NBA Playoffs 2019 - Kawhi So Serious?!

[Proudfeet]

He always has that shot against Houston regardless, but I thought this shot itself was impressive even if it wasn't the game winner. 

[Jaime L]

9 hours ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Dame is a cold motherfucker.

Westbrook's shot selection is such a glaring weakness, I'm starting to see why KD left OKC.

The whole difference in the series is that Dame is much better than Russ at this point in their careers. You look at their supporting casts and I don't see how you can conclude Dame has more help. 

But you have one guy who turns 33 shots into 50 points and another who turns 31 shots into 29. Sure Russ got a triple double but it's not close to enough to compensate for a 21 point difference on roughly the same usage. Paul George was lights out all night and it wasn't enough. 

Poor Russ. His skillset would've been perfect 20 years ago. Could you imagine him as a more complete AI? But in this era elite scoring guards with range are so much more valuable than a guy than a guy who fills up the box score but can't shoot. I don't see how he's getting past Curry, Harden and Dame going forward. If you have top 5 MVP type teammate and you still get blitzed in the first round where do you go from here? 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

9 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

The whole difference in the series is that Dame is much better than Russ at this point in their careers. You look at their supporting casts and I don't see how you can conclude Dame has more help. 

Idk, I think Portland is a more complete team. OKC’s problem is that they only have two guys who can really get their own shot, and one of them has become not just a bad shooter, but one of the worst volume shooters in the NBA.

Quote

Poor Russ. His skillset would've been perfect 20 years ago. Could you imagine him as a more complete AI? But in this era elite scoring guards with range are so much more valuable than a guy than a guy who fills up the box score but can't shoot. I don't see how he's getting past Curry, Harden and Dame going forward. If you have top 5 MVP type teammate and you still get blitzed in the first round where do you go from here? 

Going into the season I had Westbrook listed as the 7^th best player in the NBA (and I had Lillard 8^th), but at this point I don’t think you can call him a top 10 player anymore, and it’s only going to get worse as time goes by. His game is going to age horrifically.

[Jaime L]

12 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Idk, I think Portland is a more complete team. OKC’s problem is that they only have two guys who can really get their own shot, and one of them has become not just a bad shooter, but one of the worst volume shooters in the NBA.

Agree they're probably deeper. But George >> McCollum, Adams > Kanter, And I think it's easier for role guys to go full Aminu playing with Dame and the gravity he creates vs. Russ. 

[SkynJay]

George was wrong.  That is a bad shot with two minutes left.  Once the clock was at 4 seconds it was a great, nay the only shot.  

Clippers pick and roll is killing the Warriors tonight.  I could possible be convinced that Houston may take them this year.

[Maithanet]

Even great teams occasionally lose focus and drop a game in the playoffs to an inferior opponent.  It happens.  I was willing to look past the first loss as an aberration.  But the Warriors dropping two games at Oracle to the completely overmatched Clippers is not a good sign.  The Warriors are vastly superior in both talent and experience, and yet they are struggling to put away LAC. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

20 hours ago, Jaime L said:

Agree they're probably deeper. But George >> McCollum, Adams > Kanter, And I think it's easier for role guys to go full Aminu playing with Dame and the gravity he creates vs. Russ. 

George is better than McCollum, but he was also hurt and McCollum was on fire. And while I would rather have Adams, he can’t create his own shot like Kanter can which matters in the playoffs.

54 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

Even great teams occasionally lose focus and drop a game in the playoffs to an inferior opponent.  It happens.  I was willing to look past the first loss as an aberration.  But the Warriors dropping two games at Oracle to the completely overmatched Clippers is not a good sign.  The Warriors are vastly superior in both talent and experience, and yet they are struggling to put away LAC. 

Two things stand out here. First, the Warriors are clearly looking past the Clippers. That’s always a mistake, even if your opponent is entirely inferior to you. Second, all season long the Warriors have had bad tendencies and never shown any interest in fixing them. That can come back to bite you in the playoffs because you can’t correct that on the fly in a short amount of time.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

Two staggering Westbrook stats:

In the 16 playoff games he’s played since Durant left, Russ has only shot at or above 50% one time.

In Russ’ last five playoff elimination games, he’s miss 100 shots.

[Jaime L]

The most under the radar nutso thing about the modern NBA is the Jazz, one of the best defensive teams in the league, has decided that the only way to defend Harden is to have Ricky Rubio play behind him. Like literally give him a 15 foot runway to the hoop on every single play. 

 

I'll be curious how the Warriors play him (assuming they get their heads out of their asses). 

[Maithanet]

2 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

The most under the radar nutso thing about the modern NBA is the Jazz, one of the best defensive teams in the league, has decided that the only way to defend Harden is to have Ricky Rubio play behind him. Like literally give him a 15 foot runway to the hoop on every single play.

I'll be curious how the Warriors play him (assuming they get their heads out of their asses). 

It seems safe to assume they won't be doing that. 

I've seen series against Lebron and Kobe where the other team is determined to play single coverage, take away the passing lanes and accept that he's going to put up 40, if not way more.  I can understand that, because even great players get tired if they have to beat their defender over and over again. 

But with that ridiculous ass defense, Harden doesn't even have to work to get good looks. He's not going to get tired, he's just going to score again and again.  Even with Gobert at the basket, you're still looking at a virtually uncontested shot just inside the free throw line.  How often does Harden hit that, 70%? More?

[James Arryn]

51 minutes ago, Jaime L said:

The most under the radar nutso thing about the modern NBA is the Jazz, one of the best defensive teams in the league, has decided that the only way to defend Harden is to have Ricky Rubio play behind him. Like literally give him a 15 foot runway to the hoop on every single play. 

 

I'll be curious how the Warriors play him (assuming they get their heads out of their asses). 

It’s bizarre to watch. A whole team playing the game upside down to address one guy.

There was this one shot of Utah’s defense from the other end of the court, dunno if you saw it, but you literally saw 4 Jazz players chasing his penetration once he crossed the line and the 5th was hedging. It was like a herd or something, everyone running in one direction.

Never saw anything like this...must be what it was like to watch team defences reinvent themselves to guard Wilt or The Jordan Rules. 

[DMC]

1 hour ago, Jaime L said:

The most under the radar nutso thing about the modern NBA is the Jazz, one of the best defensive teams in the league, has decided that the only way to defend Harden is to have Ricky Rubio play behind him. Like literally give him a 15 foot runway to the hoop on every single play. 

 

 

[James Arryn]

45 minutes ago, Maithanet said:

It seems safe to assume they won't be doing that. 

I've seen series against Lebron and Kobe where the other team is determined to play single coverage, take away the passing lanes and accept that he's going to put up 40, if not way more.  I can understand that, because even great players get tired if they have to beat their defender over and over again. 

But with that ridiculous ass defense, Harden doesn't even have to work to get good looks. He's not going to get tired, he's just going to score again and again.  Even with Gobert at the basket, you're still looking at a virtually uncontested shot just inside the free throw line.  How often does Harden hit that, 70%? More?

Well, one factor that really helped was Capela being so slowed by the viruses. The tear drop is the last thing Harden added and it was especially deadly because defenders can’t tell if he’s going to shoot or alley-oop, and since game 1 there were tons of players that are normally easy oops that Capela either couldn't get to or had to land and gather himself and basically reset. So then that allowed Gobbert to key on the shot more meaning Harden often had to put it higher (or put it up at all when when he expected the pass option) nd it was effective. Weird as hell to watch though. Milwaukee and a couple others started experimenting with the Rubio part towards the end of the season, but their version kinda left a clear path, and Harden adjusted. By virtue if Capela, Gobbert and just a different emphasis the Jazz added the team contest towards the paint to seal off the drive and force the floater. Give them credit for being willing to commit. 

[Maithanet]

12 minutes ago, James Arryn said:

Give them credit for being willing to commit. 

I'm not sure how much credit I should give a team for embracing a ridiculous defensive strategy that is almost guaranteed to fail.  The Jazz were a top 5 team by a lot of advanced metrics this year, and they just lost 4-1 in the first round.  

[James Arryn]

1 hour ago, Maithanet said:

I'm not sure how much credit I should give a team for embracing a ridiculous defensive strategy that is almost guaranteed to fail.  The Jazz were a top 5 team by a lot of advanced metrics this year, and they just lost 4-1 in the first round.  

Houston has the best record in the league in the second half, since getting most of their guys back. And Harden’s a challenge that many coaches have called unsolvable so there are a lot of people experimenting (This is what I mean about the MVP/what this season has been ABOUT. When people think back to this year, Harden will be the story).

Another reason it was intelligent for a series vs. a regular season game they pointed out was that his step back 3 is his most energy efficient shot. So by taking that away making him constantly have to penetrate they were hoping to wear him down over the series, and it was a good idea. Additionally, especially as the refs were ‘letting them play’, his passing lanes were restricted by a lot of hands including the trailer looking to poke the ball or deflect the pass from behind if Harden was forced to slow up or redirect at all.

It didn’t completely work in terms of the ‘make the other guys beat you’ philosophy sometimes means the other guys do beat you, but especially when Capela was barely moving it really impacted his play, and that’s rarely been doable this year.

 

[James Arryn]

And to add in QB’s defense, Harden during the year generated 40% of his scoring from behind the line, and another 58% at the line or in the lane/at the bucket. Only 2% from mid-range. So this series they were looking to force him to take most of his shots from a space he barely ever shoots from. It was well conceived, imo. If they win everyone’s calling him a genius. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

1 hour ago, James Arryn said:

And to add in QB’s defense, Harden during the year generated 40% of his scoring from behind the line, and another 58% at the line or in the lane/at the bucket. Only 2% from mid-range. So this series they were looking to force him to take most of his shots from a space he barely ever shoots from. It was well conceived, imo. If they win everyone’s calling him a genius. 

The strategy also in theory would mess with his passing lanes and muscle memory in general. It's not the worst idea to try, but they should have hit abort immediately once it became apparent that it was doomed.

[briantw]

On 4/24/2019 at 12:20 PM, Jaime L said:

The whole difference in the series is that Dame is much better than Russ at this point in their careers. You look at their supporting casts and I don't see how you can conclude Dame has more help. 

But you have one guy who turns 33 shots into 50 points and another who turns 31 shots into 29. Sure Russ got a triple double but it's not close to enough to compensate for a 21 point difference on roughly the same usage. Paul George was lights out all night and it wasn't enough. 

Poor Russ. His skillset would've been perfect 20 years ago. Could you imagine him as a more complete AI? But in this era elite scoring guards with range are so much more valuable than a guy than a guy who fills up the box score but can't shoot. I don't see how he's getting past Curry, Harden and Dame going forward. If you have top 5 MVP type teammate and you still get blitzed in the first round where do you go from here? 

Personally, while Presti is awesome when it comes to drafting, I think he seems kind of piss poor when it comes to roster composition.  He has one of the best drive and kick guys in the league and he continues to fail at surrounding him with elite shooting talent.  You should be putting the same type of team around Russ that you ideally put around LeBron (aka the opposite of the Lakers' strategy): a shitload of good three point shooters.

[DanteGabriel]

John Havlicek has died.

https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-celtics/2019/04/25/read-the-celtics-statement-on-the-passing-of-john-havlicek

[The Anti-Targ]

So the Adams trade speculation for OKC seems to be a bit like, Adams isn't really the problem, but somehow trading him is the best solution? Where are they going to get a better center from? Are there any coming up for free agency? I don't see team being willing to trade a n on contract better center than Adams to bring in Adams at his $25M/year price tag, unless their current center is even pricier. So will a team looking for a high-rated center trade other positions to get him, which might help to flesh out OKC's bench? But that still leaves them needing a center, either in a free agency bidding war, or a draft pick.