Q12543 wrote:Yeah, LeBron was more than willing to share the spotlight with Kyrie. It was basically those two taking turns trying to exploit mis-matches on switched PnR coverages. It's similar to what Harden and Paul have been doing throughout the playoffs. LeBron simply doesn't have anyone of that caliber playing next to him and their defense isn't good enough to make up for it.
As for Love, I think he peaked in Minnesota. He was on the front end of the "stretch 4" revolution and also had the ability to post up and grab a ton of offensive rebounds. It didn't hurt that he played a lot of games next to Pekovic, who occupied a lot of space and attention. NBA bigs are now much more adept at guarding players like Love, especially with his limited length/athleticism. He's still a very good player, but he just can't create offense in the same way a Kyrie Irving can.
Good points Q. Adelman was also a very good offensive coach and was a very good fit to get the most out of Love offensively.
Yeah, Love was great in that corner offense along with Kevin Martin, who was a really good cutter. That was (kind of) a fun year because we would absolutely blow the doors off some teams. And don't forget the Love outlets to Corey Brewer? It was probably Brewer's best year because he had so many open dunks. It's just too bad we lost all those close games!
Aron Baynes is 31 years old. He was 4 - 28 on three pointers in his entire NBA career.
He's 10 - 20 on three pointers in these playoffs.
Wait... what? And it's not like he was known as a knockdown mid-range shooter either where this means he's just moving back a foot or two. It's completely out of left-field...
Actually just looking at Basketball reference Baynes was a pretty decent shooter from basically everywhere inside the 3 point line for a couple seasons so no this actually didn't completely come out of nowhere. Still it's quite the development. I've said a few times especially during the playoffs "man I wish we had a guy like that on the roster"
The Warriors lost by 22 points tonight. It boggles my mind that a team with 4 allstars would lose a playoff game by over 20 points, even against a team with two allstars like James Harden and Chris Paul. I don't recall Michael Jordan's Bulls, with only 2 allstars, ever lost a playoff game by anything close to that margin. But tonight's outcome just underscores the mental nature of the game. A drop in one team's intensity and focus, coupled with a rise in the other team's intensity, can lead to a 40-point swing from one game to the next. Wow.
But credit the Rockets for getting away from James Harden iso ball. The Rockets picked up the pace, running and moving the ball. Harden had 41 points in game 1 and the Rockets lost by over 20 points. Harden had 27 points tonight and the Rockets won by 22. The scoring was spread nicely among Rocket players with 22 points from Tucker, 27 from Eric Gordon and 19 from Aliza to go with Harden's 27 and 16 from Chris Paul.
I hope the remaining games are all close dogfights.
lipoli390 wrote:The Warriors lost by 22 points tonight. It boggles my mind that a team with 4 allstars would lose a playoff game by over 20 points, even against a team with two allstars like James Harden and Chris Paul. I don't recall Michael Jordan's Bulls, with only 2 allstars, ever lost a playoff game by anything close to that margin. But tonight's outcome just underscores the mental nature of the game. A drop in one team's intensity and focus, coupled with a rise in the other team's intensity, can lead to a 40-point swing from one game to the next. Wow.
But credit the Rockets for getting away from James Harden iso ball. The Rockets picked up the pace, running and moving the ball. Harden had 41 points in game 1 and the Rockets lost by over 20 points. Harden had 27 points tonight and the Rockets won by 22. The scoring was spread nicely among Rocket players with 22 points from Tucker, 27 from Eric Gordon and 19 from Aliza to go with Harden's 27 and 16 from Chris Paul.
I hope the remaining games are all close dogfights.
The rockets role players played out of their minds tonight. I mean Tucker/Gordon/Ariza shot 23 of 33 so 69.6% and 12 of 18 from 3 for 66%. I just can't see that continuing. Props to those guys for hitting shots but those are nuts numbers from role players. With the combination with the Warriors having their one weakness of turnovers coming alive again tonight and the role players for the Rockets playing unrepeatable performances, I still can't see how the Rockets make this a series.
lipoli390 wrote:The Warriors lost by 22 points tonight. It boggles my mind that a team with 4 allstars would lose a playoff game by over 20 points, even against a team with two allstars like James Harden and Chris Paul. I don't recall Michael Jordan's Bulls, with only 2 allstars, ever lost a playoff game by anything close to that margin. But tonight's outcome just underscores the mental nature of the game. A drop in one team's intensity and focus, coupled with a rise in the other team's intensity, can lead to a 40-point swing from one game to the next. Wow.
But credit the Rockets for getting away from James Harden iso ball. The Rockets picked up the pace, running and moving the ball. Harden had 41 points in game 1 and the Rockets lost by over 20 points. Harden had 27 points tonight and the Rockets won by 22. The scoring was spread nicely among Rocket players with 22 points from Tucker, 27 from Eric Gordon and 19 from Aliza to go with Harden's 27 and 16 from Chris Paul.
I hope the remaining games are all close dogfights.
The rockets role players played out of their minds tonight. I mean Tucker/Gordon/Ariza shot 23 of 33 so 69.6% and 12 of 18 from 3 for 66%. I just can't see that continuing. Props to those guys for hitting shots but those are nuts numbers from role players. With the combination with the Warriors having their one weakness of turnovers coming alive again tonight and the role players for the Rockets playing unrepeatable performances, I still can't see how the Rockets make this a series.
People continue to underrate the Rockets talent. Gordon is a very good player. There was one point in the 2nd half Capela had a bad travel and I thought to myself "this isn't his series they may not be able to play him much" he then had 3-4 possessions in a row where he made a positive impact. There was one possession he was guarding Durant waaaay our on the perimeter.
As for blowout games and the Bulls etc. the game is played different now. It's much higher paced game the 3 is HUUUUUUGE. If a team hacked them up and makes them it can be a blowout. Both of these teams are so talented and have so many shooters either team can blow the doors of anyone. Also GS has some real lapses on defense. Every team does but they aren't the same team on that end they have been in the past.
lipoli390 wrote:The Warriors lost by 22 points tonight. It boggles my mind that a team with 4 allstars would lose a playoff game by over 20 points, even against a team with two allstars like James Harden and Chris Paul. I don't recall Michael Jordan's Bulls, with only 2 allstars, ever lost a playoff game by anything close to that margin. But tonight's outcome just underscores the mental nature of the game. A drop in one team's intensity and focus, coupled with a rise in the other team's intensity, can lead to a 40-point swing from one game to the next. Wow.
But credit the Rockets for getting away from James Harden iso ball. The Rockets picked up the pace, running and moving the ball. Harden had 41 points in game 1 and the Rockets lost by over 20 points. Harden had 27 points tonight and the Rockets won by 22. The scoring was spread nicely among Rocket players with 22 points from Tucker, 27 from Eric Gordon and 19 from Aliza to go with Harden's 27 and 16 from Chris Paul.
I hope the remaining games are all close dogfights.
The rockets role players played out of their minds tonight. I mean Tucker/Gordon/Ariza shot 23 of 33 so 69.6% and 12 of 18 from 3 for 66%. I just can't see that continuing. Props to those guys for hitting shots but those are nuts numbers from role players. With the combination with the Warriors having their one weakness of turnovers coming alive again tonight and the role players for the Rockets playing unrepeatable performances, I still can't see how the Rockets make this a series.
People continue to underrate the Rockets talent. Gordon is a very good player. There was one point in the 2nd half Capela had a bad travel and I thought to myself "this isn't his series they may not be able to play him much" he then had 3-4 possessions in a row where he made a positive impact. There was one possession he was guarding Durant waaaay our on the perimeter.
As for blowout games and the Bulls etc. the game is played different now. It's much higher paced game the 3 is HUUUUUUGE. If a team hacked them up and makes them it can be a blowout. Both of these teams are so talented and have so many shooters either team can blow the doors of anyone. Also GS has some real lapses on defense. Every team does but they aren't the same team on that end they have been in the past.
Durant has been absolutely unreal in this series.
Houston has some talented players and we shouldn't underrate them. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the key players on each team:
Durant Harden
S. Curry C. Paul
K. Thompson E. Gordon
T. Ariza. Iggy
Green Capela
I'm not sure Golden State has anyone comparable to Ryan Anderson and Tucker. So you're point about the Rockets' talent is a good one. But I'd still rather have Golden State's roster.
Speaking of Ryan Anderson, anyone notice what a diminished role/impact he's had lately? This all started last year when San Antonio was smart enough to know that you guard Anderson with a wing, not a big. That pretty much eliminates the Harden/Anderson pick and pop, which typically led to a wide open Anderson 3 since the big would hedge on Harden then try fruitlessly to scramble back to Anderson. Now that teams are playing four, sometimes 5 guards/wings, everything gets switched and Anderson has been rendered pretty useless since he isn't a post/power player.
Beware of guys that are only stretch 4's in today's NBA. They need to have other skills as the days of exploiting opposing 4's that lumber about the court and don't know how to guard on the perimeter are pretty much over.
Q12543 wrote:Speaking of Ryan Anderson, anyone notice what a diminished role/impact he's had lately? This all started last year when San Antonio was smart enough to know that you guard Anderson with a wing, not a big. That pretty much eliminates the Harden/Anderson pick and pop, which typically led to a wide open Anderson 3 since the big would hedge on Harden then try fruitlessly to scramble back to Anderson. Now that teams are playing four, sometimes 5 guards/wings, everything gets switched and Anderson has been rendered pretty useless since he isn't a post/power player.
Beware of guys that are only stretch 4's in today's NBA. They need to have other skills as the days of exploiting opposing 4's that lumber about the court and don't know how to guard on the perimeter are pretty much over.
Q I honestly think Anderson isn't healthy and if he is he isn't in a rhythm so that's more why he isn't playing although what you laid out is also a factor. They are forced to play Luc who can't make a layup right now partly because he doesn't trust his shoulder enough to dunk right now and last night they had to go with Gerald Green who had a solid game. I'd say the Rockets are banged up more than the Warriors but I don't think Curry is his usual self even if he is basically healthy so it's kind of a wash because of Curry is Curry that's just so huge.
GS and Houston are built to blow you out. I really don't expect many close games in this series. People are gonna get hot and just post crazy numbers game to game like the Rockets role players last game. And then they'll have duds where the other team will blow them out. When you jack up as many 3's as these teams do it really just comes down to who's making their shots and if they aren't both making their shots it's just not gonna be close.
khans2k5 wrote:GS and Houston are built to blow you out. I really don't expect many close games in this series. People are gonna get hot and just post crazy numbers game to game like the Rockets role players last game. And then they'll have duds where the other team will blow them out. When you jack up as many 3's as these teams do it really just comes down to who's making their shots and if they aren't both making their shots it's just not gonna be close.
Interestingly, GSW was 16th in the league in three point attempts this season.
And they're last among the final four teams left.
To be fair, they're shooting more of them in the playoffs. And making less. The team is down to 33.2% on three pointers... only SAS was worse.
