ITS THE OFFS BABY THE 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS

it must be said… lebron james

pretty rough loss for the grizzlies

they were resilient tonight so i’m not counting them out of this series but they’re in a tough spot now

The Bucks, Cavs and Grizzlies aren't in *quite* as bad a situation as the overall 95% series win probability for teams up 3-1. Most teams up 3-1 have home court. They've won 98% of the time since 1984* (119-2). When the team without home court is up 3-1, that drops to 89% (44-5).

— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) April 25, 2023

excited for two more days of is dillon brooks a villain

Jimmy Butler this playoffs:

36.5 PPG
5.5 RPG
5.0 APG

Only MJ and LeBron have averaged 35/5/5 on 50+ FG% in a playoffs… Jimmy is doing it on 62.8 FG%. pic.twitter.com/LY6JAkCdEb

— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 25, 2023

Jas career is not going to last very long hes way to reckless

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FuiQvIlXwAggYGX?format=jpg&name=large

hmm are we really going to have a 1 seed and a 2 seed lose in the same playoffs. when did that last happen

lose in the first round, rather

that ja play spottie posted made me say “oh no” out loud

Last night the Heat became the seventh team in postseason history to shoot 40+ percent from three on at least 25 attempts in four consecutive games.

The other six teams finished Top 10 in 3pt% in their respective seasons. Miami finished No. 27.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 25, 2023

hard to complain because they did win a title but "regression to the mean" is a pretty common phrase here during the playoffs. usually it's b/c the Bucks are often top 10 from deep over the regular season but wind up shooting something like 18% from 3 over the course of an entire series. speaking of which I noticed Jrue had yet another one of those 2 for 11 shooting games

Though I do think there's a lot to be said for Miami's shooters and scorers all having a certain comfort level against Milwaukee's scheme. There's always a shot available to them, for the most part, even if they aren't premium opportunities.

— Couper Moorhead (@CoupNBA) April 25, 2023

i was lead to believe that the bucks had cleaned up their 3pt defense this year

sad lol

Mike Budenholzer making adjustments pic.twitter.com/ImGonPOwZE

— Craigory Smith (@nihilist_bucks) June 8, 2021

haa

pretty insane they never took the ball out of butler's hands when the heat have zero other players who can do anything w/ the ball at this point

went back and watched highlights of butler's game 6 vs boston last year and scoring 103 points across two playoff games is crazy enough in itself but in crunch time in both games he was being guarded largely by jrue holiday & marcus smart. and then throughout the game last night he scored repeatedly on giannis & brook, prob two of the 5 best defenders in the game, and in the boston game last year he got robert williams a few times at the rim as well as horford. and he was being checked by tatum at times. not only huge scoring games but just ruthlessly killing some of the best defenders of this era w/ midrange excellence and professor level footwork in the paint. his knack for and 1s in those games is incredible as well and overall just has an irreplaceable feel for the moment & the ability to get huge buckets at the absolute crunchiest of crunch time

also it will be forgotten but in both games the heat needed a role player to hit some big open threes in the fourth quarter to keep the heat afloat. it was lowry vs boston (i had forgotten about this, he was huge in that game) and martin last night

salute to jimmy love jimmy one of the coolest players out there for sure

15-20 guys ahead of him even for the regular season is insane then again a bunch of professional basketball writers just ranked karl towns and trae young over him so this might just be one ppl can’t grasp for whatever reason

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, April 25, 2023 12:40 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

ultimately you and I agree that he’s generally an underrated player, but people can be forgiven for taking the under on him as an 82 game guy imo. per dunksandthrees, coming into this season he’d ranked 13th, 35th, 11th, 8th, 23rd in estimated wins over the past 5 years. he also shot under 25% from 3 the past 3 years and is a pretty mediocre shooter from all over the floor in general, relying almost completely on getting to the free throw line to have a passably efficient offensive game, which considering he turned 33 this year was a fair bet to regress. but to his credit he had the best year of his career. bless the doctors in miami

7-16 from three in those games too. i don’t understand how he can just be like, wow biggest game of the year huh ok time for me to be amazing at this thing i normally suck at

xp to myself occam’s razor suggests he just doesn’t try as hard in the regular season, seems like he’s reaching the same conclusion as most of the non-embiid superstars there

:)

atl just controlling this game after losing 14 of 16 to the heat wild stuff

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 11, 2023 9:53 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

happy news for the celtics heat always give them trouble

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 11, 2023 9:54 PM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

i was gonna say ppl just underrate butler in the regular season. last year he was the undisputed best player on the no 1 seed in the east w/ a roster that is half undrafted players and not only did he never get mentioned in MVP discussions he didn’t even make all NBA. and then he was easily one of the 5 best players in the playoffs last year. and then didn’t make the all star team.

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, 25 April 2023 04:10 (twelve hours ago)

Obv the guy is a HOFer but it's still amazing to me that he remains underrated. I do think he was overshadowed on his teams before taking his talents to Miami, also probably just the fact he bounced around a bit before settling in there. Players who are on several different teams over such a short span, in any sport, are gonna get dinged for it. It's not even a conscious thing but more a narrative thing. It's more the perception of him vs the reality of him to an extent.

I've always liked him, back in his bulls era he was a pleasure to watch evolve (while derrick rose fell apart)

also was widely considered insane during that bounce around era

lol what is this defense

And this is why those Butler vs. Middleton buckets were important. Miami can now tap into that matchup. Lowry screens for Butler, Bucks don't want to switch so it's a show and recover. Jimmy turns the corner, defense helps, kick to Martin for 3. pic.twitter.com/DY3Wy2gc7Z

— Steve Jones Jr. (@stevejones20) April 25, 2023

ultimately you and I agree that he’s generally an underrated player, but people can be forgiven for taking the under on him as an 82 game guy imo. per dunksandthrees, coming into this season he’d ranked 13th, 35th, 11th, 8th, 23rd in estimated wins over the past 5 years. he also shot under 25% from 3 the past 3 years and is a pretty mediocre shooter from all over the floor in general, relying almost completely on getting to the free throw line to have a passably efficient offensive game, which considering he turned 33 this year was a fair bet to regress. but to his credit he had the best year of his career. bless the doctors in miami

― k3vin k., Tuesday, April 25, 2023 12:51 PM (three minutes ago)

i don't know what estimated wins added per dunksandthrees is but if you wanna go by bball ref win shares overall rank since he's been w/ miami

22-23: 3
21-22: 10
20-21: 5
19-20: 8

win shares per 48:

22-23: 2
21-22: 6
20-21: 3
19-20: 9

538's WAR:

22-23: 5
21-22: 7
20-21: 15
19-20: 9

simple fact of the matter is that he's a top 10 player in the league regular season or playoffs. you can tell me he can't shoot and relies on fouling to be efficient but if you watch the guy every night he really just makes winning plays consistently on both sides of the ball and the above numbers bear that out. for whatever reason this reality eludes the ppl paid to cover the game who have repeatedly told us that players such as trae young, karl anthony towns & pascal siakam are better than butler even when he had the no 1 seed in the east so you're in good company k3vin in not being able to grasp this concept. but he's one of the 10 best players in basketball

the lack of regular season shooting is def part of it but also theres just something mysterious about jimmy hes not a normal player hes like half superstar wing and half marcus smart

needless to say extremely sweet combo

jordan we agree!! he proved all the doubters wrong

EPM is pretty widely considered the best composite metric out there btw and estimated wins is the number that accounts for minutes

I am not one of the people who thinks trae or KAT is better than jimmy. but as I am certain you understand, there is a difference between a regular season floor raiser (like those guys) and a legitimate playoff player, which jimmy unquestionably is and has been

to both of our points jimmy was 4th in EPM and 7th in wins this year, just a total beast year

why do you hate jimmy kevin

at heart he's an unselfish player who doesn't typically hunt huge point totals. his point/rebound/assist box score totals will rarely scream out to you partly bcuz his most impressive box score stats are usually his steals, blocks, lack of fouls, and foul shooting.

so in a sense i understand why, if you just look at box score stats, you might underrate jimmy butler. but the thing that's confusing to me is that we hear all the time that every widely available advanced stat says nikola jokic is the best player in the league & yet when those same stats -- which accurately capture the defensive & efficiency production a box score triple slash cannot -- clearly state that butler is a top 10 player, you routinely come across ppl inventing all sorts of reasons for why he isn't even one of the 6 best players at his own position or one of the 12 best players in his own conference.

it simply doesn't make sense, there's no argument to refute any of this, it's as wrong now as it would've been at any point over the last three years. people have just missed this one, it's all there in black and white, none of us are perfect, but i think we can admit the truth now

but as I am certain you understand, there is a difference between a regular season floor raiser (like those guys) and a legitimate playoff player, which jimmy unquestionably is and has been

― k3vin k., Tuesday, April 25, 2023 1:34 PM (twelve minutes ago)

this is another misconception that is being trotted out since last night. haralabob tweeted that jimmy is the definition of a 16 game player vs an 82 game player.

idk how you look at a heat roster w/ zero top 10 picks, several undrafted players as key rotation pieces (almost all of whom btw were terrible this year) and not also come to the conclusion that he's one of the best 82 game players we have. if you put any of the "just outside the top 10" type guys -- siakam, PG, KAT, towns, lillard, mitchell, brow, randle etc -- on this year's heat team they're bottom 10 in the league & are fighting w/ chicago and washington to make it into the play in.

i mean the heat *just* finished w/ a better record than the hawks or the wolves w/ less roster talent by any measure, and butler had maybe his best season on the heat, and yet i'm still here being told that he isn't a floor raiser a la trae young or KAT. make it make sense!!!!

ok, I feel like I am going insane, but this is probably how I sound when anyone says something nice about jokic but stops short of proposing that he be beatified

if you recall this discussion began with you bringing up his relative position on NBA rank *before this season*… all I said was that I agreed with you, but playing devil’s advocate, he doesn’t play a ton of minutes and is old so taking the under on him as a floor raiser *before this season* was a reasonable bet — all the smart people agree this does not apply to the playoffs…separate issue — obviously he went out and had the best regular season of his career while playing the most minutes he’s played in 5 years. and good for him! his team needed it this year

I am pro jimmy and I am pro jordan being happy!

he had the no 1 seed in the conference last year... does it count when you "raise the floor" all the way to the ceiling? i guess not

let go of the anger!!!

i stand with jordan, justice for jimmy

crazy that the bucks got 36 from brook and lost

Biggest on-off differentials in the playoffs, through 4 games for every series. pic.twitter.com/2dbg68Bwcv

— John Schuhmann (@johnschuhmann) April 25, 2023

bucks bench isnt holding up

so kindve a night off tonight huh

have they said whether kawhi is playing tonight? twitter is so useless as a news source

ty lue probably hasn’t heard yet either

coulda sworn I read yesterday kawhi was definitely out

A new generation of Kings fans finding out that being up 2-0 and winning a round is a whole different thing.