Playoff Race and Scoreboard Watching

[Guest84]

It’s not going to be easy to beat the IQ of LBJ. Regardless of his age, he should have no issue picking apart the wolves honestly.

The reason Denver was a problem for them is because Jokic IQ is just as high. It’ll be a good test cause there’s no easy rounds in the west.

[Neeva]

Well if they get **** over by the refs and the fat slov they have no one to blame but themselves for the choke job against the Bucks and so many losses to lotto teams all season. Finch should be fired if they don’t make it out of the first round.

[winforlose]

Gonna call it now, Memphis beats GSW and plays Houston. GSW plays OKC.

[Neeva]

Memphis and Houston would be the weakest first round matchup for sure.

[BlacJacMac]

Reaves, Doncic, Vincent all huntable. LAL lacks size inside and Ant should feast. We need to outscore them. Lucky for us our identity is offense this year.

We can't bail them out by settling for so many 3s as we tend to do.

[winforlose]

We lost to Denver in round 1, and beat them in round 2. Who else would love for the rubber match to be in round 3. Of course we need to survive the Lakers and Rockets, and they need to survive the Clippers and Thunder. But that would be the best storyline in the NBA since LeBron left Cleveland and KD left GSW.

[TimberKat]

Reaves, Doncic, Vincent all huntable. LAL lacks size inside and Ant should feast. We need to outscore them. Lucky for us our identity is offense this year.

We can't bail them out by settling for so many 3s as we tend to do.

Go feed the Bear. If Gobert average 18 points per game we win.

[younggunsmn]

Going to be a tough 1st round matchup, but with the 6 seed we avoid both Denver and OKC until the 3rd round.
Beating the Lakers and then the Rockets/Griz/Warriors is an easier path than beating both Denver and OKC without homecourt.

Lakers have been playing Hayes only about 15 minutes and then going small with Hachimura/Finney Smith at the 5.
If Rudy can't make them pay, I see them sticking with that and them using DFS to switch/trap any Ant/Rudy pick and rolls.
They will probably guard Randle with Lebron and that is not a favorable matchup for us.
Lebron, Luka, Reaves all rebound their positions really well too.

The way to beat the Lakers is to keep them off the line and make LBJ and Luka operate as ISO scorers, and live with their shooting.
Problems is that LBJ, Luka, and Reaves all have PHDs in free throw mercantilism.

Our offense is going to have to be much, much, much more strategic and intentional and our roleplayers are really going to have to bring it for us to win. They lack the Kyrie Irving type quick guard who can beat Rudy to the basket in pick and roll, so our drop coverage should be more effective than it was last year against Dallas. But we are going to have to rebound the ball really really well and keep our turnovers way down for us to win.

[Calinks]

Going to be a tough 1st round matchup, but with the 6 seed we avoid both Denver and OKC until the 3rd round.
Beating the Lakers and then the Rockets/Griz/Warriors is an easier path than beating both Denver and OKC without homecourt.

Lakers have been playing Hayes only about 15 minutes and then going small with Hachimura/Finney Smith at the 5.
If Rudy can't make them pay, I see them sticking with that and them using DFS to switch/trap any Ant/Rudy pick and rolls.
They will probably guard Randle with Lebron and that is not a favorable matchup for us.
Lebron, Luka, Reaves all rebound their positions really well too.

The way to beat the Lakers is to keep them off the line and make LBJ and Luka operate as ISO scorers, and live with their shooting.
Problems is that LBJ, Luka, and Reaves all have PHDs in free throw mercantilism.

Our offense is going to have to be much, much, much more strategic and intentional and our roleplayers are really going to have to bring it for us to win. They lack the Kyrie Irving type quick guard who can beat Rudy to the basket in pick and roll, so our drop coverage should be more effective than it was last year against Dallas. But we are going to have to rebound the ball really really well and keep our turnovers way down for us to win.

I do think that if we get past the Lakers, the door is open for us to make a run to the WCF. If this was last seasons team I'd pretty confident. this season we are so inconsistent its hard to have a lot faith.

[shrink]

It’s not going to be easy to beat the IQ of LBJ. Regardless of his age, he soils….

I’m rolling with the typo, and saying “…he soils his adult diapers.”

[Guest84]

It’s not going to be easy to beat the IQ of LBJ. Regardless of his age, he soils….

I’m rolling with the typo, and saying “…he soils his adult diapers.”

Lol, predictive texts are a beautiful thing. He "should" have no issue...

[shrink]

The only team I’m worried about in the West is the Thunder. They are so good, that I wonder is their first round opponent will even make them sweat? I think that if a team gets past OKC, it will be in the WCF, and only after they faced some competition in the semi’s.

With that in mind, I would rank the best seedings as: 6 - 7 - 4 - 5 - 8.

I’m curious if there will be some late-season shenanigans for other teams to try to angle for the 6 seed?

I thought I’d bump this one, from March 31.

Mission accomplished!

[KGdaBom]

I really wanna avoid Lakers in R1. Don't want to face a Lebron/Luka led Lakers

That's likely my biggest goal of the weekend: avoid the Lakers. Even if we have to go into the play-in to do it, I personally would be OK with that.

I think we beat the Lakers with ease.

Bumping this.

[KGdaBom]

Wolves are the only Road team to win so far.