***Official NBA Thread***

[hendrix]

American sport is so match-up central. It's really interesting to see how large of an impact substitutions have.

 

[nightprowler10]

OKC have done a great job stealing the home court advantage and then capitalizing on it. It'll be interesting to see what kind of fight the Warriors put up back home.

 

[nightprowler10]

Oh, and **** Draymond Green.

 

[Anil]

they may win at home if they have some fight left but even if they do, will most likely lose in 6...

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

He has been wildly inconsistent in this series for sure, goes from fantastic possessions of post-defence and awesome weak and stong-side help to allowing deep position and players like Diaw the ball in their dominant hand before he even establishes his position. The rise of Adams defensively has hurt his role, especially because OKC don't have enough NBA-level wing players to play a lineup with Ibaka at the 5, Durant at the 4. Kanter has been immense offensively in this series as well, they really don't have anyone who can deal with him in the post now that Tim has declined as far as he has. Aldridge is barely a replacement level defender, and even worse in the post. The Kanter-Adams lineup won't work against the Warriors, Curry-Draymond PnR will absolutely destroy it. They'll need Ibaka then.

Ibaka's almost surplus to requirements for the Thunder going forward tho, his role has been marginalised by their recruiting of big men over wing players (imagine if they'd prioritised decent wings instead of trading for Kanter, people like Batum, Wes Mathews, Aminu etc would make them legitimate challengers to the Warriors with a Westbrook-Wing-Wing-Durant-Ibaka lineup in crunch time) and he's basically a catch-and-shoot guy who stands in the corner and seems to have zero confidence in himself anymore.

Pretty good post from me, considering what has happened in this Thunder-Warriors series. The small lineup with Ibaka at the 5 and (shockingly) Roberson and Waiters playing to roles of the wings has destroyed the Warriors defence.

EDIT: This podcast from Nate Duncan and Danny Leroux explains this series craziness perfectly.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

From a personal PoV, I really hope the Warriors win in the Oracle tomorrow then Steph has the 'Lebron' game in Boston in 2012 back in Oklahoma, where he came out like he was possessed and legitimately became the player he was always supposed to be. This is mainly because the basketball in these playoffs has been mostly ****, I can't count the amount of noncompetitive blowouts there's been. At least give me some narrative.

 

[andruid]

From a personal PoV, I really hope the Warriors win in the Oracle tomorrow then Steph has the 'Lebron' game in Boston in 2012 back in Oklahoma, where he came out like he was possessed and legitimately became the player he was always supposed to be. This is mainly because the basketball in these playoffs has been mostly ****, I can't count the amount of noncompetitive blowouts there's been. At least give me some narrative.

That would be amazing.


On a related note, now that the warriors have been figured out, who is gonna figure out the Thunder?

 

[duffer]

From a personal PoV, I really hope the Warriors win in the Oracle tomorrow then Steph has the 'Lebron' game in Boston in 2012 back in Oklahoma, where he came out like he was possessed and legitimately became the player he was always supposed to be. This is mainly because the basketball in these playoffs has been mostly ****, I can't count the amount of noncompetitive blowouts there's been. At least give me some narrative.

I've barely been able to watch them. Sort of glad I missed it from all accounts so far.

 

[Ikki]

From a personal PoV, I really hope the Warriors win in the Oracle tomorrow then Steph has the 'Lebron' game in Boston in 2012 back in Oklahoma, where he came out like he was possessed and legitimately became the player he was always supposed to be. This is mainly because the basketball in these playoffs has been mostly ****, I can't count the amount of noncompetitive blowouts there's been. At least give me some narrative.

Come on bruh, Cavs (Lebron) vs Thunder again is a good narrative.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Come on bruh, Cavs (Lebron) vs Thunder again is a good narrative.

I meant from game to game more than overarching narrative, anytime there's a Cleveland team still alive in the playoffs there's some form of narrative just because of the history of sports in that city.

 

[hendrix]

That would be amazing.
On a related note, now that the warriors have been figured out, who is gonna figure out the Thunder?

Go big but keep your sharp shooters in, keep them outside and hope they make it a battle of three-pointers.

Thing is if they call the bluff and drive you end up giving up a bazillion fouls. e.g. last 2 games.

 

[Anil]

close game so far...

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Biggest problem I saw in Games 3 and 4 for the Warriors (on defense, at least) is that when they went to their 'death' lineup (Curry-Klay-Iggy-Barnes-Draymond) which was so unbelievably effective during the season they stopped switching, which is kinda weird. The whole reason that lineup is so good is because you can switch every PnR and not sacrifice anything defensively. They went back to that tonight, and coincedentally Draymond was way more effective again.

That said, Warriors got the bulk of the calls and the Thunder shot pretty badly, so they're still well up against it in OKC next time out.

 

[Anil]

this was not the convincing win they needed to get their confidence back, the thunder was in it until the last min or so...i don't see them winning in oklahoma city on saturday...also curry's post-match demeanor and comments definitely didn't indicate anything close to the bubbly confidence the warriors have exuded all season...

 

[nightprowler10]

Yeah that mini comeback for OKC in the last minute had to have been a morale boost. I still figure Warriors can win this series. Seems like the obvious to say, but if they pull off even a small margin victory in OKC, Thunder will be too mentally defeated to win game 7 IMO.

My personal preference at this point would be to see OKC get through. They've played incredibly.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Yeah the stats for teams at home in a Game 7 are pretty overwhelming, if GSW get a win in Game 6 I think it's almost all but over.

 

[Pratters]

LeBron is having a terrific night. Cavs will be thought to beat here.

 

[Anil]

toronto did better than expected...now comes the real test for cleveland...

 

[Pratters]

Would GS be favourites or would recent Curry injury spree make it about even?

 

[social]

Little guy has just been chosen in the state U/12s at age 9

Looking forward to the call back from LeBron's agent