#focus#mustwin#playoffs#drama? : 2013 NBA playoffs

it should come with an asterisk because it's the East

weren't you arguing a few weeks ago that the knicks 2 seed should come w/ a heavy asterisk because so many other players in the east are injured

― 乒乓, Sunday, May 19, 2013 3:20 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

how does this not strengthen the argument that it's a failure that they got the 2 seed and only won 6 total games

well you could infer the opposite which is that they're really more like a 5 or 6 seed who happened to get #2, and therefore weren't really gonna win that many games anyway

I don't see how the amount of games won is a particularly good indicator of anything. I mean would the point be moot had they won 7?

remember when rick reilly said memphis couldn't win in the playoffs because Z-Bo was a "punk"

"Never pick a team with Zach Randolph on it. He has an extra punk chromosome." --Rick Reilly, 2011

that was a nice ambidextrous eurostep by conley

are they really gonna give ginobili 3 fts here smh

hahahahah fuckin bullshit

BALL DONT LIE MANU

omg kawhi leonard low post move?

Can't wait for manu to retire

omg kawhi leonard low post move?

― Matt Armstrong, Sunday, May 19, 2013 4:15 PM (8 minutes ago)

doesn't matter he was drafted in 2011

TA just straight-up tripped parker

playoff tiago is not good tiago

#drama

pop just let boris have it for that dumb pass to manu

"are you shitting me??"

why does boris hate shooting so much idgi

BONNER

manuuuu

z-b0

a series doesnt start until the home team loses

... amirite?

well you could infer the opposite which is that they're really more like a 5 or 6 seed who happened to get #2, and therefore weren't really gonna win that many games anyway

― 乒乓, Sunday, May 19, 2013 3:25 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

this would make sense if we were talking about the knicks in a historical context, but nothing changed in the 2013 eastern conference between the regular season and the playoffs that altered the landscape

why not rest timmy?

well a good defense is always more valuable than a good offense in the playoffs and indiana had the league's best D

also you're acting like the knicks didn't lose to a #3 seed in indiana

i think your first argument is more on the nose... out of all the teams the knicks only had the 7th or 8th best record, they were never really a 'true' #2 seed

a good defense is not always more valuable than a good offense, actually you're on defense for half the time and offense for half the time so they're equally important

good contribution k3v

if the entire carmelo era was building up to beating a 7 seed missing its best player and then losing in the second round i'm certainly not going to complain but that is muuuuuch closer to the "failure" end of the pendulum than it is the "success" end

stronger defensive teams do tend to do better in the playoffs, though

it is true though that if you're not top 10 in both categories you're gonna have trouble making the nba finals

and by pendulum i of course mean spectrum

the knicks roster is just too damn weird

the knicks will be paying steve novak 53.75 million

in 2016

i think we're just gonna have to own up to the fact that melo is overrated, you just can't get very far with an offense built around a jump shooting big, what are his usage stats like?

lol that was supposed to be a $

i think we're just gonna have to own up to the fact that melo is overrated, you just can't get very far with an offense built around a jump shooting big, what are his usage stats like?

― 乒乓, Sunday, May 19, 2013 5:50 PM (5 seconds ago) Bookmark

http://www.theeyeworks.com/images/uploads/mavs_championship_lessons.jpg

but yes of course melo is overrated

stronger defensive teams do tend to do better in the playoffs, though

i'd like to see the evidence for this, i would bet there's more of a benefit to being a slow team than there is a good defensive team. the latter just seems like a sportswriter cliche

the contorting that simmons does for carmelo at times is insane

I know what I'm getting with Carmelo. The dude loves playing in New York. He can handle any pressure/spotlight/scrutiny you throw at him there. He loves taking and making big shots. He's one of a handful of current players — maybe Durant, Harden, Curry, Paul, Kobe and that's it — who would step on a court with LeBron right now and think, Fuck that guy, I'm as good as him. And if he's playing well, you can absolutely win the title with him.

if he's playing well, you can get to the conference finals with carmelo once every 10 years

i'd like to see the evidence for this, i would bet there's more of a benefit to being a slow team than there is a good defensive team. the latter just seems like a sportswriter cliche

― you are not a better writer than f. scott fitzgerald. you are not a b (k3vin k.), Sunday, May 19, 2013 5:56 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well games tend to slow down in the playoffs and get tighter, which benefits teams that are good on defense

if the entire carmelo era was building up to beating a 7 seed missing its best player and then losing in the second round i'm certainly not going to complain but that is muuuuuch closer to the "failure" end of the pendulum than it is the "success" end

― J0rdan S., Sunday, May 19, 2013 9:46 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Knicks are loaded up on ancient veterans, have a payroll of about 80 million, and have an unprotected pick and an unprotected pick swap in the next 4 drafts. They need to at least make the finals for this to be worth it. Maybe they play with fire and don't get burned but there's a serious risk of being one of the worst teams in the NBA in 3 or 4 years.

and the pacers did not beat the knicks because good defense beats good offense. they beat the knicks because their defensive strategy (denying 3s) was suited to stopping the knicks entire basis for success (hitting 3s) and also because woodson chose not to play his best players or try to shoot 3s

so basically they beat the knicks because they had a good defense that beat the knicks good offense

i'd like to see the evidence for this, i would bet there's more of a benefit to being a slow team than there is a good defensive team. the latter just seems like a sportswriter cliche

― you are not a better writer than f. scott fitzgerald. you are not a b (k3vin k.), Sunday, May 19, 2013 5:56 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

well games tend to slow down in the playoffs and get tighter, which benefits teams that are good on defense

― J0rdan S., Sunday, May 19, 2013 5:58 PM (1 minute ago)

no it benefits teams who play in the halfcourt, which sometimes, probably more often than not, are the good defensive teams

so basically they beat the knicks because they had a good defense that beat the knicks good offense

― 乒乓, Sunday, May 19, 2013 6:01 PM (27 seconds ago)

yes if you want to go through life not understanding things you should definitely try to fit everything into received wisdoms like this

you're splitting hairs, we're making the same point

xp

kev youre really blowing my mind here with this "but is there really even such a thing as a good defense, maaaaaan' college freshman seminar philosophizing

i think it's an important point though. like if someone who understood statistics better than me actually looked at the data and ran a multivariate analysis, i don't think "top 5 PPP defense" would be significantly more predictive of playoff success than "top 5 offense" would be. i could buy the idea that pace might be though

it's already been established itt and by advanced stat geeks that indiana had one of the best defenses in the league, if youre really gonna make me have to talk about brass tacks and bolts and qualify every sentence i make about indiana with specific defense strategies i'm probably just gonna shoot myself now