The Indy Talks To Himself (NBA) Thread.

The Lakers defense is non existent. Suns are going to go to the half shooting 60%+ from 3.

 

First Vogel starts Game 5 with a lineup that had played a grand total of 0 minutes together all season.

Then tonight, he follows it up by playing Drummond, who has averaged 20 minutes per game through the first 5 games, a grand total of 0 minutes in the first half. Dude seems like an okay coach when he’s got the 2 best players in the series and both are healthy. Take that away, and he’s lost.

Someday, when they tell the story of LeBron, people will look back in amazement at the coaches with whom he won titles.

 

Schroder, who turned down a generous extension earlier this year, is 4 of 27 from the field in the last 10 quarters of basketball. Buddy probably should have just taken the money.

 

Eh, it's 19 and the Lakers have been significantly outplaying the Suns since the middle of the 2nd. Getting this to single digits won't be too much of a thing.

 

Suns are playing absolutely no defense. They thought this one was over.

 

Phoenix simply can't get back on defense. Basic shit.

 

The Lakers had their chances to make it a single digit game numerous times, but couldn't pull it off. Once LeBron hit the wall in the middle of the 4th quarter that was pretty much the ball game.

 

Awwwwww, poor Bron Bron.

 

I watched the first half then fell asleep. Saw where he gave booker a jersey after, but did he really leave the court early again and not congratulate the Suns?

 

There was a point in the second quarter where KCP scored 8 points over three straight possessions, and it looked like they had some life. But they just couldn't get stops, so what could have been a 12-0 run over 2.5 minutes to cut it from a 26 point lead to a 14 point lead ended up being a 12-7 run to cut it to 21.

That was the point when I said it was pretty much over, and I didn't see much of anything to make me waver from that point forward. The Suns, and really Booker specifically, were shooting the lights out, and the Lakers just weren't hitting enough shots or getting enough stops to keep up.

Credit where it's due - Booker had a phenomenal performance. Tough to beat a team when they've got a guy going 8-10 from behind the arc and dropping 40+.

 

I'm not sure, but I heard he took a dump after the game as well. That seems about as relevant.

 

hard to show class when taking a dump, but not surprised you see your favorite athlete being a [itch bay] again as irrelevant.

 

General thoughts:

• It'll be interesting to see how LeBron bounces back next year. I honestly don't know if his less-than-stellar performance in this series was due to the ankle injury or due to father time catching up with him. I lean towards the former. He was the lead MVP candidate prior to his injury just 3 months ago, and he was averaging 30, 12, and 8.5 in the Finals just 9 months ago. Still, I'm sure the media will speak more of the latter, talk about him not being the best player on earth anymore, etc. because that's what sells. Will be curious to see how he comes back.
  
  
• As a fan of the NBA who obviously roots for LeBron but honestly just wants to see good games and match ups, the injuries of the last 3 years have been brutal. I came into these playoffs so excited for the various match ups we were going to get to see, and now it's looking as if the Title will essentially be decided in a second round Eastern Conference series. That's depressing. Maybe Embiid will be able to play, but between his injury and the Lakers' injuries, I just feel like we are being robbed, and I wonder if the NBA is to blame. I get that injuries are part of it and can't always be controlled, but you can't convince me that the condensed season didn't exacerbate the issue. Frustrating.
  
  
• I wonder how much heat Frank Vogel will take for this series. If I'm the Lakers front office, I'm looking at my options. Andre Drummond didn't play a single minute last night after averaging 20 mpg in games 1-5. Montrezl Harrell averaged 6.6 minutes per game for the entire series, a series in which the Lakers struggled to score throughout. I feel like it can't be stated enough that the Game 5 starting lineup had played 0 total minutes together as a unit prior to starting together. Just a lot of inexplicable coaching decisions that, to me, show a guy who is in over his head when he doesn't have 2 of the 5 or 6 best players in the world to dominate games for him.

 

You're right. He should have shown class and punched one of his teammates in the face, like a true GOAT.

 

I'm just waiting for the mafia to kill Lebron's dad for unpaid gambling debts.

 

Character and leadership are traits the best of the best have, and will always be a differencemaker. I watched the first half last night and Lebrons body language was awful. He looked defeated early on, and his teammates followed suit.

 

I think that he did look pretty beat down. I assumed it was the injury. He noticeably wasn't going up for rebounds and such the last two games.

 

I thought he was still in prison.

 

Y'all are mean, bringing dads into it.