It is the 2018-19 NBA Playoffs discussion thread for hoops friends ONLY

giannis is good

every series except spurs/nuggets feels over now

― ciderpress, Sunday, April 21, 2019 11:33 PM (yesterday)

honestly haven't cared at all about any series except this one

bad first round this year imo

historically, since the first round went to seven game series instead of five games, the first rounds rarely deliver more than cursory excitement, unless you find it fascinating to watch higher seeds choke.

Spurs nuggs and okc pdx have been v good imo

But the rest v snoozy. We always knew the 2nd round was where it was gonna be at this season

ehh i think there were a bunch of possible upsets this year but they didn't manifest

Jazz rox seemed good on paper

okc pdx has been good bc of the drama

The hoisting. It burns!

the kyrie-horf high pnr is death to slow footed tall guys

― lag∞n, Monday, April 22, 2019 8:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Celtics outscored the Bucks by 28 points during the 44 minutes both Al Horford and Brook Lopez were on the court during the regular season.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) April 23, 2019

i could see boston scheming robin lopez off the floor essentially but the bucks could just slide giannis to center and i don't think the celtics could really punish them for that or would want to even try

shdnt be too hard to scheme robin lopez off the floor since he plays for the bulls haha

brook lopez is the bucks leading 3pt maker and the bucks whole offense relies on spacing to get giannis single covered in the paint is the point of getting him off the floor

mirotic is 3rd btw another very attackable big man, ilyasova also fits the profile

saying the bucks whole offense relies on brook lopez feels a bit strong...

if someone said that i agree it wld be strong

i understand why they would want to get him off the floor i just think that the bucks have a lot of line up flexibility and some decent role players -- mirotic, ilyasova, dj wilson, sterling brown, tony snell etc -- to throw at the problem

the first two guys in that list are basically in the same boat as lopez tho, another interesting aspect of this series is the bucks give up a ton of threes and the celtics take a ton cld easily just swing on shooting variance yay lol

mirotic is a better athlete but maybe big al would wanna take him into the post. im just saying that i think this is a series where two good/smart coaches have lots of line up flexibility and one adjustment -- playing brook lopez off the floor -- would beget another etc. i think the bucks roster is good enough that there isn't going to be a skeleton key to solving them.

imo the bucks roster is pretty sus

i think they have a solid and intractable crunch time 4 and enough options for the fifth spot that they'll be able to find combos that give them good chances to win

the bucks are exploitable, doesn't mean their roster is bad

i guess brodgdon is a wild card

if Bledsoe has shaken his cowardly ways than that changes quite a bit. and they are supposed to get brogdan back here soon. they are deep and can try a lot of different lineup things.

bledsoe and brogdan def key

also who will defend giannis, obvs horf will be primary but who after him last year semi got some burn theyll prob give baynes a shot at bodying him but idk man

not giving the bucks liveball turnovers is huge celtics were a low turnover team all season but then indy got a ton of steals off them as they do

feel like "making teams execute in the halfcourt" is so huge in the playoffs, but its even huger when they have a player whos unstoppable on the break

idk if u can really just let giannis get his and try to guard the rest of the team cause hell just foul yr whole team out if u dont try to take the ball out of his hands at least some of the time

gotta switch up yr looks try to keep him uncomfortable

Giannis' halfcourt scoring efficiency:

vs. Man: 92nd percentile
vs. Zone: 29th percentile

— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) April 23, 2019

The Celtics played the Bucks 3 times this year:

With Horford: 4-point home win, 1-point road loss

Without Horford: 13-point home loss

— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) April 22, 2019

celtics r so bad w/o horf lol

Al Horford quietly had a monster impact against the Pacers (as his on/off splits confirm: +15.9 net rating on court, -16.6 off)

Now, the Celtics are likely going to lean even heavier on him in Round 2.https://t.co/fhC7OAAvi6

— Chris Forsberg (@ChrisForsberg_) April 23, 2019

didnt really seem like he played very well

yeah he didnt even really

the heat had defended giannis really well for a few seasons until one game recently he put up like 45 and that was the end of that

feel like Celts would've lost in 5 to Milwaukee last year if not for Horford. dude give 'em fits on both ends.

basically for Boston to win it's gonna come down to Big Al + lots of 3s. you can beat the Bucks that way, but you also have to be a little lucky. last year the home team won every game so not having that advantage could be big too.

yeah celtics are gonna need to hit their threes bigtime

and is it gonna be kumbayakyrie when they lose game(s) or are they gonna get weirddadkyrie. we just dont know. the bucks seem mentally stable this season which is a + for sure

yeah celtics are gonna need to hit their threes bigtime

― lag∞n, Tuesday, April 23, 2019 4:29 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it’s like I always say u got to hoist

no hoisty no trophy nuff said

i do think there's lots of unpredictable mental and chemistry stuff that could come into play on both sides depending on how this series goes

it is generally best to pick the better teams in playoff matchups imo

which one of these teams is better

imo the one that led the conference wire to wire and has the best player in the series

lowry is ballin

the magic appear ready for summer to begin. vooch 0/4 and 3 fouls in the first q good job good effort. averaging 12/8/3 on 38/18 shooting for these playoffs.

he's a FA and i have no idea what a fair value is for his contract

~13m a/y supersub

That would be a great deal but probably closer to 3/50 is realistic. Teams might pause a bit after this playoff performance tho.