In NBA history teams down 0-3 in a 7 game series are 0-149 for the series, and something like 92 of the 149 have been swept. ...So what I'm saying is: there is a chance. To be the first. 4-game winning streak over DEN? As painful as it's been DEN hasn't made us look like fools. The Heat have made the C-Bags look awful. And it takes the edge off for this Laker fan. Just speaking of my own experience: I loved seeing the Bags get clobbered! They're demoralized. Gosh whatta shame.
I feel like the C Bags are in a much more precarious position than we are. We turned ourselves around with big roster changes at the trade deadline with much better fitting players. The Lakers stunned everyone including myself by defeating the number 2 Grizz and the defending champs GS. I didn't see us winning either of those series before they happened. C Bags meanwhile are on the verge of getting swept when they had home court advantage and were the betting favorite for the championship nearly all year long. Now they have a head coach who isn't very good, and a disgruntled Jaylen Brown who I doubt will end up back with them. Meanwhile Al Horford is ancient. They seem to be in a heap of trouble. We exceeded any kind of realistic expectation and then some. They felt WAY short. Our future is looking bright. Not so sure about theirs.
Yeah I guess you’re right… no reason to get worried about the Heat roleplayers since they won’t be able to stop OUR weapons! Once we come back from this 0-3 deficit to the Nuggets real quick, the Finals matchup will be cake!
Lebron is old , Tatum is entering his prime .. We'll see if he can improve ( he did not this season imo) Both organizations currently have one major weakness : C's really can't attract big time free agents ( to replace Brown if needed) whereas we lack continuity and we could do something really stupid such as trading for Kyrie . Key for us is to stop chasing big names at all cost and keep developing Austin , Rui and Lonnie ect
Here's the thing: we're going to lose the series. No one comes back from 0-3. With that said, I'd really prefer not to get swept (although the final result is esentially the same). Our games have been close for the most part and it is obvious that we can compete, it's just that Denver is a better team with more time spent together - and therefore better chemistry - and their coaching is more solid too. Being able to win 1, or somehow, magically 2 (won't happen) would do wonders for the mental well-being of our team, epecially the young guys. We're onto something here, the role players are young and hungry, chemistry isn't bad, wing size is finally there. We just need to finally address the shooting, even it's only one consistent player, and backup big is a qustion mark, because Bamba gets an incomplete. But we will be back next season for sure, as long as AD is relatively healthy.
I’ve noticed sirron kinder / gentler toward the end here Kareem, maybe just feeling everyone’s pain and think he will find the right words to let Helljumper down easy. @ HJ
...or I refused to watch a crap product and once the team was worth watching, I tuned in. Of course of can appreciate the optimism, and him having fun with it. Love to be the first team to come back from down 0-3. Always a first time for everything.
you really think they're better? i actually don't. and the guy you leave is adebayo, just like we did before. he hasn't improved his shot. they're a weaker gs on offense, and we took them out. i'm bummed our stars didn't come out for game 2. think we'd be having another parade if they did.
i think the C Bags are in better position than us, short-term. i agree that horford is important to them, and that replacing him will be difficult (and necessary, given his age), but their two stars are young, and one of ours is old and the other gets hurt a lot. now, do i think we can re-load faster than they can? oh yes. people still prefer to play here, and we'll continue to have that advantage, i think. so, yeah, i agree with wcsoldier on that and this: i could still see us taking one, but this is the most likely outcome, and i don't blame them. you know the season's over, let's just get on with it.
Jamal Murray is avg 35 pts a game in this series! Then next season there's KD, Booker, Steph, Luka, Kyrie, Dame, Ja, Fox, Georgia, Kawhi. Those teams are going to look to improve their squads. We aren't set roster wise IMO. We have to look to upgrade in some areas too. Vanderbilt is a great, and very versatile 20 min a game defensive player. We are going to need more than just him to play with AD.
i mean, you always look to upgrade. but we only need marginal tinkering. another overhaul would undo most of the progress, imo. we need to bring back most or all of our top 8 guys and hope for internal improvement from rui, vando, and russell.
That's not enough, D'Angelo has to go, we need more D, not O. It worked out this season until now. The other teams won't just be running it back as is, we shouldn't either. I think Rui and Austin can give us more punch on offense. We need more than Jarred on D, and Dennis ain't it, neither is Lebron. I'm talking Russell and Beasley for 2 other guys, that's not a big overhaul.
We'll no doubt get it from Rui, he's the new addition I'm most encouraged about. We saw clear improvement in the short duration he was here. There was a time we were talking about him at $9m a year and I think he's nearly doubled that (hoping for $16m though) as he grew throughout the season/post-season. Give him an off-season with Handy and I think he explodes as our starting SF (if we run it back). Vando should improve, but I think he's largely who he is. I think improvements we see from him will be more on the coaching staff for scheming defenses around his strengths and then his grasping of these game plans. Only improvement I expect to see from him is on the corner 3. DLO is where I'm concerned. This is his prime AND his contract year. He squandered the biggest opportunity of his career. I don't expect any improvement at this stage in his career, his issues are in his head. I'm not kicking him out, but I'm definitely exploring what replacing him could look like. Then weighing the pros/cons.
I do agree that we're checked out. They checked out in Game 3 , 4th quarter. I still have hope for that one win, but we'll see. We don't have to do any drastic changes. PG who will not conpletely shrink in the playoffs and can shoot some. Just better shooting overall and a backup big. Vando should be working hard on his corner 3, Rui and Reaves will do great. Dennis does what he does if we keep him. We'll develop Max, maybe keep Lonnie. There are many good pieces there with clearly defined roles.
