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i know you do; there's just a lot of schroder pining going on, and it's sort of misplaced anger, imo. that version of dennis can't play here. he can play on the german national team and on bad nba teams.

 

I bet a million dollars that DLo has a similar game this year after he gets traded

 

lol, perhaps with the nets, after being traded for dennis, who then struggles to find his footing in a ball and player movement based offense with two superstars who need a lot of shots/touches...

 

LOL ….. guilty as charged your Honor

 

Get 2 of them and Connect4 will be best 3 points shooter in the NBA history by a mile.
And they are still available for trade

 

i have two concerns with that stat: one is the variability is really low, so this might be just a lot of noise. second, 4 of the top 6 play in the same mediocre offense. this makes me wonder if maybe shots are more open by design of the opposing defense?

 

sam amick's suggesting that embiid might get shut down for an extended period. if that's true, do the sixers tank? their pick is top-6 protected, so if they finish with like THE worst record, it's safe. but that's a dangerous game when the wizards, jazz, raptors, and hornets seem to have very strong interest in finishing at the very bottom. you'd have to out-lose all of them.

do you try to move off PG just after signing him? move embiid himself? would anyone take him? i'm probably jumping the gun, but they're 3-13, and if embiid misses more extended time, best hope is lower portion of the play-in. not even the east is weak enough to spot teams ten games with 40 to play or whatever.

 

Yea. When I start pondering, "Why is that?" I quickly feel pixillated.
Is it mostly "mental"? Can "matchups" be that profoundly consequential?
Even if it "is" mostly a mental block the Lakers have regarding DEN, is JJ's denigration of the idea that it is mental a helpful thing?

I was out riding a bicycle in the cold weather today. Good to get out after a week of record rains where I live. That activity allows certain states of mind; the brain's default mode network to activate: your mind wanders, you daydream, etc. I wasn't thinking about the Lakers at all, but suddenly: yea, there's been talk among Laker players about specific problems with DEN. That makes it conscious to some degree for certain players. What to do? Maybe this, maybe that. Then, as the game goes on, you try this and that...and they still score on you. You still can't attack the rim. Your shots don't go down. One or two players start to feel defeated. All it takes is one guy to let down a bit, and...he becomes a weaker link. That puts pressure on other guys, and they fail. Very quickly, the feeling of futility takes over the team, and you get that 3rd Q, 37-15 Nuggets.

Or that egregious 50-17 run we let them get on. Fer crissakes!

So, it's matchups and a mental block?

It's all just speculation; I don't know.

 

i think we're both psychologists, right? people downplay the mind in sports, imo. it's a full-on mental block with denver. yes, they're a tough matchup on the court, but not tougher than a handful of other teams we manage to beat here and there.

malone waged some serious psychological warfare in that first series we lost to them. it was something of a gamble, imo--as it could have backfired spectacularly had they lost even one of those early games (and it came very close). instead, it planted the seed of total dominance until the teams are differently composed. now it just grows.

it's weird. interesting to me but also a bummer as a fan of the team who is thoroughly owned. and make no mistake: big bad bron is definitely owned here, too. the press will let him off the hook, but he sees the writing and quits instead of fighting. everybody else sees that and follows suit. 50-17.

 

you know I love you