The Official NBA Playoff Thread—-20/21 Edition

[ninjacookies]

Melton investorbois just hit the nuts.


All 3 of you.

[the mesiah]

Melton is playing like a man possessed ..he’s the only one keeping them in it ,

[ovrcollect]

Lol @ Ja's determination to get a dunk on Gobert

[armoursave]

Airball. A fitting end.

[ninjacookies]

Grizz are an all-star level 3&d wing away from being a threat.

[MTBRM]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Grizz are an all-star level 3&d wing away from being a threat.

This is what we have been saying since 2011 lol.

[Akphillips86]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Grizz are an all-star level 3&d wing away from being a threat.

Grizz are tougher than I gave them credit for. The Jazz may be up 3-1, but the games have been hard fought. JJJ woke up a little tonight, but I was honestly expecting more from him when he returned. Still young and coming off a long injury lay-off, so hopefully he keeps developing in the offseason and gives the Grizz another true offensive weapon.

Jazz are looking excellent closing out games now that Mitchell is back, which looks very promising moving forward. I know people are still overlooking them, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they made a finals run this year, especially with the health of the Lakers.


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[ninjacookies]

Originally Posted by MTBRM

This is what we have been saying since 2011 lol.

Exciting team. Just a bit too young and don't have enough firepower to match the top teams from the perimeter.

I'm a fan.

Originally Posted by Akphillips86

Grizz are tougher than I gave them credit for. The Jazz may be up 3-1, but the games have been hard fought. JJJ woke up a little tonight, but I was honestly expecting more from him when he returned. Still young and coming off a long injury lay-off, so hopefully he keeps developing in the offseason and gives the Grizz another true offensive weapon.

Jazz are looking excellent closing out games now that Mitchell is back, which looks very promising moving forward. I know people are still overlooking them, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they made a finals run this year, especially with the health of the Lakers.


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Big ups to the Jazz. Spyda doing spyda thangs. Probably would have been a sweep if he played game 1. Looking forward to the next round.

[SK40]

Originally Posted by tjforce

It's true though...

Ben can get you some fancy assists, a few big dunks, a hook shot, all world defense, rebounding, setting screens, and a number of other details that don't make the box score but lead to good team basketball.

What he doesn't do is splash 3's (efficient or otherwise), take acrobatic jump shots, purposely draw fouls to get to the free throw line, slack on defense to save up for offense....


Basically, Ben Simmons is the Anti-James Harden (although Harden gets assists, his career assist to turnover ratio is not good). So if you love watching James Harden play, I can get why you would hate watching Ben Simmons play.

There's a reason for that....

[rustywest]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Japanese Jesus has arisen.

Best game of his career? Rebounded the ball! A couple HUGE stuffs. Love to see him show some emotion - and making a habit of drilling that flat, clutch 3 pointer.

[bkcardcollector]

Fits well with latvian laser! Go Wiz!

[ballhawkdawk]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Benjamin's lock down defense cannot be denied.

But my does he become a liability on offense late in close playoff games.

He's your best ball handler/distributor, but you cannot pass him the ball because:

1) his refusal to shoot anything outside of 4 feet when defenses sag
2) his inability to sink ft's at a reasonable clip when opponents are trailing

It's essentially 4 on 5 ball.

It hurts that this is true, but it is. He’s not a reliable late game option. There was a stretch this season where he was around 70% from the line and it seemed like he had it figured out, but now here we are and he’s 5/20 from the line in this series and getting the hack-a treatment. The offense funnels to Embiid in crunch time. They’ll close out the Wizards regardless, but I give them 50/50 against the Hawks if Embiid isn’t back for that series.

[rustywest]

Originally Posted by ballhawkdawk

It hurts that this is true, but it is. He’s not a reliable late game option. There was a stretch this season where he was around 70% from the line and it seemed like he had it figured out, but now here we are and he’s 5/20 from the line in this series and getting the hack-a treatment. The offense funnels to Embiid in crunch time. They’ll close out the Wizards regardless, but I give them 50/50 against the Hawks if Embiid isn’t back for that series.

And its not like his shot mechanics are putrid, just always been up in his head. Puzzling indeed and it will only be magnified as the playoff's progress...

[jcardstore]

Originally Posted by ballhawkdawk

It hurts that this is true, but it is. He’s not a reliable late game option. There was a stretch this season where he was around 70% from the line and it seemed like he had it figured out, but now here we are and he’s 5/20 from the line in this series and getting the hack-a treatment. The offense funnels to Embiid in crunch time. They’ll close out the Wizards regardless, but I give them 50/50 against the Hawks if Embiid isn’t back for that series.

Disagree here for a couple reasons

1) Even without Embiid the Sixers have a borderline elite defense. The big area of weakness with no Embiid will obviously be the paint but besides Capela (who isn't a scorer) the Hawks lack attackers who can exploit that weakness. The Wizards won last night because they kept attacking getting to the rim and getting fouled.

2) Realistically the Hawks - Knicks series should be 2-2 but the Knicks blew the 1st game and Julius Randle just decided he forgot how to score. The Hawks have had 1 impressive win to think they have a 50% chance against the best team in the East even without their best player is steep. Randle (who was a fringe MVP candidate this season) has had his 4 worst games of the entire season and the Hawks have only mustered a single convincing win.

Randle went from shooting ~45% to ~27%. Barrett shoots 40% from 3 for the entire season and is down to 27%. The entire Knicks team has had an uncharacteristically bad series considering the season they had and still almost won 2 games.

[yiguiri2002]

Originally Posted by ninjacookies

Grizz are an all-star level 3&d wing away from being a threat.

I feel like it's more an Alpha they need. They have literally everything else for a championship team.

If they had someone like Kawhi they would be the favorites in the West.

[daeve]

Originally Posted by jcardstore

Disagree here for a couple reasons

1) Even without Embiid the Sixers have a borderline elite defense. The big area of weakness with no Embiid will obviously be the paint but besides Capela (who isn't a scorer) the Hawks lack attackers who can exploit that weakness. The Wizards won last night because they kept attacking getting to the rim and getting fouled.

2) Realistically the Hawks - Knicks series should be 2-2 but the Knicks blew the 1st game and Julius Randle just decided he forgot how to score. The Hawks have had 1 impressive win to think they have a 50% chance against the best team in the East even without their best player is steep. Randle (who was a fringe MVP candidate this season) has had his 4 worst games of the entire season and the Hawks have only mustered a single convincing win.

Randle went from shooting ~45% to ~27%. Barrett shoots 40% from 3 for the entire season and is down to 27%. The entire Knicks team has had an uncharacteristically bad series considering the season they had and still almost won 2 games.

lol. One of your best takes in a while!

If Embiid is actually hurt [I think they sat him for precautions], then the Hawks will absolutely beat Philly.



Hawks will just be going from #3 defensive team to #2 [missing their best player].

and it's hilarious how you'd rather dance around a hypothetical "Randle / Barrett having a bad series" rather than give atl's defense any credit.

[KhalDrogo]

Interested to see what the MRI shows for Embiid. “Knee soreness” kept Porzingis out for two weeks at the end of the season.

[jcardstore]

Originally Posted by daeve

lol. One of your best takes in a while!

If Embiid is actually hurt [I think they sat him for precautions], then the Hawks will absolutely beat Philly.



Hawks will just be going from #3 defensive team to #2 [missing their best player].

and it's hilarious how you'd rather dance around a hypothetical "Randle / Barrett having a bad series" rather than give atl's defense any credit.

RJ Barrett is shooting 27% from the floor with no defender within 6 feet

Julius Randle is shooting 14% yes, 14% with no defender within 6 feet.

Over 50% of Julius Randle's shots in this series have either been open (4-6 feet) or wide open (6+ feet) and he's not even shooting 30% from the floor. Almost a 20% drop on wide open shots from the regular season to now. Are the ATL defenders just more scary to look at from a distance?

Real suffocating defense being played by the Hawks . The fact is that all of the Knicks best players (besides Rose) are playing uncharacteristically bad. Doesn't help that the Knicks don't have a true lead ball handler / initiator anyways

[brothertona]

What would happen if Embiid was out against the Hawks is Trae would push it to Capela and JC on P&R over and over and when they pressed the paint Bogie + Danilo + Trae would air it out. Embiid completely changes the series against the Hawks with his ability to push Capela away from the hoop where Atlanta's defense is predicated him being. They set everything up to being able to move any offensive player to right where Capela is to contest

[KhalDrogo]

I’ll take Hawks over 76ers if no Embiid.

[jcardstore]

Originally Posted by brothertona

What would happen if Embiid was out against the Hawks is Trae would push it to Capela and JC on P&R over and over and when they pressed the paint Bogie + Danilo + Trae would air it out. Embiid completely changes the series against the Hawks with his ability to push Capela away from the hoop where Atlanta's defense is predicated him being. They set everything up to being able to move any offensive player to right where Capela is to contest

I agree with this, the way to exploit the Sixers without Embiid is to just PnR / lob them to death.

Ben Simmons can play the paint and Howard is decent enough I guess but they'll probably just blitz Trae and make someone else beat them.

I'd be shocked if Embiid is out for the entire series.

[codered]

When did Nick Anderson start playing for the sixers?

[NeedChapmans]

Originally Posted by jcardstore

I agree with this, the way to exploit the Sixers without Embiid is to just PnR / lob them to death.

Ben Simmons can play the paint and Howard is decent enough I guess but they'll probably just blitz Trae and make someone else beat them.

I'd be shocked if Embiid is out for the entire series.

You cannot have Howard and Simmons on the floor together. It's too much of a black hole offensively ... anything outside of 4 feet and they shoot under 15% collectively + awful FT%.

If that's the strategy Doc uses should Embiid be out ... TAKE THE UNDER!

[jcardstore]

Originally Posted by NeedChapmans

You cannot have Howard and Simmons on the floor together. It's too much of a black hole offensively ... anything outside of 4 feet and they shoot under 15% collectively + awful FT%.

If that's the strategy Doc uses should Embiid be out ... TAKE THE UNDER!

You're right. Offensively brutal, Mike Scott as your starting C doesn't sound that appealing either.

Shame that Ben Simmons is basically useless offensively

[NeedChapmans]

Originally Posted by jcardstore

You're right. Offensively brutal, Mike Scott as your starting C doesn't sound that appealing either.

Shame that Ben Simmons is basically useless offensively

Yea, has to be Scott. Doc knows this ... he didn't play them together last night for that very reason. Howard subs in, Simmons subs out and vice versa.

I mean, you wanna throw Thybulle on the court at the same time and just call it a hockey game, that's fine with me. The bottom line is that if Embiid has another bruise that keeps him out the ATL series, what was a coasting Philly win becomes a true dog fight that probably plays out in the 80's and 90's every night.