2024 Playoffs Discussion Thread

[Dalek]

Denver is so far ahead of teams it's crazy. They have a great one-two punch with Jokic and Murray, but Aaron Gordon is hitting everything along with Justin Holiday and KCP is so elite on defense. They get support from every player that even when Jokic sits their small team still holds serve.

Minny has such impressive defense but Gobert is such a weak point on offense. The fourth was letting Gobert be open or do any postup he wanted. Towns still hasn't elevated his game.

as much as Gordon is thriving in this role with the nuggets.....let's be real about him being unlocked by jokic''s genius.

Does anyone think Gordon would've rejuvenated his career arc with any other team instead of the nuggets? I don't. And to be honest....there's probably 20 to 30 players in the league who could have their whole career rejuvenated simply by playing beside jokic.

He is THAT good.

Rememeber that line Dr Dre said about ll cool j:

"When your album sales wasn't doing so good
Who's the doctor they told you to go see".

Jokic is like that. He'll revive your whole career.

Fair enough. I get the Jokic effect, but Gordon should get credit for shooting 41% from three and playing great defense. I mean Jokic isn't taking those threes for him- he is stepping up making shots and his high efficiency also speaks to him making the right play and not forcing things - 4.7 assists is outstanding for a third option.

I will concede Bruce Brown looked a lot better with Jokic - we have the dollar store version at $20m a season.

[WaltFrazier]

But the moving screen on Turner was correct call. Brunson been getting fouled all series by full court pressing. Missed goaltend call on divincenzo drive game 3 was as impactful as the kickball. You could tell game three refs were responding to Carlyle's rant after game 2.

And the crazy thing is Pacers doing all this whining against an injury depleted team. But we'll see game 5 what happens. It's crazy the game is Tuesday not Wednesday. That hurts NY. Thibs needs to rest guys right now but I don't think he's wired that way

Usually that would be a play on at that point of the game. You rarely see borderline plays like that being called with less than 30 seconds left in a game. I was stunned they called that and Pacers could’ve taken the lead with a basket and came out of MSG with a game 1 win.

What’s very interesting is the Pacers have been called for more fouls than the Knicks in every single game. Last night the Pacers had more than double the amount of fouls than the Knicks. I’m actually amazed by this considering how handsy the Knicks are defensively.

Managing minutes is an important skill and Thibs has not managed the minutes effectively. The TNT crew brought it up. You have Carlisle playing his bench guys and Thibs is playing Hart and Donte 45+ minutes a game it seems.

You can’t blame the schedule. The schedule was out before the series even started.

It doesn't help that OG is incapable of dribbling a basketball.

When Brunson sat a lot of game 2 OG became assertive, got more shots and had 28 , 4 and 3 in three quarters . Imagine if he could dribble.

[mademan]

I think Denver is the best team but its crazy to say theyre far ahead. They needed a near perfect game from Gordon to beat the Wolves

That said, theyre my title favs, tho they can still very much lose this series. Edwards is absolutely unguardable and the Nuggets are gonna need their role guys to continue to shoot at a high level to counter the Wolves size. If they get by the Wolves tho, i think they gentlemen sweep Thunder/Mavs and beat the C's in the finals. This would be one of the greatest 2 year runs we've ever seen from a player (Jokic)

[WaltFrazier]

Usually that would be a play on at that point of the game. You rarely see borderline plays like that being called with less than 30 seconds left in a game. I was stunned they called that and Pacers could’ve taken the lead with a basket and came out of MSG with a game 1 win.

What’s very interesting is the Pacers have been called for more fouls than the Knicks in every single game. Last night the Pacers had more than double the amount of fouls than the Knicks. I’m actually amazed by this considering how handsy the Knicks are defensively.

Managing minutes is an important skill and Thibs has not managed the minutes effectively. The TNT crew brought it up. You have Carlisle playing his bench guys and Thibs is playing Hart and Donte 45+ minutes a game it seems.

You can’t blame the schedule. The schedule was out before the series even started.

Sure but unfortunately the schedule is dictated by TV not player welfare. An extra travel day whenever a series changed cities used to be standard. Didn't Denver and Minnesota have 3 days between games already?

No doubt the combination of injuries and Thibs inclination to heavy minutes is a factor. He's a very good coach especially defensively but overplaying players seems to be a weakness. I see now why posters here were calling Nurse, Nick Thibs, a year ago. I still believe with just OG and Bogdanovic, never mind Robinson and Randle, Knicks sweep. But that's moot. It is what it is, and Boston is going to the Finals.

Nuggets/Wolves started two days earlier than the Knicks series. Every other series has had two days between games.

OG isn’t making up a 30 point difference yesterday. Pacers are a good team. Some people were just hating on them because they can’t stomach the success that Pascal is having. This must be really tough for them to watch. Both these teams don’t stand a chance against the elite teams but I’ve enjoyed this series a lot. Been super competitive.

With OG Knicks would have won game 3 and been up 3-0. It's easy to look at game 4 blowout against a depleted tired team and say OG wouldn't have mattered in game 4, after it's over. But it's a whole different game going into it, if they were healthier. Not to mention Brunson hurt his foot game 2 and a couple of tweaks since. He's playing on one foot without his usual lift.

I agree Pacers are talented, and I like Pascal a lot. When you say people hating on them you mean a few people on this board. Taking a broader look you might acknowledge how depleted the Knicks are, down 4 or their top 8, and see that Indiana should be beating them by 20 every game if they were as good a team as they're supposed to be.

[djsunyc]

injuries make up a huge component of the nba postseason. i think saying "if only player X was healthy" really has no place anymore b/c player X being hurt is part of the game.

[Basketball_Jones]

OG out again. You gotta load manage him like he’s Kawhi next season lol

[ArthurVandelay]

I’m a mavs fan tonight

[C_Money]

Cleveland doesn’t stand a chance without Mitchell unfortunately.

[gha4life]

Boston gonna ve the easiest road ever to an nba finals

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[MiamiSPX]

Boston gonna ve the easiest road ever to an nba finals

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After Game 1 of this series, I predicted they would lose 2 more games, at most, before the Finals. 1 more to go but I stand by that. They'll finish off the Cavs in Game 5 and make quick work of NYK or Indy.

[WuTang_OG]

Boston gonna ve the easiest road ever to an nba finals

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After Game 1 of this series, I predicted they would lose 2 more games, at most, before the Finals. 1 more to go but I stand by that. They'll finish off the Cavs in Game 5 and make quick work of NYK or Indy.

I believe in getting battle tested. We saw that with Toronto when we played Philly in a hard 7 game series. Bucks were flying into the ECF. As soon as we gave them some adversity, they broke and got crushed

Celtics going to have a tough time in finals whoever they play

[Basketball_Jones]

Mavs had a really nice trade deadline. They gave up a lot but they are set where they were once weak at by acquiring Washington and Gafford. I don’t think they get any better than this. If they don’t win it then it’s superteam desperation mode to acquire Durant or something.

[sidsid]

Daigneault hasn't made a single adjustment since the start of the series. Giddy started again. They aren't consistently attacking Luka and Kyrie together which is the only way they've shown to routinely break the D. On D they still get confused on rotation and pnr. They're playing a regular season style and dying with variance on top of it.

[WaltFrazier]

Daigneault hasn't made a single adjustment since the start of the series. Giddy started again. They aren't consistently attacking Luka and Kyrie together which is the only way they've shown to routinely break the D. On D they still get confused on rotation and pnr. They're playing a regular season style and dying with variance on top of it.

OKC about to win and tie the series

[sidsid]

Daigneault hasn't made a single adjustment since the start of the series. Giddy started again. They aren't consistently attacking Luka and Kyrie together which is the only way they've shown to routinely break the D. On D they still get confused on rotation and pnr. They're playing a regular season style and dying with variance on top of it.

OKC about to win and tie the series

Should have never been this close. Wallace gave Kyrie fits. They played big with the other Williams to help on the boards at other points. You can space with Joe. So many options if you just adapt from the start and not play Giddy. Luka can barely move! They should be winning comfortably.

[gp2015]

SGA best player in the series.

Mavs choked.

[JB7]

Luka’s whining is so annoying. I hope OKC wins this series, they deserve it. So professional and just great play and effort.

[Los_29]

Sure but unfortunately the schedule is dictated by TV not player welfare. An extra travel day whenever a series changed cities used to be standard. Didn't Denver and Minnesota have 3 days between games already?

No doubt the combination of injuries and Thibs inclination to heavy minutes is a factor. He's a very good coach especially defensively but overplaying players seems to be a weakness. I see now why posters here were calling Nurse, Nick Thibs, a year ago. I still believe with just OG and Bogdanovic, never mind Robinson and Randle, Knicks sweep. But that's moot. It is what it is, and Boston is going to the Finals.

Nuggets/Wolves started two days earlier than the Knicks series. Every other series has had two days between games.

OG isn’t making up a 30 point difference yesterday. Pacers are a good team. Some people were just hating on them because they can’t stomach the success that Pascal is having. This must be really tough for them to watch. Both these teams don’t stand a chance against the elite teams but I’ve enjoyed this series a lot. Been super competitive.

With OG Knicks would have won game 3 and been up 3-0. It's easy to look at game 4 blowout against a depleted tired team and say OG wouldn't have mattered in game 4, after it's over. But it's a whole different game going into it, if they were healthier. Not to mention Brunson hurt his foot game 2 and a couple of tweaks since. He's playing on one foot without his usual lift.

I agree Pacers are talented, and I like Pascal a lot. When you say people hating on them you mean a few people on this board. Taking a broader look you might acknowledge how depleted the Knicks are, down 4 or their top 8, and see that Indiana should be beating them by 20 every game if they were as good a team as they're supposed to be.

Game 3 was the game they shot 52% from three. They had an insane game from Donte and Burks shot extremely well. They weren’t doing better with OG that game. They shot the lights out.

Knicks built a deep team but they knew the risk beforehand. Half their rotation are injury prone. No one is surprised aside from Knicks fans.

[2019nbachamps]

Boston gonna ve the easiest road ever to an nba finals

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The Bucks had a pretty easy path too

[Los_29]

Boston gonna ve the easiest road ever to an nba finals

Sent from my SM-S918W using RealGM mobile app

The Bucks had a pretty easy path too

Bucks got through a good Heat team along with the Nets with KD who was insane in that series. Far tougher. I can’t remember a team having this easy of a path. I don’t even know if it’s a good thing or not because they are going to be stunned when they meet the WC champs in the finals.