WMC 20-21: Whine, Moan And Complain... You Know You Want To

i'm not sure americans have the attention span, tbh. when i was a kid, they had pro indoor soccer. smaller field, fewer players, more action. like hockey but less violent and you can see the ball.

dantoni was just westhead + threes!

honestly, it was the analytics movement. folks who didn't really like basketball found ways to game the system, and others were forced to compete that way. popovich has basically laid it out, sadly. you have to fix the rules/parameters (e.g., court size) to go against it.

all this said--the most dangerous individual scorers in the league have midrange games. and they keep winning titles. AD looks better in the playoffs because his bad shots are good shots there. just like kobe. same with kawhi. it's why lebron needed scorers to flank him, imo--his game is largely three or paint (or outstanding passing, of course). but he can't walk you to a spot and shoot over you, which still has value.

and i'm not saying i want that all game. but i'd like post players to have a chance to operate. AD is fun to watch in the post. jokic and embiid and towns, too. find a way to allow it again. could be as simple as: calling defensive fouls for shoving in backs. i think shaq ruined a lot of things, inadvertently.

 

I still can’t believe we lost to the Queens. WTH. Dennis and KCP were 0-10 from 3 and didn’t know how to play with Bron, AD, Drum. Those guys with Kuz and others should never have lost to the Queens, who didn’t even have Fox.

If some disaster happens and we lose to Steph and Pop, that game... Anyway.

 

We ain't losing and getting bounced from the playoffs by no damn play in. Not happening. Book it.

 

Clips tanking to get the 4 seed?? Interesting. They get Dallas and Utah that way. And avoid Lakers til WCF. Hmmm

If Clips do lose today, then Denver will play to beat the Blazers. Will Denver really want to win to get the Lakers???

 

Nope. Denver will lose on purpose. No doubt.

 

Toronto is closing the gap against Dallas. That could make things interesting if the Mavs lose tonight with the Clippers losing.

 

What an interesting decision for the Nugs. Win and get 3. But face us IF if if if we beat the Pacers. But they get the Suns or Blazers if they beat us.

Interesting.

 

How did we lose to the Queens and Raps??? At home. With Bron and Ad. Disgusting. Then again (with Cookie whispering in my ear), how did we beat Denver, Suns, and Knicks without Bron and Dennis? Lol

The Clips intentionally tanked to get the 4 seed. Crazy.

 

3 weeks ago, We all wanted 5 or 4 to play the Nuggs without Murray. Now we have a chance to play the Nuggs and then the Suns. Yes please.

Rock!!! What say you?? Will Denver tank Sunday to avoid us?

Will we beat the Pacers??? Sabonis even playing?

 

Best case for Denver - we lose to Pacers. Then they can win Sunday, get Joker his MVP, and play the Blazers in round 1.

If we win tomorrow, would Joker really want to win to play us round 1? We are THE only team with 3 bodies to throw at him - Drum, Marc, Ad. That would be foolish.

 

There is zero chance Denver beats Portland if the Lakers win out. Zero.

 

it certainly does make that last game pretty fascinating.

weird time to tank that game, though, as the lakers could end up in a lot of spots still. as could other teams. for example, dallas could decide to drop their last game if they don't like their likely opponent.

 

Yep. I was thinking about Cuban wanting to avoid the Clips. So they tank their last game to try play Denver without Murray, but there are several variables to that, since a Den loss puts Denver back to 4, unless the Clips tank again). Ha ha ha. The Clips tanking to get the Mavs, and the Mavs tanking to run from the Clips.

The Lakers could actually tank tonight, here is why. They lose to the Pacers, then they lock 7 and the play in. The main guys get extra days rest to prepare for Ws/Grizz.

That would cause the Nugs to play to win in Portland, AND cause the Blazers to want to tank to avoid the Clips.

So the Mavs tanking would not help them. They get the Clips if Portland loses to Denver. Portland gets the Nugs.

Lakers would get Warriors/Griz, one game, then the Suns, then Nuggs or Blazers. Let Utah and the Clips battle. I like that path, actually. Just as much as the Suns to Nugs path.

Don’t want the Clips, Suns, Jazz path. Anyway. The clips tanking is a bad omen for them.

 

10 o’clock today against Pacers .... dun’t be stoopid.

 

Playoff game about to start. Steph vs. Ja.

Let’s see.

Imagine if screwy things happened and Lebron, Steph, and Tatem were all bounced, and Memphis, Spurs, and Pacers all got in to just get swept first round. Yeah. This is dumb.

 

i think the idea was that this would help the league in situations where the reverse was happening. but if the lakers win today, they'll be 3 games better than the team behind them. that's the gap between 2 and 5 in the west, and one short of the gap between 1 and 4. it's 8 games better than the 10th place team.

it's possible only 2 games separate the east from 7-10 at the end of the day, so it's less terrible, but still...not making this at all contingent upon spread is pretty ridiculous.

at best, memphis and gs should be playing each other to see who gets to get pasted by the jazz, and the pacers/hornets/wizards should be having a play-in of their own to see who gets blasted by philly.

boston and the lakers have already earned the 7 spot in their respective conferences.

 

Fully agree. This only creates a March madness Cinderella story for underdogs, and hurts favorites. It is ok if 7-10 are separated by 3 or less games. But 8? It will burn them.

 

Memphis doesn’t box out well. A ton of offense rebounds given up today at crucial times. Steph looks like MVP-level. They do nothing really but hit 3s - Steph and Poole.

 

No pressure on the underdogs, all the pressure on us. Warriors have been playing for their lives basically since FEB and we have mostly been up and down. Which team will show up on Tuesday??

For us its simple, force feed the heck out of AD. He needs to be the No. 1 option on offense, I am highly confident we will wipe the Warriors off the floor if we do that and double/triple Curry and make others beat us