Official Whine, Moan, Complain Thread 19/20-CLOSED "WE CHAMPS!"

Back in those days I was solidly in the Williams camp. Paul can cross you up and get by you... Williams would cross you up, stop, and have you bounce off of him. PnR with Booz or Okur was nice. People were comparing Paul to Isiah Thomas (the real one) back then, but I felt like Deron was doing Luka-esque things in those days. But not spamming it like Harden.

I think he had a chronic knee injury that he never fully recovered from. And it happened right after or before Deron basically caused Jerry Sloan to retire midseason. I bet his falling out with Sloan affected him too, but I don't know the back story. Traded to the Nets and he was never the same.

 

Wow. What a stretch coming up!!

Aside from Boston Sunday,

76ers
Bucks
Clippers
Rockets
Nuggets
Jazz (b2b)
Jazz

Yikes.

 

Lets see where this team is. Could very well be a season defining stretch.

 

edit: nvm. i initially read that as a series of games in a row. there are others sprinkled in.

the philly/mil/clips and the home and home with utah should be very tough. never like playing the same team really close together in time. we actually have that (not b2b, but within a week) with memphis and NO soon, too. feel like you always drop one of those, so you'd rather it be against better competition.

 

The last title winning season we lost to

Dallas by 14 but then beat them by 35 the next game then lost by 5 (Their record was 55-27, they won the title the next year, eliminated by the Spurs)
Lost to Denver by 26 but then beat them by 6, then lost by 2 (Their record was 53-29... they were eliminated by the Jazz)
We beat Houston by 1, lost to them by 10, beat them by 9, beat them by 8 (Their record was 42-40)
We beat Utah by 24, lost to them by 8, beat them by 15, beat them by 14 (Their record was 53-28, we swept them in the second round)
Lost the Christmas game to Cleveland by 15, lost by 6 (Their record was 61-21, but they were eliminated by Boston)
We beat Phoenix by 19, beat them by 20, lost to them by 15, then beat them by 6 (Their record was 54-28, we beat them 4-2 in the WCF)
We beat the Clippers by 7, lost to them by 11, beat them by 40, lost to them by 16 on the last game (Their record was 29-53)
Lost to Portland by 9, beat them by 17, lost to them by 3 (Their record was 50-32, they were eliminated by the Suns)
Lost to the Spurs by 20, beat them by 12, beat them by 9, lost by 19 (Their record was 50-32, they were eliminated by the Suns)
Lost to the Raptors by 1, beat them by 2 (Their record was 40-42)
We beat Memphis by 16, lost to them by 2, beat them by 1 (Their record was 40-42)
We beat the C Bags by 1, lost to them by 1 (Their record was 50-32, We beat them 4-3 to win the title)
We beat Miami by 1, lost to them by 3 (Their record was 48-34, they were eliminated by the C Bags)
We beat Charlotte by 2, lost to them by 15 (Their record was 44-38, they were eliminated by the Magic)
We beat Orlando by 6, lost to them by 2 (Their record was 59-23, they were eliminated in the ECF by the C Bags)
We beat OKC by 3, beat them by 16, beat them by 3, lost by 16 (Their record was 50-32, we eliminated them in the first round)
We beat New Orleans by 11, lost to them by 8 (Their record was 37-45)
We beat Atlanta by 8, lost to them by 17 (Their record was 53-29, they were eliminated by the Magic)

My takeaway from the season is that we were only swept by LBJ, but they were eliminated by the Celts

We lost the season series to Dallas but at least we won one game by a huge margin... maybe lucky they were eliminated by the Spurs considering what happened next season.
Maybe we were lucky Denver and Portland eliminated by the Jazz

This season might be the same... we match up better against some good teams than others... a lot will depend on who we get.

We were 57-25... but we should have a significantly better record this season. So why was I not as worried in 2010 as I am in 2020?

I think it was because we beat all but one team at least once... and I still thought we were better than LBJ's Cavs that season.

In retrospect maybe the Spurs, Blazers or Nuggets would have given us more trouble but we did beat them at some point during the regular season.

I think the next three games are the important ones. Just so we can beat them all at least once

The rest of the games are more or less window dressing. If we went 3 and 4 and beat the Sixers, Bucks, Clippers... I don't think it matters much if we lost the other four.

ETA: I just read that these games aren't consecutive... but the principle still stands for me.

Must beat the Sixers, Bucks, Clippers... don't care as much about the other games. We know we can beat bad or mediocre teams.

 

like the research, but my conclusion is: you can win the title regardless of whether you win the big regular season matchups. got blown out several times by other contenders. won title.

also worth noting: every other top team's struggles against the other top teams and the fact that we've won in denver (twice), at houston, at utah, and at miami.

i'd like to see us get one against the clips, bucks, sixers, and C Bags, but i won't be panicking if we don't. the sixers and C Bags games interest me the most because of their home/road splits. they're very good at home, where they both throttled us. let's see what happens in la. if they both spank us again, i might be a bit worried about them.

but we played close games with the clips and milwaukee. i really don't think we need to prove we can play with them.

 

I wanted a larger sampling of seasons... but obviously that would be very time consuming to go through each year and search out common threads.

I just remember feeling like we were in control that year. Knowing Boston would be tough but still feeling confident.

We can beat the Clippers and the Bucks but it seems like we will need some luck in a 7 game series. It doesn't feel like we'd be the favorites.

In retrospect we did have matchup luck that year... so hopefully we will get it this season. Playing Portland, Houston, Clippers, Bucks would seem like a difficult road to the title.

 

right. we got whipped several times by other top teams throughout the season, then got some favorable matchups and played our best ball late. that's what you hope for here. i think we were bigger favorites that year (and justifiably so), but we're not that far off. vegas still has on top, right? i don't agree, but they didn't get rich being fools.

edit:

https://www.sportsbettingdime.com/nba/championship-odds/

yeah. again, vegas doesn't know everything. but they think a lot differently than the majority of this forum.

 

Vegas has to factor the huge amount of West Coast fans rooting for the Lakers as well as now the sentimental favoritism for Kobe's team

I agree the bookmakers know what they are doing but I'm sure that bias plays a role as well in computing the odds

http://www.hightechgambling.com/sport-betting/profiting-bias-gambling

 

Reggie Jackson to clippers. Does anyone really think they don’t take it all? Unbiased opinion, they’re the deepest and most talented team. Sucks man..

 

Huh. Why them? Much like their other signing—I’m not sure it changes much other than depth. Is Jackson better than Shamet right now? Serious question.

 

I’ll say this, I’d rather Jackson be handling the ball over Kawhi, PG, or Lou Will. I’d also rather face Jackson on defense and give him an open 3 instead of Shamet. I’m not sure the stats, but I don’t recall watching Jackson play well off the ball in recent years.

So like you said, it’s nice depth and helps in case someone gets hurt, but otherwise he just takes the ball out of their stars’ hands.

 

Deep is nice, but as long as we have LeBron and AD, we can beat anyone at any time, especially in close games. We have great shot-blocking centers that know when to score. We have wings that can play some semblance of defense, but especially play good help defense when everyone is reading the floor. We have some good shooters. And I'd say we are a pretty deep team as well. I love our chances.

I think our biggest weaknesses are turnovers and free throws. As long as we don't make so many lazy passes, and hopefully hit our free throws down the stretch, I think we can win it all for sure. We've got to remain tough and confident through and through.

 

From the Clippers perspective, the only real value (outside of injury insurance) would be to keep him off the Lakers. Not really sure how he's going to get minutes with Beverly and Williams plus Shamet.

Not really sure why Jackson went there except for friendship reasons. Minutes are going to be hard to come by versus other contenders like the Lakers and it would seem from a business standpoint that you'd want to showcase your skills for a larger contract offer

 

This is the point. It’s a defensive play. Get used to it by the way, every year from the same two teams that will always interfere with whatever the Lakers are trying to do.

I think the question to be asked is why are the players choosing those other teams instead of the Lakers? There’s either a serious perceived flaw with the organization by players, or there’s something odd going on considering the “coincidence” of having free spending billionaire leaders.

 

Reggie is "close" with Paul George, right? I thought the thought process was that Jackson (if bought out) was always going to sign with the Clips. .

 

Or maybe we weren't interested?

I mean just because the media says it (possibly trying to create some sort of rivalry) doesn't mean the Lakers we actually interested, no?

 

The only reason I can think of that would make a player not want to come here would be the perception that there is a hierarchy of LBJ and AD, their friends and then the minions. There's no proof of this, but that would discourage some.

If I were the Lakers I'd pay private investigators to stand around banks in the Caymans to see if known associates of Clippers were picking up money though