2019 NBA Playoff Discussion

[elindholm]

I think KD really robbed the NBA of some truly great basketball from the Warriors the last couple years.

I agree; I think Durant is a gutless coward who is going to get badly exposed at his next stop.

 

[Russ Smith]

Hard to overcome being down 3-0. GS has 4 chances to win one game.

If Iggy's calf is a problem the series could get somewhat interesting but I don't see Portland winning 4 straight 2 of them in Oakland even if Iggy missed all 4 games.

What the Warriors really need is win game 4 sweep and hope Toronto extends their series to at least 6 games so the Warriors can rest all the injured players.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I think KD really robbed the NBA of some truly great basketball from the Warriors the last couple years. They are really something to behold offensively without him and I think they're legacy probably won't get it's due the way it would have without him looking down the line... unless they win it all this year and then win at least one more the next couple years.

Their chemistry does seem to be better without him. Durant seems to have stymied Steph some. It is a lesson. Adding more great players is not always better. Having the right combination is more important.

 

[Russ Smith]

Their chemistry does seem to be better without him. Durant seems to have stymied Steph some. It is a lesson. Adding more great players is not always better. Having the right combination is more important.

My take all along is the Warriors are better in the regular season without Durant(or were at their peak) because they played so well as a team. But in the playoffs when more contact off the ball is allowed, it was tougher for Steph and Klay to get open, if they focus on off ball contact it includes illegal screens the Warriors set. Where you can just give the ball to Durant and move away and he scores or if they double he hits someone else. It works in the playoffs but over 82 games it won't work because the rest of the team gets bored.

This recent run has me somewhat rethinking that. I still think they're clearly better with KD, stats prove that, but they are REALLY hard to guard without him. Part of that is the guy who takes his place whether it's Bogut, Jones, Bell, Jerebko, all of them set screens better than KD. That helps Steph and Klay and it really helps Draymond because now he doesn't have to be the best screen guy on the team he can do other things, rebound and push, play the high post or the low post and pass. The split game as the announcers like to call it is so tough to defend when Draymond has the ball if you overplay Steph and Klay the other 2 back cut. If you forget about Draymond he can drive himself.

If they played like this WITH KD they'd be unguardable, but then you're again asking other than Draymond who is going to set screens for the guards, Durant and Iggy are just not big and strong enough to do it consistently. That's one of the things I love about Klay and Steph, watch them sometime they set screens, Steph is not John Stockton mind you but he sets screens.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Watch how much of the offense KD initiates when he is in the game. When he is out, the ball is in Steph's hands more. I think its just a better balance. I think the Warriors are better without him, and frankly, he would make more of a difference on another team that needs him more.

 

[Yuma]

KD has the Bledsoe effect on the team. When we had Bledsoe, guys would not work off ball, and the game was either Bledsoe has the ball and everyone else watches him, or some guy goes one on one, eats the clock then tosses it over to Bledsoe to make a difficult last second shot. GS plays with KD the same way. Now they have to play with movement.

 

[Mainstreet]

Going to a 2nd overtime with Bucks and Raptors.

It's 103- 103.

Giannis has 5 personal fouls.

 

[Mainstreet]

Raptors win in 2OT: 118-112

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Great game.

 

[elindholm]

My take all along is the Warriors are better in the regular season without Durant(or were at their peak) because they played so well as a team. But in the playoffs when more contact off the ball is allowed, it was tougher for Steph and Klay to get open, if they focus on off ball contact it includes illegal screens the Warriors set.

I used to think I knew what an illegal screen was, but now I guess I don't. A game or two ago, I saw Bogut make contact with whatever guard was defending the ball, and continue to basically envelop that guard for several shuffle-steps laterally, totaling at least six feet. The official was looking right at it and didn't say anything. So what is a moving screen exactly?

 

[Russ Smith]

I used to think I knew what an illegal screen was, but now I guess I don't. A game or two ago, I saw Bogut make contact with whatever guard was defending the ball, and continue to basically envelop that guard for several shuffle-steps laterally, totaling at least six feet. The official was looking right at it and didn't say anything. So what is a moving screen exactly?

Hard to say. in Game 2 they called I think 5 moving screens in the first quarter, 3 on the Warriors. After that they barely called one. I know the handoff and move is pretty consistently called illegal but the ones like you describe by Bogut are often not called. Also teams clearly teach against the Warriors try to draw fouls on screens, in game 3 there's at least 2 where Seth Curry actually grabs the screener and then flails with the other hand like he's being fouled. They didn't call either one I think the refs are on to that one.

In the playoffs they allow tons of contact off the ball.

 

[BC867]

Hard to say. in Game 2 they called I think 5 moving screens in the first quarter, 3 on the Warriors. After that they barely called one. I know the handoff and move is pretty consistently called illegal but the ones like you describe by Bogut are often not called. Also teams clearly teach against the Warriors try to draw fouls on screens, in game 3 there's at least 2 where Seth Curry actually grabs the screener and then flails with the other hand like he's being fouled. They didn't call either one I think the refs are on to that one.

In the playoffs they allow tons of contact off the ball.

Or, as has been said for years, during the post-season, the refs swallow their whistles.

 

[Russ Smith]

Or, as has been said for years, during the post-season, the refs swallow their whistles.

Off teh ball, on the ball they don't.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Defense optional right now...

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Ugh...McKinney

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Man did the game grind to a halt with those second units. It was like garbage time.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Dubs last three games trailing at half:

Game 2 :65-50
Game 3: 66-53
Game 4: 69-65

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Myers Leonard is possessed.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

McKinney: -9

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Curry 167 points past 16 quarters played .

 

[Cheesebeef]

we are totally going to sign Meyers Leonard to a huge Jerome James-like contract based off the two game outliers of his entire career he's had against GS in the playoffs... aren't we?

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

1/2 way through third curry has zero points in quarter.

 

[Hoop Head]

Draymond has definitely made a case that he's more valuable to what the Warriors do that KD is, if they were still considering they could only keep one. I know Draymond and KD didn't get along earlier this year and the rumor was that the Warriors would need to send Green away to retain KD but I'm not sure if that continued on throughout the season. They seemed to patch things up and play together well enough that it wasn't an obvious issue.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Klay non factor on O.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

Dubs getting taste of their own 3rd quarter medicine tonight. Only Hs e 13 in the quarter.