NBA Playoffs 2016

[walto]

my favorite part of this is that all of his haters will need to largely shut up now.

Not sure about that. Great as he is, he's kind of his own worst enemy. His post-game interview was almost megalomaniacal, reminiscent of 'the decision.' Some magnificent athletes would do themselves a world of good if they could just be convinced to STFU.

[Captain Hate]

Don't forget the Bogut injury; I think that's being very underplayed, in part by Kerr being extremely classy in defeat. Also don't forget that late three pointer by LeBron on a night that his outside shot wasn't working.

The Warriors struck me as a tired team at the end of games unlike against OKC. Maybe that series following setting the record took a toll. I thought Kerr really nailed some dumbass who wanted to trash Ezeli when he said you can't just look at shooting stats in evaluating somebody's performance. I don't think Andy will be on any roster next season.

[walto]

I thought Livingston should have gotten more time. He's always sooo solid. 16 minutes wasn't enough for him, IMO. And Barbosa only got a couple.

[Enforcer]

Congrats, Cap! That was long overdue.

Condolences to sdcs. Tough one but the Ws will be back next season.

I was reading a Tweet from Joe Sheehan about how random the outcome of this series was, which normally I might agree with, but I think he's wrong here. His point is that the regular season team is subjected to small sample sizes in the playoffs, so the better team doesn't always win, which he's saying happened here.

Except basketball is not baseball. The Cavs coasted all season in a shitty conference and the Warriors were pursuing a record, so the gap between regular season records isn't what it appears to be. Sure, injuries and all that, but anyone who thought the Warriors were going to cut through the playoffs like they did the regular season doesn't follow hoops too closely. He also mentioned that talking about character in the context of a couple minutes of one game is pointless, that there are no chokers or heroes to be identified based on so little. I don't really agree with that either in basketball. Not talking about this series necessarily, but in general. Kind of disappointed in the superficial analysis from someone who usually knows better.

[jon abbey]

dunno, who knows what would have happened if Curry doesn't get hurt in the first round, then Bogut, then Iguodala? if they stay healthy through the playoffs, I think they win it all pretty easily again.

[Captain Hate]

Like clockwork:

https://mobile.twitter.com/MagicJohnson ... wsrc%5Etfw

[jon abbey]

hilarious, did you guys hear Van Gundy telling players to "put it on the ground" and drive to the basket? um, do you mean the floor, Jeff?

Jackson had at least one doozy last night too, when he talked about how Tristan Thompson was the only 5 in the league who could guard the perimeter as well as he was. um, do you mean except for the other guy on the floor RIGHT NOW who is decidedly better at it in Draymond Green?

huge embarrassment for the NBA to have those bozos as their number 1 team.

[walto]

"To me, they gotta do a better job of scoring the basketball."

[Enforcer]

dunno, who knows what would have happened if Curry doesn't get hurt in the first round, then Bogut, then Iguodala? if they stay healthy through the playoffs, I think they win it all pretty easily again.

Agreed. I think they probably would have won. And I also agree with his general conclusion that if a certain player makes a single shot versus misses it, it changes nothing really in the evaluation of that player, but we talk about it like it changes everything.

Still, I would have felt better about his analysis if he acknowledged those other factors I mentioned.

[SqDanceCallingSteve]

LeBron's a healthy 31 -- it's possible we've just seen the second episode of a new multi-chaptered epic rivalry.

Two of the more bizarre moments of the playoff run -- Draymond's takedown of Beazley as time expired and Motiejunas depositing a puddle of sweat on the floor -- may have been keys to the way things played out.

James' block on Iguodala was the signature play of the series. Not sure anybody else ever could have made that play, and in context it was huge.

Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli, James Michael McAdoo, Ian Clark, Marreese Speights, Brandon Rush, Anderson Varejao and Leandro Barbosa -- all free agents. Barbosa's the oldest and the only one who had a decent finals. Could be major roster shifts, none of them are indispensable to the team.

I haven't heard anything about it anywhere, but I wouldn't be surprised if Kerr found renewed wisdom in Pop's habit of periodically resting players on a team good enough not to have to worry about making the playoffs. (Especially now that they have the record.)

Klay in particular is taking the loss hard, curious to see how this series works as motivation for the team in the future. Steph says he doesn't need surgery. Draymond and Klay planning on going to Rio.

[walto]

I read a piece criticizing kerr for playing ezeli and varejao so much in the last game--even though they both sucked, and playing livingston and barbosa so little even though they both looked good.

What's the word on this in your area?

[SqDanceCallingSteve]

I read a piece criticizing kerr for playing ezeli and varejao so much in the last game--even though they both sucked, and playing livingston and barbosa so little even though they both looked good.

What's the word on this in your area?

They missed Bogut, wanted a presence in the middle. I haven't been watching or listening to sports much, actually.

Rita and I watched the game with our daughter and her fiance. They had spent the previous night with his parents, who are Mexican, watching Chile slaughter Mexico 7-0 in the Copa America. What a Father's Day weekend!

[Captain Hate]

Kerr needed some rim protection and Ezeli and Andy were the only choices besides Draymond. With a banged up Iggy (who looked better than I had expected) it's not like he had an abundance of options. His offense worked pretty damn well to get Draymond a lot of wide open looks. Has anybody blamed Thompson for getting overly enamored with the three when he has such good moves to the hoop; not that he doesn't have a great stroke from the outside but for whatever reason he didn't go on one of his torrid streaks.

Coaches always are a blame target after a disappointing loss. Sometimes the players just don't execute. It's not easy to stay on top.

[The G Man]

The key coaching decision late in the Finals was Lue having TT guard Curry. Kerr should have abandoned pnr offense in those situations and have Curry go iso but he didn't. Curry scored 0.78 ppp when guarded by TT.

[SqDanceCallingSteve]

Curry blamed himself for going for the home run instead of moving the ball, late in the game.

In both seven games series, the opposition put taller good defenders on (a not fully functional) Curry, and were effective. When he regains his explosiveness, he can get past them some of the time; but he and the team need to learn to move the ball out of that situation and find the mismatch elsewhere on the court.

[jon abbey]

so presumably if Curry is getting any procedures, that would be ASAP, right? any info on that?

[SqDanceCallingSteve]

Haven't heard a whisper regarding any testing much less surgery. He's always said he just needs time for his body to heal. Keeping anything Steph a secret around here is impossible, so if anybody knows we'll all know. [Off to go dancing to an Isley Brothers tribute band.]

[The G Man]

Curry blamed himself for going for the home run instead of moving the ball, late in the game.

In both seven games series, the opposition put taller good defenders on (a not fully functional) Curry, and were effective. When he regains his explosiveness, he can get past them some of the time; but he and the team need to learn to move the ball out of that situation and find the mismatch elsewhere on the court.

Why couldn't they have done a clear out and have Curry go 1 on 1 against TT? Even without full explosiveness he should have been able to have gotten by him, no?

Another thing Lue did was run the PNR offense to make Curry the main defender as much as possible. That might have tired him out and account for at least part of his subpar shooting percentage on open looks in the series.

It's really hard to know what was going on without fuller information on the state of Curry's health during the series.

[The G Man]

It's a little late to post this but I just read it and thought it was a good piece.

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2016/6 ... inals-2016

[Captain Hate]

I thought that was well presented also. I think I'm finally over the Warriors hatred that started when they swept the Bullets.