2016 Playoff Thread

[cowens/oldschool]

Thought we could start a new thread on the playoffs.

I have never seen Kevin Durant look worse, hes 5-26 from field with 6 turnovers, he can't get a call and looks extremely frustrated in a 1 point game.

[bobheckler]

James Harden with his usual stellar defense. NOT!!


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25559428/watch-james-hardens-transition-defense-is-still-a-work-in-progress

How does such a one-way player gain any accolades at all?



bob


.

[tjmakz]

James Harden with his usual stellar defense.  NOT!!


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25559428/watch-james-hardens-transition-defense-is-still-a-work-in-progress

How does such a one-way player gain any accolades at all?



bob


.

That video looked like All-star game defense.
James is an amazing offensive player but a lousy defensive player.
His effort on the defensive end is just not there.
The worst part about his game is that he is not a leader at all and not a team player.
I would take him on the Lakers but I wouldn't give up much to get him.
Dwight will probably leave this summer, which will leave Houston with Harden and a bunch of role players at best.
Houston should try to trade Harden and go through a full rebuild.

[cowens/oldschool]

Last nights game for Durant was at an Antoine Walker level of ineptitude, even though he has superstar status, I think hes a little overrated and has been for awhile....and James Harden is right there with him.

Rockets are so dysfunctional, even Barkley was saying he hates watching them, that they don't play together and looks like they just make up their plays on the fly. Dwight Howard is not gonna be there next year and is a shell of his former self.

[Outside]

Harden's defense is easy pickings for ridicule, but the team-wide dysfunction is the bigger deal. How this group got the second seed in the West last season and made it to the conference finals is beyond me.

Nice comeback games by the Raptors and Mavs last night. We'll see if the Celtics can join that group tonight.

[bobheckler]

No Steph Curry, no problem.

The Dubs are rollin'.


bob


.

[willjr]

James Harden with his usual stellar defense.  NOT!!


http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-basketball/25559428/watch-james-hardens-transition-defense-is-still-a-work-in-progress

How does such a one-way player gain any accolades at all?



bob


.

At the end of the year when I heard that Harden became the 4th player ever to avg 29/7/6 my first thought was that he puts up the emptiest stats since World B. Free was scoring meaningless points for the Clippers,Warriors and Cavs over 30 years ago. Harden is the league's poster child for me balling and style over substance.

[dbrown4]

I hate to put big emphasis on any one game, but the Celtics are under the gun tonight for sure. Yes, you can say that even if ATL wins, all they have done is preserve home court. But the Celtics need a victory badly. Another loss will make us 0-6 in the playoffs. If merely just for confidence building. And to mirror their regular season. Boston by 15!

db

[cowens/oldschool]

....well we set a record tonite in Celtic history

[bobheckler]

Valanciunas is croaking Turner on the O-boards.

[cowens/oldschool]

Turners jumper reminds me of a young KG

[bobheckler]

Turners jumper reminds me of a young KG

His defense tonight reminded me of KO's.


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Turners jumper reminds me of a young KG

His defense tonight reminded me of KO's.


.

had 3 blocked shots, no ones defense is quite like KO's

[bobheckler]

Turners jumper reminds me of a young KG

His defense tonight reminded me of KO's.


.

had 3 blocked shots, no ones defense is quite like KO's

Cow,

And how many offensive boards did he give up to Valanciunas? How many rebounds stayed alive, killing Pacer fast break opportunities, and actually giving Toronto 2nd chances because he couldn't and didn't box Valanciunas off the boards? And V isn't exactly the 2nd coming of Moses Malone. If Sully or Zeller or KO did that you'd be all over them.



bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

okay bob Turner needs to improve....butt he actually had 5 offensive rebounds compared to 4 for Valenciunis.

Howard sucks he focked up this game bigtime for Rockets!!!!

[bobheckler]

okay bob Turner needs to improve....butt he actually had 5 offensive rebounds compared to 4 for Valenciunis.

Howard sucks he focked up this game bigtime for Rockets!!!!

Cow,

Agreed. D12 is past his shelf life.

Turner is a prototypical NEW NBA center. Not bulky.

bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

okay bob Turner needs to improve....butt he actually had 5 offensive rebounds compared to 4 for Valenciunis.

Howard sucks he focked up this game bigtime for Rockets!!!!

Cow,

Agreed.  D12 is past his shelf life.

Turner is a prototypical NEW NBA center.  Not bulky.

bob


.

Turner is more a 4-5 KG type, not a traditional center, but a skilled big with alot room to grow.

[swish]

I thought that considering the fact that Turner just turned 20 last month while Valanciunas will be 24 on 5/6/16, his performance was of high quality. Val has already logged 7400 plus career minutes in the nba while Turner only has 1367 plus. Pretty hard to knock his game tonight.


swish

[swish]

I always hate it when the injury bug shows up and plays a major role in the outcome of a game - especially in the play offs. Fortunately it seems that it is the exception rather than the rule. Its always a bitter pill to swallow for the team and their fans, who are also victimized.

  swish

[bobheckler]

I always hate it when the injury bug shows up and plays a major role in the outcome of a game - especially in the play offs. Fortunately it seems that it is the exception rather than the rule. Its always a bitter pill to swallow for the team and their fans that are victimized.

  swish

swish,


The Rockets almost blew a huge lead last night against GSW, despite GSW being without Curry. How did GSW rally from being way down? They have other shooters on the team. Mo' Buckets, Marreis Speights, a defensively-challenged but good shooting 4/5, scored way above his average. Need scoring, Steve? No problem, just look down the bench and pick which one you want.

Curry = 30.1ppg in 34mpg regular season, 24 points in 20 minutes in his only playoff game this year.  And, of course, the incalculable havoc he wreaks on defenses who are scrambling like crazy people if he gets anywhere near the ball.

Bradley = 15.2ppg in 33.4mpg regular season, 18,0 points in his only playoff game this year.  And, of course, the incalculable havoc he wreaks upon offenses.

Olynyk = 10.0ppg in 20.2mpg regular season, 2 points in his only playoff game this year.

Bradley + Olynyk, combined = 25.2ppg regular season, 20ppg playoffs, lost.  

I realize that Bradley and Olynyk, together, play a lot more minutes than Curry by himself, but they can also be on the floor together too.  This is tenuous logic that I am using here but my sole point is that, while neither player is even close to Curry in individual impact, together we lost a lot of scoring and versatility.  Our top outside shooters are IT (and he is a high-volume, poor % shooter from outside.  His fg% is elevated by his layups), Bradley, Kelly and Jonas.  Jonas is a low-volume, high % shooter.  He cannot/will not shoot enough to even offset Kelly, much less Bradley.

Losing Bradley and Kelly puts a world of hurt on our offense since Atlanta doesn't need to respect anybody else from outside. You don't need great individual defenders when you can pack the paint with 3 players and dare the other team to shoot from downtown.

This would be a great time for Hunter to go nuts but, if he plays defense on Korver like he did last game, he isn't getting off the bench.


bob


.

[swish]

I always hate it when the injury bug shows up and plays a major role in the outcome of a game - especially in the play offs. Fortunately it seems that it is the exception rather than the rule. Its always a bitter pill to swallow for the team and their fans who are also victimized.

  swish

swish,


The Rockets almost blew a huge lead last night against GSW, despite GSW being without Curry.  How did GSW rally from being way down?  They have other shooters on the team.  Mo' Buckets, Marreis Speights, a defensively-challenged but good shooting 4/5, scored way above his average.  Need scoring, Steve?  No problem, just look down the bench and pick which one you want.

Curry = 30.1ppg in 34mpg regular season, 24 points in 20 minutes in his only playoff game this year.  And, of course, the incalculable havoc he wreaks on defenses who are scrambling like crazy people if he gets anywhere near the ball.

Bradley = 15.2ppg in 33.4mpg regular season, 18,0 points in his only playoff game this year.  And, of course, the incalculable havoc he wreaks upon offenses.

Olynyk = 10.0ppg in 20.2mpg regular season, 2 points in his only playoff game this year.

Bradley + Olynyk, combined = 25.2ppg regular season, 20ppg playoffs, lost.  

I realize that Bradley and Olynyk, together, play a lot more minutes than Curry by himself, but they can also be on the floor together too.  This is tenuous logic that I am using here but my sole point is that, while neither player is even close to Curry in individual impact, together we lost a lot of scoring and versatility.  Our top outside shooters are IT (and he is a high-volume, poor % shooter from outside.  His fg% is elevated by his layups), Bradley, Kelly and Jonas.  Jonas is a low-volume, high % shooter.  He cannot/will not shoot enough to even offset Kelly, much less Bradley.

Losing Bradley and Kelly puts a world of hurt on our offense since Atlanta doesn't need to respect anybody else from outside.  You don't need great individual defenders when you can pack the paint with 3 players and dare the other team to shoot from downtown.

This would be a great time for Hunter to go nuts but, if he plays defense on Korver like he did last game, he isn't getting off the bench.


bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Shocking and sad how fast the game has passed by Sully.

[cowens/oldschool]

Blake Griffin and Chris Paul went down tonite, Paul has a fractured hand.

[steve3344]

Blake Griffin and Chris Paul went down tonite, Paul has a fractured hand.

Chris Paul broke his hand pushing Gerald Henderson in the back as he was driving to the basket. Video clip at bottom of article:

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index.ssf/2016/04/trail_blazers_los_angeles_clippers_game_4.html

[bobheckler]

Shocking and sad how fast the game has passed by Sully.

Cow,

Truth that.  I'm shocked too.  I could see the game changing and moving away from the dinosaur, but I did not think it would happen so quickly and I thought that his outside shot might salvage his game and keep him relevant.  It's all about mobility now, on offense and defense.  You have to be willing and able to run a guy off the 3pt arc and still get back to your defensive position.  If you are Sully you cannot go out that far because you put yourself on an island far away from the action.  Horford's advantage over Whiteside is that Horford will go out there and can still get back.  Whiteside does not like leaving the paint.  As the game moves out to the perimeter, and even their bigs go out there, that makes the defense play 4-on-5 because the rest of the team is running around the perimeter trying to pick up a shooter but Whiteside is hanging back inside the dotted line.  I'm not down on Whiteside but I am recognizing that he is more of a classic, back-to-the-basket, stay down low center than Horford.  The question is "is the word "classic" just a nicer way of saying "obsolete"?".

The game is changing SO fast.  It's like what happened to ball handling after everybody got a load of Cousy.  MJ begat Kobe and Kobe begat a bunch of Kobe wannabes.  Curry is begetting a generation of 3pt shooters that will force the 3pt line back.  These kids are in High School now, they will be freshmen in college in a year or two and then the top ones will be one (maybe two)-and-done and be drafted.  That means we are only maybe 3-4 years away from these Curry-clones hitting the NBA and that will mutate the game because defenses will have to evolve to stop them, and that includes the center position.


bob


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