Board 8 > NBA Finals Discussion

(+) Yeah! (+)

BOS in 6 over GSW

Warriors in 7

warriors in 5

Hurry up and finish so we can get closer to the draft and free agency

Pistonz need to make an offer to Ayton

Warriors in 6

dilateDChemist posted...

Warriors in 7

Curry Finals MVP!

Celtics in 6

ninkendo posted...

Pistonz need to make an offer to Ayton

back off buddy

Titans > Cowboys

This is going 7 imo

neonreaper posted...

This is going 7 imo

With no game decided by fewer than 10 points

In my heart of hearts i think the celtics are a "better" team but that their mental collapses are fairly likely to lose them 4 games. have a stretch like they did in games 1, 3, and 7 and the warriors will annihilate then just as bad as miami did - maybe with less steaks but better offense

GSW isn't as high-volume as a FT team as miami so i expect these games to be a lot less ugly. the ugliness would be coming from the celtics; could resemble the brooklyn series in terms of the one-sided physicality

not a dig at brooklyn - they won 0 games but had the best point differential vs the celtics, incredibly

Boston matches up well with GS but yeah they kinda drift for 5 minutes every game and when they need to close out a half, it was so bad vs Miami.

Boston has done a great job defensively vs Miami, Milwaukee, and Boston but GSW are an entirely different beast. They have 4 players better than the second option on Miami or Milwaukee (with Middleton out) and like 8 players better than Brooklyn's 3rd option. I'm not convinced that Boston's team defense can stop this kind of coordinated team offense (and also steph curry). And even if they can, they still have to put up more points on Golden State's defense which is no slouch either. I just don't see any pathway to victory here barring injury to one of the warriors' key players a la 2019

I think the Warriors are a slightly better team, but when push comes to shove, their championship pedigree will be the difference. The Celtics play like a team that's never done it before at times because, well, they haven't.

Warriors in 4

Fun fact in the final 3 minutes of games in the postseason Marcus Smart has taken more shots than Tatum or Brown. He is 3 for 20 in those shots including 0 for 8 from 3.

Well he said they need to pass him the ball more and they have

GS and the under tonight

Tatum and Brown look so nervous

Brown looks fucking lost out there

he's getting annihilated defensively but at least getting buckets

Is Peyton Pritchard guarding Steph Curry

Warriors up after the first quarter of game 1?

Series over

curry is handling it a lot - need to hedge a lot more aggressively on picks

well losing the non curry moments ain't gonna help our case

absolutely ridiculous performance by white and horford that theoretically shouldn't be repeatable but the boston role players somehow keep having the game of their life in critical moments this playoffs it seems. legitimately should just never happen again but they just keep doing it. i'm flabbergasted

Warriors lay over and die in the 4th

Celtics make sure to step on the throat

apparently you're allowed to hit 3 pointers at Golden St as opposed to the Mavs strategy

That went much better

that fourth quarter felt like a fever dream, i had no idea what the fuck was going on

Horford is going to win Finals MVP

https://mobile.twitter.com/statmuse/status/1532720670622162945

including losing 7 of his last 8 lmao

Counting the 10 minutes Durant played in that Toronto series as a "with Durant" game is a little unfair

MZero posted...

Counting the 10 minutes Durant played in that Toronto series as a "with Durant" game is a little unfair

I mean did he play with Durant in that game or not

If we're actually being serious about this and not just being celtics fans, 8-11 tbh is still impressive because some of those games were against lebron, and they still got a title without durant out of it anyway. It's not the same as going ofer or something like that. 8 games is a lot of finals games.

Well, people are treating this series as a referendum on Curry's legacy so if he struggles in big moments again and they lose again, it's going to reflect on him poorly

Draymond said they've never lost a series at full strength so I guess that 2016 choke wasn't them at full strength because he got suspended for hitting Lebron in the balls

"Big moments" I've never liked that. The 1st quarter matters just as much as the last one imo. Overall he went for 34 pts on almost 50% shooting. If he puts up that statline every game but people go "oh he sucks" because he only shot the ball 6 times in one quarter of each game, then people are stupid.

Emeraldegg posted...

"Big moments" I've never liked that. The 1st quarter matters just as much as the last one imo. Overall he went for 34 pts on almost 50% shooting. If he puts up that statline every game but people go "oh he sucks" because he only shot the ball 6 times in one quarter of each game, then people are stupid.

I mean technically you're correct but people remember what you do at the end more than at the beginning (unless you have a truly historic performance pre-4th quarter like Kobe's 81 point game). Curry's finals numbers for his career are actually pretty solid. He just doesn't come up with the big moments at the end.

So I guess my question is then, do you actually think that steph is actually susceptible enough to late game pressure that it physically affects his ability to play basketball? Because to me, when someone talks about clutch, they're talking about wilting under pressure, they're saying that the person in question is not mentally strong enough to handle those moments, instead of like...dude just missed a shot, making shots is hard. Esp against like the best defense in the league.

If that's what we're saying, I just can't agree with that. I don't think you get to the level that steph is at without being able to shrug off basically anything, and imo there are way too many factors beyond any single individual's ability to play basketball that go into whether or not they can perform. Namely defensive adjustments.

I feel like Stephs legacy is ironclad and this series can only elevate him

I think a big thing is that Durant is a player who was able to get his shot whenever and the warriors lack that type of punch.

i think if they had like a khris middleton level player they still win the two years they had durant. Don't get me wrong the warriors have an all time great line up but their reliance on ball movement to get their looks a lot of the time can sometimes be a double edged sword.

Leonhart4 posted...

Draymond said they've never lost a series at full strength so I guess that 2016 choke wasn't them at full strength because he got suspended for hitting Lebron in the balls

Number 1 overall pick Andrew Bogut was injured

who

yeah, bogut was their starter and the warriors got beat up inside without him. huge loss.

i don't think it's a celtics thing. i have nothing against curry. have rooted for him in every finals up til this point and think he has almost unprecedented gravity. the way he's dominated the western conference had been insane and i wish i'd been able to watch more of it.

i also think eastern conference basketball just in general has had more physical defenses, and GSW is more jumpshot-oriented, especially steph, and especiallY without KD. he can't overpower that type of defense with force the way giannis or even a butler type can, and as a result he struggles to have quite the same impact in the finals.

curry also simply isn't as strong as isolation scorer as many star players who are overall worst than him. or if he is, then kerr still doesn't treat him that way.

I mean literally any team could say nobody's beaten them in the playoffs when fully healthy because no team ever is at that point

but I'm pretty sure he was talking about just him, Steph, and Klay

Leonhart4 posted...

Well, people are treating this series as a referendum on Curry's legacy so if he struggles in big moments again and they lose again, it's going to reflect on him poorly

Draymond said they've never lost a series at full strength so I guess that 2016 choke wasn't them at full strength because he got suspended for hitting Lebron in the balls

pretty sure every title run they were on they benefitted huge from one of their opponents not being full strength so weird flex