going on the road 1-1 is not in control. if they take game 3 convincingly (like game 2), they've taken control of the series. i'm sort of surprised that people weren't expecting a blowout loss in game 2. i didn't bother watching the game because i was so certain it was going to happen. that's the defending champs and league's current dynasty, at home, in a must-win game. we have to try to make sure the last game we play against them is at our house.
Yeah i mean the Lakers and Ham telegraphed this by playing AD and Lebron huge minutes in Game 1. AD played the entire second half for heaven's sake which is un heard of. (another talking point no one is talking about as well is Reaves played 39 as well) This was not a team prepping for Game 2: they played their big 3 and went all in winning game 1 knowing most road teams will lose game 2 regardless. I don't think the Lakers despite getting plastered really feel all that bad about it - if anything if they were going to lose game 2 this is the way to do - get AD, Lebron, Reaves a lot less minutes
AD is a play finisher, not a play creator. His scoring numbers are so up and down because he goes as our offense goes, he does not drive the offense. In Game 1 our high P&R game was working well and he was feasting on those 8-10 foot push shots and limited isolations against clear mismatches in Looney/smaller defenders. In Game 2 the Warriors did a much better job of stalling our P&R game at the point of attach and Draymond did a much better job of contesting those push shots. He’s still one of the best defenders in the league. I guess my point is it’s not just a matter of AD being locked in one game and disengaged another. There’s some of that, but I think most of it is just how our offense as a whole is functioning game-to-game. When our offense is flowing well, we’re getting AD good looks in comfortable spots and he cashes in. When we’re not matching the intensity of the opponent or when our guards/LeBron aren’t able to work the P&R game effectively or when teams are daring us to shoot from the outside, we end up asking AD to bail us out of bad possessions with difficult shots. He can do some of that, but not an elite level.
this is what i've said all year, but better put. good defenses can take AD out of a game, but your team should be able to get easy looks from what has to be done to keep AD under 30. lebron and russell should be our primary shot creators (and bad shot takers). offensively, AD's like much larger, much more talented shawn marion, who in the ssol era was more of a measure of how well teams were playing phx defensively than he was a driver of that offense. the difference is that AD is a huge threat in post isolation (marion wasn't), so that makes people think he should be able to just go get those points every game. but no post player has really done this since the old illegal defense rules went away. people point to embiid and jokic as big scorers, but they don't just set up shop in the post UNLESS teams try to play them straight up. and they both shoot better from the perimeter. finally, gs with wiggins and green both on the floor is one of the league's top defenses. someone else is going to have to get the job done; because they're going after AD first and foremost. as sk indicated, if our role players make some shots at home, the paint opens up for AD, and he dominates them again. but it's not because he didn't feel like it or whatever.
Cranjis thinks we should start Rui next game to open up the offense and because Vando’s offensive limitations really hurt the starting unit offensively against their Draymond at the 5 lineups. I think that’s correct. The thing is, if we’re playing Rui and LeBron together the Warriors can go back to a lot of their off-ball stuff because we no longer have Vando chasing Curry around a million screens. Nado is good at navigating the off-ball stuff, not so much the on-ball high P&R stuff. That’s why I think if we start Rui, we should start Dennis for DLo as well. DLo hasn’t played poorly at all, but I think Dennis/AR/LeBron/Rui/AD gives us the best chance against Draymond at the 5. We can chase Curry and Klay in the off-ball stuff and have Dennis defend Curry in the high P&R stuff. Offensively, we still have two guards next to LeBron to work the P&R game, and now with Rui/LeBron/AD we can play some mismatch-hunting bully ball too. Still plenty of minutes for DLO too.
yeah, it's a tough ask, but gs sat looney, and he didn't complain. man i wish we still had kcp right about now...
JSM, love your posts and the compilations of extremely pertinent Twitter posts you typically put together in great fashion within a post. 80% or more if I'm looking at a post with that kind of info before I even see the top and who made it, I can tell it's one of yours. But if Jarred was one of only four that were "interested" how do we know that AD, or Reaves (seriously, "not" interested?) or any of the others were "not" or not trying .... when this below was also true of Vando? Seems to me like we had a lot of the same shots that did not drop, while again their shooters made shots, and the defending champs and their coach's adjustments outplayed us badly, with our rookie coach and a core that has been together all of 6 some weeks.
Really appreciate the intro. Glad you enjoy the posts. Personally and this is solely based off the eye test and was before cranjis put together his breakdown data points, Vando was visibly trying out there. He was chasing and doing what he could against someone 97% of the guys with his physical would not guard... ever. To me that has a level of built in, doing the best-he-can to it. The team was lethargic, most weren't digging deep for that next gear YOU HAVE TO FIND at this point of the playoffs especially considering the opponent. If Vando is picking up full court, there has to be attention paid to everyone else and communication, especially if Curry is going to be the table setter. The team wasn't engaged defensively, there were so many backcuts and down hill actions where guys were just looking at each other as the ball falls through the net. I can think of 4 right off the top involving DLO. But DLO was at least getting after it offensively to balance those scales a bit. AR is getting caught on screens and Klay is killing him. Klay is all time, but more awareness and anticipation would help on some of those. On the other end, he's tired so he's sloppy. This is all new territory for him. He doesn't have the push or lift, evident on the very first shot. BUT guess what, everyone at this stage is hurt and tired. You find a way or you go home. He's our 3rd most important player. Hopefully he can bounce back in Game 3, maybe the adrenaline of the home crowd will feed him a bit. Cause last night he was not a playable player in a playoff game. Then AD, he did got a lot of the same looks as he brought up in post game. He played the entire second half of game one to secure the win. But if you want to win game 2 and I don't think that was important to most of the team or coaching staff (and that's fine, a split is a win) then you have to overcome. The defensive energy was not there, the effort on the glass was not there. The counter to those shots from Game 1 not falling was not there. Going from talking about him being top 5 in one game to being Waldo in Game 2 shouldn't happen if he wants the respect that the league and his peers are not giving him when it comes time to cast ballots. Drop off is one thing, MIA is another. I'm not upset about the outcome because this was a scheduled loss. But I think you can/ should play in a scheduled loss and still build towards good/ better habits that you can carry over. That didn't happen.
This is the ebb and flow of the playoffs. We weren’t going to sweep the defending champs, and it should be expected we take a bad loss in game 2 on their home court after taking game 1. The playoffs is all about adjustments. We will make some go home and be fine. Im confident we’ll win game 3 to maintain HCA.
Feed off the home crowd which has carried us in wins against Memphis though Golden State has the firepower to cool them off.
^If we have an opportunity for a close out in Game 6, Nicholson should be there. Or in Games 3 and 4 for support.
KCP is such a great playoff roleplayer. Plays tough defense, chases, hit the open 3, unselfish. Lakers would be title favorites with him. Hoping Handy is Workin with Max to say play like this guy
That Denver-Phoenix game had some pretty eye popping numbers. Jokic with 30/17/17 on 58/50/88 and still not quite enough...since Book & KD got 47 & 39. If that's what it takes though, it's gonna be Denver in 5.
Booker was unreal. But thought Jokic was bad in the 4th: he hung Murray out to dry like 4 times passing up wide open 3's and then putting Murray in a position where he had to over dribble to create a worse shot then Jokic had. Funny as hell as Jock Landale took all of Ayton's minutes: freaking Jock Landale!
Redick was asking how long Williams was going to keep Ayton in the game. LOL! He has fallen off. Only a year (?) ago, seemed like Ayton was eating The Other L.A. Team.
