The 2022 National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs Thread

feel bad for all the suns fans in the house youre super stoked for game seven then its over almost immediately and youre left watching the gorilla do dunks for hours

thats why i am kind of reluctant to go to a big playoff game where i have a rooting interest

And luka smiling and blowing kisses at you when he coulda been on your team

whoa I have the over on this game it might actually hit

brutal

Chris Paul is the first player ever to blow five 2-0 leads in a best-of-7 series.

2-0 vs Spurs in 2008
2-0 vs Grizzlies in 2013
2-0 vs Blazers in 2016
2-0 vs Bucks in 2021
2-0 vs Mavs in 2022

He is also the only player to blow four 2-0 leads. pic.twitter.com/Y6yXcKVT66

— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 16, 2022

Wow boban mad

big mad lol

haa

What u mean deserve why does he deserves it more?? https://t.co/Y0t0Sxbabu

— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) May 16, 2022

omg pat

Lol otm

lol what was this game

Lmao https://t.co/mXnvnNjSrL

— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) May 16, 2022

Shaq looks like "whats the stupidest I can make my 2k character look"

Shaq ready for DFW road trip @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/9MLcPM8RFp

— Shan Shariff (@1053SS) May 16, 2022

thats distorted but he does look pretty dumb anyway

there are stats, and then there are stats:

Folks, he actually dug it up. From @StatsWilliams:

Last time a team's starters scored 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 points in a 1st half was by the Warriors against the Jazz on Nov. 29, 1999.

The 5 starters...

Tony Farmer
Antawn Jamison
Mookie Blaylock
Adonal Foyle
ESPN's Tim Legler (!!) https://t.co/k1vCFdJmHg

— Zach Lowe (@ZachLowe_NBA) May 16, 2022

WoW

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199911290UTA.html

"It's internal." Monty Williams when asked why Deandre Ayton only played 17 minutes. #Suns #NBAPlayoffs #NBAPlayoffs2022

— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) May 16, 2022

not even signing ayton to a second contract the offseason after luka legendarily buries you in the playoffs would possibly cement that draft choice as one of the all time blunders in NBA history

CP3 and Luka would've been so cool

I was able to watch some of the first and second quarter and my thought was ayton needed the hook too, totally lifeless out there

CP3 and Luka would've been so cool

New excuse just dropped

Suns point guard Chris Paul limped out of the arena with a very slow walk. @andscape learned that Paul had a left quad injury. When asked about his quad injury, Paul declined comment.

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) May 16, 2022

luka, dinwiddie and brunson had 89 of the mavs 123 points. next leading scorer was dwight powell with 6

Crazy

probably not something that bodes well for their chances against the warriors

Lol, CP wasn't limping when he was statpadding with some signature smooth buckets in the 4th in garbage time.

Underrated storyline: The Phoenix Suns hired Luka Doncic’s Slovenian national team head coach, Igor Kokoskov, to be their head coach in 2018, and then a month later passed on Doncic in the draft. Kokoskov is now on the Mavs coaching staff watching this inferno.

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) May 16, 2022

unreal

So like…. Is porzingis the worst high-ish usage player in the league or what

Lol, CP wasn't limping when he was statpadding with some signature smooth buckets in the 4th in garbage time.

So like…. Is porzingis the worst high-ish usage player in the league or what

yah and unlike zinger, if maxi isnt getting it done on any given night you can sit him cos he isnt a high profile player

Luka Doncic in elimination games:

39-9-9
46-7-14
33-11-8
35-10-4

His 38.3 PPG is the highest in NBA history. pic.twitter.com/FkO3dsDX7T

— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 16, 2022

a talking point that turned out to not be overrated is that luka played and played at a very high level in so many big games before coming into the NBA that the playoffs just don’t phase him

his defense seemed to improve as this series went on... and bookers got worse.

interested to see how the dubs play him. not too much to learn from the reg season matchups cos guys were in and out of the lineups for all the games. will they let him cook and try to shut off the rest of the guys like they tried with ja or will they trap and make the other guys beat em? prob a mix of both. the warriors players 2-5 are better than the mavs 2-5 tho but as we just saw you only need a couple dudes to step up.

pretty wild that the dubs have homecourt the rest of the way.

bucks might have to rethink their defensive scheme

The Bucks were outscored by 19.2 points per 100 possessions with Brook Lopez on the court in the Boston series, surrendering a jaw-dropping 47.1 3-point attempts per 100 possessions in his minutes.

celtics started off taking the mediocre quasi contested 3s the bucks wanted them to but as the series went on they learned to pass those early shots up to drive and kick for quality looks ultimately culminating in the bucks baffling decision to just not guard grant williams in game seven, bucks came out in the second half looking like they knew they couldnt win even tho it was only a five point game, wonder if they lost faith in the scheme

is mike budenholzer bad actually

I've been saying that for a while

same

Ime is going to have to scheme better against Bud.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, May 1, 2022

I guess he did.

hollinger today introducing a new small ball concept "space ball" thats maybe just the same thing as five out, anyway good piece regardless, i guess its five out specifically with all guys who can guard the perimeter, so a five out lineup with a big shooting center like brook lopez wouldnt qualify, its small ball five out idk

Boston, meanwhile, ruthlessly exposed the Bucks’ limitations against space ball, starting with Al Horford’s 30-point outburst in Game 4. Horford was so effective standing on the perimeter and waiting for Lopez to wander off that the Bucks instead went to having Lopez guard Grant Williams for Game 7. He and Derrick White were granted as many open 3s as they could handle, the Celtics took an absurd 55 and the Bucks were toast.

Contrast this with a year ago: Without the go-to space-ball forward of their own in P.J. Tucker, especially, Milwaukee didn’t have the right perimeter talent. Tucker will now be taking part in the conference finals against Boston as part of a more space-ball-friendly roster in Miami, one that may feature him in stints at center when Bam Adebayo is off the floor.

The other problem with space ball is that it forces you to have five good perimeter players, not just two or three, and thus it pushes your depth to its limit — a thing that normally doesn’t happen much in the playoffs. The Bucks ended up counting on George Hill and Grayson Allen and paying for it. Phoenix tried dusting off Torrey Craig in Game 7 to disastrous effect.

space ball is a movie

ball wars

Pat Bev being such a troll today on First Take.

“Ain’t nobody afraid of anybody over there in Phoenix, man. Everybody in the league knows that.”

.@patbev21, tell us how you really feel about the Suns 👀 pic.twitter.com/GlxSAXUrq5

— First Take (@FirstTake) May 16, 2022

he hates cp3 so much

"Do guys in the NBA go to sleep early the night before playing the Phoenix Suns? Hell no. I'm going to Steak 44, have me a nice little wine."

Patrick Beverley is not worried when playing the Suns 👀pic.twitter.com/Qxi5eW0dFB

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 16, 2022

Lmaoooo