Denver Nuggets falling apart in case you want to tune in
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:24 PM ^
Jinx?
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:26 PM ^
If my post stops the Lakers from winning, good! :)
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:38 PM ^
It worked!
September 23rd, 2020 at 9:05 AM ^
Counting on you to create a thread for each of the Lakers games from here on out then.
September 23rd, 2020 at 10:33 AM ^
They hadn't won a game this series until I made a post about it. That's just science.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:59 PM ^
Called it! Never fails.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:29 PM ^
Nuggies versus Lakes
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:33 PM ^
Getting weird in a snuggie with a nuggie.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:29 PM ^
Watching - the NBA and refs are going to make sure the Lakers get to the finals. Has anyone started listening to the whistleblower podcast about Tim Donaghy? It is fascinating stuff, and not illogical or shocking given how much ? is involved.
September 23rd, 2020 at 6:59 AM ^
What, a conspiracy theory about ref's helping to determine the winner of a sports event? I bet it's very fascinating and what an original theory. Who would have ever thought something could be possible?
September 23rd, 2020 at 8:34 AM ^
The purported depth and pervasiveness as revealed on the podcast is extremely interesting to me. Perhaps you would find it unimaginative and drab - but in the words of Ben Harper: ‘before you knock it, try to first’
September 23rd, 2020 at 9:35 AM ^
I don't find it unimaginative, but I do find it drab. It's the same for every sport. Refs are on the take and no game is played without the outcome predetermined. It kind of reminds me of the Moon landing conspiracy theory. For there to be a podcast talking about it, I would think to keep it going would be a little preposterous. Just imagine how many people have to keep a secret for this to be so prevalent, yet it continues to happen. Let me guess, the guy that got busted for betting on games, Tim Donaghy is the protagonist? Don't get me wrong, Refs make bad calls, horribly bad calls at times, but I think it's just human nature and personal feelings more than "game fixing".
September 23rd, 2020 at 10:23 AM ^
You don't seem very familiar with the Tim Donaghy story.
September 23rd, 2020 at 12:41 PM ^
Exactly. He went to federal prison. The NBA fixing scandal was a pretty big story for a few years.
I don't know why it's so far-fetched to think that game-rigging could happen in the NBA: there's millions of dollars riding on those games every night - whether it be series' TV ratings to gambling winnings. And basketball seems like a pretty easy game to fix: a few calls here and there can alter the outcome between two evenly matched teams. Exhibit A: Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The Lakers shot 27 foul shots in the 4th quarter. The Kings shot zero. I bet you can guess who won. And that is one of the series Donaghy said was fixed. I believe it.
September 23rd, 2020 at 12:05 PM ^
All the articles that came out about NBA refs fixing things didn't surprise me one bit. Back in the 90s I played on a men's softball team with a guy who worked in sports marketing. He had an uncannily high winning percentage on NBA betting. After a game one night we all got a little sloppy in the bar and he revealed his "edge". WHat he said was there were a significant number of NBA refs on the take to fix outcomes of games. But, not the winners and losers. They were fixing the over/under. If the directive was to have a under result htye would swallow their whistles, usually it was to take the game "over" which meant lots of fouls (e.g. points with no clock run, and even less defense than normal). Call it a conspiracy theory if you want, all I know is that guy was winning way more than he should have.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:34 PM ^
Nuggets looking pretty safe now after Murray hits 2 huge 3s and gets a nice assist in the last minute or so.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:38 PM ^
Title did not age well! They closed quite well.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:43 PM ^
Dwight fumbling it out of bounds, An extra pass negating a 3 on 1 break. Painful to watch. The Lakers gave this one right back when they had it in their grasp. Seems like Barkley's exactly right about them. Can you imagine the Pistons or Bulls dynasties doing such things in the conference finals?
September 23rd, 2020 at 1:32 AM ^
I still can’t be,I’ve they signed Dwight on purpose. He will never come through in the clutch. His ceiling is Anthony David, effectively, but his floor is red center ballhog who can’t shoot.
September 23rd, 2020 at 8:18 AM ^
I guess his "Superman" days are long over.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:58 PM ^
This aged well
September 23rd, 2020 at 12:07 AM ^
Wow you really called it!!! Their uniforms fell apart at the seams!
September 23rd, 2020 at 7:21 AM ^
Could the Nuggets win the series? I mean, they could but will they? It's be pretty remarkable.
September 23rd, 2020 at 7:29 AM ^
I wish I had a ten for every time somebody has posted a thread about an ongoing game which finishes exactly the opposite of the way the OP predicts or wishes.
September 23rd, 2020 at 10:34 AM ^
Except that doesn't describe my post at all?
September 23rd, 2020 at 7:35 AM ^
Jamal Murrary is a beast
September 23rd, 2020 at 9:25 AM ^
The Lakers basically screwed around for 36 minutes last night. Only played hard the first 3 minutes of the third quarter and during a 9 minute stretch in the 4th. When they decide to ramp up the defense, there's basically nothing the Nuggets can do to combat it. Kudos to Malone for having his team play at a faster pace early on. I suspect Vogel will make a change in the starting lineup tomorrow with either Morris or Dwight replacing McGee (Howard in particular has given Jokic problems).
As I said a few weeks back, these three things have to occur for the Lakers to lose any given game because their paint advantage is so decided:
1) Lakers shoot less than 30% from 3
2) Opponent shoots around 40% from 3
3) Lakers have to miss layups and/or turn the ball over at a high rate
Last night Lakers shot 23% from distance, Nuggets shot 38% from distance and the Lakers had 16 TOs
And yet it was still a 3 point game late in the 4th qtr, with Grant going for 26 points. Should be an interesting game tomorrow night.
September 23rd, 2020 at 9:53 AM ^
Your "3 factors" aren't exactly impressive predictors. Last night 2 of the 3 were basically at season averages. Lakers average over 15 TOs per game and the Nuggets average 36.4% from 3. 2 out of 3 of your factors should happen on an average night which meaning you expect the Lakers to lose. That doesn't even mention that the Nuggets who average fewer TOs than the Lakers had 20 TOs in this game.
September 23rd, 2020 at 10:14 AM ^
Really wasn't meant to be "impressive". In essence I'm conveying that an opponent has to double up the Lakers from distance with the Lakers also sloppy in order to beat them on any given night..............which is extremely hard.
The stat that really matters IMO is points in the paint. Lakers average 50 pts in the paint per game in the playoffs while only giving up 39. Nuggets give up 45.5 while averaging 38 themselves. Basically I'm banking on the Lakers dunks/layups + rim protection as opposed to the Nuggets staying hot from distance (didn't shoot over 35% in game 1 or 2) because jumpshooting by nature, is high variance.
Regular season stats don't really mean all that much when talking high-stakes NBA playoff games IMO. The NBA playoffs are very matchup dependent (IE attack the weakest link on very possession), Effort level is increased, officiating is a bit different and superstars are engaged for longer stretches in any given game.
September 23rd, 2020 at 11:07 AM ^
I'm not trying to give you a hard time or be critical. I don't really disagree with anything else you've said. i just thought it was kind of funny the stats you used in the 3 factors. I find the Nuggets fascinating. They can do a little bit of everything and can space the floor really well. i think that spacing and speed really impacted AD last night. His stat line looks pretty good but I think he was exhausted and 2 rebounds, 0 blocks is not great. He felt like a non-factor for a lot of the game. I've been extremely impressed with Malone and the Nuggets ability to adjust so far in these playoffs so i'm really excited to see what happens.
It probably wouldn't get great ratings but to me, a Heat/Nuggets final would be fantastic.
Anyway, I didn't mean any offense and I appreciate your contributions here.
September 23rd, 2020 at 11:41 AM ^
I didn't take it that way at all..........I love to engage in thoughtful hoops talk, particularly regarding the NBA, which is far more fun to watch in relation to college and entertainment for me (for the most part, I have to watch with a scouting eye to a certain extent in order to track trends).
I probably should've set forth my factors with a bit more clarity.........factor 3 is really two factors (Lakers TOs and Lakers missing layups/dunks)
So in essence a team needs to hit 3s at 40%, Lakers have to hover around 20%, Lakers have to be sloppy and Lakers have to miss layups/dunks. Just seems like a tall task.
Let's be honest, a lot of small market fans are rooting for Denver because of the underdog narrative + the fact the Lakers are basically the greatest basketball franchise in history. The Nuggets are a very good offensive team, but defensively they have some flaws that may prove to be fatal. Jokic is an elite offensive player, but defensively he's going to be hunted every game. For that reason I'm assuming a lot of Michigan fans prefer Denver based on some of the parallels to Michigan stylistically (the Beilein era), and the college game in general (more semi-constested jumpers, less iso/superstar play).
Spacing hasn't really been an issue for the Lakers because their approach to the Murray/Jokic PNR has been to switch (although they did go to drop and hard hedge with Howard yesterday). The bigger issue for the Lakers last night were unforced TOs, and silly fouls early in quarters that allowed Grant to shoot 12FTs on his way to 26 points.
I'm curious to see the chess match between Malone/Vogel tomorrow. I think Vogel goes with Howard or Morris in place of McGee and more Caruso. Howard has stifled Jokic to a certain extent, but he's also a foul waiting to happen.
September 23rd, 2020 at 1:26 PM ^
Jokic is average to above average defensively and always has been, and the analytics show it. While not a shot blocker or extremely switchable guy, he has elite instincts(positioning is always very good),is string as hell, is an elite defensive rebounder and has extremely quick hands. Yes he was hurt by Utah, spread pick n roll teams are far and away cause him the most issues. Other than the first few games of the Utah series, defense has not been the nuggets issue.
September 23rd, 2020 at 1:59 PM ^
I’m not an analytics guy at all for many reasons, most of which is that its essentially impossible to distinguish poor individual D from poor team D . That said, it doesn’t take much to see Jokic is a sub-par defender. He’s not a good individual defender, not switchable in any sense, doesn’t provide rim protection and is hunted on defense frequently. All that in tandem with a poor defensive team in the playoffs screams sub-par defender IMO.
September 23rd, 2020 at 2:12 PM ^
Nuggets are not a poor defensive team, they are an average to above average denfensive one. All stats say it, hell in the last 4 game sevens they have played they have held opponents to 78,89, 86 and 100 and other than the spurs they were all rockstar offensive teams(Portland, Utah, and LAC). Bad defensive teams don't do that.
September 23rd, 2020 at 2:31 PM ^
The Nuggets are 11 out of 16 in terms of team defensive rating in the playoffs, 12 of 16 in opponent FG%, 10 of 16 in opponent 3%, 13 of 16 in terms of DREB%, 14 of 16 in opponent points in the paint and have given up more than 120 points in SIX games. That does not scream average/above average IMO.
All subjective though and it may fit your standard of average/above average depending on your preferred context. Denver is a very good team, but not so much on the defensive end in my opinion.
September 23rd, 2020 at 11:47 AM ^
Lmfao the refs were the ones falling apart, did you watch? Fuck the Lakers
September 23rd, 2020 at 3:53 PM ^
I'm just glad Miami is hanging in the playoffs and that Robinson is continuing to make an impact. Since the Pistons aren't in I'm focusing my attention on the Wolverine players in the NBA as I normally do when my pro teams aren't in playoffs in every sport