at home.
It was a moving pick with a late shove and Olynyk got called on it.
His feet were set for the pick and he released after the impact, but he wasn't set very long, so I understand the call. It was a borderline offensive foul call and wasn't dirty. The forearm to the neck was a product of Olynyk being a lot taller than Oubre and Oubre not knowing he was running into him so he had his head down. It's not Olynyk's job to get out of his way there, it's Oubre's job to know where the offensive players are. Olynyk's play was not dirty, it was a good screen that got called a foul because of Oubre's fall, not because of the pick itself. Oubre probably should've gotten suspended at least 2 games, especially since he wouldn't even acknowledge afterwards that what he did was unacceptable but instead victim-blamed.
I don't think it was dirty either. Oubre ran into a (moving) wall. I don't think Olynyk was perfectly stationary. It was a foul. I've seen a gazillion like it over the years.Oubre's reaction was over the top, dangerous, and I think the additional 1 game penalty was warranted and fair.
The problem is, deserved or not, Olynyk has a reputation amongst non-Boston NBA watchers for being "dirty" due to the Love play as well as his general clumsiness (or as Jason Concepcion says of Olynyk "He is in the bottom-third percentile of “moving in a graceful manner”). Furthermore, any hard fouls/screens are going to be amplified by the recent history between these two teams as well as the stakes of this series.
They don't even need to change the channel, Gortat sets hard screens and extends his arms on them, too.
Also, on a prior possession, Wall caught him with an elbow, which he might have thought was from Olynyk.
