2016-2017 NBA Game Thread
- Thread starter Kliq
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Can we cancel all the other games and just have the Cavs and Warriors play each other 50 times?
That was obv a foul. Jefferson stepped on Durant's foot.
That was obv a foul. Jefferson stepped on Durant's foot.
For whatever reason Curry does not play well against Cleveland and conversely Kylie tends to play above-average against GS. On paper, GS is clearly the better team but if Kyrie consistently outplays Curry (and today it was not even close) then the matchups begin to tilt in Cleveland's favor. If GS wants to win a series against them, Curry has to adjust to how they are defending him and become a bigger contributor.
Jefferson's trip of Durant and the no-call was more troubling. Still, Warriors faded at the end and deserved to lose that game. No tears for anyone and we got an awesome, salty-Russ quote out of it.
That's Russ every day
. What's fun is watching him help his teammates get better: Adams, Kanter, Sabonis, Abrines, Grant, Lauvergne, etc.. He knows he can't win without them.
Jefferson stepped on Durant's foot. That's an extremely hard call to make because I think the refs' eyes are elsewhere.
The one thing with GS being so dependent on 3s,is down the stretch at times you need a 2. At the end of a game with one or two possessions left you get into situations where you just need to score on a single possession. At that point so at that time ‰ of possessions scoring matters more than points per possession. As games wind down and whistles get swallowed going to the hole and scoring matters a bit more.
That said Durant makes the Ws much tougher in that respect. Without the fluky step on the foot play he likely scores.
That said Durant makes the Ws much tougher in that respect. Without the fluky step on the foot play he likely scores.
I would say bad signs all around. Blowing a game against a team with basically 3 players is never good. Lebron will go to another gear in the finals and JR Smith didn't play. He's been playing like a crap, but him shooting threes vs liggins is a big difference. I hate the cavs and Lebron but I think it's great for basketball if the super team fails.
GS somehow is taking fewer threes per game than the Celts. Also fewer than Cleveland and Houston who also shoot at a better clip than GS.
In fact, it is 2 point shooting where GS is truly excelling, shooting a ridiculous 56%
The NBA says that Jefferson should have been called for a foul on Durant on the final play and also says that LeBron should have received a tech.
Meanwhile as the moops notes, the Warriors are taking fewer threes this season and its because both Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are each shooting about four percentage points below their career averages (Curry at 39.9% vs 44% career and last seasons 45.4% while Thompson is at 38% vs 41.6% and last season's 42.5%). Draymond Green's shooting is also down but he is more of a facilitator on this team so his numbers aren't going to move the needle a lot.
Durant, on the other hand, is shooting at the highest FG percentage of his career at 53.8% and if you add in the lobs to JaVale McGee who is having a career year shooting-wise, you see how the Warriors shot selection has changed.
Why is a different question. Is it the introduction of Durant into the line-up? Is it the absence of someone like Andrew Bogut or Festus Ezeli who allowed the wing players to play less strenuous defense as long as they funneled their man into the middle for those guys to clean things up? Are teams defending them differently? Or were Curry and Thompson shooting at clips that were just unsustainable?
My guess is that its a combination of all of the above. Regardless, Kerr et al has time to fix things but if the Warriors want to win four of seven from Cleveland, they need to find an answer. The Cavs were the tougher of the two teams yesterday. Part of that is that this was the end of a road-trip on Cleveland's home floor but another part is because the Cavs finished stronger.
Meanwhile as the moops notes, the Warriors are taking fewer threes this season and its because both Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are each shooting about four percentage points below their career averages (Curry at 39.9% vs 44% career and last seasons 45.4% while Thompson is at 38% vs 41.6% and last season's 42.5%). Draymond Green's shooting is also down but he is more of a facilitator on this team so his numbers aren't going to move the needle a lot.
Durant, on the other hand, is shooting at the highest FG percentage of his career at 53.8% and if you add in the lobs to JaVale McGee who is having a career year shooting-wise, you see how the Warriors shot selection has changed.
Why is a different question. Is it the introduction of Durant into the line-up? Is it the absence of someone like Andrew Bogut or Festus Ezeli who allowed the wing players to play less strenuous defense as long as they funneled their man into the middle for those guys to clean things up? Are teams defending them differently? Or were Curry and Thompson shooting at clips that were just unsustainable?
My guess is that its a combination of all of the above. Regardless, Kerr et al has time to fix things but if the Warriors want to win four of seven from Cleveland, they need to find an answer. The Cavs were the tougher of the two teams yesterday. Part of that is that this was the end of a road-trip on Cleveland's home floor but another part is because the Cavs finished stronger.
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Came here to post the above. At least they admit the mistakes (unlike the NFL) but they were pretty obvious calls to miss. Also Curry needs to stop disappearing against the Cavs. He's got something to prove in big games.
If Curry can at least play Irving to a draw, I don't see how Cleveland can hang with GS over the course of the series even if LeBron plays at his expectedly great level. I'd like to see Curry have a performance that all the greats have; the one that goes "people think so-and-so is better than me? I'll show them!"
Thi makes sense. I thought for most of the game GS look better equipped to play the Cavs than last year. Ironically Durant may thrive in new system that is not as good for Thompson and Curry.
Maybe the coolest thing about Westbrook's season is that he is doing it on a good rebounding team. One of the reasons non-traditional bigs averaged big numbers in the past is because they were on crappy rebounding teams to the point that SOMEBODY has to get rebounds and it usually ended up being the most athletic player (LeBron, Shawn Marion, Gerald Wallace) but OKC is the fifth best rebounding team in basketball. They have Adams and Kanter and Sabonis and yet Russ is still out rebounding them.
Giannis has some sick highlight plays tonight. The league is really stocked with some incredible athletes like him, Kawhi and Westbrook.
Jimmy Butler buzzer beater. Not sure why the Nets didn't double him. Good news loss for the Nets.
Jabari Parker is really starting to blossom along with Giannis. Tonight he went 13-18 from the field including 4-7 from deep and grabbed nine boards and seven assists in Milwaukee's 119-94 win in Detroit.
He had some impressive takes around the rim but the guy is now shooting 37+% from deep while already well above (92) his career total 3PA (not high - 51 3PA total over the past two seasons) in just 30 games this season.
He had some impressive takes around the rim but the guy is now shooting 37+% from deep while already well above (92) his career total 3PA (not high - 51 3PA total over the past two seasons) in just 30 games this season.
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I would much rather have Jabari and Giannis than Wiggins, Towns and Lavine.
Real shame Middleton is out of action or this Bucks team could've made a very threatening playoff run. Even now, I reckon they have a shot in a seven game series against any non-Cavs teams.
Real shame Middleton is out of action or this Bucks team could've made a very threatening playoff run. Even now, I reckon they have a shot in a seven game series against any non-Cavs teams.
I do think that Middleton's absence has helped Parker's development. Bucks fans have to be pretty excited right now.
With Middleton, they are a very tall team. I forgot about him due to him being injured, but they would be so much better with him. They have no 3rd scoring option.
Apparently, Middleton is coming back mid-February-ish so they could be a force in the playoffs.
Just saw that the Bucks are selling 10-WIN (not ten game) seating packages. That's creative. So beginning January 13, a fan plops down $149 and gets tickets to each game until the Bucks win 10 times, with potential bonuses for 5 & 10 game win streaks. http://www.si.com/nba/2016/12/27/milwaukee-bucks-selling-10-win-ticket-package-price
Middleton will be a nice 3rd option and can shoot the three.
That's a cool idea by the Bucks I like it
Suns up 11 with 10 minutes left, Sixers up 2 with 11 minutes left.
edit: and the sixers have been outscored 10-0 to start the 4th. Oh well. Down 6 now.
edit: and the sixers have been outscored 10-0 to start the 4th. Oh well. Down 6 now.
Make that 18-2
EDIT--ends up 30-9 for an easy Utah win.
The Suns, on the other hand, are still up 7 with under a minute to go
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Lakers are on a 10-0 run to start the 2nd too. Suns win and Kemba Walker is having a really good season. He has improved his shooting greatly over the last 2 seasons. Maybe there is hope for Marcus Smart.
Sixers start the 4th with Okafor. Hence result. Beyond a joke now.
Utah began the 4th with 5 deep 3-pointers in the first 4 minutes. The perimeter defenders didn't close out on anyone in that stretch and McConnell's lack of length doesn't provide any resistance. The 2nd unit is god awful and has no cohesion. Why do people still like Covington? If it weren't for the Sixers would he and McConnell even be in the league?
Covington is a good defender now. Really solid. Great hands.
He's still hot and cold with his shot which hurts.
He has really really improved as a cutter this year.
I think he's a good rotation wing. On his contract valuable I would say.
Tj played way too much as Rodriguez got hurt, bayless is done for the year and Simmons is still out. It sucks but shit happens. And no I think he'd be a emergency depth guy for cheap, which is sort of what he is bar the injuries
He's still hot and cold with his shot which hurts.
He has really really improved as a cutter this year.
I think he's a good rotation wing. On his contract valuable I would say.
Tj played way too much as Rodriguez got hurt, bayless is done for the year and Simmons is still out. It sucks but shit happens. And no I think he'd be a emergency depth guy for cheap, which is sort of what he is bar the injuries
