NBA playoffs 2018

dhellers

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Am I being a hater, or is a team that "allows" the likes of Bellinili and Reddick to kill 'em with 3s, is a team that is playing soft?
Those two are emminently shutdownable if you stay in their faces (especially on the defensive end)
 

BillMuellerFanClub

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Hassan Whiteside played 12 minutes, and Olynyk was the Heat’s leading scorer. While defense was an issue (PHI hit 18/28 from three), Miami couldn’t get anything going on the offensive end.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Am I being a hater, or is a team that "allows" the likes of Bellinili and Reddick to kill 'em with 3s, is a team that is playing soft?
Those two are emminently shutdownable if you stay in their faces (especially on the defensive end)
Philly couldn't miss from deep - 64.3%. Its insane.

I agree that Belinelli and Reddick had good looks but Saric and Ilyasova got whatever they wanted. If those two are going off, there really isn't much you can do. Everything went well for Philly in the second half - lets see what happens if/when the Heat give them a ballgame.
 

BigSoxFan

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[QUOTE="DeJesus Built My Hotrod, post: 2751995, member: 313"lets see what happens if/when anyone in the NBA figures out a way to give them a ballgame.[/QUOTE]

FTFY. This team is absolute rolling.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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lets see what happens if/when anyone in the NBA figures out a way to give them a ballgame.

FTFY. This team is absolute rolling.
As I posted in the regular season thread, during their season-ending winning streak, the 76ers beat the Knicks, Nets, Hornets and Hawks twice each. They also beat the Grizzlies, Magic, Hawks, Pistons and Mavs during their end of season run. The only teams they faced with winning/playoff records were a Butler-less T-Wolves, the Cavs, the Bucks (in a largely meaningless game for the Bucks but an important game for the 76ers seeding-wise) and the Nuggets who fell short of making the dance.

Maybe they roll into the finals but I suspect that even if its not Miami, someone left in the East will give them a ballgame or two before its all over.
 

Euclis20

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while the mainstream media will work this narrative, Miami has more than a few good players and the only All-Star on the floor tonight
Their best player tonight by a mile was Kelly Olynyk. The narrative coming into the playoffs was that Miami is a team very short on high end talent, and nothing that happened today indicates otherwise.
 

LondonSox

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I don't think anyone reads THAT much into the steak. It was needed to get the 3 seed. There was a lot of cream puffs, but young teams, esp post embiid injury, could easily have lost one.
I think it gave confidence to all, and there wer so many blow outs they didn't have to over see anyone.

The big adjustment at half was basically removing Whiteside from the game by putting Ilyasova at center. That forced them to match up Simmons plus 4 shooters while still having three bigs for the rebounding advantage.

What they do with Redick and Balinelli is so nice. They both run around constantly, and Redick can hit if he gets an inch, and balinelli seems to thrive shooting off the move, and off balance. Which gives him that inch in itself.

Combined with Simmons ability to pass on time on pocket and to find cutters if anyone turns their head.

I also think fultz can do a lot of running the same style. And saric, Ilyasova gives you at least one stretch big who can really shoot on the floor. Covington has been able to focus on defense with his usage lower, which fits him better
He was everywhere defensively fantastic.

Olynk was great but can't expect that every game, that style of game won't work.
 

luckiestman

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Pels Blazers is very confusing for me to watch. Dame is my favorite non Celtic and has been for years but I still view Rondo as a Celtic so I don’t know who I am rooting for.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Pels Blazers is very confusing for me to watch. Dame is my favorite non Celtic and has been for years but I still view Rondo as a Celtic so I don’t know who I am rooting for.
I love each player too and both teams are extremely fun to watch. That said, I think we root for the Blazers because they are deeper and can probably go further in the playoffs. Furthermore, the more success New Orleans has, the lower the chances (which are really small now and probably don't increase anytime soon) that they would look to trade Davis in the near future.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Rondo is so wily. He is like a maimed field general who somehow knows every trick in the book. 17 dimes and eight boards thus far tonight. He was such a great signing for the Pelicans.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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All the games on today and the late Saturday night one, which probably has the smallest audience, has the best color announcer in Doris Burke. She is a damn treasure.
 

Kliq

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All the games on today and the late Saturday night one, which probably has the smallest audience, has the best color announcer in Doris Burke. She is a damn treasure.
You seriously think DB is better than Mark Jackson? Why I don't even think she has a single catchphrase!
 

luckiestman

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You seriously think DB is better than Mark Jackson? Why I don't even think she has a single catchphrase!

I had one of the games on earlier at a low volume as I was playing race cars with my son. All I could hear was “rough ruff... woofwoofwoof....ruff” I turned up the volume and thought to myself Team Sprewell 4 life.
 

ElUno20

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Considering the size difficulties their backcourt had all game, running something going to the rim with the game on the line was pretty stupid.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Considering the size difficulties their backcourt had all game, running something going to the rim with the game on the line was pretty stupid.
Running plays for Leonard and Connaughton was pretty stupid too. And Stotts is generally a very good coach.
 

jon abbey

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Lillard and McCollum and Jurkic were all pretty bad, Lillard especially. Combine that with Davis and Rondo playing fantastically and NO somehow only winning by 2, and I think that the Blazers still win this series unless Davis starts putting up 45 or 50 (possible).
 

mauf

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Weird to think that five years ago right around now, he and Iguodala were the key cogs in a 55-win Nuggets team that was the #3 seed in the West (with a little help from Gallo, Faried, Miller and JaVale...)
Andre Miller was a key contributor on that team in his last productive season, but every other meaningful contributor on that team was age 26 or under except for Iguodala, who was 29. And you could make a strong case that JaVale McGee was the best player on that team; it’s not like Miller and Iguodala carried them.

What the hell happened?
 

mauf

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Am I being a hater, or is a team that "allows" the likes of Bellinili and Reddick to kill 'em with 3s, is a team that is playing soft?
Those two are emminently shutdownable if you stay in their faces (especially on the defensive end)
I think it’s a question of tactics — you have to stay home on those guys and make Simmons score, especially with Embiid out. Spoelstra is a good coach; they’ll adjust.

More fundamentally, however, the Heat are probably the least talented team that made the playoffs. They don’t have the horses to hang with Philly.
 

ElUno20

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I think it’s a question of tactics — you have to stay home on those guys and make Simmons score, especially with Embiid out. Spoelstra is a good coach; they’ll adjust.

More fundamentally, however, the Heat are probably the least talented team that made the playoffs. They don’t have the horses to hang with Philly.
True but I'd say he's also being a hater. I wouldn't classify JJ as anything near soft. He's one of the hardest workers on the court.
 

LondonSox

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I think it’s a question of tactics — you have to stay home on those guys and make Simmons score, especially with Embiid out. Spoelstra is a good coach; they’ll adjust.

More fundamentally, however, the Heat are probably the least talented team that made the playoffs. They don’t have the horses to hang with Philly.
Yeah deep but lacking the top end talent.
I think they will try not sagging off Simmons too, which will up his scoring but limit his vision and distribution (in theory). Problem is that putting Johnson on Simmons opens other areas. Not enough options.
Whiteside sucks, watched some tape and he was abused defensively.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Yeah deep but lacking the top end talent.
I think they will try not sagging off Simmons too, which will up his scoring but limit his vision and distribution (in theory). Problem is that putting Johnson on Simmons opens other areas. Not enough options.
Whiteside sucks, watched some tape and he was abused defensively.
Agreed. Whiteside struggled to stay with his cover and was summarily taken apart.

Again, your boys shot 64% from deep and on volume. When that happens, its hard to beat a team. I like the Sixers in this series but let's see if they can maintain that clip and/or what Spoelstra does to adjust - you know he will.

As a side note - and I have been guilty of this myself in the past - we should try to avoid using the term "soft" when referring to veteran NBA players. If a guy makes it to the Association and has a career spanning more than a few years - and even starts for his teams - he most definitely isn't "soft". That does not happen, ever. It does make sense to describe some players as tougher than others (e.g. Smart vs Harden or pretty much most other players he faces). However you simply cannot be "soft" and remain as a starter or rotation player in the NBA.
 

Kenny F'ing Powers

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Yeah deep but lacking the top end talent.
I think they will try not sagging off Simmons too, which will up his scoring but limit his vision and distribution (in theory). Problem is that putting Johnson on Simmons opens other areas. Not enough options.
Whiteside sucks, watched some tape and he was abused defensively.
With Embiid out, youve got to get wins however you can. But I cant imagine getting 70 points from Redick/Belinelli/Ilyasova is a repeatable gameplan.

Still, I see little reason why this Philly team cant walk out of this series in 5 games. This Heat team is just not good.
 

LondonSox

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I mean this is what they have been doing for most of the games embiid has been out.
Obviously it was a bit of a ridiculous shooting performance but saric , Redick, Ilyasova, Balinelli and Covington gives you a lot of options to find one or two hot on any given night.

I think Miami has a scoring issue, more than a sixers shooting hot issue.
 

Sam Ray Not

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What the hell happened?


Same thing that happened to the OKC powerhouse three years later.



Foul temptress!!

As far as the Ty Lawson regression ... IIRC, it was the bottle, right? That other foul temptress. Hopefully he’s got that under control now. At his peak, I thought of him as not-quite-CP3, but much better than Ray Felton in the small PG pecking order.

And of course with Gallo, it’s always been about health. He’s an elite offensive player when healthy.
 
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mostman

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Just flipping over to the Cavs Pacers game, is this center court camera really low?

Also LeBron just faked an injury to his face and he was never hit.
 

Royal Reader

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It's early, but Cavs look like they're getting blown the f out.

Guess the switch was harder to find this time.
 

AimingForYoko

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So uh, I never count out Lebron against the East but Indy is smacking them around wow.

Of course with Lebron being Lebron you know he can find that switch and turn around and sweep Indy but I dunno.

These aren't the Raptors who always look terrified when they see his shadow coming. The Pacers and especially dudes like Stephenson look ready and deadly.
 

Deathofthebambino

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So uh, I never count out Lebron against the East but Indy is smacking them around wow.

Of course with Lebron being Lebron you know he can find that switch and turn around and sweep Indy but I dunno.

These aren't the Raptors who always look terrified when they see his shadow coming. The Pacers and especially dudes like Stephenson look ready and deadly.
Don't worry. It ain't necessarily about flipping a switch. In the NBA, the zebras have just as much ability to bring a team back into the game as anyone else.
 

benhogan

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Lance getting in Lebron's grill is pure gold for the LBJ haters.

Sorry I have to take my boys to go see the Rock in Rampage and miss this
 

DJnVa

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So I'm of two minds here:

1--Celtics aren't really going to the finals, so LBJ losing would be entertaining.

2--The Cavs can beat the Raptors (mostly because LBJ would get the calls), whereas I think the Raptors would cruise over Indy. Should the Celtics get to the ECF, I'd rather have a fun match-up against LBJ than a rested Toronto team.
 

Deathofthebambino

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So I'm of two minds here:

1--Celtics aren't really going to the finals, so LBJ losing would be entertaining.

2--The Cavs can beat the Raptors (mostly because LBJ would get the calls), whereas I think the Raptors would cruise over Indy. Should the Celtics get to the ECF, I'd rather have a fun match-up against LBJ than a rested Toronto team.
As a C's fan, I'll take my chances with any team that doesn't have the best player in the world, over the team that has the best player in the world, so I don't care who knocks them off, I just want the Cavs knocked off.