How Do You Feel About Potential Matchup W/Nets?

For the Nets you need a completely healthy AD who was playing like a Finals MVP from last year. Figure the Nets will go some version of small ball 5 out lineup with Durant, Harden, Kyrie, Harris, Brown/Green. The lakers will counter with AD/Lebron/Kuzma and my guess just rotate the guards constantly to keep them fresh on defense and force the Nets to deal with the dribble penetration/multiple ballhandler created by Lebron/DS/THT.

In the closing lineup it will be close as I think the Nets are more talented but AD is again the puzzle piece as physically in the 5 out lineup he's a nightmare to handle for small ball teams. In terms of other lineups again very close, the Lakers bench if healthy will be very good with both depth and versatility while the Nets will probably always have 2 out of 3 big three in that lineup. Nets have a bunch of dudes who are more limited then the Lakers outside of the big 3 while the Lakers have just so many guys now who can play defense and be a threat on offense

Honestly probably a tight 7 game series if everyone is healthy. If any of the big 5 between the teams isn't 100%, it could go bad for them quickly. If healthy I'd probably go Lakers in 7 because AD is the one guy I don't see the Nets have an obvious counter for and I really liked what the Lakers were doing before Lebron went down. Lots of ballhandlers going downhill for 48 minutes is going to put a lot of pressure on an unproven Nets defense

 

Nets advantages will be their shooting. No team will beat the Nets if they are shooting guns blazing. Lakers gotta try and deny the ball from Kyrie, Harden, and KD and force the role players to beat them. I would rather Blake, LaMarcus, or other role players take up the possession and force a shot than Kyrie, Harden, or Durant getting comfortable and draining buckets.

Lakers will need to dominate the post and play dirty. Prevent the Nets from getting second chance opportunities and punish their frontcourt by getting them into foul trouble. No one on that team can stop AD or Bron from attacking the paint so the Lakers will have to beat them down there. Play dirty and tough on the Nets... foul them hard and make it nasty. They have a ton of vulnerable players who start playing poorly when you play them hard.

It's going to be a tough series. A lot of it will come down to health. Thankfully, the Nets aren't a really good defensive team but their offense more than makes up for it. I like the Lakers chances...

 

I have a hard time taking the Clippers seriously considering they seem to always collapse in the playoffs.

 

Clippers seem weaker than last season as well, particularly their 2nd unit. They still can beat us if we're not at our best though.

 

Clippers will fold like wet paper when it matters.

 

I hope they'll face DEN before us

 

1. Lebron and AD would have to be at their absolute best and in relentless attack mode which is a big IF at this point ( best way to defend the BIG3 is to attack it on the defensive end imo) ... same for KD but they have more weapons


2. We can't make 3's to save our life , even with our potential lockdown defense , we'll have to be much better to keep up with them ( and probably better than the 12 3's on 35% we did in the 2020 playoffs). The Brick bros will have to become the Splash bros for this series .


3. Joe Harris make them unstoppable . I guess we can hope they'll miss shots/rely too much on outside shots.

Overall it could be a epic Finals but the stupid and dangerous schedule of this season will probably have the last word

 

LeBron and AD are always at their best whenever they’re healthy so I do not see how that’s a big if no more then assuming KD with be healthy for the Nets and that Griffin and Aldridge will be able to contribute.

 

griffin and aldridge don't concern me at all. the more the ball is out of kyrie, harden, and KD's hands the better

what concerns me the most is their 3 pt shooting

 

The modern nba is such garbage. Whoever is hotter from 3 usually wins regardless of scheme, matchups, defense, etc. it’s a glorified 3pt shooting contest. Get off my lawn!

 

LMA and Griffin are worse than KG and Pierce when they arrived to the Nets.

I regard KD's and AD's injury concerns equal, if not more concerning for KD who already tore his Achilles.

Kyrie is not going to lead the charge, so, there is a likely possibility in which they're relying on James Harden to carry them to a title.

So yes, I like our chances.

 

Potential matchup with Brooklyn? We're a long shot to make the playoffs.

 

yep should be more worried bout playoff situation 1st

 

If we're healthy, I'm not worried. Nets aren't capable of playing D. They haven't shown they can actually get healthy and be on the court together. They're going to have zero chemistry or rhythm.

Can they healthily make it through the Heat, 6ers, or Bucks? Any of those will be tough and physical. We saw with last year's Clippers what happens when your team doesn't have chemistry.

Also, we figured out how to play a Harden team last year. I thought our schemes against him worked pretty well. Bron played with Kyrie, I think he can help Frank and staff come up with a good plan for Dennis to use against Kyrie.

Who's going to guard Bron? Who's going to guard AD? Who's going to guard Drummond (DeAndre isn't going to be getting 30 minutes a night)?

Yes, they have some good shooters. If we lose because of Joe Harris, we don't deserve to be there in the first place.

 

whose handling KD?

 

Will it hold up?

 

Based off what? The Lakers have been playing pretty well overall recently I don’t see any of the teams behind them overtaking them based off what we’ve seen this season.

The Lakers are losing to the Clippers right now and lost to the Bucks the other day, but let’s be realistic you’d expect them to lose in those situations against teams that are considered elite teams without their top players.

 

Based off the fact we're in the extremely competitive western conference missing our 2 best players for the foreseeable future. We're not making the playoffs barring a miracle. I hope I'm wrong.

 

I think the problem is that we just don't even know when AD is coming back - and kind of the same deal with LeBron at a minimum he's out until end of April.

And we gotta play all these important a** tough a** games without them both - that's the problem

We need to steal a few of these tough games..I know we got it in us