What the hell was that jump flop thing CPFlop did in game 1 ? If anything the NBA did us all a favor giving us Rockets vs Warriors now instead of West Finals.
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What the hell was that jump flop thing CPFlop did in game 1 ? If anything the NBA did us all a favor giving us Rockets vs Warriors now instead of West Finals.
The Raptors are one of the best teams in basketball. This season it went Golden State, Milkwaukee, Houston, Toronto. Philly comes after all of them, and also after Denver, Portland, and Boston. And when Oladipo was healthy, Philly was behind Indiana too. For Toronto, with everyone healthy like they are, Philly is not a great team. Philly is a mediocre team, filled with highly talented players who have no idea how to play together, with bad attitudes, no cohesion, a poorly-matched skillset, and a worse coach. If Toronto plays their best basketball, they sweep Philly.
And the Philadelphia team they played wasn't even a good Philadelpha! Philly shot 39% from the floor and 28% from 3. They had 19 turnovers. Ben Simmons spent half the game doing nothing. Joel Embiid is clearly not playing well due to his knees. Reddick shot 25% from three, and for large stretches of the game, Greg Monroe was their best player. Philly was not playing great, and they aren't a great team.
To go out against an incoherent team like Philadelphia, at home, when you have the best player in the series and Philly play that poorly, and to lay a big fat egg is embarrassing. 36% from the field is pathetic. 27% from deep is ridiculous. 5 bench points is unacceptable.
When that happens, you don't go back into the locker room thinking ''heyyyy, some of our guys had rough nights, but Philly are one of the best teams in the NBA so what are ya gonna do?''. No. They go back into the locker room thinking ''we gave that game away. That loss is our fault. They didn't beat us, we let them win.'' You're right, they probably are fired up. Or they better be, at least, because if they're not, they all need to start booking their vacation plans because if they know that if they play that way again, they're going to lose this series, and that's on them and not Philadelphia. So yeah, they should be ashamed of the absolutely pathetic performance they put on in game 2.
Giannis had a bad game one, but he's looking like himself again tonight. He's hit 5/9 threes in this series so far. Surprising, but if he keeps shooting like that then he'll be legitimately unstoppable.
Kyrie having a bad one
Tim Frazier in the game !
You hear that, They are chanting MVP at Frazier
Tatum another bad game.. Could you imagine if this had been Brandon Ingram?! Tatum is struggling but I think with another off season the kid will take his game to another level. One thing I love about him is he works with Kobe in the offseason. Not a better endorsement to have Kobe Bryant praise your work ethic and talent. Definitely not the type of person to waste his time on someone who isn’t 110% locked in at all times in practice.
Jaylen Brown put together another very solid game. I liked this kid coming out of college where I talked about the system his coach ran being arguably the worst possible for his playstyle along with the outdated college spacing as a huge problem for his skill set that at the time was built on athleticism and getting to the hoop. I really think he can be a Derozan type of SG with more strength and an actual 3pt shot. Jrue/Brown/Tatum fits the new era NBA very well. Would love to see these 2 in a Pelicans uni.
Gotta love Kevin Harlan
Oh look Boogey is back on the Warriors bench
What a 1st half!
Alvin Gentry doesn’t see the issue. https://t.co/2H9AVnvkJb
— Kevin Barrios (@kevinbforbounce) May 1, 2019
Steph has recently become addicted to foul trouble like the Lakers have become addicted to being a tire fire of an organization.
— Golden State of Mind (@unstoppablebaby) May 1, 2019
The best part about this game is no one thinks the refs decided it and the Rockets are still gonna audit it as a victory.
— David Fisher (@Fish_TBW) May 1, 2019
When the referees call the game fair and you still lose pic.twitter.com/W5luSs92bI
— Zito (@_Zeets) May 1, 2019
2-0. Keep sobbing. Hold the L and cry more.
— Andy Liu (@AndyKHLiu) May 1, 2019
We don't need to imagine if it had been Ingram. Ingram put up plenty of god-awful games this season, and he got criticised for them exactly like people are criticising Tatum now. It's just not good enough.
The one saving grace for Tatum has been his defense. He is looking less and less assertive in these games against Milwaukee. He looked good in the first round, but you have to turn up the intensity when you play a better team, and it looks like he's actually turning his intensity down a little bit which is disappointing. Deferring is good, sure, but you have to strike the balance between deferring and playmaking, and right now he's passing to the wrong people in the wrong situations. He's staying on the floor because his defense has been really, really good and he's making all of the right plays on that end of the floor, but if he keeps this up there will need to be adjustments.
It doesn't help that Brad Stevens is an incredibly bad offensive coach. He's got Kyrie out there averaging 17ppg over their last four games, on 38% from the floor and 28% from three. That's inexcusable.
Tatum doesn't get a free pass now just like Ingram didn't earlier in the season. I'm actually happy with Tatum playing bad. It means maybe we can get Brown in the deal too.
I mean Brown's contract ends 1 year sooner than Tatum's. We'd have 2 years of him after we pick up his 5th year option and he'd be a RFA.
That's silly to not want Tatum at all due to a few bad games. The previous playoff series he scored 15, 26, 18, 18 on very good shooting %.
Looking forward to the lottery so that I can stop being depressed watching the Celtics players and realizing I feel strongly that they’re overrated.
Other than the Pels, I’ll be pulling for the Heat and Knicks to do well in the Lottery!
LoL now Brad Stevens is an incredible bad offensive coach.. jeeze
He doesn’t get a free pass? I was the only one to even bring up his stats here. Like I said had this been Ingram there would be 5 pages of the same 3 of you going bonkers. I for one will give him a free pass considering he is in only his 2nd year going up against the best team in the NBA. Even the greats have had bad games.
Is this the first time you've ever heard people criticising Brad Stevens' ability to coach an offense?
https://www.sbnation.com/2018/11/27/...evens-problems
''The C’s have offensive problems ranging from poor shooting to an embarrassing lack of free throw attempts. They don’t play with cohesion...''
''You can’t give Stevens credit for all the good things that have happened on his watch and not point out the inconsistencies that have plagued this group. Just as overachieving isn’t all coaching, underachieving isn’t all on the players. Take the Celtics’ maddening habit of operating in the mid-range area [...] they’re acts of desperation for an offense that can’t generate a good enough look on its own.''
'' As a team, the C’s just don’t attack the basket all that often. They’re also not a great passing team, ranking 19th in passes per game and 17th in points generated via assists. For an offense that relies on ball movement and unselfish play, too often they’re left trying to create one-on-one. ''
Boston's offense is dreadful. What an awful 3rd quarter.
— Shamit Dua (@FearTheBrown) May 1, 2019
Stevens, and by proxy the Celtics offense, gets criticised a lot. By all kinds of people.
I can say one thing for sure.
Portland were lucking to get Kanter after losing Nurkic.
They would be stuffed without him.
If you haven't noticed either my first post in the entire playoff thread or one of my very first posts in this thread is one where I say Tatum doesn't get a free pass for playing bad.
I simply don't care about the playoffs, at all, because of the GSW. No game matters. So when you or whoever mentioned how Tatum was playing bad, I agreed that he shouldn't get a free pass from criticism.
I'm not sure what you're wanting other than to be able to complain into the wind about some imaginary bias you think some people have but the act is tired and played out. Give it a rest. It's the same as 13 talking about Murray haters when literally no one is saying anything negative.
I'm less interested in them landing #1, than landing in the top 4. I really like how Winslow, Richardson and Bam would fit with Jrue. They're also on great contracts. Winslow has become a point forward and he was as good from 3 point range as Tatum last year. Add a top 4 pick to that trio, and I think it's better than any non-Zion offer.
The only thing I wonder is how Riley feels about inviting Rich Paul back into his life.
I don't think it's a given that anyone would trade Zion for AD.
I’m loving this Blazers vs Nuggets series
So Kyrie Irving misses shots and all the sudden Brad Stevens is a terrible offensive coach. Was anybody claiming him to be terrible last season with a no Kyrie and making a rookie Tatum look like a star. Or the year before turning IT into a super star in the playoffs. No let’s just take a few games in the playoffs. LoL makes a ton of sense. For every article you find saying he did a bad job for a small sample size I can find 10 praising his overall coaching along with offense.
“Tatum is having a rough one” lmao like I said.. let that be Ingram and you are going bonkers. You were finding ways to bash him when he was putting up Durant numbers after the all star break. Just comical that’s all..
I’m saying Tatum does get a free pass. He is a 2nd year player who has had a bad 2 games in the playoffs against the best team in the NBA. Big whoop! If this was some trend that continues that’s different but we are talking 2 bad playoff games over all of last years and this years. Again he is a 21 year old kid who has put expectations on himself that are ridiculously high do to how good he was last year.
I think if the Suns, Knicks, or Bulls land Zion it is a 90% chance in our favor we get Zion if we want him. Of course Zion would be great for all of those teams but AD is not only great as well but exactly what they are looking for. I think some are under estimating just how good of a shot we have at landing him and I was one of them until I dug a little deeper into the situations of these teams along with fit. So many good trade options out there and I just don’t know which one I would want yet. I’m maybe the biggest Zion fan here but I would possibly pass do to some packages out there like the Celtics. Tatum, Brown, and a few of their 1st rounders along with the Memphis pick would be very hard to pass up.
Tatum a better 3pt shooting version of Jimmy Butler.
Brown a better 3pt shooting version of Demar Derozan.
Two players I think their skill sets and potential resemble the most. You
Add these 2 to Jrue along with our developing young talent and we can be a championship team. Just hitting on 1 draft pick changes everything
Excellent point. There are a ton of restricted guys, and no way to predict if any guys will sign 1+1 deals this summer and become free agents again in 2020.
You've made me rethink the advice I'd give Julius Randle. There may be more money in the market for a guy like him in 2020 than if he opts out this summer.
Even if he opted out he'd still be able to sign a 1 year deal with us. Actually I think no matter what he will probably opt out because NO could give him 120% even if over the cap because he was here last year. That's higher than the 108% he'd get for a normal raise.
That's cool, if Randle comes back and we're in the playoffs next year, then we can talk about Randle in the playoff thread and it will make sense.
I've got Toronto winning, but honestly I could see the Sixers taking it. I still think Kawhi is the best player on the floor, and although Embiid is better than Siakam, he's not really fully healthy right now so is doing more at the moment. If Jimmy Butler shows up with another 30+ point game, then the Sixers will have a real chance because Toronto's bench has been disappointing so far, but if the Raptor bench can be even mediocre then the Sixers could be in for a long night.
I looking at this as a good sign
''You know who I don't think gets enough credit on defense? Kevin Durant!'' - Van Gundy in the middle of a Sixers/Raptors game.
The same Kevin Durant who half the league pushed for DPOY the first 4 months of last season. Ok-then.
Ben Simmons just committed a Draymond style flagrant, hitting Lowry below the waist.
Refs no-called it.