Minnesota Sports Forum

Mikkeman wrote:But how Atlanta can leave Cleveland shooters frequently so wide open? I can understand it in some cases like when you are guarding LeBron in the beginning of the game, you try to prevent him from driving and check it his outside shot wouldn't be falling. But even after Cleveland had hit ten treys, Atlanta continued leaving Cleveland players open behind three point line.

What makes this even more strange is that if I remember right Atlanta was one of the best teams in defending three pointers during regular season.

Zach Lowe discussed this about a month ago. An excerpt:

"Atlanta unleashes its big men to trap ball handlers around the 3-point arc on the pick-and-roll, confident Horford and Millsap can corral those little guys -- and then scamper back toward their original assignments.

Teams with the right personnel can pass over and around those traps and into tasty open 3s. Atlanta allowed the most 3-point attempts in the league last season. They've done a better job limiting triples this season, but they know the risks -- especially against teams with tall point guards who can peek over traps, and the kind of shooting across four positions that makes rotations longer.

"We did not like giving up all those 3s," Budenholzer said. "It's a constant battle: You can't put pressure on the ball like we do without exposing yourselves a bit."


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Cleveland has shooters everywhere and James is a defacto PG with height and smarts. The matchup looked terrible last season. Looks terrible this season. Cleveland is skipping into the Finals.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Mikkeman wrote:But how Atlanta can leave Cleveland shooters frequently so wide open? I can understand it in some cases like when you are guarding LeBron in the beginning of the game, you try to prevent him from driving and check it his outside shot wouldn't be falling. But even after Cleveland had hit ten treys, Atlanta continued leaving Cleveland players open behind three point line.

What makes this even more strange is that if I remember right Atlanta was one of the best teams in defending three pointers during regular season.

Zach Lowe discussed this about a month ago. An excerpt:

"Atlanta unleashes its big men to trap ball handlers around the 3-point arc on the pick-and-roll, confident Horford and Millsap can corral those little guys -- and then scamper back toward their original assignments.

Teams with the right personnel can pass over and around those traps and into tasty open 3s. Atlanta allowed the most 3-point attempts in the league last season. They've done a better job limiting triples this season, but they know the risks -- especially against teams with tall point guards who can peek over traps, and the kind of shooting across four positions that makes rotations longer.

"We did not like giving up all those 3s," Budenholzer said. "It's a constant battle: You can't put pressure on the ball like we do without exposing yourselves a bit."


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Cleveland has shooters everywhere and James is a defacto PG with height and smarts. The matchup looked terrible last season. Looks terrible this season. Cleveland is skipping into the Finals.

You have to wonder if Horford's groin injury is limiting him on defense. I haven't watched much of Atlanta in the post-season, but I see that Al is only averaging 9.2 and 6 the past five games. If he is a little slowed by his injury, perhaps he is reluctant to jump out to contest the 3-point line, and that could be a factor in Cleveland's 3-point success last night.

Most likely LST, which is why I'm reluctant to throw a Max deal at horford or other bigs, we need a strong.wing defender as the volume of threes will certainly not go down

Man, Love blocking shots, diving on the floor for loose balls, and getting the bench all excited. Something has clicked with Cleveland. San Antonio and Golden State are casting a wary eye toward the east.....

Q12543 wrote:Man, Love blocking shots, diving on the floor for loose balls, and getting the bench all excited. Something has clicked with Cleveland. San Antonio and Golden State are casting a wary eye toward the east.....

I always wondered what you would get when it came to the playoffs with Love. I always wondered if he could find a different/extra gear. I always thought he was capable of doing it in his way. The Cavs are doing what pretty much everyone expected them to do which was get through the east so I think that context should be considered. Quite honestly nobody looks that great from the east other than the Cavs (who were a juggernaut even when they were not looking great at times in the regular season) and...maybe that makes Chicago missing the playoffs even worse than when it first happened.

Man, Cavs hot right now.

Here is what is scary about the Cavs. Last year without Love and Kyrie they stole a game from the Warriors in the finals. Who did they lose from that team?

Marion
mike Miller
Kendrick Perkins
Brandon Hayward

Who did they replace those guys with?

Mo Williams
Channing Frye
Richard Jefferson
Dauhtey Jones

3 of those guys are likely clear upgrades over the players they had last year especially Frye and Jefferson and Jones might be an upgrade over whatever Perkins was doing on the court.

Mosgov isn't the same player he was last year that's about the only downer but they have Kyrie and Love healthy. It's a pretty deep team and the only guy that really plays that can't hit a 3 is TT and his job is to get those offensive rebounds. It's gonna be interesting to see this team go again a real defense when they hit the finals but it's a talented team no doubt.

I just watched the last 6 minutes of the Blazers win over GS. The big 3 of Liliard Aminu and CJ...yeah who would have thunk it. Lilliard is flat out amazing.

monsterpile wrote:I just watched the last 6 minutes of the Blazers win over GS. The big 3 of Liliard Aminu and CJ...yeah who would have thunk it. Lilliard is flat out amazing.

Hes My favorite non-wolf player in the league.

Whole Blazer team is like Warriors lite. They have starting back court with amazing shooting ability, pair of big but still mobile forwards and center with nice rebounding and passing ability. Biggest difference is that McCollum is not same class defender than Thompson is and Warriors defense also in other positions is step above Blazers.

But I wouldn't be shocked if Blazers would beat Warriors without Curry in seven game series.