NBA - Rochambeau Playoffs

[Tywin et al.]

Death, Taxes and Heat Culture! 

[Arakasi]

Think Boston is a badly coached team here. Too predictable despite their strengths.

[KingintheNorth4]

As soon as Grant started talking shit to Jimmy G Buckets I knew the game was over. 

[DanteGabriel]

Is watching the Celtics and Bruins choke our karma for the Patriots?

[Tywin et al.]

13 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

Think Boston is a badly coached team here. Too predictable despite their strengths.

The coaching was bad. But Idk what you do when your two best players keep dribbling the ball off their meet. Tatum did it twice in the last minute and they were lucky it didn't kill them. Him and Brown are so deadly when they attack, but they keep doing it. Last year in the Finals that's one of the things that truly fucked them. 

[DanteGabriel]

Just now, Tywin et al. said:

The coaching was bad. But Idk what you do when your two best players keep dribbling the ball off their meet. Tatum did it twice in the last minute and they were lucky it didn't kill them. Him and Brown are so deadly when they attack, but they keep doing it. Last year in the Finals that's one of the things that truly fucked them. 

Also, the threes and layups strategy doesn't work when you brick so many open looks. So frustrating.

[Tywin et al.]

2 minutes ago, DanteGabriel said:

Is watching the Celtics and Bruins choke our karma for the Patriots?

Lol. Boston has been a 20 year run no city has ever enjoyed. It can't always go your way. See the dating thread and me nearly crying myself to sleep last night. 

And still, it would not shock me if the C's won the next four. They are the better team and Miami looks gassed. 

[DanteGabriel]

7 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Lol. Boston has been a 20 year run no city has ever enjoyed. It can't always go your way. See the dating thread and me nearly crying myself to sleep last night. 

And still, it would not shock me if the C's won the next four. They are the better team and Miami looks gassed. 

Point taken. It's just that I've switched most of my emotional investment into the Celtics and Bruins over the last few years. I would trade the last Sox and Pats championships for just one for either of the Garden teams.

ETA: I don't read the dating thread because I'm a boring married suburban dad and it seems... I dunno, voyeuristic or something to read about y'alls romantic travails.

Edited May 20 by DanteGabriel

[Tywin et al.]

Just now, DanteGabriel said:

Also, the threes and layups strategy doesn't work when you brick so many open looks. So frustrating.

It works when you're good at it. This is where I think the math is screwing with coaching. Let guys shoot from the places they're good at it. It does not need to be all threes, layups and FTs. That's why I was pushing back at the idea of Ewing being a three point shooter today. Let him harvest that 10-12 foot shot and set it up so he got clean looks, and them hammer the opponent with it if he was struggling to get inside or dealing with foul trouble. 

Tatum is a monster inside by the numbers. He's a solid shooter from outside but there's a lot of variance based on where he takes them, and he shoots a lot of bad shoots. Get him the ball where he needs to make one move and attack. He's excellent at getting fouls. When he's hot, give him the green light from outside, but so often he settles for garbage shit. 

[Maithanet]

The Celtics are getting badly out coached.  Spoelstra is putting in a master class.  This Heat team is straight up not that talented, but they already dispatched the Bucks and they might do the same to Boston.  Pretty crazy.

Edited May 20 by Maithanet

[Arakasi]

Jason Timpf went over this in his preview. He picked the Celtics because of talent but said that if you can encourage them to play into their bad tendencies you can let them beat themself. And right now they’re denying the three and funnelling players to Bam and leaving midrange open but Celtics won’t shoot it.

[Wilbur]

On 5/18/2023 at 9:24 AM, Arakasi said:

 

One more time, the Heat are the best at taking what the defense gives them.

 

[Arakasi]

Yeah just watched that one. Great video.

[Proudfeet]

52 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

And right now they’re denying the three and funnelling players to Bam and leaving midrange open but Celtics won’t shoot it.

I don't know, I'm not seeing those open midrange shots that are being passed up. Maybe they should be more aggressive to create those looks which might open things up, but they aren't just being left with the ball in space.

Regardless, the loss is probably more on their turnovers which are coming from everywhere.

[Argonath Diver]

I grew up idolizing Jordan and was as much a fan as any Illinois kid, but I was a teenager without even basic cable, one TV and two parents who had PBS or Cheers on rather than an NBA game. But I've followed Jimmy Butler since his draft day and watched him relieve Luol Deng when Thibodeau was playing him 41 minutes a game. Devastated when the Bulls traded him. Butler went through a diva period where his relentless will overcame weaker teammates (Tywin, weigh in?) and I soured on him a bit, but this absolutely absurd playoff run they've made has made me realize that he is, if I had to pick one, my singular favorite player ever. Dude is everything that young hoopers should aspire to. An absolute dog who wins through sheer determination and hard work.

 "I just don't know if I'm the best person to talk to". In my life, the only guys who say that and mean it were MJ and Kobe. Straight up.

[Relic]

Spo for playoff MVP

[Tywin et al.]

6 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Butler went through a diva period where his relentless will overcame weaker teammates (Tywin, weigh in?)

I've always maintained we traded the wrong guy for him. It should have been a straight up one for one, Wiggins for Butler, but LaVine tore his ACL so I get why they did it. And after things soured I would have traded KAT because that's where the friction was. I understand why it didn't play out like that though. Jimmy is horrible to deal with. The Heat are a backup team of mine and they're by all reports pretty fed up with him. But then he does shit like this and of course you want that guy even if threatens to fight the coach in a game.

[Arakasi]

Biggest difference in this series between 2020 and now is back then James could for times shut down Murray. Right now they can’t. It’s not even that Jokic has been that great but Murray is pulling off what Booker did last round.

Edited May 21 by Arakasi

[Arakasi]

Looks like this series is over. Murray cooled down in the second half but Denver’s backups are way outperforming the Lakers ones. And James can’t single handedly do anything anymore with his injuries and age.

[Tywin et al.]

21 minutes ago, Arakasi said:

Looks like this series is over. Murray cooled down in the second half but Denver’s backups are way outperforming the Lakers ones. And James can’t single handedly do anything anymore with his injuries and age.

I've said it before, Murray is the key. There's no way to contain Joker unless he's just having an off night, but he needs that gunner to open up their offense. That multi level attack is just not stoppable and made more devastating because they have two guys who can offensive rebound at a high level.