The 2022 National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs Thread

This is insane lol

imagine watching chris paul do his thing and thinking “I’m not having a good time”. doesn’t compute!

I mean he did have to throw a lil bastard move to bait the refs into an offensive foul call in the middle of that run of course

right, lol. chris paul is great but also chris paul chooses to be an annoying brown noser in the middle of his greatness sort of sums up his entire career.

unfortunately for him the playoff gods will never let him prosper. but he will always have his second round triumphs

Absolute clinic by the suns there in the 4th. Put luka in action and go to work and let him cook all game so he’s tired in the 4th and no one else is in rhythm

unfortunately for him the playoff gods will never let him prosper. but he will always have his second round triumphs

The hoops gawds will not reward this

Did CP3 just grab his arm to draw an offensive foul? pic.twitter.com/UeFO4QgnNS

— Jake Reetz (@jajareetz) May 5, 2022

This is bananas.

The Suns went after Luka 50 times as the screen defender FIFTY and scored a casual 1.72 points per chance.

Wow.

— Haralabos Voulgaris (@haralabob) May 5, 2022

Through two games, Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler have run 35 direct pick-and-rolls at either DeAndre Jordan or Paul Reed. Including assist opportunities, they've produced 56 points (1.6 ppp) out of those actions.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) May 5, 2022

extremely weird there are no games tonight and that philly-miami and phoenix-dallas play again on friday before the other two series come back. bucks, celtics, warriors, grizzlies getting three days off in the middle of the series while the other 4 teams play every other night the whole way unless there’s a game 7. not sure i get that one

its just tv stuff putting the more popular teams on the good days and so forth, def unfair to the teams who get less rest

what the hell am i supposed to do tonight

watch da red sox hawhaw

i'm playing basketball tonight. gonna do some ja shit

take flight brother

its just tv stuff putting the more popular teams on the good days and so forth, def unfair to the teams who get less rest

i was in LA last week. watching a basketball game at 10 am… weird stuff

yeah friday night is a bad tv night at least historically idk if people still "do things"

lol recall once being in CA and setting an alarm to make sure i woke up in time to watch basketball

i guess i’m mostly puzzled why there aren’t any games tonight like you could still have the games on saturday playing the normal every other day schedule, why are those four teams getting three days off, i don’t understand. thursday night is NBA night what is going on

day games are a scourge imo

i think its so if theres a game seven in the popular series itll be next weekend

feel like every game boston plays is intense enough to need three days off tbh

the celtics need time to do self care ok

booker is klay now

Devin Booker had 30/4/4 with only 46 touches in game 2 (less than Jae Crowder). This is one of the best examples of who he’s become. For reference Luka had 35/5/7 with 92 touches, twice as many. Booker is the most egalitarian NBA star.

— Mike Vigil (@protectedpick) May 5, 2022

Among guys still in the playoffs, here's the "Points Per Touch" Leaderboard (min. 40 touches/game):

1) Devin Booker - .492
2) Klay Thompson - .458
3) Deandre Ayton -.404
4) Joel Embiid - .375
5) Steph Curry - .367

Versatility creates efficiency. pic.twitter.com/AnxKxRDS2n

— Sam Cooper (@scooperhoops) May 5, 2022

booker looks really good like if the suns win the title he will def win finals MVP. he’s such a well rounded scorer

yeah getting his 3pt shot to click was the final piece

and hes a scrapper on defense too, salute to book

the post game quotes from doc are interesting he’s basically doing everything short of hanging a banner behind him that says “i need a better roster.” the “him” in the first sentence here refers to harden:

"They're throwing double teams at him really quickly. They know what we have on the floor at times," Doc Rivers said. "We needed Matisse (Thybulle) on the floor, I thought he did an excellent job overall on Tyler Herro, but now you got Matisse and (DeAndre Jordan), or Matisse and Paul (Reed) on the floor, and they're really just playing a two-man zone off of those two guys. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't."

couper moorhead the heat writer pointed out that when the sixers have gone small with niang or harris at center the offense gets juiced but the defense doesn’t look overmatched so much as like they have no idea what they’re doing bcuz they’ve never played together — missing rotations, repeatedly leaving herro wide open for threes etc. which falls on doc for being so rigid about his rotations in the regular season and not preparing the team to play without a center in the playoff which almost feels like a prerequisite nowadays.

i continue to think the doc/morey marriage is in its last days regardless of how this series plays out. but embiid being out makes it clear that the entire back half of the sixers roster needs to be overhauled. like 5 or 6 new players, more shooting, more ball handling, guys you can trust in the playoffs esp if you assume at this point embiid is gonna miss some games in every playoff run. harris, maxey, harden had 75 points last night, nobody else on the team had more than 8 (korkmaz). the shooting will turn when they get back home i’m sure but it’s feeling like a house of cards roster that is propped up by one amazing but frequently injured center.

what if and hear me out instead of filling out their roster they traded for another guy

watch da red sox hawhaw

― lag∞n, Thursday, May 5, 2022 7:34 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

fp

*yelling as im being taken away in handcuffs* GO SAAAWX

lol

The Heat have a 149.2 (!!) ORtg when DeAndre Jordan is on the court this series.

32-58 FG (55.2%)
9-22 3PT (40.9%)
62.9 eFG%

Next worst Sixers player (Korkmaz) has a 119.8 DRtg.

— Justin Phan (@jphanned) May 5, 2022

def keep playing him tho doc good thinking

granted i think theyd be down 0-2 right now no matter who they woulda played in the game but at least with hoisting you give yourself a shot.

bam is just completely destroying him, deandre looks like a player who came out of retirement in an emergency

it makes no sense that hes seen any meaningful playing time in the last 4-5 years

The NBA is suspending Memphis’ Dillon Brooks for Game 3 vs. Golden State on Saturday, sources tell ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 5, 2022

it was weird that this was even a question

rip sixers rough break

76ers are listing All-Star Joel Embiid as out for Game 3 vs. Heat on Friday.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 5, 2022

Looks like Miami’s gonna get an easy road to the ecf. Usually a good sign for making it to the finals

apparently they're still leaving the door open for embiid to play tomorrow. i think he's gonna play bcuz the series is prob over if he doesn't

apparently he wasn’t even able to look at his phone until yesterday? seems like a lot to do to clear the protocol in time.

That’s horrible

But he's annoying so it's cool.

They can’t list him as anything other than out until he clears the concussion protocol. I can’t tell you whether he will or won’t with certainty, but listing him “out” right now does not necessarily mean he doesn’t play, it means he hasn’t cleared it *yet* https://t.co/f9J5uxA7SC

— Kyle Neubeck (@KyleNeubeck) May 5, 2022

feel like they should have somehow scheduled a lakers game tonight — i miss watching them lose

some no games night content...

just for fun i've been keeping a (subjective) tally of the best player in every game in the playoffs. i haven't seen every game so some of these are based off tweets/box scores, but i've seen some of most of them. in some cases (one major case) i made a judgement call or there really wasn't a great choice, it's also prob weighted a bit towards offensive and box score contributions. but i feel like this more or less maps across how the playoffs have felt. this is what i have so far

5

Giannis Antetokounmpo (r1 g1, r1 g3, r1 g4, r1 g5, r2 g1)
Chris Paul (r1 g1, r1 g3, r1 g5, r1 g6, r2 g2)

4

Ja Morant (r1 g2, r1 g3, r1 g6, r2 g2)

3

Jimmy Butler (r1 g1, r1 g2, r1 g4)
Luka Doncic (r1 g4, r1 g5, r1 g6)
Joel Embiid (r1 g2, r1 g3, r1 g6)
Jordan Poole (r1 g1, r1 g2, r2 g1)
Jayson Tatum (r1 g2, r1 g3, r1 g4)

2

Bam Adebayo (r2 g1, r2 g2)
Jalen Brunson (r1 g2, r1 g3)
Brandon Ingram (r1 g2, r1 g4)
Nikola Jokic (r1 g3, r1 g4)
Pascal Siakam (r1 g4, r1 g5)

1

Bojan Bogdanovic (r1 g1)
Devin Booker (r2 g1)
Jaylen Brown (r2 g2)
Steph Curry (r1 g5)
DeMar DeRozan (r1 g2)
Anthony Edwards (r1 g1)
De'Andre Hunter (r1 g5)
Kyrie Irving (r1 g1)
Jarren Jackson Jr. (r1 g6)
Tyrese Maxey (r1 g1)
Karl-Anthony Towns (r1 g4)
Trae Young (r1 g3)

no games tonight? what the fuck