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

that stat is completely shocking

Wow lebron!

that was fucking crazy

lebron james

the extra craziest thing about the bucks stuff is that the heat have been playing giannis this way for like 3 years and have frequently frustrated him. it's just a huge contrast watching the heat squeeze offense out of creativity and scouting while the bucks are playing as if they have never heard of the concept of preparation.

couple years back casey got fired from toronto like a week after winning coach of the year xp

This also happened to George Karl with the Nuggets in 2013. They won 57 games but were just 3rd in the west.

between the heat, celtics, and raptors the remaining east teams are probably some of the best coaching/preparation teams ever given that coaching/preparation has gotten better over time.

subtle but nice

Beard on the break 😤 pic.twitter.com/0S85Yw1h2a

— ESPN (@espn) September 5, 2020

lol russ needs to learn how to do that

what was bron thinkin about here

Hakeem must be so pissed right now pic.twitter.com/N5z84T5dE9

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) September 5, 2020

i get why harden drives everyone nuts but that subtle hesitation on the break is something that no one else even thinks to do

he is a scientist of the basketball arts

Might be Kuzma's worst game in the bubble: -21 in 21 minutes, four fouls, has had a tough time containing the Rockets guards in space, done little offensively.

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 5, 2020

*vomiting emoji*

oof

kuz is not good

“frank vogel looking for some scoring...” as waiters clangs a mid range jumper off the rim with 4:30 left in a playoff game... not the greatest omen for the lakers

houston winning this series would be genuinely funny i support it

a friend said that to me too but i think ultimately i want to see the lebron vs kawhi showdown

james harden loves him some game 1s, we'll see where this goes.

yeah that's where i circle back to w/ this series. if lebron is playing in a game 6 or game 7 he's putting up 35-15-15. if harden is playing in one he's shooting 2-13 from the field w/ 11 points

Lakers never looked into it

Everything starts with their defense and rebounding

lakers played at 75% speed the whole game

dont think ive cheered for a rockets team since... 95?

yeah i'm having a tough time with this one, heart would prefer both teams implode

rockets have the weird ability to make any game bad

Lakers have looked so bad all bubble, I think the rockets take this. Think the thunder had a shot too

xp its so impressive, really feel like they deserve the chip for it

The Bucks have made many, many, many questionable decisions in this series, but I *really* don't get why they aren't ducking under every Jimmy Butler PnR.

Butler shot 30.5 percent (!!!) on jumpers out of PnR during the regular season via Synergy.

🗣️ SOUND ON pic.twitter.com/nggOmsJ9Qm

— Karens In Paris (@NekiasNBA) September 5, 2020

not great coach bud

*2 point game*

[insert Rondo] pic.twitter.com/udBSoTwiRB

— pickuphoop (@pickuphoop) September 5, 2020

Rondo running around trying to look like he’s doing something smh

not gonna get it done!

Boston shot 7/35 (20%) tonight. This was the 7th time in NBA history a playoff team shot 20% or less on 35+ attempts. They've all come in the past 4 years and Boston now has 3 of them.

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) September 6, 2020

i mean yeah

Jaylen Brown: "I'm a good shooter. I just got to make them."

— Boston.com Celtics News (@BDCCeltics) September 6, 2020

Raptors bandwagon up and running.

defending champs, y'know

It felt like one of those games (applicable to all sports) where Toronto was unable to put them away for much of the last quarter and were destined to lose.

nuggets up 19 after the first quarter, just as I expected

Nuggets looking sharp

dankver nuggs

Hey the 3rd seed in the West is pretty good

I believe it was Shaq tonight who said something to the effect of "Denver has two teams, the one that shows up and the one that doesn't"

tonight was like night and day as compared to game 1

if they get that garry harris a few more times this series that could be the difference. i still dont know what the nuggets best 5 lineup is but having grant and harris in together when kawhi and pg are in seems good.

the nuggets lost 3 of the 4 quarters but still won the game, which disproves my quarter theory

there should be a final tally where points are awarded for "winning the most quarters" like mario party

games should be comprised of one 48 minute quarter (divided into 4 sixteenths)

the winning team should have to achieve some particular statistical feat off a list of options before they can end the game like in japanese mahjong

Question from a baseball fan. (As soon as the Raptors exit, you'll be rid of me.)

Clutch-hitting was a big subject of debate for years--the overwhelming consensus among analysts now is that, with a large enough data sample, no such thing exists. (Bill James was the first to arrive at that conclusion; always the contrarian, I believe his view now is that it hasn't been studied properly, or can't be studied, or something that allows that it might exist with certain players.)

Lowry was great down the stretch yesterday, and my sense is that he's thought of as a pressure player. Kawhi, too, and Jordan, etc.

Has this been studied in basketball?

a) reliably clutch players exist in basketball

b) reliably clutch players don't exist (I remember Lowry missed a game-tying shot in the finals last year...albeit a tough one)

c) you can't really compare the two sports (basketball's a team sport, baseball is batter vs. pitcher)

lowry's rep was actually that he sucks in the playoffs, after a bunch of poor performances 2-3 years ago. i dont know that he's done enough to overturn that

i believe in b) in terms of jump shooting but im guessing theres some folks here who believe in the Hot Hand. for overall performance c) is more accurate, i don't think anything besides open jumpers and free throws have the context-free statistical purity of baseball

Mike Budenholzer says Giannis is warming up and testing his injured ankle. But no final decision on Giannis' status for Game 4 yet.

Budenholzer: "He's giving it everything he can to be available."

— Anthony Chiang (@Anthony_Chiang) September 6, 2020

https://i.imgur.com/5A3WFRN.png