When we play at our best we could beat any team left. Ant can take over a game on both ends. Randle has played as well as anyone left in the postseason so far, including defensively. We've got shooting. We've got defense on the perimeter and at the rim. Between Jaden, Ant, and NAW, we have defensive blankets to try to put out fires or keep them from starting, and Rudy's doing a good job defending the paint. We have a lot of lineup flexibility with Naz and Rudy. Offensively, we can win with hot outside shooting, or we can win in the paint. We've been here before, we have reason to be motivated, and we've got a good coaching staff. Since March, with a few embarrassing exceptions, things have really been clicking for us. We're improving as a crunch-time team. Other than Indy (who I think people are sleeping on), I think all the remaining teams have shown some flaws. Boston will have to defend their title without Tatum, assuming they even manage pull off a comeback against the Knicks. Gordon might have a hamstring issue if Denver gets past OKC. There are a lot of reasons to be opTIMistic.
But I wish I felt better about our chances.
I just haven't yet seen the level of
sustained focus and intensity in these playoffs that I think it will take.
- We absolutely need to take better care of the ball at all times. We have made some of the dumbest turnovers I've seen from a postseason team.
- We need to sprint back on D better.
- We need to stop whining to the refs.
- We absolutely need to stop fucking around after building leads.
- And while Ant has taken over at times offensively and has played consistently good D this postseason, he's still had moments when he's inexplicably looked mentally checked out, especially early in games. He is our superstar, and if we're going to win it all, we need him to consistently pressure opposing defenses, to handle the ball more alertly, and to make sure he's taking good shots and finishing strong at the rim.
Some of these other playoff series this year have displayed a level of sustained intensity from both sides that it doesn't feel like our games so far this postseason gotten to. We need to get ready to ratchet up to that level.
We can dominate teams. We jumped out to a 29-15 lead in the 1st quarter after falling down 0-1 to the Warriors. We blitzed the Lakers in the 2nd quarter of game 1, outscoring them 38-20.
But can we sustain that kind of intensity for longer stretches? We had a couple dominant regular-season games down the stretch where we were just absolutely locked-in the whole game. But for the level of intensity I think we need to be ready for, I'm thinking back to Denver last year. Remember our defense on Denver in game 2 last year? In the 1st quarter we jumped out to a 28-20 lead, but Denver was still playing really hard despite our defensive intensity. Then what happened? We held them to 15 points in the 2nd. 15! We looked like the '03-'04 Pistons! They came out a bit more ready in the 3rd and scored 25, and then we held them to 20 again in the 4th. They were the defending champs and came out fighting and we just suffocated them throughout the game. And then there was game 7 as well. Denver was playing incredibly tough the whole game, and yet we matched or exceeded their intensity down the stretch and pulled off the biggest 4th quarter comeback in a game 7 in playoff history.
Regardless of how our shots are falling, we'll need to play with that kind of intensity consistently if we want to really challenge for the title. If we do, and if we hit those bullet points above, I like our chances.
