OBear073akaSMFan said:

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Big C said:

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Another lousy call was the over-and-back near the half-court line they called on Draymond. Then there was the wrap-up of Curry as he went undefended to the hoop: Should have been a flagrant 1.

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You mean the wrap-up of Poole. Even the announcers were surprise it wasn't a fragrant 1. Potentially a lot worse than Green's fragrant 2 he received in the Memphis game.

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Video clip?

JAYLEN BROWN ARE YOU SERIOUS pic.twitter.com/1VECNURa8a

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 26, 2022

Jaylen Brown is going to be hard to defend.

I'm pulling for a miracle series win by the Heat. Their D is scary good.

BearForce2 said:

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JAYLEN BROWN ARE YOU SERIOUS pic.twitter.com/1VECNURa8a

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) May 26, 2022

Jaylen Brown is going to be hard to defend.

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Wiggins on Tatum

Klay on Brown

Love Klay, but he's not the same defender as he used to be.

The Celtics are really talented, but I think the Warriors can guard their perimeter guys. Brown and Tatum particularly can lose the handle fairly frequently.

The bigger issue will be unlocking Boston's defense.

sycasey said:

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The Celtics are really talented, but I think the Warriors can guard their perimeter guys. Brown and Tatum particularly can lose the handle fairly frequently.

The bigger issue will be unlocking Boston's defense.

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yeah Klay isn't the elite defender he was, but he's still a very good wing defender

however I'm also worried about Smart. He's a tough guard for our PGs.

Boston is a really tough match up. I'm rooting for the home team, but Boston is my second fav due to Jaylen Brown (and Dallas is my 3rd fav because of Luka and Kidd)

My 4th fav might now be Memphis because Ja Morant is amazing

so these playoffs have been fun for me. In fact, I usually only watch the NBA Finals. This is the most NBA basketball I've ever seen

GP2 believed to be coming back for the NBA Finals!

Report: Gary Payton II Is 'On Track' To Return During The NBA Finals (uproxx.com)

Looking forward to match up if Celtics can make it. The Celtics are my 2nd favorite team for a couple of reasons. First, when I was a kid they were one of the few teams on TV on the weekends (Sunday afternoon? Always Bill vs Wilt (76ers)); and second, Jaylen Brown.

Jaylen Brown has really worked on his game. He still needs to work on his handle because he gets stripped of the ball a lot when driving (that fact won't be missed by Kerr). Go Warriors!*

*If the Warriors win it all, do you think Lacob will stiff The City on the cost of the parade? (like he did The Town, TWICE).

Shocker in Boston!

This team could barely walk after Game 5.
Butler, Tucker, and Lowry all looked injured.
Butler averaged just 9 points in Game 4 and 5.

But Jimmy Butler goes off in Boston Garden for 47.
He played the entire second half.

Miami lead throughout the game by 6-9 points until the Celtics tied it at 99-99 with 3:25 left.

HEAT: 111
CELTICS: 103

Super Intense Game.
A Classic!

Going back to Miami for Game 7 on Sunday!

Dubs RESTING.

Let's go Heat!

This is making me think the Warriors should be clear favorites over both of these teams, even though I know the metrics favor Boston.

sycasey said:

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This is making me think the Warriors should be clear favorites over both of these teams, even though I know the metrics favor Boston.

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The metrics probably favor a healthy Boston team over the dubs (as they should).

Smart and Williams being hobbled is huge as they are the players I fear the most as they can really muck up the warriors offense.

Getting GP2 back would be nice. Boston's biggest flaw is ballhandling. I'd argue (and I'm pretty sure I'd be right) that GP2 is the best ball stealer in the game.

ducky23 said:

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sycasey said:

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This is making me think the Warriors should be clear favorites over both of these teams, even though I know the metrics favor Boston.

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The metrics probably favor a healthy Boston team over the dubs (as they should).

Smart and Williams being hobbled is huge as they are the players I fear the most as they can really muck up the warriors offense.

Getting GP2 back would be nice. Boston's biggest flaw is ballhandling. I'd argue (and I'm pretty sure I'd be right) that GP2 is the best ball stealer in the game.

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The metrics are also probably based on regular season play (in part), and I'm not sure that tells you much about the playoff Warriors. Especially this season when Steph, Klay, and Draymond almost never played together until the playoffs.

ducky23 said:

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sycasey said:

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This is making me think the Warriors should be clear favorites over both of these teams, even though I know the metrics favor Boston.

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The metrics probably favor a healthy Boston team over the dubs (as they should).

Smart and Williams being hobbled is huge as they are the players I fear the most as they can really muck up the warriors offense.

Getting GP2 back would be nice. Boston's biggest flaw is ballhandling. I'd argue (and I'm pretty sure I'd be right) that GP2 is the best ball stealer in the game.

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Smart will eat Poole up. Getting GP2 back will help if Warrior PGs get in foul trouble

HoopDreams said:

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sycasey said:

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The Celtics are really talented, but I think the Warriors can guard their perimeter guys. Brown and Tatum particularly can lose the handle fairly frequently.

The bigger issue will be unlocking Boston's defense.

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yeah Klay isn't the elite defender he was, but he's still a very good wing defender

however I'm also worried about Smart. He's a tough guard for our PGs.

Boston is a really tough match up. I'm rooting for the home team, but Boston is my second fav due to Jaylen Brown (and Dallas is my 3rd fav because of Luka and Kidd)

My 4th fav might now be Memphis because Ja Morant is amazing

so these playoffs have been fun for me. In fact, I usually only watch the NBA Finals. This is the most NBA basketball I've ever seen

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NBA off-season action is usually just as good. Players and GMs - games of a different type!

sycasey said:

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ducky23 said:

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sycasey said:

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This is making me think the Warriors should be clear favorites over both of these teams, even though I know the metrics favor Boston.

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The metrics probably favor a healthy Boston team over the dubs (as they should).

Smart and Williams being hobbled is huge as they are the players I fear the most as they can really muck up the warriors offense.

Getting GP2 back would be nice. Boston's biggest flaw is ballhandling. I'd argue (and I'm pretty sure I'd be right) that GP2 is the best ball stealer in the game.

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The metrics are also probably based on regular season play (in part), and I'm not sure that tells you much about the playoff Warriors. Especially this season when Steph, Klay, and Draymond almost never played together until the playoffs.

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For sure. More than any other sport, how a team performs in the regular season won't necessarily reflect how they will perform in the playoffs. There's almost zero game planning in the regular season and players maybe give 50% effort?

If I were to try to objectively rank teams (based on what I've seen in the playoffs and assuming full health) it'd be pretty different than the regular season standings. I'd probably have

1. Bucks
2. Celtics
3. Warriors
4. Suns
5. Memphis
6. Miami
7. Philly
8. Nets
9. Mavs

Now that's clearly not how it's gone in the playoffs. Which goes to show that health and a little bit of luck is probably the biggest determining factor in the playoffs.

If the warriors end up winning, the narrative will be that they had an easy path (especially if they play Miami). But what people will ignore is that while health has some randomness involved, it's not entirely luck.

The warriors more than any other team understand what it takes to win 16 playoff games. They know how to load manage during the regular season. They know it's important to have depth so you're not playing your guys 40+ mins plus a game. They know that if you have a regular season injury, why not just be overly cautious, cause who cares about the regular season anyways. It's only important to be healthy for the playoffs.

The warriors aren't the most talented team in the league. But they are the most well condiotioned, freshest and most mentally tough of everyone else. And they've had pretty good luck (knock on wood).