( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

danny green's shot is way the fuck off. 23% in the restart.

Lakers look terrible, getting completely pushed around by nurk. They’re gonna have to yell their way back in this

stotts is playing nurkic and whiteside together and getting away with it because no one on the lakers can shoot

nurkic game is pleasing to the eye

the lakers are gonna need to be dragged to the finals by two guys plain and simple unless they get a good danny green series. i don’t see how they could beat the clippers at this point, those rosters seem really mismatched

also curious to see how much anthony davis enjoys the physicality of this series

re: nurk, for fans of skilled players he's almost the perfect center

lebron must be confident because he is taking the concept of picking one's spots to another level

i can really only think of nurk as what a young, athletic, raw sabonis must've been like but i'm sure that's just weird fan projection

Lakers defensive will keep them in every game it’s that good! And they will get some good looks but consistent shooting has always been the problem

gabriel giving the blazers pretty quality minutes tonight

he's decent! i like him.

lol multiple lakers just fell down simultaneously on defense. i don't think i've ever seen that.

This is my favorite play so far pic.twitter.com/wA5Zti2yYy

— Cranjis McBasketball (@Tim_NBA) August 19, 2020

rube goldberg

gary trent jr meanwhile has been awful in this game on both ends

so, if the Blazes can exactly duplicate their first half results against the Lakers... two-point victory!

everyone suddenly had a lot of faith in gary trent jr.

i could see him having a game where he hits some shots but in terms of guarding lebron he’s been completely overmatched

most players guarding lebron are overmatched and the more important the game, the harder he is to guard

Trent was mostly good in the bubble but did have a couple games where he got cooked. Is high variance quality defense a thing?

i don't think it's variance...generally you can look at the matchup and go from there. like anyone who thought trent was big enough to guard lebron was kidding themselves.

All I can think is that Stotts doesn't want to wear out his offensive stars playing defense on lebron, and he's willing to let lebron have his regular stats line, just not some kind of 40+ point outing.

Yah he’s their best shot

this is going to be a weird series in that so many bad players are going to get minutes

Does CJ have a disability that physically prevents him from passing?

just choked after that dame shot

there is no reason for anyone other than dame to be shooting for the blazers at this point

Does CJ have a disability that physically prevents him from passing?

― A True White Kid that can Jump (Granny Dainger), Tuesday, August 18, 2020 11:46 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

i've never liked cj much b/c he doesn't do a lot of basketball things other than shooting

The way it swishes on those Dame bombs gives me a hoopsgasm

his midrange game makes him a more valuable playoff player imo

Big 3 by Terrence Trent D'arby jr

lol

the lakers just conceded that game. i have no idea why.

KCP 0-9

they just bailed on a game where they could have fouled and extended it. that was bizarre.

make or miss league etc and the lakers will gladly live with melo and gary trent shooting threes but we also have to acknowledge that in crunch time of a playoff game dame had to be double teamed out to half court and it resulted in a string of wide open dagger threes

For reals that’s like SOP

no one on the lakers seemed like they cared.

anthony davis, 28 points on 8/24, -20
lebron 23 points on 9/20, -3

if the lakers want to live with trent and melo shooting threes while their two stars put up shitty lines they're at risk of losing this series

With Steph out of action until next season, Dame is officially the most magical player in the nba for now.

AD worked hard in the paint missed a lot of shots and put backs he usually makes

He had everyone in foul trouble

charles just said this was the fewest amount of points scored by the blazers in a win this season. not a great advertisement for the lakers worst in the bubble offense

chuck referring to the blazers as "we" is... okay charles

charles is really confident that the blazers are going to beat the lakers....

idk what changed about dame but one thing i'll give him is as psycho good as he's been in recent years he nearly always collapsed under playoff defenses. not sure he really does that anymore

he has discovered The Mindset

Heard him talking on JJ Reddick's podcast about how he's improved the mental aspects of his game, how the game has slowed down for him, learning team's sets and tendencies etc. He's def in that physical prime yet savvy veteran sweet spot.

i'm a lot more comfortable w/ Trent and Melo shooting threes than basically anyone on the Lakers not named LBJ/AD ever touching the ball.

Lakers roster is hot garbage and they may not lose this series, but they deserve to.