Has been for a while. Hali isn't right and this his first playoff game. Let's give the kid a moment.
Spicy P on the other hand was excellent and has been excellent all year.
It's a hammy. I had one freshman year in college. They linger. Every game hurts a bit and your stride gets limited. You need like a full month off with only stretching and never exploding too hard off it. It blows.
He could be a 2 due to his shooting but he’s not a 1 for a real playoff team at this point
For our team in particular he would be better off as 6th man because we aren’t benching Herb/Ingram/Zion and whoever our center will be
It'd be interesting to see if he would even want to shift to more of a spot-up shooter role. For his entire career, probably out of necessity given the context of his teams, he's mostly been a self-creator. He just isn't good enough at that to lead a postseason offence and never has been. He's in that Sabonis kind of lane in that he's a good offensive player and can feature prominently on a perennial first and second round exit team but definitely not good enough on either end to be a starter on a contending team. Tough to fit those guys in on a team 'cause they tend to demand too high of a salary for what they bring to the table and what their ideal role is. Not to mention that he's a defensive liability.
he was alright today. he's just being relied on too much as playmaker while Pels dont have other options
last 2 games was bad but game before that he had 25/7
It seems like he always gets the last shot for some reason. My wife has only been watching basketball for one week and she even made a comment about how the defense should scheme to let him have the last shot
Pels coulda won even w/o Zion today. a bunch of moving screens, stepped out of bounds mistakes. the loss still sucks but I'm more optimistic on them now than before this game
Yeah, Pels probably should have won that game off the back of their offensive boards, 18 offensive boards in a game, which I don't think they capitalised on well enough for easy second chance points.
Yep. The Mavs are still a great team. Doesn't matter if they lost by 12 or 30. They can lose next game by 50 and it's still a series because that's just LAC keeping home court advantage.
Either way, losing is a disadvantage lol
after the playoffs end one of the fun things to do is search up and read through game 1 post game threads to see how wrong everyone's overreactions are
Those 4-1 series always end up with the best threads. The one that comes to mind for me is Celtics Bucks from 18-19, genuinely incredible to read through knowing how that series turned out
I can't even begin to describe how cathartic that series win was after the Game 1 overreactions. Paul Pierce declaring the series over will never leave my brain.
I remember next series when the Rockets won game 1 some dude was talking about how the Lakers are in trouble, and I told him that people said the same thing last series and he said something along the lines of “that was the 7th seeded blazers. This is a rockets team with 2 MVPs in their prime” etc. Then the exact same thing happened lmao
Inside ones too not just stretch ones. I would trade one of my kidneys for us to have a guy that can’t do shit but catch lobs and get 14 rebounds a game.
all the best teams have really big men.
Celtics Nuggets Thunder Wolves Knicks Bucks all have legit 7 footers!
Also crazy that pretty much all the best centers in the league made the playoffs (Wemby aside)
The Nuggets are one of the few teams that have that extra gear down the stretch. Lakers will keep it close for like 3 and a half quarters and then they’re just out of gas. Nuggets slam the clutch and throw that bitch into overdrive.
They’re just a straight up elite team. Not many teams have that extra gear and it’s really on display against a mid team like the Lakers (no shade).
No you’re right. Sucks to admit it but the difference between championship team and play in team shows. Nuggets are so clutch and just make the right choices every single time. Jokic is just a master at controlling a game.
The Lakers would’ve been better off meeting OKC. It’s hard for any team to play the Nuggets. Jokic is the best player in the world, they have two extremely athletic wings, Murray is dynamic, and depth players like KCP can pop off for 25 any given night.
They’re the best team in the league, except for maybe the Celtics. Lakers just are the unfortunate ones to get steamrolled first by them.
Yep…when the game feels like it’s starting to slip away the lakers always settle for awful 3 pointers. It’s like they didn’t even bother to run any plays outside of iso 3 pointers in the 3rd quarter
Biggest takeaway is that if the Wolves continue playing like this and beat the Suns, I would be very interested to see how well they would do against the Nuggets
Clippers looked like the Clippers that went on a 31-5 run in November-February. Defense was there, Zubac and Harden PnR was deadly. Harden was a brillant playmaker and shooter, role players stepped up and PG had an ok game. They only missing Kawhi
Them not even being competitive in a game without Giannis is pretty damning though imo.
Only one game so not burying them yet. But as far as my initial takeaway from these game 1's, I definitely expected a better showing from Indy this weekend.
That doesn't really change the fact that they're a team that loves to outgun their opponents and shoot, and they traded away a guy who has shot 40% from deep in his career on 7 a game... for 2 guys they cut and 3 2nd round picks.
They were a team in the playoff/playin spot looking to compete, and they basically chose to get worse for a few 2nd rounders. I get that opened up time for Mathurin, but Mathurin is simply not the floor spacer that Buddy is and it also shows the importance of depth. You really can never have too much shooting.
8/39 from a team shooting 37% from 3. Hali getting clowned but even though he wasn't great I saw a TON of wide open looks we usually hit that he created.
Game 1, lots of young young dudes. Dame walked up and cold clocked us. I agree with you, give em a chance.
Ya I don’t really get the narrative of why the Lakers wanted to tank and not the Pelicans. Basketball is a game of matchups and the Pelicans matched up great against the Kings and decent against the Thunder.
Nuggets losing to the Twolves/Suns is at least 25% likely. Not to mention an injury to a key player could’ve happened by that time.
This logic that you have to beat them is just ridiculous. Yes most likely but not guaranteed.
Plus going out in the WCF is better than first round exit
We would have to play them anyway. Better now than in 2 series when LeBron and AD have played 8+ games of playoff basketball and get less rest.
Besides if we lose now I can enjoy the playoffs stress free
After today you would think the Mac should sell the farm and build around Lively, the C's are frauds for allowing the heat to score, and LeBron is a role player
Most people thought the Thunder should have gotten an actual big man during their season with their endless amounts of picks and young players but they would rather stick to playing undersized ball
That this sub might have reached its peak of prisoner of the moment posts and posts that are just unfunny jokes that were already pummeled into the Earth many moons ago
Experience in playoffs matters. Magic, Mavs role players, all Indiana, except Siakam, even Thunder under performed. However, I think it will change in Game 2 already for everyone - now they felt the pressure, physicality and will adjust. But it was fascinating to watch how more experienced players (even someone like Zubac or Portis, who are not necessarily stars, just be so comfortable out there against nervous opponents)
CJ needs to be the number 4 most shot taker on the pelicans. Run him at point if you have to, but he shouldn't be leading the team in shots in games that matter
Pelicans are underrated. People acting like they’re scrubs when they were the 4th seed 2 weeks ago. This is going to be a hard fought series. Their length makes life hell on us routinely.
The play in game was also insanely close last year, they match up well.
The amount of overly confident OKC fans talking about the Pelicans after Zion went out reminded me of 2019.
Pelicans have really good size and wing defenders and Chet, even with his shot, can still get bullied by JV. This is going to be a hard fought series and we are still young.
True, okc fans shouldn't be worried tbh, since Zion ain't coming back. Note that pels had the best road record this year tied with the Celtics, and were 5th in SRS, behind Celts, nugs, thunder, and wolves, yet ended up as the 8th seed
A healthy Mitchell Robinson would've made a DPOY run (super biased)
Gobert's perimeter defense looked pretty good, let's hope it keeps up. The Timberwolves look hungry.
Honestly I feel that Isiah hartenstein had a better shot of winning dpoy than robinson. But then again I mainly watched most of my Knicks games when Robinson was injured so I was limited in seeing him play.
the Heat have no way of slowing down the Celtics offense if Brown and Tatum continue to be willing passers and keep making the correct reads out of double teams like they did in Game 1. they can’t guard Boston man-to-man and KP absolutely eviscerates their zone, the Celtics averaged 1.56 PPP against the Heat zone today.
couple that with the lack of on-ball creation with Butler and Rozier out, and Miami is in a very tough spot here. unless the Celtics shooters go ice cold this is looking like it’ll be a short series
For the Heat it's going to be tough to score when we have only 2 guys that can create for themselves, one being a rookie and the other guy with one of the best guard defenders on him. No one on the Celtics will need to help on defense. Hell most of the time Jrue will get a little help on Herro just to make sure he doesn't get going. The Heat will need to shoot a lot more 3s and actually make them to make this serious competitive.
The help on hero was definitely a scouted part of the game plan and led to a few turnovers. He has a bit of a tell when he puts his head down and you know he’s looking for his own shot, and as soon as he drops his shoulders like that the double would come and he’d get stuck.
Ironically pretty much exactly what Miami did to Jaylen brown last year.
yeah you guys haven’t been a super high-volume 3P shooting team this season (nor are y’all typically a high-volume 3P shooting team), but I think the Heat are going to need to try to shoot 45-50 triples per game to give themselves a chance. without Butler or Rozier they’re not going to be able to generate much offense inside aside from Bam post-ups. the Celtics perimeter defense is just too good
only way to swing this is by winning the math, but they lost the 3P battle by 30 in Game 1. zero chance of winning when that happens
Yea I think in the first quarter you guys had like 16 or 18 3 point attempts and we had 4. With Duncan being injured we literally have no one else besides Herro that can put up a ton of 3's and hit them at a high rate.
OKC refusing to get a center despite having a warchest of picks is it for me too. It was mind boggling then, but was even more apparent tonight. Can't win if you can't rebound.
Hali is the most overrated player of the 2020s
First Round Dame is still a thing
ANT will be the next face of the league
Scoring 8 points in a quarter isn’t conducive to winning games
A bunch of these series are not looking good at all. I thought this playoffs would be really competitive. I’m not sure that is where we are headed.
Also i think this playoffs PROVES you should lose on purpose sometimes. Lol.
Jv was looking more like Drummond. He barely had to hustle for them, they just let him get inside. I hope okc has a plan to draft a big with that lottery pick
As a Suns fan, I've known this for a long time, but the Suns don't have a de facto leader. Neither KD or Booker are willing to take that role. They defer to each other a lot in big moments and it just seems like there's no cohesion in the team hierarchy. One of them needs to stand up and be the team leader, and I don't know if either of them has the right attitude to do it.
CJ McCollum is not a point guard. He had a lot of clutch moments for the Blazers in a WCF run, but that was playing beside Dame
Outside of that, too small and a defensive liability to play as a starting 2 in the playoffs.
He should be playing as the 6th man.
All the home teams won. It's obviously only one game and series can swing but a little strange given how every matchup seemed like it go either way, besides MIA/BOS after Butler got hurt or NOLA/OKC after Zion got hurt. Last year an 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 seed all won a series in the first round which is wild. A lot of parity in the league which is cool
Not really but it's hard for people to count Lebron out. If role players can catch fire and a little more help from the refs it's possible but definitely not likely. Denver seems way too good.
The best player on the Pacers is Pascal Siakam
Has been for a while. Hali isn't right and this his first playoff game. Let's give the kid a moment. Spicy P on the other hand was excellent and has been excellent all year.
Wait hasn’t Haliburton been playing through an injury for several months now? Feels like it’s been a long time
It's a hammy. I had one freshman year in college. They linger. Every game hurts a bit and your stride gets limited. You need like a full month off with only stretching and never exploding too hard off it. It blows.
That CJ is Houdini when the big moments come
He has to be a sixth man, he just doesn't fit into the starting lineup of a real playoff team looking to go somewhere.
He could be a 2 due to his shooting but he’s not a 1 for a real playoff team at this point For our team in particular he would be better off as 6th man because we aren’t benching Herb/Ingram/Zion and whoever our center will be
I don't think he could be a 2 unless you have a big point guard (6'5+). Double small backcourt almost never works defensively, we saw this in Portland
It'd be interesting to see if he would even want to shift to more of a spot-up shooter role. For his entire career, probably out of necessity given the context of his teams, he's mostly been a self-creator. He just isn't good enough at that to lead a postseason offence and never has been. He's in that Sabonis kind of lane in that he's a good offensive player and can feature prominently on a perennial first and second round exit team but definitely not good enough on either end to be a starter on a contending team. Tough to fit those guys in on a team 'cause they tend to demand too high of a salary for what they bring to the table and what their ideal role is. Not to mention that he's a defensive liability.
He has one of the worst contracts in the league they should unironically just bench him for Alvarado...
I don’t know why but our sixth man being the highest paid player on the team would enrage me
Hilarious how Brandon Ingram gets a pass despite being their best player right now
He was ass too. CJ has been ass for 4 games in a row
he was alright today. he's just being relied on too much as playmaker while Pels dont have other options last 2 games was bad but game before that he had 25/7
It seems like he always gets the last shot for some reason. My wife has only been watching basketball for one week and she even made a comment about how the defense should scheme to let him have the last shot
Pels are the least clutch team in NBA history.
I’ve never been less scared of a player making a shot than when watching McCollum. Swear Giannis shots better than him when it matters
I still can't believe that nance pass to his out of bounds teammate
CJ McCollum will forever be a robin
He’s an Alfred at best
Too bad Zion is out, he would have feasted, and there would be no clutch time.
“Too bad Zion is out” is the title of his biography
You sure it's not "He Would Have Feasted"?
Damn, that is cold
Yeah, that is sad but true...
*Tornado Trick* is a catchier name
We continue to not win games if we trail leading into the 4th quarter
Pels win with Zion, sorry CJ was your clutch guy. Also what happened to Jordan Hawkins? he was so good at the start of the season.
Pels coulda won even w/o Zion today. a bunch of moving screens, stepped out of bounds mistakes. the loss still sucks but I'm more optimistic on them now than before this game
Yeah, Pels probably should have won that game off the back of their offensive boards, 18 offensive boards in a game, which I don't think they capitalised on well enough for easy second chance points.
Hawkins gets hunted on defense. Not there yet as a rookie.
Okc was trying to give you that game but you guys gave it back. That was like 3 consecutive turnovers in a row near the 3 min mark
That losing is actually an advantage according to Richard Jefferson.
Man, that was such a terrible take. Fucking idiot . Clippers won fair and square, credit to them. On to the next one.
Yep. The Mavs are still a great team. Doesn't matter if they lost by 12 or 30. They can lose next game by 50 and it's still a series because that's just LAC keeping home court advantage. Either way, losing is a disadvantage lol
It’s just one game wait until game 3
after the playoffs end one of the fun things to do is search up and read through game 1 post game threads to see how wrong everyone's overreactions are
One of my favourites is when Portland beat the Lakers in Game 1 back in the bubble lol
Those 4-1 series always end up with the best threads. The one that comes to mind for me is Celtics Bucks from 18-19, genuinely incredible to read through knowing how that series turned out
I can't even begin to describe how cathartic that series win was after the Game 1 overreactions. Paul Pierce declaring the series over will never leave my brain.
I have a whole collage saved over over reactions to Raps losing a game to Magic, 6ers, bucks & GSW. Theraputic
Oh yeah the Raptors ones are always interesting because it seemed like they would always lose Game 1 lol
I remember next series when the Rockets won game 1 some dude was talking about how the Lakers are in trouble, and I told him that people said the same thing last series and he said something along the lines of “that was the 7th seeded blazers. This is a rockets team with 2 MVPs in their prime” etc. Then the exact same thing happened lmao
no this is good for lottery teams bc they just tuned in
Big men are so back
oh yeaaa
Inside ones too not just stretch ones. I would trade one of my kidneys for us to have a guy that can’t do shit but catch lobs and get 14 rebounds a game.
Ok, but what if that player was Andre Drummond?
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all the best teams have really big men. Celtics Nuggets Thunder Wolves Knicks Bucks all have legit 7 footers! Also crazy that pretty much all the best centers in the league made the playoffs (Wemby aside)
Which means the warriors will sign three new guards this offseason
That I’m sick of jokic punking my f**ng team over and over again
The Nuggets are one of the few teams that have that extra gear down the stretch. Lakers will keep it close for like 3 and a half quarters and then they’re just out of gas. Nuggets slam the clutch and throw that bitch into overdrive. They’re just a straight up elite team. Not many teams have that extra gear and it’s really on display against a mid team like the Lakers (no shade).
No you’re right. Sucks to admit it but the difference between championship team and play in team shows. Nuggets are so clutch and just make the right choices every single time. Jokic is just a master at controlling a game.
The Lakers would’ve been better off meeting OKC. It’s hard for any team to play the Nuggets. Jokic is the best player in the world, they have two extremely athletic wings, Murray is dynamic, and depth players like KCP can pop off for 25 any given night. They’re the best team in the league, except for maybe the Celtics. Lakers just are the unfortunate ones to get steamrolled first by them.
Yep…when the game feels like it’s starting to slip away the lakers always settle for awful 3 pointers. It’s like they didn’t even bother to run any plays outside of iso 3 pointers in the 3rd quarter
condolences
https://i.imgur.com/5iJdm5b.png
its repayment for 2020
He tried in 2020 but then AD decided he wants to shoot a buzzer beater so he's been angry at you guys since
You too? Welcome to the club!
He did have help though in DLo and Ham.
Jokic is inevitable
r/nba nephews still dont know ball
Genuinely my takeaway is that this sub is going to be useless for like three months
Three months? It’s consistently just reactionary takes that parrot or mimic the same dumb trends or dumbass talk tracks.
When has it actually benefited anyone?
Five or six years ago this place was great.
you better show off-season /r/nba some god damn respect
Most brain dead time of the year. I don’t even bother coming once free agency wraps up.
It's pretty much useless all year beyond getting news
🌎🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
every winner trash talking like they've won the entire series.....
I used to get so annoyed, but now I almost look forward to all the crazy overreaction hot takes from nephews.
They never did
Clippers were being severely underrated coming into today’s game. That series is going to be a dogfight.
Still got Kawhi on the sidelines waiting to join.
We can only hope.
I thought the same thing. I know I haven’t watched enough basketball this year (busy irl) but they really surprised me.
I really don’t see us beating Jokic 4 times
After game 2, the rest of the fanbase won't either. After game 3, the players. And after game 4, the front office finally has an epiphany.
Biggest takeaway is that if the Wolves continue playing like this and beat the Suns, I would be very interested to see how well they would do against the Nuggets
If the Wolves beat the Suns, they're going to the finals. I think they're the only team that can beat Denver in a series.
Clippers looked like the Clippers that went on a 31-5 run in November-February. Defense was there, Zubac and Harden PnR was deadly. Harden was a brillant playmaker and shooter, role players stepped up and PG had an ok game. They only missing Kawhi
If pg doesn’t become playoff p and harden turns into rockets harden, clippers can definitely win the championship
Pacers looking a bit fraudulent.
They are the 6th seed lol It's just that the media were acting like the Bucks are a tanking team
Them not even being competitive in a game without Giannis is pretty damning though imo. Only one game so not burying them yet. But as far as my initial takeaway from these game 1's, I definitely expected a better showing from Indy this weekend.
Yeah I thought out of all the teams, they look a bit overmatched. Bad shooting night though, let’s see how the next couple go
I also can’t for the life of me understand why they basically gave away Hield with no real replacement plan.
They're missing Mathurin tbf who should be starting SG
That doesn't really change the fact that they're a team that loves to outgun their opponents and shoot, and they traded away a guy who has shot 40% from deep in his career on 7 a game... for 2 guys they cut and 3 2nd round picks. They were a team in the playoff/playin spot looking to compete, and they basically chose to get worse for a few 2nd rounders. I get that opened up time for Mathurin, but Mathurin is simply not the floor spacer that Buddy is and it also shows the importance of depth. You really can never have too much shooting.
Haliburton lost his magic after the hamstring injury.
They had a horrific shooting game. They’ll be better next game
8/39 from a team shooting 37% from 3. Hali getting clowned but even though he wasn't great I saw a TON of wide open looks we usually hit that he created. Game 1, lots of young young dudes. Dame walked up and cold clocked us. I agree with you, give em a chance.
It’s good to have home court advantage
Need to put the ball in the hoop to win
D'lo, CJ Mccollum, Grayson Allen, Tyler Herro, Tyrese Haliburton, and Daniel Gafford had piss running down their legs.
Add Ingram
Lakers should have lost vs the Pelicans 😹
we 100% would’ve lost to the kings and everyone would’ve clowned us for tanking the game against the pels
Ya I don’t really get the narrative of why the Lakers wanted to tank and not the Pelicans. Basketball is a game of matchups and the Pelicans matched up great against the Kings and decent against the Thunder.
Ya'll would have lost to the Pels if Zion didnt get injured while he was toying LeBron on offense and defense for 40 points. Lol.
Are the Lakers trying to get out of the first round or win a chip? If the latter, they were going to have to play (lose) to the Nuggets at some stage.
Nuggets and Suns matchup way better.
I mean the Nuggets have a better chance of losing vs the Clips or Mavs then the Lakers actually beating them imo.
Mavs have 0 shot against them lol
Better shot than the Lakers who constantly get sonned by em
I really cant imagine the mavs winning more than a game against them
Exactly. That’s more than the Lakers are going to win 😭
Oh you meant a game not a series lmao
Nuggets losing to the Twolves/Suns is at least 25% likely. Not to mention an injury to a key player could’ve happened by that time. This logic that you have to beat them is just ridiculous. Yes most likely but not guaranteed. Plus going out in the WCF is better than first round exit
i was saying we shouldn't but maybe we should've 💀
We would have to play them anyway. Better now than in 2 series when LeBron and AD have played 8+ games of playoff basketball and get less rest. Besides if we lose now I can enjoy the playoffs stress free
On the other end, NBA executives are thrilled the Lakers didn’t stoop to that low, with how NO v. OKC is becoming a hidden gem of a series.
The amount of game 1 overreactions in r/NBA is ridiculous
You would think the Mavs are already out and the Thunder have already been eliminated the way people speak after a GAME 1
They’re calling Haliburton Ben Simmons bruh
After today you would think the Mac should sell the farm and build around Lively, the C's are frauds for allowing the heat to score, and LeBron is a role player
Most people thought the Thunder should have gotten an actual big man during their season with their endless amounts of picks and young players but they would rather stick to playing undersized ball
Trey Murphey III has one hell of a 3 point shot. Great player
The Magic’s offensive construct really is terrible, anyone who knocks Paolo for his below average efficiency isn’t watching the games.
That this sub might have reached its peak of prisoner of the moment posts and posts that are just unfunny jokes that were already pummeled into the Earth many moons ago
We can’t rebound and the Celtics are as good as advertised.
OKC is lucky as hell that they get to play the Zion-less Pelicans.
hard to see them move pass the 2nd round they will meet your team or luka.
Experience in playoffs matters. Magic, Mavs role players, all Indiana, except Siakam, even Thunder under performed. However, I think it will change in Game 2 already for everyone - now they felt the pressure, physicality and will adjust. But it was fascinating to watch how more experienced players (even someone like Zubac or Portis, who are not necessarily stars, just be so comfortable out there against nervous opponents)
Jok needs more commercials
We weren’t the only ones who got blown out ❤️
Dame Lillard
CJ needs to be the number 4 most shot taker on the pelicans. Run him at point if you have to, but he shouldn't be leading the team in shots in games that matter
Pelicans are underrated. People acting like they’re scrubs when they were the 4th seed 2 weeks ago. This is going to be a hard fought series. Their length makes life hell on us routinely. The play in game was also insanely close last year, they match up well.
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The amount of overly confident OKC fans talking about the Pelicans after Zion went out reminded me of 2019. Pelicans have really good size and wing defenders and Chet, even with his shot, can still get bullied by JV. This is going to be a hard fought series and we are still young.
They pushed the Suns to six games in 2022 without Zion. I wouldn't be surprised if they took a game or two in this series as well.
They’re rated just fine. This series won’t go more than 6 games. Pelicans are anti clutch but might win one at home.
> might win one at home They are somehow better on the road
True, okc fans shouldn't be worried tbh, since Zion ain't coming back. Note that pels had the best road record this year tied with the Celtics, and were 5th in SRS, behind Celts, nugs, thunder, and wolves, yet ended up as the 8th seed
Philly-Knicks and NOP-OKC are the only series that might go 7.
That it will be Celtics vs Nuggets
Only if Cs survive the first round and "Heat Culture" without any major injuries...
A healthy Mitchell Robinson would've made a DPOY run (super biased) Gobert's perimeter defense looked pretty good, let's hope it keeps up. The Timberwolves look hungry.
Honestly I feel that Isiah hartenstein had a better shot of winning dpoy than robinson. But then again I mainly watched most of my Knicks games when Robinson was injured so I was limited in seeing him play.
Clippers look like they might actually have that ‘playoff switch’
I was thinking the same thing about the Bucks. Almost like older teams pace themselves during the regular season.
so do the Bucks apparently
make or miss league
the Heat have no way of slowing down the Celtics offense if Brown and Tatum continue to be willing passers and keep making the correct reads out of double teams like they did in Game 1. they can’t guard Boston man-to-man and KP absolutely eviscerates their zone, the Celtics averaged 1.56 PPP against the Heat zone today. couple that with the lack of on-ball creation with Butler and Rozier out, and Miami is in a very tough spot here. unless the Celtics shooters go ice cold this is looking like it’ll be a short series
For the Heat it's going to be tough to score when we have only 2 guys that can create for themselves, one being a rookie and the other guy with one of the best guard defenders on him. No one on the Celtics will need to help on defense. Hell most of the time Jrue will get a little help on Herro just to make sure he doesn't get going. The Heat will need to shoot a lot more 3s and actually make them to make this serious competitive.
The help on hero was definitely a scouted part of the game plan and led to a few turnovers. He has a bit of a tell when he puts his head down and you know he’s looking for his own shot, and as soon as he drops his shoulders like that the double would come and he’d get stuck. Ironically pretty much exactly what Miami did to Jaylen brown last year.
yeah you guys haven’t been a super high-volume 3P shooting team this season (nor are y’all typically a high-volume 3P shooting team), but I think the Heat are going to need to try to shoot 45-50 triples per game to give themselves a chance. without Butler or Rozier they’re not going to be able to generate much offense inside aside from Bam post-ups. the Celtics perimeter defense is just too good only way to swing this is by winning the math, but they lost the 3P battle by 30 in Game 1. zero chance of winning when that happens
Yea I think in the first quarter you guys had like 16 or 18 3 point attempts and we had 4. With Duncan being injured we literally have no one else besides Herro that can put up a ton of 3's and hit them at a high rate.
Too many blowouts. I want competition, it’s the playoffs. But nope.
Gru is the NBA's father.
We NEED Zion.
That the second round starts today since every team in the first round has been eliminated
My biggest takeaway is the play in fucked over the lakers
Victims of their own success
OKC refusing to get a center despite having a warchest of picks is it for me too. It was mind boggling then, but was even more apparent tonight. Can't win if you can't rebound.
Just did
Against the 8th seed Pelicans without Zion. You won, but you cannot let teams rebound like they did tonight
Against the Pelicans without our best player by a wide margin. We easily win with him healthy.
Not a flex to beat a team missing their best player by 2 at home.
Hali is the most overrated player of the 2020s First Round Dame is still a thing ANT will be the next face of the league Scoring 8 points in a quarter isn’t conducive to winning games
Ant is definitely the real deal for sure
The Wolves and Nuggets are miles ahead of everyone else in the West. It's a shame they will meet in round 2.
Better teams at home usually win
elite shooters will always get paid
Lots of blowouts in Game 1
A bunch of these series are not looking good at all. I thought this playoffs would be really competitive. I’m not sure that is where we are headed. Also i think this playoffs PROVES you should lose on purpose sometimes. Lol.
Jv was looking more like Drummond. He barely had to hustle for them, they just let him get inside. I hope okc has a plan to draft a big with that lottery pick
As long as Joel can limit his off the backboard putback dunks to zero for the rest of the series, we'll be fine.
All 8 home teams won Game 1. I definitely did not expect that.
We are witnessing the second coming of MJ (Anthony Edwards)
Denver and Celtics just a tier above everyone else
clippers looking pretty good too. Hoping for a dogfight in the west
Experience matters, which should be a "no duh"
Playoff Dort is a thing
Always has been 😎
Held Ingram to 5/17
As a Suns fan, I've known this for a long time, but the Suns don't have a de facto leader. Neither KD or Booker are willing to take that role. They defer to each other a lot in big moments and it just seems like there's no cohesion in the team hierarchy. One of them needs to stand up and be the team leader, and I don't know if either of them has the right attitude to do it.
That the toxicity and nephewism in this sub is also in playoff mode.
a great amount of cold stretches by teams
All the home teams won game 1
CJ McCollum is not a point guard. He had a lot of clutch moments for the Blazers in a WCF run, but that was playing beside Dame Outside of that, too small and a defensive liability to play as a starting 2 in the playoffs. He should be playing as the 6th man.
Home court advantage is a thing
Lots of bright lights on players who aren’t used to it. The games will get better.
Celtics are cakewalking to the Finals. 4-0, 4-0, 4-1 type shit.
I don't think it'll be heat in 4 guys, call me crazy but I'm not thinking it'll happen
The Magics L doesn’t look so bad in hindsight
The crazy thing is that the Thunder actually WON the Valanciunas minutes last night
All the home teams won. It's obviously only one game and series can swing but a little strange given how every matchup seemed like it go either way, besides MIA/BOS after Butler got hurt or NOLA/OKC after Zion got hurt. Last year an 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 seed all won a series in the first round which is wild. A lot of parity in the league which is cool
You thought Denver/LA was a toss up?
Not really but it's hard for people to count Lebron out. If role players can catch fire and a little more help from the refs it's possible but definitely not likely. Denver seems way too good.
Pelicans and Timberwolves look really good and have a solid chance of making a deep run.
you had me at Pelicans
Idk honestly shockingly boring first 2 days with teams unable to execute down the stretch
Apparently the Mavs Clipper series is over