Kawhi and Siakam so far best players on the court.
Embiid has been gifted a bunch of FTs, Simmons committed a flagrant that went uncalled, and the Raptors bench cannot do anything right: as a result, Philly up at the half.
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Kawhi and Siakam so far best players on the court.
Embiid has been gifted a bunch of FTs, Simmons committed a flagrant that went uncalled, and the Raptors bench cannot do anything right: as a result, Philly up at the half.
Basketball.
Clearly tripping
Joel Embiid has had as many FTAs as shot attempts. Incredible.
And the Raptors roleplayers continue to wet the bed. 2 of 11 shooting from the bench. Gasol is 2 for 6.
Amazing. If I'm Kawhi, I'm out of Toronto this summer.
Kawhi Leonard is just incredible. Just a little outmatched when the best player on his team is the 5th-6th best player in the series. When the Sixers are clicking they can beat anybody. A Warriors/Sixers Finals would be so much fun to watch.
I don't agree. The Sixers have one big advantage over the Warriors on paper, and that's Embiid. But Embiid isn't fully healthy right now, and a large part of his game comes from the fact that he gets a lot of whistles that most big men don't get, and he gets a lot of lee-way in the post with his physicality. He won't get that when he plays the Warriors: nobody gets that when they play the Warriors. Nobody is favoured more by the refs than Golden State in the post-season.
After that, Golden State has the clear best 2 players in the series (Durant and Curry), the clear best shooters (Durant, Curry, Klay), are clearly the better passing team, play by far the better defense, etc etc.
Sixers at their absolute best, with Embiid healthy, take Golden State to 6, absolute maximum.
Simmons/Curry
JJ/Klay
Butler/KD
Tobias/Green
Embid/Bogut
That is as good as any team in the NBA matches up with them. They give the Warriors some very tough problems as well. As I said if they are clicking on all cylinders they give the Warriors a very tough team with a huge advantage in Embid. The Sixers also have a great bench where the Warriors have had advantages on teams as well. If the Sixers don’t mesh well then no the Warriors are gonna destroy any team that isn’t playing together well. Again if they can’t continue getting better with each other that team is a serious problem. Now obviously the Bucks are a great team as well. They were the best team in the NBA during the regular season. The Sixers weren’t far behind and had to figure things out after adding 2 star players. The Bucks present their problems as well. Either team would be a great matchup but IMO the Sixers would be fun to watch. Giannis is my favorite player in the NBA so I would love to see him as well.
I see where you're coming from, and I don't think you're totally wrong, but I just can't feel it. If you just line names up, then sure, it looks kind of balanced, but there's a difference between the style they play and the intangible qualities each player has.
Simmons does not match up with Curry whatsoever. He isn't a great perimeter defender, and if he tries to guard Curry, he will get lit up. Curry can't guard Simmons either, sure, but Curry wouldn't guard Simmons, he'd get to hide on Reddick because that's how GS gameplans.
Klay > Reddick, by far, and Klay can guard Simmons, especially because Simmons can't shoot.
KD>Butler all day long, no question, it's not even a fair matchup. Butler would get killed.
Tobias is a better scorer than Green. Green is a better defender, passer, and rebounder, and is a much more incisive player with a better eye for the game and he operates Golden State's offense extremely well when they go through him. Green is having his worst year in a while and he's still a better team player than Tobias.
Embiid > Bogut, obviously, but his major advantages would be negated by who Golden State is.
Obviously I'm not saying the Sixers are a god-awful team, and I'm not saying there would be no fun moments in that series: like I said, if the Sixers are firing on all cylinders, it might go 6 games, maybe. The issue is that it would be one of those series where maybe it goes 5 or 6 games, but nobody ever thinks its in doubt. A 100% Sixers team vs a 100% Golden State team is a massacre. In comparison, a 100% Bucks team vs a 100% Golden State team would be legit competitive, because the Bucks would have a debate for the best player on the court and they are a better defensive team (the Sixers have been disappointing defensively all season long, and still are now).
I just hope Durant leaves in the off-season so there can be real matchups instead of just hoping that another team has a 100% series and makes it competitive. Right now the playoffs are just boring, especially in the West. At least the East has good matchups (Bucks/Celtics, Raptors/Sixers are both good matchups and the ECF will be awesome).
Last edited by Pelicanidae; 05-03-2019 at 04:27 PM.
Boston just switched Kyrie onto Giannis.
Bold move, let's see if it pays off.
After really struggling in the first two games of this series (4.5ppg on 29% shooting, YIKES) Tatum is having a good game so far tonight. Giannis burned him once on D, but that's going to happen: it's Giannis. He has 10 points on 5/8 shooting (62.5%) in 14 minutes. His misses were all from beyond the arc, as he's been 100% from 2pt range.
Still want to see him handle the ball a little more, and he needs to hit a 3 ball or two.
Jaylen Brown jawing at Mirotic over a perfectly legit foul. Of course Mirotic is going to foul there, he's not going to give you the wide open layup when you're 0-2 from the FT line at this point, come on.
Giannis LIVING at the line right now. He deserves a lot of these calls, they are mugging him, but you still don't expect refs to call everything.
Jaylen Brown has looked great in the playoffs! This kid has every bit as much potential as Tatum does. Landing this duo would be awesome! Tatum has looked very good so far. Starts hitting his 3 pointers and will have a big game.
WoW that call on Brown was a joke! You gotta be kidding me!
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