The Official NBA Season Thread: NBA Cup Night

[addict4sneakers]

Wonder how confident the GS contingent will be now that their prayers of AD not being available didn't come true?

Hopefully he’s 100% but dude was -22 last game. Like you can and just beat them if he’s on the floor

 

[pmatic]

The intensity in Crypto is going to feel like a G7

The Warriors have their points of emphasis.

Spoiler

Offensively, the #1 goal is to get AD out of the paint. 2nd straight game with zero AD blocks, 2nd straight game the Warriors matched them in paint points. All by design.

Run run run & run more. Misses, makes, turnovers, doesn’t matter. Always run. AD will be on the glass so you can beat him down the floor or take advantage of cross matches.

When the Lakers get back & you get caught in the halfcourt, PnR with ADs man. It can even be with Klay. Just run it With less Vando and more Rui & now Lonnie getting extended minutes, when AD is on the perimeter the Lakers on the backend, including Bron, will make mistakes.



Poole’s percentages are all rooted in low IQ attempts. He’s not a non shooter

When AD starts switching, several things you can do besides playing 1 on 1 and shooting rainbow 30 footers over his wingspan.

The main thing will be driving & making the other Lakers on the backend protect the rim. Whether you get Bron on the switch or 1 of the guards, it doesn’t matter, just get into the paint with AD on the perimeter.



Or rescreen & screen the switcher like Draymond has done a few times.



The alignment here is off, you’d want Moody to cut to the dunker or relocate to the weakside corner. Basically get away from ADs long arms but you get the gist. AD on the perimeter, get into the paint.

Lastly, AD/ Bron are not locking & trailing Steph over any screens so you immediately get into post split action. They’re roaming off GP so Steph will have that 3 over a shorter defender everytime or he can just drive the close out.




Vando denied the entry pass once & forced a TO but Ham is giving his minutes to Rui & Lonnie now. Trade offs

Regardless, you don’t want to settle for the stepback 3s here. You will see a LOT more AD switching in G6.

The Warriors have not consistently made good choices on the road in this series in particular, but all season long.

Darvin Ham will switch more often and force them to execute. Steph will obviously iso a few times which you’ll just have to live with (Easier to live with if the wings sprint back in transition to cover AD while Steph’s long jumper is still in the air) but they’ll largely need to stay away from that on the switch.

All that said, the Warriors & Kerr knew ALL of that before the ball tipped in G1, and the point was made even clearer after G2. Yet they still find themselves in this predicament

We’ll see if that championship focus & poise shines through on the road. Their offensive process in G3 was terrible & nonsensical. Almost no on ball Steph screens. Their process was MUCH better in the first 3 quarters of G4, but fell apart again in the final frame. So time will tell.

Warriors will need to execute offensively because they’re getting point guard LeBron all 2nd half, every single possession by the 4th quarter. He’ll be hunting Steph & other mismatches relentlessly, refusing to be denied from getting into the paint. All of this will be after the AD show in the first half which is just as difficult to defend.

The Lakers will continue to be extremely difficult to guard. They have FOUR PnR ball handlers which is more than any team in the league. Two of them are very adept at drawing fouls. They get good stuff on accident because they consistently operate out of PnR all game long. And they also run hard off of misses & makes.

Bron in particular only hunted Steph two times by my count. Will. Not. Happen. Again.

So Warriors have to execute on offense. ZERO margin for error.

Sudden death time now. The best part of the series. Will be very fun, must watch television. Both teams will be EXTREMELY desperate. Should be one of the best games in the playoffs.

I think they targeted Steph in the pick and roll those two times in the opening minutes after the slow start. Then they just stopped.

 

[sohi 23]

Hopefully he’s 100% but dude was -22 last game. Like you can and just beat them if he’s on the floor

Lmfao.

This reminds me of the “lakers have no adjustments to make” you were saying after game 2.

We’ll see on Friday.

 

[WASHED KING]

Hopefully he’s 100% but dude was -22 last game. Like you can and just beat them if he’s on the floor

Injury or not last night GS was winning that game. GS's supporting cast showed up. Hard to win when they're getting 20+ from Draymond and Wiggins.

 

[addict4sneakers]

Lmfao.

This reminds me of the “lakers have no adjustments to make” you were saying after game 2.

We’ll see on Friday.

What’s funny? He played 32 minutes last game. Wasn’t as effective. It’s a home game next game so you expect all the lakers to be better.

I asked what adjustments could they make. Warriors have made adjustments too. We will see on Friday.

 

[sohi 23]

What’s funny? He played 32 minutes last game. Wasn’t as effective. It’s a road game next game so you expect all the lakers to be better.

I asked what adjustments could they make. Warriors have made adjustments too. We will see on Friday.

Vando was a -16 in 10 minutes. 10 minutes.
He played all 10 minutes with AD.

So AD was -6 in the non Vando minutes but it’s “dude was -22 last game. Like you can and just beat them if he’s on the floor” like it’s AD fault

Easiest adjustment is don’t play Vando.

But yeah we’ll see on Friday.

 

[nick.]

 

[addict4sneakers]

Vando was a -16 in 10 minutes. 10 minutes.
He played all 10 minutes with AD.

So AD was -6 in the non Vando minutes but it’s “dude was -22 last game. Like you can and just beat them if he’s on the floor” like it’s AD fault

Easiest adjustment is don’t play Vando.

But yeah we’ll see on Friday.

I said it was AD’s fault?

No

 

[sohi 23]

I said it was AD’s fault?

No

Ok bro.

 

[xxpizzo]

where that one boston fan been getback

hope all is well with homie

 

[Coupé It]

where that one boston fan been getback

hope all is well with homie

I thought that too.

Hopefully he’s on vacation or something.

Good dude.

 

[DCAllAfrican]

Hopefully AD is alright but him playing Friday is crazy

Yall want him to display #MambaBlood or not?

 

[Coupé It]

Like I said last night, AD 100% playing Friday

He was never missing this game. No way.

 

[pmatic]

 

[Coupé It]

If the Sixers lose this series.

I wonder if that’s it for Doc

 

[pums]

PJ Tucker is the 6ers leader. For as bad as his offense can get his C U L T U R E is so valuable . If the 6ers pull this off him screaming at Embiid will be an all time moment.

 

[moe200069]

the “style of the year” award always gets me.. nba players are really just WDYWT NTers with elite athleticism and skill

 

[moe200069]

"RICO? Like YSL RICO?"

MLGA been down bad for so many years, it’s got dudes thinking about quitting their teaching jobs to work for the feds

given the mass exodus from the classroom during covid, MLGA is not good for the future of public education

 

[B Sox]

Why aren’t the Lakers spamming the Bron/AD 2 man game?

 

[pmatic]

Why aren’t the Lakers spamming the Bron/AD 2 man game?

Because it brings Draymond into the action so Bron would rather partner with whoever Steph or Poole is guarding. But Bron is conserving his energy and won't do it until the fourth quarter anyways.

 

[antidope]

"RICO? Like YSL RICO?"

This is crazy. Putting those independent study hours to bad use.

 

[DripNick]

fani willis avy is crazy
Justice is coming though

 

[ill steelo]

Ham should probably have limited trust with Lonnie & Rui in G7. You lose a ton defensively with Vando off the floor.

Bron concedes the switch a lot in general, but in the game tomorrow he’ll be planning to play 43+ mins and on the ball frequently for the back half of those minutes.

So he’ll be conceding the switch far more often, giving the Warriors their preferred AD/Dray matchup.

You saw this on a few possessions last night

Bron just refused to leave the restricted area

Like, Vando is the only guy on the team after AD with this mix of length & consistent effort


Obviously a give & take since there will be a few more bodies in the paint when the Lakers have the ball, which is where Bron & AD will be trying to go. Maybe run some pindowns/curls for D’Lo as a misdirection. Can’t just have him sitting in the dunker/corner

 

[sohi 23]

Vando is def a beast defensively but he’s mucking up the offense too much and they’re getting easy looks and mismatches in transition based on it.

Meanwhile, they can’t stop our offense in the non-Vando minutes. I didn’t even think the Lakers played good last night yet they were basically scoring at will in the non-Vando minutes.

Idk we’ve basically started each half at a disadvantage based on Vando’s minutes. Ham will probably start him and give him a quick hook but I would just go with Lonnie from the jump.

I would even consider starting Rui over Vando. You can’t ignore Rui and he didn’t do that bad chasing Klay around.

 

[WASHED KING]

This is crazy. Putting those independent study hours to bad use.

School year done b. AP testing finished, state Testing next week, Seniors last day is the 23rd. Everything is basically just study hall and for attendance purposes only.

Also I think y'all vastly underrating my technological capabilities. This stuff doesn't take much time at all. I know most the posters up here are old and have to call IT to adjust their brightness on their computers but come on now lol.