( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

i get why harden drives everyone nuts but that subtle hesitation on the break is something that no one else even thinks to do

he is a scientist of the basketball arts

Might be Kuzma's worst game in the bubble: -21 in 21 minutes, four fouls, has had a tough time containing the Rockets guards in space, done little offensively.

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 5, 2020

*vomiting emoji*

oof

kuz is not good

“frank vogel looking for some scoring...” as waiters clangs a mid range jumper off the rim with 4:30 left in a playoff game... not the greatest omen for the lakers

houston winning this series would be genuinely funny i support it

a friend said that to me too but i think ultimately i want to see the lebron vs kawhi showdown

james harden loves him some game 1s, we'll see where this goes.

yeah that's where i circle back to w/ this series. if lebron is playing in a game 6 or game 7 he's putting up 35-15-15. if harden is playing in one he's shooting 2-13 from the field w/ 11 points

Lakers never looked into it

Everything starts with their defense and rebounding

lakers played at 75% speed the whole game

dont think ive cheered for a rockets team since... 95?

yeah i'm having a tough time with this one, heart would prefer both teams implode

rockets have the weird ability to make any game bad

Lakers have looked so bad all bubble, I think the rockets take this. Think the thunder had a shot too

xp its so impressive, really feel like they deserve the chip for it

The Bucks have made many, many, many questionable decisions in this series, but I *really* don't get why they aren't ducking under every Jimmy Butler PnR.

Butler shot 30.5 percent (!!!) on jumpers out of PnR during the regular season via Synergy.

🗣️ SOUND ON pic.twitter.com/nggOmsJ9Qm

— Karens In Paris (@NekiasNBA) September 5, 2020

not great coach bud

*2 point game*

[insert Rondo] pic.twitter.com/udBSoTwiRB

— pickuphoop (@pickuphoop) September 5, 2020

Rondo running around trying to look like he’s doing something smh

not gonna get it done!

Boston shot 7/35 (20%) tonight. This was the 7th time in NBA history a playoff team shot 20% or less on 35+ attempts. They've all come in the past 4 years and Boston now has 3 of them.

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) September 6, 2020

i mean yeah

Jaylen Brown: "I'm a good shooter. I just got to make them."

— Boston.com Celtics News (@BDCCeltics) September 6, 2020

Raptors bandwagon up and running.

defending champs, y'know

It felt like one of those games (applicable to all sports) where Toronto was unable to put them away for much of the last quarter and were destined to lose.

nuggets up 19 after the first quarter, just as I expected

Nuggets looking sharp

dankver nuggs

Hey the 3rd seed in the West is pretty good

I believe it was Shaq tonight who said something to the effect of "Denver has two teams, the one that shows up and the one that doesn't"

tonight was like night and day as compared to game 1

if they get that garry harris a few more times this series that could be the difference. i still dont know what the nuggets best 5 lineup is but having grant and harris in together when kawhi and pg are in seems good.

the nuggets lost 3 of the 4 quarters but still won the game, which disproves my quarter theory

there should be a final tally where points are awarded for "winning the most quarters" like mario party

games should be comprised of one 48 minute quarter (divided into 4 sixteenths)

the winning team should have to achieve some particular statistical feat off a list of options before they can end the game like in japanese mahjong

Question from a baseball fan. (As soon as the Raptors exit, you'll be rid of me.)

Clutch-hitting was a big subject of debate for years--the overwhelming consensus among analysts now is that, with a large enough data sample, no such thing exists. (Bill James was the first to arrive at that conclusion; always the contrarian, I believe his view now is that it hasn't been studied properly, or can't be studied, or something that allows that it might exist with certain players.)

Lowry was great down the stretch yesterday, and my sense is that he's thought of as a pressure player. Kawhi, too, and Jordan, etc.

Has this been studied in basketball?

a) reliably clutch players exist in basketball

b) reliably clutch players don't exist (I remember Lowry missed a game-tying shot in the finals last year...albeit a tough one)

c) you can't really compare the two sports (basketball's a team sport, baseball is batter vs. pitcher)

lowry's rep was actually that he sucks in the playoffs, after a bunch of poor performances 2-3 years ago. i dont know that he's done enough to overturn that

i believe in b) in terms of jump shooting but im guessing theres some folks here who believe in the Hot Hand. for overall performance c) is more accurate, i don't think anything besides open jumpers and free throws have the context-free statistical purity of baseball

Mike Budenholzer says Giannis is warming up and testing his injured ankle. But no final decision on Giannis' status for Game 4 yet.

Budenholzer: "He's giving it everything he can to be available."

— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) September 6, 2020

https://i.imgur.com/5A3WFRN.png

seasoning the sweep chamber

Being in Toronto, I no doubt get a distorted view of Lowry's reputation (added to the casualness of my own fandom).

another issue with studying clutch basketball performance is that there are only so many clutch opportunities, which disproportionately go to the best players, so then i think those players get an outsized perception of whether they are clutch/not clutch based on tiny samples (e.g. lowry's last two seasons vs....all the seasons before that). at least in baseball everybody has their turn to hit.

i think there was a pretty comprehensive study of hot hand shooting done a couple years ago and it concluded that there is a small but real effect. hot hand obv different from clutch performance.

There's also, I would think, the ability to draw a lot of defenders to you when the game is on the line and knowing when to pass off--Walker's pass the other night was every bit as clutch as OG's shot.

I.e., which is where the team aspect of basketball clouds the comparison.

clutchness in basketball imo its more about ability to get buckets under the increased defensive intensity of late game situations than like not being nervous in big spots which is just some sportwriter bs, like anunobys shot is m/l just a normal open corner 3 pointer but kemba saw a trap dribbled out of it and created a dunk which is pretty unheard of in that situation where usually you end up getting contested 3s

contested jumpers rather

the great play on anunobys shot was lowrys pass fwiw, idk if it was clutch, as mentioned lowery has not been historically very clutch which makes sense if you look at his game you can stop him if you really need to hes not an elite scorer

That pass by Walker was incredible. Even though the Raptors had lost a lead, I didn't even feel bad when it looked like that pass had sealed the win--it was something I was glad I got to see.

kinda sad that itll be lost to history, a truly great play