ITS THE OFFS BABY THE 2023 NBA PLAYOFFS

nba big men often bloom late. looney's arrived as a role player holla fame guy.

hollinger on parity

You want evidence of competitive balance? Well, we didn’t have a 60-win team this year for the second time in three years (pro-rating for shortened seasons) … something that only happened one time in the previous 40. It was “1 vs. 8,” yes, but only 14 wins separated Milwaukee from Miami, and just eight kept the Lakers from Memphis.

Even winning 55 games is an increasingly rare feat: Only two teams did it each of the last two years, and just three made it in 2018-19. In 2012-13 and 2014-2015, we had six.

How about this: only six teams this season had a point differential of greater than plus-3.0 per game, itself a pretty modest sign of dominance and/or legitimate contender status. Already three of them have been eliminated from the playoffs. If you’re looking for that indicator to hold, Denver, Philadelphia and Boston are your only teams left of the eight that made the conference semis.

not moving like someone whos going to play basketball today

Joel Embiid did some light shooting before this morning’s shootaround. pic.twitter.com/5x365f948m

— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) May 1, 2023

Isn’t that just his normal movement

shooting before shootaround

pre-boarding

i guess you never say never but it’s been a week of them being pretty open about him not playing tonight

honestly wonder if they look better in this match up w/o him out there……

I think Maxey is a huge factor. If they get the Maxey of the first round, Sixers have a shot. If they get the Maxey who has underperformed against the Celtics in the past, it might be a quick series (especially if Embiid misses a couple games).

on his pod w/russillo simmons was saying he's heard no embiid for the first two games

honestly wonder if they look better in this match up w/o him out there……

― J0rdan S., Monday, May 1, 2023 11:42 AM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol cmon

reading some series previews and everyone is talking about the end of season game where embiid scored 52 without mentioning that it wasnt serious playoff seeding was pretty much already set celtics just letting grant guard him one on one and so forth, guess it makes the story a lil more exciting but really all the games were close even if the celtics did win the three where they were actually trying

hey, embiid putting up big numbers while his rivals coasted is going to get him an MVP. let’s not muddy the narrative

lol the votes are already in it doesnt matter now

that game vs the celtics was wild. celtics clearly not trying to give anything away. im sure theyll just stick grant and blake on him again and see how it goes.

been reading/listening to a lot over the last 48 hours about how the suns are in trouble in this series, which echoes what we all posted after that game, but my alarm bells are officially going off now that everyone is saying the same thing about this series after only a game. this is smelling like a fairly dominant suns win tonight that produces an equal amount of articles/podcast episodes about how we have a series now & what the suns did to turn it around in game 2…

xp generally over the last x number of year the celtics have been happy to defend embiid mostly straight up with some hedging make him think a lil about where hes going then in the second half mix in more double teams, he has great numbers against them but the celtics have the wins def a let him get his strategy which is doable cause they have horf who at least makes him work

will be interesting to see what adjustments the suns have for game two its tough cause they have so few games with kd theyre adjusting from what, getting him some catch and shoot threes would be smart imo

im a suns skeptic tho so theyre gonna have to prove me wrong show me the money and so forth

been reading/listening to a lot over the last 48 hours about how the suns are in trouble in this series, which echoes what we all posted after that game, but my alarm bells are officially going off now that everyone is saying the same thing about this series after only a game. this is smelling like a fairly dominant suns win tonight that produces an equal amount of articles/podcast episodes about how we have a series now & what the suns did to turn it around in game 2…

― J0rdan S., Monday, May 1, 2023 1:11 PM (thirty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think all the reasons to be concerned are correct, but I just doubt this is going to be a short series and you might be right. the nuggets are a team that are not known for showing up with full intensity on a game to game basis — when they were up 2-0 in the last series, it was the first time in the jokic era they had led 2-0 in any series. just the way it is

I haven’t read or listened to much of anything since game 1 but given their lack of depth on the bench, I imagine the suns adjustments are going to be something like hammering the pick and roll on offense and increasing their 3 point rate. they’re probably fucked in terms of stopping the nuggets offense but if they can limit turnovers and try to close the 3 point gap they have the talent to win, assuming their players can hold up playing 42+ minutes for 4+ more games

you just have to deal with Joker and Murray, they are who they are, but the times in the Wolves series when Porter Jr. started going off as well.... that's rough

suns shot 50% in the first game would be good to get more threes def but its not really who they are theyre gonna have to find a way to play some defense

joker coasted his way to a cool 24-19-5

slowing the game down in order to conserve energy would be good for them too

he missed a bunch of layups/putbacks too didnt have his best game

yeah his touch has been way off the last couple of games at least, I do wonder whether he's still nursing that calf injury

as a resident kd liker i am not super invested in proving the suns are bad actually but i wouldnt bet on them to win any of the denver games

KD isn't actively unlikable like Kyrie or Dillon Brooks. I'd say he's just a bit off-putting and I think he prefers it that way. He doesn't want to be loved so much as to be allowed a bubble of privacy, within which he can safely make comments over social media when he chooses to. His game reflects his personality, being more about controlling the shots he gets than it is about being venturesome and risk-taking.

idk if this is because of social media but it seems like a lot of all-star caliber players these days are also gigantic weirdos who are both easy to love and easy to hate

Sixers’ Joel Embiid (right knee sprain) is out

— Keith Pompey (@PompeyOnSixers) May 1, 2023

I'm not free until 9 or 9:30 so I'm recording the game. Might not even have to watch.

celtics already with better ball movement than the entire atl series

these teams not missing

celtics 26 paint points in quarter

this game is insane

celtics should simply shoot 80% for the rest of the playoffs

no excuse after this proof of concept

worth a try

old man horf playing some stout d. he really likes these sixers matchups

horfs still got it i dont know how but he does

wow nice little run for Philly to close out this half

first fts with 30 secs left in the half

was rooting for the ft less half

whoa that was a sick play by Philly to get the 3

fast first half

philly 58% from 3, boston only 57%

rough

tatum with great plays to finish the last two quarters