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

at the risk of posting every zach lowe piece this one is good too http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/63575/we-went-there-not-even-the-joey-crawford-revue-can-steal-the-pacers-shine

haberstroh pointed out that lebron has scored over hibbert only once this series

wow

if miami advances, what does that suggest for spurs defense against them? does duncan (or splitter for that matter) pose a similar threat?

be v curious to see what duncan can do on the offensive end

bank shots
18-foot jumpers
back-to-the-basket backdowns folowed by lil j's
transition dunks from parker feeds
pass the ball to tiago bc hey someone forgot to guard 7 foot edward cullen

who can guard him? birdman? bosh?

spurs move the ball and hit their 3s - that's their biggest asset vs miami

if miami advances, what does that suggest for spurs defense against them? does duncan (or splitter for that matter) pose a similar threat?

― one if by lamp, two if by deeznuts (m bison), Thursday, May 30, 2013 2:34 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no one outside of Larry Sanders poses the rim protecting threat Hibbert does

ya I don't think the spurs can defend the heat as well as indy but they should be able to score on them better except... indy has been m/l on fire so far

bron, west, and lance all fined 5k for flopping

Spurs can pass, dribble & shoot much better than the Pacers, so I'd expect that they'd be much better at breaking down Heat's D. Spurs on D different story since they don't have anyone down low to dissuade LeBron from driving inside, which is the big key. Miami's best offensive sets against the Pacers have been LeBron driving -> dumping off to a 97%fg dunkers Birdman and Haslem. Against Spurs, I'd imagine it'd just be 99%fg LeBron at the rim getting fouled by Duncan/Splitter.

But I like Spurs on offense-- been a while since the Heat had to play a team w/ a pg like Parker; can see Spurs doing a good job penetrating -> kick out -> extra pass that fucks up Miami's help D -> open 3s for M4tt and Leonard.

xp lol, did they get Bron/West on that double-flop play I'm guessing? And did Lance draw a T on LeBron when he overreacted? If so, then yeah, rescind all my Lance defense, that's a flop.

spurs were a top 5 defense this year and timmy/splitter are great interior defenders. danny green and kawhi can match up with wade and bron as well as any wing combo in the laegue can probably

Don't know if the playoff flop rules are anything like tech rules, but I'd love if they did a climbing $5k -> $10k -> $10k + 1 game suspension -> 10K + in-game shame-cone. Just kinda funny that the only people on earth who would be against it would be the players.

Right, but a D's game plan for LeBron has to be so specialized. The only thing keeping Indy's D afloat is Hibbert's ability to protect rim against a driving Bron w/o fouling, and aside from healthy Chandler and Howard, not sure there are many other players in the league who can do that.

That said, I'll never be surprised by a healthy Spurs team able to adjust/gameplan. Manu/Parker/Duncan have seen everything, so it's more a question if their bodies continue to hold up. One underreported storyline for Heat/Pacers is the amount of minutes Hibbert has had to play (and somehow not crapping out in the 4th Q)-- he's always had trouble playing more than 30min/game, and he's been logging a very stressful 40min/game during the close games this series.

good news for the Spurs is they have a pretty insane amount of time off

i think that's the bad news, actually

yeah that's always the question, whether a team will get cold. i don't think anybody really knows whether it's a positive or a negative. maybe for the spurs it'll be good to rest their old dudes

the Spurs are A) old and B) really well-coached, I think it'll probably be a plus for them

I always felt like "this team was cold" was kind of a lazy excuse. Because the "cold" team is always the one that had to sit because they got a bye (in the NFL) or swept a series and thus is usually the favorite. And of course favorites lose for a variety of reasons.

i don't think 12 days off is good for any team

the heat were totally out of sync in their first game vs the bulls after having a week off

yeah i mean again, who knows, it's all anecdotal. i would guess that if any team would be least affected by it, if the phenomenon even exists, it'd be the spurs

http://blogs.thescore.com/tbj/2013/05/30/video-shane-battiers-flopera

zone

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BLjOY4-CYAAkaYQ.jpg

Miami does the ball-rolling-to-midcourt-on-inbounds thing more than anyone in the league.

paul george ballin out

fuck mario chalmers. He's a next gen derek fisher wannabe.

Heat looking like the Italian World Cup team.

Geez Hibbert has become so much better over the last few years about setting his feat, finding his position, and nailing that little hook. His footwork this whole series has been max-level.

hibbert is really not sweating any of the heat defenders at all

wow birdman's dumm

this is what happens when u bring a nba jam character to life

and then he swats him on the next play!

Zach Lowe ‏@ZachLowe_NBA 2m
Just gonna assume Hansbrough gets the T for a career of being unwatchable. Not sure what he did wrong there, specifically.

Mike Prada ‏@MikePradaSBN 2m
Only explanation for Hansbrough's technical is that it's a retroactive one for being annoying all year. He didn't do anything here.

Love the birdcalls, tho, can't really ever hate on Birdman.

Watching Wade/Battier/Ray struggle is pretty fun.

You just saw the highpoint in the career of Sam Young right there.

good rebounding heats

indys rebounded 40% of their misses this series my god

you basically dont have to do anything else well on offense if you do that

if you get your own rebound, that counts as the same possession, right? because there's no way indy is scoring at 1.10 PPP straight up

right

haha bron just did a hilarious travel stopped looked around like youre not gonna call that then passed it

im not supposed to be posting from my honeymoon but wtf @ birdman still being in the game.

Dude, I love you like a brother but get the fuck away from here and enjoy your honeymoon!

All of these Sprint commercials are awful. Almost hate this one more than Durant's. Want to punch the screen every time I hear the dude say, " ... no, I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE UNLIMITED" barrrrrf.

xps Congrats and don't listen to EZ this potential Pacers win will be a golden memory you'll always cherish.

Eric Harvey ‏@marathonpacks 24m
No matter what Chris Andersen does for the rest of his career, he'll still be best known for sticking his fingers in Pedro's peanut butter

Argh, can't let LeBron pick up any speed like that.