₦airaland Forum

A40:
They didn't score a single point the last 3:33

That's why they like the run and gun offense. You put them consistently in half court situations and their execution falters

A40:
Lively out but they get Kleber back possibly. Completely forgot about him sef

One team has Lively, Gafford, Kleber, and the foolish Nuggets GM could not get a playable big that could just give Jokic 10 Minutes rest

Nico Harrison doesn't get enough credit for turning that team around in two seasons. Only mistake was getting Grant Williams and inside half a season he quickly corrected the mistake. Swapped Finney Smith and Dinwiddie for fvckin Kyrie Irving

Got PJ Washington for second rounders

If the Nuggets has a playable big, someone who can legit play 20minutes a game. I sincerely think they beat the Timberwolves.

Luka and Kyrie are both shooting 69.2% from 3 in the 4th quarter so far in this series . Looking at the numbers in this series I don't think I will be blaming the Timberwolves again, how the F are they supposed to win against that.

larride:
The Celtics offense is way way better than anything Wolves can muster. If Porzingis is back, I fancy Celtics chances big tine.

With Porzingis, I will give them a slight edge on paper. But without him, their offense just has stretches where it struggles and becomes bogged down

greypencils:
I won't even argue that. Curry and Klay are regarded as the greatest backcourt except for one thing, Klay is a catch and shoot player. He doesn't make his own shots. But Luka and Ky? Meeeen! Both demand a double team to properly guard them. 1 on 1, you are dead. You go run tire. Wolves are bleeped already. Let's see is if the Celtics have any chance against them.[code][/code]

Asssinn, the level of shot making both guys can just pull off is absurd.

greypencils:
Can you imagine? Inexperience of both players and coaches experience showing. Make them kuku go house, Pacers too. Let the two experienced war horses go at each other. Kyrie has a ring, Jrue has one too. Luka has played a WCF before. Tat and Brown have played 2 ECFs and 1 final. The major difference in the final will be Jrue and White. If they can stop Ky and Luka, they win. If they can't, the white boy gets his first ring, a legend in the making.

The Mavericks plan in the finals will be very simple. They will try to keep it as close as possible until the 4th quarter, then turn it into a shot making and half court execution Fiesta. The only thing that scares me about the Celtics is that their offense has this weird tendency of grinding to a halt for stretches in a game

In the first 2 games the Mavericks shot 55% at the rim when Gobert Is on the floor vs 100% when he was not, 14/14 when he was sitting. No wonder the coach keeps faith with him

greypencils:
I dozed off knowing wolves will lose and they didn't disappoint. Nobody in their coaching staff knew to draw plays for McDaniels who had the hot hand? 75% from 3, 6/8 field goals? They kept feeding KAT? Make them kuku lose game 4, let Mavs rest before the finals. Awon oku Igbe.

Even Anderson went 5/5 from the field.
This is what always pisses me off about the whole feeding role players conversion. I just don't know how hard it is to know that when your role players have a hot hand that is when you force feed them as much as possible, and on the days their shots
are not falling you simply reduce the frequency of them getting shots.

chic2pimp:
Anyone who caught a glimpse of Minnesota would have seen this coming.

Conley at his age really should be playing the Kyle Lowry role but due to the contract Rudy and KAT are on, they'll have to ride him for another year at minimum bit probably 2 years.

How is Porzingis looking? If He is reasonably fit, you lot have a good chance. He won't be a total offensive liability, Rudy currently is plus I trust your Top 2 guys over the Wolves.

Celtics need Porzingis to have a chance against the Mavericks IMHO

Why is it so hard for people to agree that the Luka/ Kyrie combo is the most talented backcourt in terms of just 1v1 shot making that has ever played. Yes there have been other great/elite backcourts, but if the criteria is just on shot making I cannot think of a backcourt that is better than this duo when they are on.

Roland17:
You have been spot on with your analysis of the Wolves and Antman. People forget the Wolves made it this far because of their defense and not their offense.

When you look at their starting lineup and bench, they have more defensive players than players who can make their own shots.

Also, Conley should be a backup PG and not a starting PG, they need a PG who can push the ball.


Finch has been terrible since the Nuggets series… to me at least.

To be fair Finch wasn't fully coaching the Nuggets series. For the Timberwolves they got the defense sorted, now they just need to work on that offense, some of the improvements will just be because of the natural progression/improvement of Antman, but they need a counter when teams force Edward's to give up the ball, KAT jacking up 3s especially when it's not falling will not cut it.

A40:
He's one of those guys that makes you downplay the difficulty level of being in the NBA. Obviously I know better but still I look at guys like Matthias Lessort for Euroleague and I'm like surely that guy can do better than Powell.

Injury to Lively left them no choice. I hope Lively would somehow be able to make it for Game 4. With Boston likely sweeping the Pacers Mavs really need to match them sweep for sweep.

Finals start on the 6th no matter what. So a 9 day rest would work wonders for them

I really hope the Lively injury is not too serious and he can suit up for Game 4and the finals if they get there.

Looking at the Powell minutes after lively went down is why I will never judge a player on wins/losses. This Powell was the starting center, playing huge minutes all those Mavs vs Clippers series when Kristaps went down with injuries. I tell you how is any supposed to win a game let alone a series with that guy as your starting center and with no 2nd star

A40:
Lively injury might be the turning point of this game

Powell is a terrible finisher at the rim and even more useless on defense.

Now Minny has crawled their way back

Powell is not a playoff rotation player.at all. He his one of those players who you give a roster spot because of the 82 game regular season schedule. Giving him playoffs minutes especially since his
Achilles injury is just a disaster waiting to happen

Home court advantage really exists for role players. Pj Washington and Derrick Jones Jnr are already combined for 17pts with over 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter.

BlueMann:
Why didn't Carlise call a timeout to draw up a play??

I also noticed that, he just waved the guy on

BlueMann:
Pacers have thrown it away again lol smh

The Pacers had a good run. If not for injuries they shouldn't have even won their first round series.

A40:
Game over

Jrue with another elite level defensive stop

The pacers spend too much time on offense forgetting that they have Siakam. They should have run at least 3 plays for him since the beginning of the 4th

A40:
This thing Pacers is playing is definitely not basketball

Why's Obi Toppin so damn clumsy? Did he smoke cannabis before entering the court

That guys play is somehow weird. He is unbelievably athletic one minute, and the next minute, he looks like the stereotype of uncoordinated tall people

Who Celtics vex? Siakam, Turner and Nembhard between the 3 of them made 24 of 34 shots . The whole team shooting 60+% from the field chai

A40:
Gobert is the first center I've seen get criticized for not locking up a guard in an iso possession. Miracle no dey tire Jesus

Draymond is a non factor outside of Golden State. There's a reason he feigns injury when Steph can't play. That one is just carrying their on court beef to analysis.

If he thinks people will care about his nonsense after Golden state he's sadly mistaken. He will only make shock value comments to draw attention cos nobody really wants to hear him talk about anything on a neutral level

Remember the Charles Barkley triple single jokes about Draymond that season Steph got hot .

My final imput on the Gobert slander is there have been 2 other players who have won 4DPOY. ONE IS mutombo and this is what Shaq average on him in the finals
33 PPG
- 57 FG%
- 15.8 RPG
- 4.8 APG
- 3.4 BPG
- 28 Pts, 20 Rebs, 9 Asts, 8 Blks in GM2.

The second is Ben Wallace and for some reason people want to forget how much of a liability he was when he was with the Bulls, Raptors and Cavaliers

A40:
You would think Draymond is some elite perimeter defender the way he talks

What do you expect a 7'2 center to do at the 3pt line exactly

You're telling me with all that space Draymond won't be on skates too?

Draymond is only fortunate to play on the Warriors. That's fed into his hubris like they didn't just win a title where he was a complete non factor.

Draymond has won the exact DPOYs he's deserved to win and putting him on Shaq, Kobe MVP injustice tier is criminal and should be against the law

Draymond consistently gets cooked if he his put on an island with guards and he his barely 6ft9.

etidy:
You seem to be missing the point, this is not about Draymond Vs Gobert,
The main crux of the matter is that looking the overall body of work for Gobert , he's no where the level of a 4 times DPOY. For example do you think Gobert is a top 10 defender all time?

Dwight Howard won three times in a row as a rim protector but have you noticed no one questions Howard's greatness? Gobert is not just 4 times DPOY good and it irks NBA players generally not just Draymond.
He didn't vote for himself, so it's not his fault.

Have you also not noticed that it is only non-Americans that the press tend to shit on like this. All the other multiple DPOY that you talk about all played at a time when coaches for some reason never took advantage of the fact that switching a big onto a great wing was a miss match in favor of the wing. As for D Howard in the bubble he was a linchpin against Denver but when it got the finals against Miami who play small, they played him less minutes.
Gobert is the only 7+ ft that his coaches, no matter the match up, consistently put him out there. That alone should tell us how impactful he his to their defense. But come Monday, some narrative idiots will pick one play and start talking about how he is not a great defender because Luka scored the winner on him

greypencils:
That's why I included Macdaniels as one that could give way for Reid. Reid just has to be more on the floor.

But that will mean Gobert, Reid and KAT. with all the speed the Mavericks have, I fear that would just present other problems.

afrodoc2:
The guy should knock down a few 4 ft shots now and then. God abeg o.

How can you be under the rim with an undersized defender and you are either passing up shots or missing layups.

If the media wants to cook you, don’t help them to buy the oil and pepper.

This thing of him knocking down 4ft shots just shows shallow analysis. We all know the profile of Gobert, the Timberwolves traded a haul of picks with full knowledge of what they were getting. Blaming Gobert for not making shots is like Blaming the driver of a stock car for losing a track race to a to formula 1 car.

Nobody ever blamed Mutombo for not making shots when the sixers lost 4 straight games in the finals, nobody blamed Rodman for not making shots when the Spurs got beat by the Rockets or even when the Pistons lost to the Bulls, nobody blamed Ben Wallace for not making shots when the Pistons lost to the Spurs. When gsw lost to the Raptors nobody blamed Draymond for not scoring 20.
But somehow, when it comes to Gobert, the equation changes, and we expect him to do what he was never meant to do.
If Gobert was beat at the rim, or failed to secure the rebound that led to this loss, then yes, massacre him all you want but Blaming him for not scoring, that's not what he his there for.

greypencils:
If Finch had any sense, he would sit Gobert out in Game 3. Reid can still defend the perimeter while adding length in the paint. If they can win Nuggets in game 2 without Gobert, they definitely can win Mavs without him. They need to sit his arse down. Either him or Macdaniels. Reid simply has to play more minutes. Say you win 6th man no mean say make you continue to be 6th man. Put that brother on the floor.

Sit Gobert or macdaniels? Oga the Timberwolves are winning when Gobert Is on the floor its when he his off the floor that's when they are getting torched on defence.
So your great idea is to sit the guy who is the main reason they are getting stops and keeping leads, why? because he got beat by one of the greatest 1v1 player that has ever lived, on one occasion. That's great analysis right there /s/

larride:
Gobert get blamed for most of their defeats while he get zero praise when they win. Must be hard.

Seriously I sometimes pity him. This narrative driven talk shows just pick favorites and roll with it.

larride:
It does help that Jamal was ghosting till game 7 also.

Yes, he wasn't himself at all

A40:
Mavericks is not Nuggets. If Minny doesn't win both games in Dallas this series no go go pass 5.

Timberwolves had the free throw edge. But Mavs don't even need it. Their bigs have such an advantage over Minny cos of the easy buckets Kyrie and Luka set them up with. They're not facing a Jokic that 3 bigs can tag team and take turns to spar with.

Just Luka torching their drop coverage and getting them awoof points

I said last series that people were criminally overrating Antman's defense and these guys were just missing wide open shots. Let him try and guard anybody again make I see. He will learn that AC no be fan

It's not really over rating his defense it's about bad match-up. Against Denver he was playing Jamal who is his size and less athletic so it was perfect. Against the Mavericks he has on one side Luka who is bigger and way stronger than him on one hand and Kyrie whose speed and quickness is usually overlooked because of his legendary handles.

Roland17:
It’s a shame Gobert will get the sticks for that final play. Finch needs to apologize to Gobert and the Wolves. He should have subbed him out.

From the moment the possession was checked in, I knew whoever got the ball (Kyrie or Luka) was going to hunt Gobert even if it meant multiple switches until he finds it.

You can’t send a 7ft 2 Center that high to defend a great shooter like Luka. Also, some of these guys need to stop with “he is defensive player of the year” as the argument he should cover everything.

Gobert won DPOY as a center, rebounding on both ends, blocking or altering shots and other dirty works under the rim.. not as a perimeter defender defending guards, they are 2 totally different types of defending.

That's the thing about modern basketball that I particularly love. The coach had to make a decision, live with Gobert being switched unto either Kyrie/ Luka or pull Gobert like you all have suggested and put your best rim protector on the bench. Personally I would have chosen the later because even if they get an easier look at the rim and make it, the game at that point is still tied.
Gobert like I said earlier did the best he could