"We're going to Disney World!" NBA to resume season July 31 at WDW
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This is such a weird take by him in the playoffs for a must win game 3. 36 minutes is regular season, trying to get your guys some rest minutes.
That is definitely true. I think mainly because Kawhi is the best player on both teams at the moment...imo
The Lakers O this quarter has been shockingly stupid and stagnant. Showtime rolling in its grave.
Could the Rockets hold the Maine Red Claws under 100? What a pathetic effort from a rested team. They’ll still win the series but this team can be had. I would love for the Celtics to get a shot.
I just realized that I really need to see Austin Rivers vs His Father for a spot in the Finals.
Kawhi should never buy another drink in Boston for his heroism last summer.
Kawhi wanted ownership stake and illegal perks. The Lakers were right to tell him to pound sand, even if it will cost them championships.
When combined with the power move of "I will sign for you if and only if you trade your firstborn and your left nut for Paul George", it was a move worthy of a comic-book supervillain. In no other league or sport do the players have that kind of power. Even Leo Messi is kinda constrained by the contracts and the club infrastructure around european soccer.
And we all love him for it. The Lakers with a better supporting cast would not enhance my enjoyment of the NBA or these playoffs, to put it lightly.
Celts were .5 seconds from being in total control of theirs 3-0 (Clips being only up 1-0) .. but I guess your point stands.
The NBA even investigated. I think it was The Athletic that first broke the story in December.
unfortunately, yeah, that matters.
but C's wren't presumed title favs entering the bubble, nonetheless.
Aka what the lakers have done for years to sign stars.
The only reason this became a story was lebron was on the losing end so he had his cronies leak stuff to cover his ass.
Most players in soccer can move whenever they want, Messi can't mostly just because of the insane sums involved, Messi makes about 125M guaranteed a year before bonuses, so Barca could justify a $825M release clause. But the level below, like Neymar.... he wanted to move, his club refused, so Barca just triggered his $260M release clause. Most players who demand a move get it.
Houston had one of the best defenses in the bubble and it has been even better in the playoffs. This isn’t what you’d expect from a Harden/D’Antoni team but this is what it is. Much like the Heat series where I liked Miami in every game.....I don’t want to say why can’t they just sweep but I don’t see a reason why Houston can’t just sweep the Lakers as they are probably the better team. There are no travel or home/road games to provide surprises outside of what we are actually watching.
My thoughts on the Bucks and Lakers entering the bubble was that they would treat the “regular season” games as a tune up for the playoffs. What has happened is that instead of ramping up they lost their edge. These Lakers are not the pre-Covid Lakers just as the Bucks have shown they aren’t.
LA's offense has been bad the entire time in the bubble, they could get by Portland who was running on fumes and had absolutely nobody to guard LeBron/Davis, but Houston is a much more potent team and their unique style is going to clash with what LA wants to do, which is to play big.
Houston's ability to switch on defense is big. Houston is small, but having Covington/Tucker/Green, as wacky as that trio is, to throw at LeBron is pretty good. The other thing is that with those three guys, you then have Harden, Gordon and Westbrook. Harden and Gordon are not really good defenders, but they are strong and for guards, tough for even LeBron to really bully. Westbrook is quick enough that if he is engaged, even if he is giving up a lot of size, he can make it difficult for a bigger guy to score on him.
The key for Houston was that LeBron only took eight shots tonight that were not three pointers. He simply wasn't aggressive enough and Houston will love it if LeBron settles for threes, or is kicking it to Kuzma/KCP/Green/Caruso for threes on the outside. LeBron probably needs to score 30+ points for LA to win, and he was very passive tonight.
The problem for Houston is that if they go cold from three, they can really struggle. Tonight you got great James Harden, but bad James Harden just showed up in a Game 7 on Wednesday night. I expect Harden at this point to lay an egg or two in this series, and I don't expect LeBron to play worse than he did in Game 1.
Houston's ability to switch on defense is big. Houston is small, but having Covington/Tucker/Green, as wacky as that trio is, to throw at LeBron is pretty good. The other thing is that with those three guys, you then have Harden, Gordon and Westbrook. Harden and Gordon are not really good defenders, but they are strong and for guards, tough for even LeBron to really bully. Westbrook is quick enough that if he is engaged, even if he is giving up a lot of size, he can make it difficult for a bigger guy to score on him.
The key for Houston was that LeBron only took eight shots tonight that were not three pointers. He simply wasn't aggressive enough and Houston will love it if LeBron settles for threes, or is kicking it to Kuzma/KCP/Green/Caruso for threes on the outside. LeBron probably needs to score 30+ points for LA to win, and he was very passive tonight.
The problem for Houston is that if they go cold from three, they can really struggle. Tonight you got great James Harden, but bad James Harden just showed up in a Game 7 on Wednesday night. I expect Harden at this point to lay an egg or two in this series, and I don't expect LeBron to play worse than he did in Game 1.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/9/4/21422788/bucks-heat-giannis-antetokounmpo-mike-budenholzer
Real Mike Budenholzer quotes from that article:
Budenholzer gave an even more troubling quote to James Herbert of CBS Sports in March when asked about making adjustments in the playoffs: “We kind of do what we do, and hopefully it’s good enough.”
“I don’t think playing Giannis 44 minutes is a solution. If we can’t win with Giannis at 40 or 40.5 [minutes], then Toronto deserves it.”
Fortunately for us, the Lakers don’t have a Dort that can stick to Harden like glue. The Lakers don’t have anyone that can stay in front of him. His 36 was easy tonight. You are right that we live and die with the 3, and tonight we hit enough. I was surprised that Vogel didn’t stay with the bigs. If the Lakers want to play small ball, they’re not going to win because they don’t have the shooters. Let’s see, I think they’ll adjust and find AD to get the ball and get 25 shots. Harden will have a rough shooting night, but if he gets to the rim as often as he did tonight, he’ll still get his.
The key for us was not giving up points when Russ was in and Harden was on the bench at the end of the 3rd. That was where we lost games in the playoffs last year, when CP3 couldn’t create his own shot and the offense stagnated.
Except that if it were true and not just a pile of bullshit the Clippers would have been punished. But they weren't. Because it was bullshit.
And while we're on the subject, what're the odds that LeBron is the guy leading the consortium that buys the Lakers 15 minutes after his career is over?
The problem with LA’s bigs is that none of them are big post threats, except LeBron, who gets tired banging down there too long.
AD is more of a roll man/faceup guy than a post threat, which is great if you have any spacing. The Lakers do not have spacing, especially if they go big.
This all compounds to leave them very vulnerable to switchy teams with stout defenders.
Hmmm...I agree wrt the Bucks, but I have always thought that the Lakers would be offensively challenged against playoff defenses. (Back in Feb or so I posted in the LAL thread that I'd be very surprised if they won the West for that reason, and I'm totally fine doubling down on that now.)
They have exactly the wrong personnel to surround AD and LeBron with: those guys can dominate with floor-spacing role players, but instead of LeBron + 4 shooters lineups, they have to run out LeBron + 1 shooter lineups (and that one, Danny Green, is having a down year). Their offense is an ugly grind at almost all times, except when they get out in transition.
I was worried about fatigue for Houston, but D'Antoni was able to steal rest for Harden in the 2nd half. He only played 34 minutes overall, and wasn't expending nearly as much energy as usual when he was in the 2nd half.
The Rockets swarm the paint (PJ Tucker was a monster) and the Lakers can't do a ton about that. Now that the fatigue impact of the Game 7 vs OKC will start to recede, things are looking good for Houston. They also left a lot of points on the board with open Tucker corner 3s that he missed.
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There was some weird basketball in that 3rd quarter, but oddly after this play Westbrook started actually playing within himself and taking mid-range jumpers. Houston is so much more effective if the defense can't just guard the 3-point line and keep one guy back for Harden's drives.
Yuck, those Coach Bud quotes are right out of the Boeheim quote book his first 20yrs as a coach. Defensive and defiant.
The crappy job they did last offseason has never been focused on enough. I get why you'd wait on Kawhi but the only guy they signed/acquired who fits is Danny Green. They had a unique opportunity to add shooters, some youth/quickness, and to flip Kuzma for someone who is better and actually fits as a non-ball dominant piece and they completely blew it.
They may well survive it becuase Lebron is amazing and AD is as well. But this is a remarkably poorly constructed team with well below average management and blah coaching. That is not a presccription for playoff wins.
He is absolutely a boob. Its a perfect descriptor. This game is in the balance right now.
I mean, he has a "WHAT A SHOT!!!" orgasm when Paul George hits an uncontested catch-and-shoot corner three ... so then when Jamal Murray hits a tough stepback three off the dribble a couple minutes later, the only thing he has left to say is ... "WHAT A SHOT!!!"
Props to the Nuggets for holding on here — stayed physical and locked in defensively throughout, even when their shots started clanging in the second half.
Harris really helps them. They likely won't beat LAC but they can steal a game or two and make it interesting.
The Bucks look even worse than the Celtics. They'll need the refs to bail them out or this is over.
I really didn’t think it looked that bad. Hayward’s recent sprain looked far worse, for example. Maybe it’s a cumulative thing after rolling it so many times in a couple days? His yell had me worried it broke or something horrific happened that I missed. Hope he’s ok.
I agree, I'm sure it hurt but as far as ankle sprains go, it didn't seem all that bad.
If there was no fracture, a little surprised he's already out for the game in an elimination game to be honest.
I didn’t like how Miami responded to the injury. Their offense became stagnant while the Bucks began playing more freely. As weird as it sounds the G injury was what they needed to step up their game.
Did seem a relatively minor roll. But he has had a couple now.
Down 3-0 why risk the franchise (or his trade value)?
I do wonder if it were a game 7 if they would tape it up and let him back out there.
Yeah, hard to know all of the different factors they might be weighing. In general, not a ton of risk playing through a mild to moderate ankle sprain.
I guess there is always the thought that anything that changes your gait at all could increase risk of something else more serious happening (ACL, Achilles, etc).
It is definitely possible being down 0-3 is making them lean more cautious.
Those 3 ankle ligaments are surprisingly weak and surprisingly resilient. As someone who sprained a ton of ankles with no serious long term issues (so far).
Favoring an injury can surely lead to other injuries.
Also a guy that relies on speed and jumping just may be less effective.