Couldn't agree more than that
And every day is a beautiful day when the Boston Celtics lose.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
Sports 2021-22 NBA Season
- Thread starter phoopes
- Start date
And every day is a beautiful day when the Boston Celtics lose.
Agreed that the flagrant 2 was ridiculous, Draymond was also being a complete moron too. Did not watch either game, but man winning that game away, with no Dray for the second half, and poor performances for the Splash Bros offensively (seriously, whats up with our free throws lately?) made me feel really good and really makes you appreciate Poole. Bucks over Celtics was a little surprising but great job from them, outdefending the Celtics is no mean feat. (So is KD really still the No.1 offensive player in the league? We’ll have to see) Would love another 2 away wins today but they would be much more shocking to me.
Honestly I've been so lax, lazy and short the past few years that I don't deserve this lol. I just put my random, jumbled mental notes here.
Suns again are just great to watch. I hope they go all the way :D
If anyone but the Warriors wins, I really want CP3 to get that ring.
yeah CP3 deserves that, warriors would be cool aswell
Suns played a good game plan. Throw Luka different looks throughout the game, trust Mikal as well as other players like Paul when they get switched onto him (even McGee got a steal), Ayton goes in the paint when Kleber is playing the five, and just challenge everyone to shoot over your size. Brunson was in foul trouble and Dinwiddie just struggled (again).
so, I expect Brunson to bounce back to try to get more minutes on the floor and in rhythm. Dallas doesn't really run an offense so... they probably will opt to just match-up hunt harder somehow. Luka still had a good game but without defense, they won't win this series even if he plays like this. They did have a good fourth quarter by going small. Ayton looked uncomfortable finally; but whether that wins you a full game remains to be seen.
Edit game 2:
Chris Paul, aka the curfew on his teammates man, can literally chill for 3 quarters analyzing the entire game. Then? suddenly in the 4th quarter, target Luka Doncic on defense and blow you out to win the game.
Just call the album the Chris Paul Fourth Quarter Chronicles.
Edit game 4: Dallas has picked up the defensive intensity on Phoenix's backcourt since the series traveled to Dallas. Chris Paul has picked up record turnovers and fouls over the course of three games that has essentially degraded the offense and defense. We knew Chris Paul was going to be challenged this series defensively as was with Luka Doncic. The series just might come down to who has the best conditioning to withstand a war of attrition.
On the other end, Dallas' offense has played with more intentionality. More spacing, movement, and aggression from Brunson and Dinwiddie. They are challenging and pushing Ayton's ability to defend in space. The adjustment from Monty is likely to decide who they're going live with open and how Ayton can take advantage of his size more.
so, I expect Brunson to bounce back to try to get more minutes on the floor and in rhythm. Dallas doesn't really run an offense so... they probably will opt to just match-up hunt harder somehow. Luka still had a good game but without defense, they won't win this series even if he plays like this. They did have a good fourth quarter by going small. Ayton looked uncomfortable finally; but whether that wins you a full game remains to be seen.
Edit game 2:
Chris Paul, aka the curfew on his teammates man, can literally chill for 3 quarters analyzing the entire game. Then? suddenly in the 4th quarter, target Luka Doncic on defense and blow you out to win the game.
Just call the album the Chris Paul Fourth Quarter Chronicles.
Edit game 4: Dallas has picked up the defensive intensity on Phoenix's backcourt since the series traveled to Dallas. Chris Paul has picked up record turnovers and fouls over the course of three games that has essentially degraded the offense and defense. We knew Chris Paul was going to be challenged this series defensively as was with Luka Doncic. The series just might come down to who has the best conditioning to withstand a war of attrition.
On the other end, Dallas' offense has played with more intentionality. More spacing, movement, and aggression from Brunson and Dinwiddie. They are challenging and pushing Ayton's ability to defend in space. The adjustment from Monty is likely to decide who they're going live with open and how Ayton can take advantage of his size more.
Last edited:
This loss was pretty hard to emotionally bear.
(1) Miami Heat versus (2) Boston Celtics
This will be a conference finals rematch dating back to 2020. Both teams are mirror images of each other, so this is expected to be a heavy switching series which makes this extremely dependent on one-on-one matchups in the half-court. The essential question is, who can consistently score in the half-court and get their favored matchups the easiest?
The first key player/match-up I’ll say is Horford versus Bam. Horford was absent in the 2020 series, and Horford has proven to be a capable defender. If you can do a decent job on Giannis and Embiid, why couldn’t you be able to have success against Bam? If Horford can match Bam in production during their minutes shared, I see this in Boston’s favor. I don’t think there’s any other big on Boston’s roster that could make as much of an impact as Horford except maybe Robin Williams. Bam needs to prove he’s grown the past couple of years, and I’ll be disappointed if I’m right about Horford being able to maintain him. It would be yet another year Bam fails to show any growth in offensive ability.
In order for Miami to take advantage of Boston’s heavy switching, Bam has to be aggressive too on who switches onto him. If he can’t gain an advantage against Horford, he absolutely needs to take advantage if it’s a wing defender. Keep a close eye on how Bam performs.
Comparing both team’s wing players, Boston has a bit more in overall offensive and shooting depth that’s spread out throughout the roster. Miami’s depth is more of a mystery to me, because they’ve plugged in guy after guy throughout the season. Their offense is a little bit questionable at times especially if Herro is not having a good game. The other potential problem this brings is that Herro will be targeted every single time he’s on the floor. If it ever becomes an issue, Spoelstra will be in a tough push-and-pull of trading offense for defense.
Lowry and Smart don’t seem 100% even if they do play. Lowry hasn’t had a good productive run for almost the entire year; you must wonder if that will come back to bite them. Vincent and Strus are great players and could still turn the series in Miami’s favor, but I must admit Miami won’t reach their peak overall without a healthy Lowry. Like the Milwaukee/Boston series, having a secondary playmaker or second point of attack makes a huge difference against this Boston defense. Much of the load is going to have to go to Butler and Bam. Butler can do fine, but Bam must find a crack in Boston’s switching.
So… that leaves me to wonder about Oladipo, who has pretty much been okay. I have no idea what to expect out of him in this series, but he could change Miami’s offensive blueprint. Oladipo against switches historically has been a success for him; I just haven’t seen him take over offensively in almost four years.
I think that depending on who you believe is more likely to accumulate their marginal advantages like turnovers, half-court scoring, rebounding, etc, that’s who you pick. I somewhat favor Boston here. Miami’s point-guard play is slightly dubious, Boston’s three-point shooting is a potential marginal advantage that’s hard to combat, and I don’t quite think Bam is going to make the impact he needs.
Miami wins if: Bam proves his growth, and offensively exploits Boston’s switching defense. Butler finds his match-up within the seams and finds as many easy baskets off of turnovers and defense. Miami’s point-guard play is at least decent, and Herro breaks even with his offensive and defensive output. Boston is unable to score against Miami’s defense and is constantly defending run-outs. Boston can beat Spoelstra's zone.
Boston wins if: They were the better three-point shooting team, the better switching team, had an easier time exploiting Miami’s switching defense, and Horford turns back the clock. Miami’s offense regressed in the half-court.
(4) Dallas Mavericks versus (3) Golden State Warriors
This series is going to be interesting, because it’s going to be the first time Curry faces a team most like the LeBron-lead Cleveland teams of the past.
I am certain Kidd will have Luka attack the head of the snake by forcing Curry to defend as much as possible. He did this to Mitchell and Paul in the previous rounds. Kidd believes the key to winning is by tiring out the opposing number one player on the team through making them defend all series. Kerr is no stranger to this; he played Cleveland for four years and had to combat this strategy. It helps Golden State to be very familiar with this strategy, but it does not help that Curry is also older since then.
What is Kerr likely to do? Stay home on corner threes and force Luka to beat you by scoring 50. Golden State needs to also limit Dinwiddie and Brunson as they are the only other playmakers on the team, most importantly Dinwiddie because of his size. The defense of Thompson and Poole will be tested. Thankfully for them, Otto Porter seems healthy enough to play. Wiggins and Porter are their most solid defensive wings for this series although let’s be real, they don’t stand a chance in guarding Luka anyway. Wiggins will make or break his career here because he has a very simple role that’s hard to truly fail. Both Porter and Wiggins just need to make their shots when Curry/Thompson are trapped. Green is good too for switches; even when it may come to Luka. The true concern for Golden State on defense however is that… they are one of the most foul-prone teams in the league, and Luka drawing fouls on multiple guys is setting your defense up to fail. If Luka can get Green, Poole, Curry, or Thompson in foul trouble, that would significantly impact Golden State both offensively and defensively. They need as many passers and shooters as possible against this defense.
Golden State will need to take care of the ball better than they have in the playoffs this series. Currently, they are one of the worst teams in the playoffs this year turning it over and points off turnovers. Dallas is only behind Memphis in forcing turnovers, and they managed to make Phoenix, one of the least turnover-prone teams with a legendary efficient point guard, turn it over like crazy. If Golden State gives up well over 15 possessions a game, you can’t expect to beat Dallas with the defenders on their roster.
So ultimately, this series is about pace. Can Golden State play an up-tempo game without turning it over too much and try to tire Luka out with their trio of guards, or will Dallas have Luka continuously score at ease and keep Golden State in the half-court?
… I actually strongly lean Dallas, and this is not a slight against Golden State. I need Golden State to prove to me a couple of things before I feel good about their chances. I have never seen them *not* turn the ball over too much, and we’re asking them to keep the pace up while taking care of the ball against a defense containing this many wings with length, IQ, and shooting. We’re also asking Wiggins, Porter, and Thompson to bother Luka. Golden State in my opinion has weaker wing defensive depth than Phoenix. Also, Curry is 34, and does a ton of work offensively for this team compared to Dallas’ past point-guard matchups. He hasn’t shot like his old self, and I’m not sure if this Dallas team has as many easy targets for him to feast on.
I just think Golden State overall has a smaller room for error than Dallas when it comes to both offense and defense.
Golden State wins if: Curry, Poole, and Klay can defend well enough against Doncic to make their combined offense worth it. Green is aggressive when guys play off of him. Golden State take care of the ball while playing up-tempo basketball and find a way to tire Luka out throughout the series.
Dallas wins if: Luka bodies the Curry, Poole, and Klay line-up like shooting monkeys in a barrel. Dallas keeps the game in the half-court and takes advantage of Golden State’s turnovers. Curry is significantly impacted by being targeted by Luka. Golden State’s defense overall is too limited to contain Luka.
Dallas in six
This will be a conference finals rematch dating back to 2020. Both teams are mirror images of each other, so this is expected to be a heavy switching series which makes this extremely dependent on one-on-one matchups in the half-court. The essential question is, who can consistently score in the half-court and get their favored matchups the easiest?
The first key player/match-up I’ll say is Horford versus Bam. Horford was absent in the 2020 series, and Horford has proven to be a capable defender. If you can do a decent job on Giannis and Embiid, why couldn’t you be able to have success against Bam? If Horford can match Bam in production during their minutes shared, I see this in Boston’s favor. I don’t think there’s any other big on Boston’s roster that could make as much of an impact as Horford except maybe Robin Williams. Bam needs to prove he’s grown the past couple of years, and I’ll be disappointed if I’m right about Horford being able to maintain him. It would be yet another year Bam fails to show any growth in offensive ability.
In order for Miami to take advantage of Boston’s heavy switching, Bam has to be aggressive too on who switches onto him. If he can’t gain an advantage against Horford, he absolutely needs to take advantage if it’s a wing defender. Keep a close eye on how Bam performs.
Comparing both team’s wing players, Boston has a bit more in overall offensive and shooting depth that’s spread out throughout the roster. Miami’s depth is more of a mystery to me, because they’ve plugged in guy after guy throughout the season. Their offense is a little bit questionable at times especially if Herro is not having a good game. The other potential problem this brings is that Herro will be targeted every single time he’s on the floor. If it ever becomes an issue, Spoelstra will be in a tough push-and-pull of trading offense for defense.
Lowry and Smart don’t seem 100% even if they do play. Lowry hasn’t had a good productive run for almost the entire year; you must wonder if that will come back to bite them. Vincent and Strus are great players and could still turn the series in Miami’s favor, but I must admit Miami won’t reach their peak overall without a healthy Lowry. Like the Milwaukee/Boston series, having a secondary playmaker or second point of attack makes a huge difference against this Boston defense. Much of the load is going to have to go to Butler and Bam. Butler can do fine, but Bam must find a crack in Boston’s switching.
So… that leaves me to wonder about Oladipo, who has pretty much been okay. I have no idea what to expect out of him in this series, but he could change Miami’s offensive blueprint. Oladipo against switches historically has been a success for him; I just haven’t seen him take over offensively in almost four years.
I think that depending on who you believe is more likely to accumulate their marginal advantages like turnovers, half-court scoring, rebounding, etc, that’s who you pick. I somewhat favor Boston here. Miami’s point-guard play is slightly dubious, Boston’s three-point shooting is a potential marginal advantage that’s hard to combat, and I don’t quite think Bam is going to make the impact he needs.
Miami wins if: Bam proves his growth, and offensively exploits Boston’s switching defense. Butler finds his match-up within the seams and finds as many easy baskets off of turnovers and defense. Miami’s point-guard play is at least decent, and Herro breaks even with his offensive and defensive output. Boston is unable to score against Miami’s defense and is constantly defending run-outs. Boston can beat Spoelstra's zone.
Boston wins if: They were the better three-point shooting team, the better switching team, had an easier time exploiting Miami’s switching defense, and Horford turns back the clock. Miami’s offense regressed in the half-court.
(4) Dallas Mavericks versus (3) Golden State Warriors
This series is going to be interesting, because it’s going to be the first time Curry faces a team most like the LeBron-lead Cleveland teams of the past.
I am certain Kidd will have Luka attack the head of the snake by forcing Curry to defend as much as possible. He did this to Mitchell and Paul in the previous rounds. Kidd believes the key to winning is by tiring out the opposing number one player on the team through making them defend all series. Kerr is no stranger to this; he played Cleveland for four years and had to combat this strategy. It helps Golden State to be very familiar with this strategy, but it does not help that Curry is also older since then.
What is Kerr likely to do? Stay home on corner threes and force Luka to beat you by scoring 50. Golden State needs to also limit Dinwiddie and Brunson as they are the only other playmakers on the team, most importantly Dinwiddie because of his size. The defense of Thompson and Poole will be tested. Thankfully for them, Otto Porter seems healthy enough to play. Wiggins and Porter are their most solid defensive wings for this series although let’s be real, they don’t stand a chance in guarding Luka anyway. Wiggins will make or break his career here because he has a very simple role that’s hard to truly fail. Both Porter and Wiggins just need to make their shots when Curry/Thompson are trapped. Green is good too for switches; even when it may come to Luka. The true concern for Golden State on defense however is that… they are one of the most foul-prone teams in the league, and Luka drawing fouls on multiple guys is setting your defense up to fail. If Luka can get Green, Poole, Curry, or Thompson in foul trouble, that would significantly impact Golden State both offensively and defensively. They need as many passers and shooters as possible against this defense.
Golden State will need to take care of the ball better than they have in the playoffs this series. Currently, they are one of the worst teams in the playoffs this year turning it over and points off turnovers. Dallas is only behind Memphis in forcing turnovers, and they managed to make Phoenix, one of the least turnover-prone teams with a legendary efficient point guard, turn it over like crazy. If Golden State gives up well over 15 possessions a game, you can’t expect to beat Dallas with the defenders on their roster.
So ultimately, this series is about pace. Can Golden State play an up-tempo game without turning it over too much and try to tire Luka out with their trio of guards, or will Dallas have Luka continuously score at ease and keep Golden State in the half-court?
… I actually strongly lean Dallas, and this is not a slight against Golden State. I need Golden State to prove to me a couple of things before I feel good about their chances. I have never seen them *not* turn the ball over too much, and we’re asking them to keep the pace up while taking care of the ball against a defense containing this many wings with length, IQ, and shooting. We’re also asking Wiggins, Porter, and Thompson to bother Luka. Golden State in my opinion has weaker wing defensive depth than Phoenix. Also, Curry is 34, and does a ton of work offensively for this team compared to Dallas’ past point-guard matchups. He hasn’t shot like his old self, and I’m not sure if this Dallas team has as many easy targets for him to feast on.
I just think Golden State overall has a smaller room for error than Dallas when it comes to both offense and defense.
Golden State wins if: Curry, Poole, and Klay can defend well enough against Doncic to make their combined offense worth it. Green is aggressive when guys play off of him. Golden State take care of the ball while playing up-tempo basketball and find a way to tire Luka out throughout the series.
Dallas wins if: Luka bodies the Curry, Poole, and Klay line-up like shooting monkeys in a barrel. Dallas keeps the game in the half-court and takes advantage of Golden State’s turnovers. Curry is significantly impacted by being targeted by Luka. Golden State’s defense overall is too limited to contain Luka.
Dallas in six
Last edited:
Well in Game 1, the Dubs absolutely destroyed the Mavs when it came to off-ball movement.
Dubs have the best off the ball movement. Most teams are iso heavy.
I knew Dallas would shoot better in game 2. Also had a feeling their legs wouldn’t last. I expect that to continue to happen. GSW will take one on the road. My initial prediction was GSW in 7. However, I think this could be much shorter. Dallas being so 3 point heavy just does not have enough horses to chase GSW around on defense all series and have the legs to make those shots.
You’re right for sure.
There was a youtube video I saw that talked about this: this one by thinking basketball.
Basically, the warrior’s offense is so good both scheme and talent wise that the maverick’s defense can’t hide Luka or play in even remotely the same way they did against the suns.
The warrior’s defensive scheme + Draymond make it so that the mavs can’t just switch onto the small guy like they did against phoenix.
There’s obviously more, but I’m summarizing. I think this series will be over in 5, but I still have confidence in Kidd coaching his team to a point where they aren’t getting blown out or blowing huge leads. this is kind of embarrassing to admit but I very often forget just how good golden state is at basketball.
Welp. Dallas can't rebound or defend their wings.
Celtics in 6
Not much to really say at this point.
I trust the Warriors experience and Kerr's experience in coaching over the newly lead Celtics.
And they haven't particularly been impressive in close games all year.
They go as Marcus Smart goes so... if they win, it'll be because Smart/White/Horford are managing the pace, rebounding, and scoring of the game enough to keep Warriors at bay.
But it is a tall order.
Warriors in 6.
I trust the Warriors experience and Kerr's experience in coaching over the newly lead Celtics.
And they haven't particularly been impressive in close games all year.
They go as Marcus Smart goes so... if they win, it'll be because Smart/White/Horford are managing the pace, rebounding, and scoring of the game enough to keep Warriors at bay.
But it is a tall order.
Warriors in 6.
Interesting first game. Weird in a lot of ways. I don’t think this is representative of what the rest of the series will be.
Tatum struggled offensively but Horford and Derrick White combine for 47 points off 11/16 3 point shooting. Celtics shoot 51% from 3, make 7 in a row in the 4th quarter.
One thing I don’t like about the NBA now is how quickly the game can devolve into 3 point shooting contests. The team that catches fire buries the other team. We witnessed probably a dozen times now in the playoffs one team getting hot and just running the other team off the court.
Praying for better games…
Tatum struggled offensively but Horford and Derrick White combine for 47 points off 11/16 3 point shooting. Celtics shoot 51% from 3, make 7 in a row in the 4th quarter.
One thing I don’t like about the NBA now is how quickly the game can devolve into 3 point shooting contests. The team that catches fire buries the other team. We witnessed probably a dozen times now in the playoffs one team getting hot and just running the other team off the court.
Praying for better games…
Yeah.
The Warriors kinda take the biggest part in making three point shot evermore important. Thank them lol. Warriors simply got a taste of their own medicine.
The Warriors kinda take the biggest part in making three point shot evermore important. Thank them lol. Warriors simply got a taste of their own medicine.