Playoffs discussion

[DNatagal]

The Nuggets look gassed in every 4th quarter since the last week of the regular season. They will need to expand their off season training regimen like Luka!

[Q-is-here]

Denver had their chance in each of the past two games. Couldn't close.

I think the Wolves have a MUCH better chance vs. the Nuggets than OKC. I can't really see (m)any advantages vs. OKC. But, Denver is a one-man team.

But DAMN... that's one helluva basketball player.

I watched the final 8 minutes on DVR this morning while sipping my coffee. And that three pointer he hit was highly amusing for the silencer it put on the arena followed by the looks of disbelief from the fans.

To be fair, I think I had the same look on my backporch. I even called out the Gal Pal to watch it... even though she doesn't even follow basketball. Truly amazing player.

Too bad that series is over in 6.

Yeah, I'd much rather face Denver.

That being said, I've been pleasantly surprised at Denver's ability to (at times) stymie OKC's offense. Jalen Williams certainly looked pedestrian a good portion of the time as their #2 option and SGA was great, but I rarely get the "he took over the game" vibe from him.

OKC's biggest weapon is their team defense. It's even more frightening than the defense we had last season. They have all the tools to make it really difficult to score and they'll turn you over and get quick points going the other way. Ant will always have Dort or Caruso draped all over him and those two guys are about as good as it gets in terms of perimeter defense.

OKC and the Wolves have yet to finish off their series, so we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, but it is looking like quite a matchup for the WCF.

[Monster]

Cleveland goes down. I really thought they were the scariest team out there with their combination of size and defense up front and shot creators in the backcourt.

And how about Indiana? Similar to the Wolves they had a good, not great, regular season but just got better as time went on without making any trades or major roster moves. I could see them giving the Knicks a great series.

Also, who is Indiana's top NBA 5 player? Do they even have a top 10 guy? Tyrese Halliburton is one hell of a player, but he was their 3rd leading scorer at 16 PPG in the playoffs and their leading scorer was Pascal Siakim at 19 PPG. They are a superstar-less Conference Finalist.

I would say not even any top 15 guys. But they are well coached and play beautiful offensive basketball...my favorite non-Wolves team to watch. They didn't seem to miss a beat when they beat us at home missing most of their starters. The reserves bought into the offensive and defensive strategies and didn't look much different than the normal rotation. They are really good.

Yeah, they are very egalitarian in their shot distribution and Tyrese is a great orchestrator. May be Cleveland's design flaw was being too offensively-oriented with their guards and too defensively-oriented with their bigs, making them vulnerable to a more balanced team as it seems like Indiana has a lot of decent two-way players.

Cavs injuries were a big factor in that series.

Rick Carlisle is a pretty good head coach with a ton of playoff experience.

[Monster]

Denver had their chance in each of the past two games. Couldn't close.

I think the Wolves have a MUCH better chance vs. the Nuggets than OKC. I can't really see (m)any advantages vs. OKC. But, Denver is a one-man team.

But DAMN... that's one helluva basketball player.

I watched the final 8 minutes on DVR this morning while sipping my coffee. And that three pointer he hit was highly amusing for the silencer it put on the arena followed by the looks of disbelief from the fans.

To be fair, I think I had the same look on my backporch. I even called out the Gal Pal to watch it... even though she doesn't even follow basketball. Truly amazing player.

Too bad that series is over in 6.

Yeah, I'd much rather face Denver.

That being said, I've been pleasantly surprised at Denver's ability to (at times) stymie OKC's offense. Jalen Williams certainly looked pedestrian a good portion of the time as their #2 option and SGA was great, but I rarely get the "he took over the game" vibe from him.

OKC's biggest weapon is their team defense. It's even more frightening than the defense we had last season. They have all the tools to make it really difficult to score and they'll turn you over and get quick points going the other way. Ant will always have Dort or Caruso draped all over him and those two guys are about as good as it gets in terms of perimeter defense.

OKC and the Wolves have yet to finish off their series, so we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves, but it is looking like quite a matchup for the WCF.

I this playoffs I think I'd just take the team that's less good at defense. That's the Nuggets although like you said they have done reasonably well against OKC. I will not be surprised if this series goes to 7 games. I watched most of the 4th quarter this morning. I saw that score was close late last night so I decided not to see the outcome and watch the last few minutes. That Joker is wild 3 was really something.

[Coolbreeze44]

I would say not even any top 15 guys. But they are well coached and play beautiful offensive basketball...my favorite non-Wolves team to watch. They didn't seem to miss a beat when they beat us at home missing most of their starters. The reserves bought into the offensive and defensive strategies and didn't look much different than the normal rotation. They are really good.

Yeah, they are very egalitarian in their shot distribution and Tyrese is a great orchestrator. May be Cleveland's design flaw was being too offensively-oriented with their guards and too defensively-oriented with their bigs, making them vulnerable to a more balanced team as it seems like Indiana has a lot of decent two-way players.

Cavs injuries were a big factor in that series.

Rick Carlisle is a pretty good head coach with a ton of playoff experience.

It was just a bad matchup for Cleveland for some reason. The Pacers handled them in the regular season too.

[60WinTim]

Yeah, they are very egalitarian in their shot distribution and Tyrese is a great orchestrator. May be Cleveland's design flaw was being too offensively-oriented with their guards and too defensively-oriented with their bigs, making them vulnerable to a more balanced team as it seems like Indiana has a lot of decent two-way players.

Cavs injuries were a big factor in that series.

Rick Carlisle is a pretty good head coach with a ton of playoff experience.

It was just a bad matchup for Cleveland for some reason. The Pacers handled them in the regular season too.

As they did the Wolves...

I think I would rather see the Knicks in the finals. The Pacers seem like a bad matchup for the Wolves, too...

[AbeVigodaLive]

Cavs injuries were a big factor in that series.

Rick Carlisle is a pretty good head coach with a ton of playoff experience.

It was just a bad matchup for Cleveland for some reason. The Pacers handled them in the regular season too.

As they did the Wolves...

I think I would rather see the Knicks in the finals. The Pacers seem like a bad matchup for the Wolves, too...

Yep. The Pacers move the ball quickly into the frontcourt. It's their gameplan. The Wolves transition d remains spotty.

[FNG]

I'm old enough to remember when Porzingis was actually pretty good. Man, he looks totally lost out there in this series.

[FNG]

I like seeing Boston bounce back to likely win at home tonight (although we know in this series it's never over until it's over). I really think they are a far better team than the Knicks, but the Knicks have staged some unbelievable comebacks. I don't feel bad for the Celtics because they won last year, but it would be fun to see how far they can extend this series without Tatum.

[Q-is-here]

I like seeing Boston bounce back to likely win at home tonight (although we know in this series it's never over until it's over). I really think they are a far better team than the Knicks, but the Knicks have staged some unbelievable comebacks. I don't feel bad for the Celtics because they won last year, but it would be fun to see how far they can extend this series without Tatum.

Brown and Tatum are somewhat redundant so just crank up the usage for Brown and then hope a few others can step up a bit. They closed the game decisively tonight.