2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

have liked keldon when ive seen him

― lag∞n, Sunday, February 27, 2022 12:49 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

last year his offensive game was pretty much limited to charging to the basket and being able to finish through contact at a pretty good rate. now he's an elite catch and shoot 3 point shooter. if he can ever develop a drive and kick/playmaker set and/or put the ball on the floor to get some easy middies, he's looking at all-star offensive potential.

Ben won’t play at away games and Kyrie won’t play at home games.

just got wiz/hawks tickets for me and my son right next to the visitors tunnel. i want to rehearse some good advice my 5 year old can yell at the hawks as they come out. like "Kev, get to your spots, trae, stay on the attack, lou, wings tonight at the HOUSE?"

I like Harden in Philly it just makes sense

that first game was pretty brutal due to all the fts tbqh, which one would think would be an ongoing issue, gonna check out the second half of this game tho

feel like the fit is good and philly should be able to hit that sweet spot of being very competitive and sometimes unstoppable but ultimately self destructive due to having both harden and embiid, hopefully theyll fall at the hands of al "got mind control over joel embiid" horford one last time

the thing that could make philly really dangerous is if they figured out a way now that theyve got harden to do a lot of stuff to keep embiid fresh into crunch time of a playoff game

Embiid and Harden combined for 20 FTAs in the first half.

say by replacing his post touches with the pick n roll xp self

"A LETHAL COMBO-PLATTER" with Joel Embiid and James Harden

Could this be forming to be the leagues best Duo?!? pic.twitter.com/TRpVb6pRvo

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) February 27, 2022

Could this be forming to be the leagues best Duo?!?

Huh? Based on Harden's playing what? two? three? games as a Sizer?

i mean tbh they prob are just based on talent

Embiid has puzzlingly never been a good pick and roll guy, but he got some great looks in the first half. If Harden unlocks that, look out.

Xp

with an operator of hardens quality joel should be getting pick n roll buckets in his sleep

also without simmons gumming the lane up

i wonder what morey will have to pony up to the league for tampering with harden

it’s already been reported that no team asked for an investigation. it’s not like the nets want anyone looking into what they’ve been doing.

Thibs should be happy he found that sports almanac from the future, instead he’s getting T’d up.

not sure about the sixers D particularly in the backcourt harden/maxey is pretty weak at the point of attack and its unclear who theyd throw out there to beef it up thybulle is such an offensive liability, danny green idk

they do have some good defenders but overall its just not a super mobile or athletic roster

lol

oh my god are there james harden foul merchant defender bot accounts pic.twitter.com/GnZgO1tLDr

— 𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝💀𝕥𝕚𝕞💀𝕗𝕒𝕦𝕤𝕥 (@crulge) February 27, 2022

i have a hard time worrying about the defense of any team with joel embiid on it but i do think you got a preview at the end of that game how their offense can get gummed up in crunch time with teams forcing the ball to their role players to hit make or break shots

fournier and quickley not exactly two of the leagues premier guards were getting past the first line of D at will today

and yeah joel is a great defender but you really want to limit the amount of defense he has to play

End of game offense, which has been terrible since 2018, is one of things I think will be absolutely improved from Simmons - FTs if nothing else.

getting big men end of game looks is always difficult, good news is they do have a guard now who can get his shot whenever he wants, however that particular guards history of crunch time play.....

yeah i thought the same about quickley goon. instill think the issue is that you actually have to score at the rim with embiid in the paint. barrett got him at the end by stacking joel on his back and just laying it up but he absolutely freaks guys out just by being around the rim… guys start taking weird paint jumpers and shit.

it kinda makes me think about the strategy we saw beat the jazz by just going 5 out and repeatedly breaking down bad perimeter D and then kicking out for wide open threes while the legendary rim protector gets stuck in no man’s land. the major difference is that if you go small vs the sixers you still have to figure out how to stop embiid on the other end whereas gobert presents no such issue

yeah going five out could work but also just taking it at embiid and trying to foul/tire him out seems worth a shot too

fwiw celtics do have a guy who can guard joel and hit 3s, mightve done it before even

i do worry for the bucks if they see the sixers bcuz it doesn’t seem like brook lopez is gonna play this year? embiid will repeatedly stuff guys like ibaka and portis into the trash, and giannis doesn’t seem to love defending in the paint in that way. i think joel put up 43 or something on them right before the break.

otoh i could see jrue holiday harassing harden into multiple like 2-13 games so maybe they figure it all out

My personal opinion is there are several terrific teams entering these playoffs and any one of them can win. #nba

i will be bumping my thread from last year about how many teams can *actually* win the title in a year where people are like “anyone could win the title!”

relatedly, some recent podcasts about the top 75 players triggered discussion about the warriors and cavs finals era and shoutout to the warriors but the league is in a much better place right now, the playoffs are gonna be intense from the jump

amen (otm in church talk, its sunday)

not monty williams’ finest moment at the end of the game here

Yah that was rough

i don’t know if the downgrade from porzingis to bertans was, like, that huge

the 1 seed in the west feels up for grabs again

pretty awful choke by the warriors to blow a 20 point fourth quarter lead but against teams without a traditional big man the mavs are better without zinger. they switch everything on D and then go 5 out and luka is getting you a good shot every time down. it’s a bit like the formula the clippers were using

dubs score 2 points in the last 10 minutes? yikes.

very weird offense in the 4th

hornets got k o'd

Kelly Olynyk with the DAGGER to put the Hornets away in OT 🙌 pic.twitter.com/6BnjjoeuQA

— ESPN (@espn) February 28, 2022

the 1 seed in the west feels up for grabs again

― J0rdan S., Sunday, February 27, 2022 9:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s a huge long shot i think, suns would have to cough up a 6 game lead in 21 games

yeah i think the fight is the two seed and the 4-6 placement

beautiful shot by jelly k

salute to our boy jelly

you’ve come a long way, jelly

yuck
https://i.imgur.com/0FxBv4o.png

Lakers doing a nice Washington Generals impression tonight… think they just had their 20th turnover with 4:15 to go in the 3rd

Oh yeah and they’re losing by 29 to the Pelicans

the 1 seed in the west feels up for grabs again

― J0rdan S., Sunday, February 27, 2022 9:04 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it’s a huge long shot i think, suns would have to cough up a 6 game lead in 21 games

lakers are the worst team of all time

deandre jordan with what has to be the worst pass of the season

pic.twitter.com/Fs5SzMBWSi

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) February 28, 2022