Random Other NBA Teams Discussion

Okay: I'm ALREADY wrong about the Finals. I had OKC in 5. I'm telling y'all: if you want to make bets, maybe have a look at what I'm predicting, and know that that can't possibly be right: Zoyd is always wrong about predictions. (Almost always.) I'm wrong again. It might give you better odds of winning. You're welcome. I hope you all get rich off my piss-poor ability to forecast the NBA.

OKC takes a 5 point lead into the 4th in Indiana; Pacers outscore them 32-19. OKC faced the sort of all feet-movin', hands up, double-team traps, blocking out defense that they've been subjecting the league to all year. A taste of their own meds: really good D by IND in the 4th. OKC is claiming they were guilty of "unforced errors." They should give IND more credit.

Haliburton said in an interview a couple days ago that OKC's D is the best he's ever seen.

Crucial call in the 4th: Bald Mamba gets a steal and goes in for breakaway layup, but Nesmith makes a very hard foul on him, sending him to the line for 2 FTs (he made them both), after it was ruled not a wind-up flagrant. Man, it couldda gone the other way and OKC really needed that call. R-Jeff (who's been really good, I think) disagreed with ex-ref Steve Javie: Javie thought it didn't meet the criteria; R-Jeff thought it did. I thought it did, but what the eff do I know? Nesmith looking like he was tryna hold up Caruso probably saved his bacon there. (He did look like he was grabbing Caruso's crotch from behind: did you catch that? A reach-around on national TV...) Anyway: huge call goes IND's way and I was relieved: couldda changed the game there: down 8, Caruso hit both: down 6 with 2:35 left. But he couldda hit both, then OKC hits a 2 or 3 with ball-outta-bounds/won the challenge: they'd've been down 4 or 3. Not to be...

33 secs later, Chet was wide open for a 3. Or I thought he was wide open when he caught it: Myles blocked Chet's 27 foot 3! Breath-taking block. That wouldda cut IND's lead to 3 with just over 2 mins left. Chet gets the ball back, drives...Myles blocks him at the rim AGAIN! If IND gets the Larry, you look back at plays like those...

Imagine for a moment how high (off the ground) you gotta be to block Chet. Twice. Dude's listed as only 7'1"? He's so beanpole-skinny he looks 7'9" to me, but whatever. Myles be flyin', is what I'm tryna say. Hand/eye...

Two teams can play at that game - swarming, energetic D - and now it's going at least 6. I still have OKC, but Game 3 was huge. IND is up 2-1 and I can see them winning Game 4 and going up 3-1, but only if I squint just right...

...But then again, as I said: How wrong I (usually) am!

Game 2 was predictable. OKC is, as abeer says, a machine. You let your guard down, don't show up with full emotional energy and they steamroll you by 20-30. You show up and play an intense 48 and you have a chance. OKC went to the line a lot in the 4thQ, but that's when they started missing FTs they desperately needed. 'Cuz if they're anything they're YOUNG.

This might go 7?

 

yeah, that's not what i saw. i've seen okc go away from what made them successful starting with the unprompted lineup change. they're basically down to an 8-man rotation after playing 10-11 most of the year. they're not playing hartenstein as much (18 minutes last night), which plays into the pacers' hands, imo. thibs forced them to play their backup centers more--and they did ok, but that's not what carlisle wants to do, imo. he wants those siakam or toppin at center minutes when turner's not out there (just like redick wants those rui/DFS/lebron at center minutes, imo).


also, the broadcast team and some commentators on the internet were marveling about how the pacers don't look tired, but just look at the minutes distribution. okc is playing their key guys more minutes than in the regular season, while indy is sticking closer to what they've done all year. nesmith was flying around in the 4th because he finished with 22 total minutes. now, some of that was foul trouble, but still.

the only pacer that looked tired at the end was ironically haliburton, who missed some shots and uncharacteristically got his pocket picked by the eagle (the most reliable player on okc's roster, laugh/cry gif) on the play zoyd describes above.

yeah, still can't shake that okc will snap into it like they did in the denver series and the greater talent will win out, but imo, their unforced errors are mostly strategic.

anyway, i expected a game like this last night, but with the reverse outcome (okc pulling away in the last few minutes).

watching indy get step up performances from all over the roster at different times has been great. like turner and nesmith both kinda had rough games overall, but in crunch time they were everywhere defensively and each made a crucial bucket.

stray thought--i don't know if holmgren looks scared just because he's so thin and weak, but i feel like he gets nervous in crunch time and thinks too much. and i think he knows it and tries to correct for it, but his heart's not in it. like when he attempted to drive a couple times late, it just felt like he knew he should, but he also knew it likely wouldn't go well. he just sort of gave a half-hearted complaint to the ref on one, but again, he knew he wasn't going to get a ticky tack call on a wild drive at that stage in the game. should have just gotten the ball to guard, but then he'd be accused of wussing out, so i get it...he's just not the star he's billed as yet--i'm not sure if his frame will really allow him to get there, either. love his size, mobility, hoop iq and just desire to play the right way, though.

 

I expect Hartenstein gets more mins in Game 4.

Interesting take on Chet's possible mindset, abeer.

Sorta get the feeling sometimes that any one of OKC's guys could play 38 mins, especially given the days off between games, but then again the Pacers force you to get up and down at a faster...ehhh...pace.

Something about IND this year in the playoffs: they look like all those teams who really weren't the "best" team but who won, because every guy is rising to the occasion and playing their best ball. I've seen it in not only the NBA, but in baseball. Some sorta psycho-chemical bond between the players makes them "better" than they are, right when they need to be playing their best. Ridin' a wave, eyes hungrily on the Larry.

(Now watch them drop 3 straight...)

 

2011 mavs—though there was serious dirk virtuosity that actually dwarfs haliburton, imo. But Carlisle the coach there, too.

told my dad every time I second guess Carlisle I’m wrong lol.

 

Watching Holmgren gets dominated was brutal. He made some really bad plays.

 

yeah, he bounced back after losing them game 1 vs. denver at the ft line, so i'm guessing he'll pull it together here, too. it's just highlighting that he's not really a third star at this point.

 

OKC did to IND what IND has been doing to other teams: not the dramatic comeback, but they clearly won the 4th, 31-17 after the Pacers won the 1st by 1, the 2nd by 2, and the 3rd 4. IND took a 7 point lead into the 4th, looking to go up 3-1, but it fell apart for them in the final 3 mins.

Intense, good game and IND just couldn't convert some looks in crunch and committed some non-smart fouls that really hurt 'em. Mathurin missed 3 of 4 late FTs and OKC machine just wore IND out in the 4th.

OKC very poised in the 4th for a young team who had to come back from being down 10 at one point; they lose and they go into the 3-1 hole. They only hit three 3s all game. However, when it was tight crunchy time, every IND 3 was way short, or even blocked. I thought IND choked a tad, not a lot, in the 4th.

As a fan who values good defensive play perhaps more than anything else, this game didn't disappoint. I want the Pacers to win it, but all in all, I don't have that much emotional skin in the series. Just want the games to be good. Game 2 wasn't all that great, but the other 3 have been championship-caliber play by both teams.

IND has to play the game of their lives in Game 5 now. Can they?

 

man, i thought the pacers had it there in the 4th, and the wheels just fell off. i thought the officials let okc play more physically in the third quarter than they let indy play, which was weird for a home game for indy.

sga pushes off on basically every single movement with the ball. it's really annoying. without that pushoff, he's just not that amazing, imo. and his team doesn't win last night. he committed two very blatant offensive fouls on his way to buckets late, iirc.

whatever, okc's defense was totally insane down the stretch, and indy couldn't get anything going. think this was the series. had indy pulled it out, i thought they'd find a way to get another. this may go 7, but i'd HEAVILY favor okc in a closeout home game.

edit: beyond the SGA bs, it must be weird for nesmith to watch dort play football while nesmith isn't allowed to touch anyone.

also: eagle has been huge for okc all series long. aside from sga, he's the only guy i feel like they've been able to count on as being not rattled and ready to make plays at all times.

 

Someone needs to get to Silver about the SGA thing.

>>>> apparently

 

if kobe had been allowed the arm bar, a) he'd average 50 and b) they league would find a way to suspend you for doing it.

 

Game 5: yea, Hali's hurt, no FGs, but congrats to IND for putting up 109 in a loss against that defense.

This series looks over with Tyrese's bum leg. If IND can muster something and win Game 6, I'd be cool with whatever happens in Game 7. But it looks over after Game 5. OKC looked really good, up by 18, but then IND cuts it to 2 in the 4th Q: is this another of those stories comebacks?

With 8:30 left, Mathurin hits Siakam for a 27 foot 3 to make it 95-93 OKC. This would be one of the great comeback wins, considering everything. One the road. Haliburton ailing and ineffectual.

Less than 3 mins later, OKC is back up by 13. That's a killer.

IND had 9 steals. But OKC had 15. Fifteen steals. 4 by Caruso, 4 by Cason Wallace. All their starters had at least one steal. And they blocked 12 shots.

Jason Williams drops 40, SGA 31. It looks pretty over to me.

 

game 4 was it; i honestly didn't watch this one. indy may pull some homecourt magic in game 6, but i strongly doubt it given haliburton's injury.

too bad; great year for them. but history hasn't typically been kind to the finals runner up.

is our 2009 team the last team to win the ring after losing the previous year's finals? many teams have disasters.

 

Miami and Cleveland did it

 

ah yeah, the lebron teams.

 

This series was fun until game 6. Neither of these teams could compete with any great team that has won a ring in the last 40+ years. There have been a couple of other weak teams, but these teams are barely deserving and frankly, we wasted this year. I actually think if AD was here and not injured, we would have won it all. Still like the trade but it is about the future and was never about this year. Can't believe that almost a half the 3rd quarter went by before the Thunder scored a single point.

 

Genuinely shocked that IND came out so huge - up 30 at one point - and forced a Game 7, those two words so thrilling to just about all fans. OKC couldn't throw a pea in the ocean from long, and thus they perished in Game 6. Their starters were 1-13 from the arc. Good D by both teams though, I thought.

TJ McConnell still looks to me like a guy who'd be the assistant general manager at a Best Buy. But man, he produces. That guy can play.

"Game Seven." I want the Pacers, the Cinderellas here, oddly, considering the other team are all about 19 years old. But I suspect the OKC whiz kidz will pull it out at home. I'm actually fine with either team winning the Larry. Glad the Bags are long out of it.

Perception of time is always strange for me at this time of year: it feels like MIN knocked us out 4 months ago. It feels like that play where Tatum's achilles snapped was 6 weeks ago. Then it will be over. Some city will have a parade, and then it will feel like an eternity before the next NBA regular season games begin again. Maybe that's just me.