Good series preview It's long, I'm just going to pull and post some of the data points I found interesting Pace Our current group causes GS to have 3 of their 15 least efficient offensive performances this season. Their starting 5 is really good together There's questioning in this piece whether or not they can succeed with that when the Lakers dare Looney and Green to shoot the ball from distance. Last time GS dared AD to shoot, he destroyed them We have to hit 3s
Game 1 is big for us. Short turnaround for them, won't have much time to forget all schemes that were adjusted for the Kings and learn ours. It's on us to set the tone and a steal a game in Oakland. AD is key to beat them. Looney has been owning the glass, we need size to give him a hard night
Athletic asked a coach, a GM, and a scout to make their predictions for the series. Here's the results...
Yeah, I think that's fair. Solid analysis. If we can beat them, we can legit contend for the championship. That would mean we can go against youth, defense & athleticism, as well as experience & shooting. Should be really entertaining to watch.
With a hobbled Embiid, no chance. Plus Philly is at a huge disadvantage in coaching Biggest fraud on the sideline in the NBA
We just destroyed Memphis by 40 points. The Laker haters are nervous...it's going to be all Steph, Championship experience, blah,blah,blah. We are going to kick their a** too!! I'm not taking it for granted that Steph,Draymond and Klay, are going to play that much better than Ja, Jackson Jr and Bane. Lakers in 6...maybe 5!!!
Hopefully he's tired from carrying that game. I think we can steal game one, if we do that and take care of the first two at Crypto, series is ours. If we split the first 4, i don't think we win. And anything less than that is really bad news. Game one is almost a must win against this team.
Ha Ha! I just love how Austin is still so underrated. These guys obviously haven’t watch him play much. He has EARNED his starting spot on an NBA team. It didn’t happen by accident. Nobody can match Curry’s shooting, but Klay has definitely taken a few steps back since returning.
embiid is out for game 1 and he's probably not going to be anywhere near 100% if he plays. C Bags are basically walking to the finals
Odd that the impression is the Lakers are old. It's actually only Lebron who is old. The lakers core 7 guys outside him are all 30 and younger while Steph/Draymond/Kaly are 32 and older. I think the Lakers would happily make Steph works this much knowing that they don't have guys like Barnes shrinking under the pressure. All these young guys being tested by a physical Memphis team maybe a blessing in disguise. The back to backs may actually hurt GS more as Lakers have had rest and James will load manage his way to make sure he's got enough for the critical games
They need to put a body on Looney. We all knew Kings was going to fold gm7. They dont have the experience. Sabonis much like his dad crumbled during the playoffs.
C Bags lose game 1. I don’t find them impressive at all, really sloppy on offense, not getting a lot outside their main guys and Brogdon.