nba playoffs aka the 'offs (which includes the 'ins) 2021

Nah Ewing theory is real... a real thing to think about. Stars getting injured and then people step into expanded roles and the team gains new energy and dj redd

*success

gonna be ewing theory until they don’t win a title and have traded every asset humanly possible for one western conference finals appearance

My theory is that guys in the NBA can fucking ball. Every last one of them. And that the talent gap from stars to role players isn't as large as it appears. But I do think NBA coaches rely too much on stars (cause it's the safe play), and once you eliminate that crutch from them the team game can flourish.

i basically agree that they have to run it back but if they don't have a better answer for "how do we defend smallball" heads will be rollingt

― call all destroyer, Saturday, June 19, 2021 1:05 AM (forty-six minutes ago)

i mean, this is what made that game so maddening. they left gobert out there the entire fourth quarter despite having ingles -- who btw was great as a perimeter defender the entire playoffs -- clarkson and even niang just rotting on the bench. it's crazy! it feels bad to pick on gobert but he wasn't giving them anything out there... they were conceding pre game warm up level three pointers every possession, and when they weren't he was not even really providing rim protection -- jackson and mann both scored on him multiple times in the fourth. and then on offense the only thing he could do basically was offensive rebound and get fouled and make 1 out of 2 free throws.

it was 1 of a million shot making from the clippers that can't be denied but snyder just sat on his hands the entire time despite having a roster that allowed him to match the clippers small ball line up. he didn't even try some combo of conley, mitchell, ingles, clarkson, bogdanovic and o neal for a second. literally not even one second, as their season just got flushed down the toilet. who knows if it turns the game around but you at least have to try. the more i think about it, it feels like fireable offense level coaching malpractice

like, we're in the midst of a week long hysterical news cycle/franchise meltdown over the mavs losing to a fully healthy clippers team in 7 games. so what should the jazz response to this game be? bcuz....

Damn what a game. Exhilarating stuff from Reggie and Mann, not even just the threes they were slashing right at Rudy too. Snyder no adjusting is up there in the top 3 worst coaching decisions this week lol.

pic.twitter.com/uS3EZAGCRb

— Jacob (AKA Rusty Buckets) (@RustyBUCKETS321) June 19, 2021

maybe its bad to give $40m to a guy who cant play offense idk

Holy shit @ Gobert's contract.

He did bring attention to the coronavirus, so he's not all bad.

This is extremely Ewing theory btw. No one likes Kawhi, he bums everyone out and takes vacations during the season.

― Matt Armstrong, Saturday, June 19, 2021 1:06 AM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i am not a ewing theory subscriber but kawhi in addition to being an unlikable weirdo is a ballstopper where pg to his credit has put a ton of work into becoming a playmaker and is good at it, past that this particular matchup was just a nightmare for the jazz playing against a ton of skilled players who can do all the things shoot dribble pass and so forth, and of course they did nothing to adjust to the clips going small when their $200m center not only cant defend that but has no ability to punish it either

two game sevens this weekend, a blessing

Woke up optimistic and feeling like Milwaukee is gonna flip the script, go into the fourth quarter 7 down and then dominate down the stretch by not getting rattled and letting Giannis play to his strengths

maybe its bad to give $40m to a guy who cant play offense idk

we need to start tracking those screen triple doubles

Gobert has great hands and the screens really are amazing but maybe they need more than that. Would really help if he could pass a bit.

i get that he’s never gonna have post moves but he should be able to seal off someone 6 inches shorter than him turn around and drop the ball in the basket? idk

consider the fact that the clippers turned two max contract big men (gobert & porzingis) into their teams number 1 liabilities on the floor, meanwhile the big who was most successful on them was boban who actually has skill around the basket and will put up points if you just stick a small forward on him. you can’t combat small ball with a $35/$40m center on the floor if he can’t score

pic.twitter.com/bC204cJTS2

— , (@probalynotdubs) June 19, 2021

Legz on the money

wow 100% otm

i saw this tweet earlier & it’s like, well this might be better than them shooting 15-20 from three!

The number of people #onhere who wanted to see Reggie Jackson go 20-25 at the rim is staggering. https://t.co/Wt89j920x8

— Anchorage Man (@SethPartnow) June 19, 2021

Haha yup. It doesn’t matter what you do at that point you gotta try… something

i think the point partnow was making in another tweet, and nate duncan made it as well, was that the jazz perimeter guys were all getting blown by, gobert was coming in to help, and then the jazz perimeter guys were fucking up rotating over to the open shooter.

which, fine. gobert had a bad game when he was getting challenged at the rim too, but maybe those 3s weren’t on him. but to have no other scheme or wrinkle to go to in the playoffs is either roster malpractice or coaching malpractice or both.

gotta try… something

― pure rim rest (Spottie), Saturday, June 19, 2021 3:40 PM (forty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s true they were getting blown by on the perimeter, even o neale couldn’t stay in front of anyone. but they were getting the worst of both worlds in that they were playing 5 shooters vs 4 in terms of offense but not getting any use out of rudy’s defense, so what’s the point. at least put another shooter out there and try and out score them. also he kept ingles who had been their best perimeter defender on the bench the entire time so

when your best perimeter player is a 33-yo australian guy maybe that's part of the problem

perimeter defender i mean

Ingles has lost a step for sure. Still solid tho.

That game was honestly a blast to watch. Ty Lue coached the hell out of that series. He pulled all the right triggers and they players responded.

Rudy, on the dfense: "The problem is if I don't come and help, we give up layups. … The gameplan was for us to let Terance Mann shoot rather than letting Reggie Jackson or PG get layups. We tried to adjust with full rotations. They played perfectly on almost every possession."

— Eric Walden (@tribjazz) June 19, 2021

I’m sure that was the game plan, but switch the game plan once randos start dropping 30 points uncontested

i also dispute the root of notion that the clippers played perfect on nearly every possession — i mean they did, but they weren’t doing anything complicated! they were driving into the lane, passing the ball, and then making one pass into the corner where rudy gobert’s man was standing wide open and hitting as little contested a three as you could imagine in the playoffs

yeah you just cant let terance mann drop 39 on you in an elimination game

its not like hes a non shooter he can hit a corner three its not a problem

every time bud puts in thanasis i think "he realizes giannis already re-signed right?"

Harden is flopping so hard, this is gonna be a long night

game 7 baby

Fucking asshole calls out Giannis for having no game then proceeds to act like he got hit by a truck every time someone’s leg brushes against him

already a bunch of atrocious reffing so that’s nice

Brooklyn have been gifted 7 fts already

fascinated by the internal ref assessments that indicate john goble should be working a game 7.

the tech on bruce brown was a completely egregious call in a game 7

it did look like he pushed him over but then he didnt actually maybe a little

he was just trying to prevent him from getting a shot off by keeping his hand on the ball and then giannis fell over

anyway good quarter of ball

Enjoyable 1st quarter but this crew needs to get its shit together.

— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) June 20, 2021

brown has been great in this game

blake griffin was blown at least three baskets in this series trying to dunk on people and failing

middleton or holiday making a shot would be good

Holiday and Middleton are a combined 4 of 21. pic.twitter.com/Ep00MklxdM

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) June 20, 2021

combined 4/21 jesus christ

holiday just hit the side of the backboard