The NBA Thread.

How dare I blame Mazzula for Tatum’s significant drop in midrange shooting the year he took over as head coach! Oh, the humanity!

You don’t know what you’re talking about man.

 

Lakers got what they wanted. LeBron shut Jokic down, but Murray went off again, and AD wasn’t good enough offensively. That’s a frustrating loss.

 

Sure. Join the rest of the folks who don’t know shit about basketball ignoring the fact that LeBron guarded Jokic for a huge chunk of the second half, and the dude didn’t score in the 4th. The last 2 pages of this thread are embarrassing from you.

 

Would have made it if there had been a defender in position for him to shoulder charge into the cameramen first

 

lol u mad at the L bro? Lebron went 0-6 from 3. That dude shooting meme comes out when dudes go cold and was fitting. Maybe he shoulda shot 6 midrange instead? Fire Ham for ruining Lebrons midrange game, imo.
And Lebron is a big athlete. Probably the best athlete/size/speed combo ever, so not surprised he guarded him. The 4th q is the only quarter Denver outscored LA and where they won the game btw, so hanging your hat on 4th quarter D is a peach.

 

he was going for the reverse and it slipped. It happens. Just surprised he didn’t go ahead and hit the ground and roll around for a minute or 2 for the hell of it. His flip and Jokic response flop should both be techs. Got to get the bullshit out of the game amd T guys up so they stop flailing.

 

The L was frustrating, but that doesn't have anything to do with you stumbling all over yourself in this thread, pulling regular season numbers off of google searches in a conversation about what gets the job done in the playoffs, then repeatedly talking about taking a bunch of midrange jumpers when no one, literally no one, has said that.

It's clear that you have solid basketball knowledge, but you think that gives you free reign to speak with authority on anything basketball related. And when it gets into the NBA, you exit your comfort zone REAL quick, but keep talking and talking anyway. You just sound like a guy trying to talk about something he knows nothing about.

As for LeBron, it doesn't matter what he does. If he's excellent, people will move on without giving him credit, just like they did last week. All the talk during the Warriors series was "is Steph better than LeBron?" It was a ridiculous discussion based in fantasy, and once LeBron emphatically slammed that door shut with his Game 6 masterpiece, people just moved on without much of a word about it.

If he's very good but has a couple struggles, people will roast him as if he was a negative. Last night, he defended the 2x MVP, a 7 foot, 285 pound center, the guy the metrics say is the best basketball player of all time, the dude who has been the most dominant player in the playoffs, and he held him scoreless in the 4th quarter. But what does Twitter focus on? 0-6 from 3 and the fumbled reverse dunk. Cool.

Show me the terrible 3 he took. Some of them may not have been the best shots, but I don't think you can call even one of them a "bad" shot. Fumbling the reverse sucks, but it happens. The reverse wasn't necessary, but it was a momentum thing. The bottom line is that if you're expecting 38 year old, year 20 LeBron to go 22-9-10-4-2, defend Jokic, AND shoot the lights out from 3, your expectations are too damn high.

 

He shoulda just shot midrange. Ham should know better.
I’m not stumbling over anything. This all started with you saying, in Y1, Mazzula ruined Tatum midrange game, when midrange has been declining year after year in the nba…all the while Tatum setting career highs in scoring, 2pt% and ftas. Maybe Mazulla will get another opportunity to go ruin another players game who sets career best in several categories.

 

It started with me saying that if the Celtics lose to Miami, Joe Mazzulla may get fired and asking if you were going to complain about that one as well, even though many would consider it well-deserved.

I backed that stance up by mentioning a number of things, including the disappearance of Jayson Tatum's midrange game, which makes it difficult for them to close tight playoff games down the stretch.

Want more? How about no timeouts called during Miami's 46-25 third quarter in game 1? The dude is in over his head. He's got the best roster in the NBA, but the team has struggled with inferior competition throughout the entire playoffs.

 

Those are fair criticisms. But already seeing if he wins, it will be despite him, like every other coach except Kerr

 

Uh, yeah.

They won game 6 against Philly because Jayson Tatum woke up from a slumber and hit four 3's in 7 possessions late in the 4th. Feel free to point to Mazzulla's adjustments that led to that.

They then won game 7 because Tatum scored literally the most points ever scored in a game 7 in NBA history. Again, let me know the specific piece that Mazzulla deserves credit for there.

Point to anything Joe Mazzulla has done this postseason that has directly impacted winning. I can highlight stuff from other coaches.

 

Point to any coach who has coached a perfect game. They all make mistakes
Highly ironic you talk about him only winning because a player went off, while not saying the same thing about Kerr with Curry, Klay and Durant. You can’t keep picking and choosing a side to take and pick and choose who it applies to. I mean you can, but think about how it looks.

 

You talking about how posts "look" in the same post where you asked me to "point to any coach who has coached a perfect game" is rich. Can you point to even a good game that Mazzulla has coached? Even one?

"Going off" does not equal "most points in a game 7 ever." Players "go off" in basically every single playoff game.

There is no side being picked - that's you making stuff up. Sure, having Curry is a massive part of Kerr's success. But Kerr also created his motion offense and tailored it specifically to Curry and Klay's skill sets. There's nothing else like it in the NBA, and it's a not insignificant part of what allows them to be as successful as they are.

That you continue to harp on the Kerr stuff is baffling. The man has 4 rings, could easily have a 5th if not for injuries in KD's last season, and some people would even tell you 6 if not for a Draymond suspension in 2016 (I think that's nonsense. You can't just "luck" your way into that much consistent greatness. It's Curry, it's Klay, it's Draymond, it's Durant, and it's Kerr. They all deserve a varying degree of credit. To attempt to omit Kerr from that list is just more evidence in the "ssmiff doesn't watch the NBA" file.

 

@NashVol11 's guy, Zach Lowe this morning:

"Look, LeBron has played the 2nd most minutes in the history of the sport. He's 38 years old. He just put up 22-10-9 and defended the two time MVP, and we're sitting here... like... nitpicking what he did. It's a little bit ridi... like, that's not great, it's not LeBron, but of course it's not LeBron."

Windhorst adds that he also had 4 steals and 2 blocks.

Like I said, it doesn't matter what the man does. If he's perfect, haters will ignore it. If he messes anything else, people will harp on it and ignore all the things he did great. Like clockwork.

 

If there's one guy avoiding much deserved criticism, it's DLo. The man has been a no-show in the first two games. 9 ppg on 37% from the field and 1-8 from 3 point range. He's a liability on defense. If he doesn't turn it around early in game 3, they might have to look at limiting his minutes.

 

lmao

 

That is excellent