Paul is a "traffic cone" on defense for Luka, who is looking at Booker/Paul the same way he was looking at them during the playoffs last year, which became a meme.
If it makes you feel better, I felt the same watching the Cs.
We’ll see how the rest look but wouldn’t surprise me if these two teams are the best again. Will be tough to oust both teams, if they’re healthy come playoff time.
I also love League Pass. The quality is fantastic for me, no hiccups or crap like Sunday Ticket. The only blackouts are usually whatever the local team is. I believe it's $99 for the season right now which is a great deal if you enjoy watching basketball.
I feel like this is pretty common in the NBA. Kyrie has as good of a chance of winning a jump ball against Nance as I have of hitting cleanup for the Sox, so why risk any sort of potential injury by jumping for it? After Nance hits it, your team might get the ball anyway.
A Suggs who lives up to his billing as a prospect gives Orlando one of the best young cores in the league.
Looks like Romeo Langford isn’t in the Spurs rotation to start the season.
some guys who are small even try to play the tip, basically don't jump and try to read where it'll go and snag it.
This is correct. Teams run off the ball actions on uncontested jump balls to try and steal it. This is actually a thing now.
Also 0-2 from the stripe, after going 1-6 in preseason, after putting up the single worst performance from the FT line in NBA playoff history in ‘21 (25-73, .342).
Romeo and Nesmith are both mere footnotes in the annals of Celtics history but I will still go to the mat for the former as an alternate universe stud, or quality rotation player at least. His individual D here was no joke, but everything else just never came together whether it was health or opportunity or offensive development.
Barrett and Quickley a combined 3-22 shooting. Barrett appears to have worked as hard this summer as Ben Simmons.
A big pet peeve of mine is the refs just look at the restricted area and if the defensive player is set, but not at the actual play.
Not only is he 1-8 from the line so far this year including preseason, he's got just 20 FGAs in 108 total minutes. Exactly 0 of those attempts were from outside the paint.
It’s rare that you hear a whistle in that spot but in this case it seemed like the right call as there was significant contact by Morant. It was also a makeup call from the no-call when he fouled Brunson on blocked shot earlier.
Very interesting to watch going forward. Lowry and Butler a year older, Tucker gone and Herro in the starting lineup...they were 5th in defensive rating last year. I doubt they are that good again this year.
It’s a usage thing with Simmons. He’s the same player as he’s been since he entered the league except now the Nets want to play him like he’s Draymond offensively rather than how he was used to break down defenses with his dribble in the past. Unless the Nets change their way is using Simmons it’s going to be a train wreck year for him.
I'll be keeping a really close eye on his FT%. It's always been lousy (60%, give or take) but it can get a lot worse. He may become unplayable late in games even during the regular season if he dips below 50%.
Meh FT% isn’t his issue. If he’s being used off the ball or on the weak side during Kyrie PNR action the least of his problems is going to be his FT%.
