NBA/ABA Decades League Playoffs: Semifinals

[Warspite]

TMac gets my vote Ill do a writeup later.

[CellarDoor]

Congrats, TMAC.

Would've been curious to see more votes on both match-ups, GL in the finals. Should be a good one!

[TMACFORMVP]

Isn't the voting only 2-1 with Warspite's vote?

I'd think at least first one to three would be fair, three TOTAL votes seems a bit less.

[bastillon]

Isn't the voting only 2-1 with Warspite's vote?

I'd think at least first one to three would be fair, three TOTAL votes seems a bit less.

yeah that's how I was eliminated in the first round and I don't think it was fair. at least 4-5 GMs could vote overall. I'm sure some mod (maybe Snakebites ?) can send some PMs to Penbeast, Mufasa, Ronnymac and they'll quickly breat the tie.

[CellarDoor]

Isn't the voting only 2-1 with Warspite's vote?

I'd think at least first one to three would be fair, three TOTAL votes seems a bit less.

yeah that's how I was eliminated in the first round and I don't think it was fair. at least 4-5 GMs could vote overall. I'm sure some mod (maybe Snakebites ?) can send some PMs to Penbeast, Mufasa, Ronnymac and they'll quickly breat the tie.

Not sure what happened to Snake. He was very much ready to get this done with. I know Ronnymac was planning on voting. For some reason Mufasa only voted on the other one.

[Miller4ever]

Snake said that since he had spoken to me, AitN, and TMAC about our matchups extensively he felt he would be biased.

[Snakebites]

Snake said that since he had spoken to me, AitN, and TMAC about our matchups extensively he felt he would be biased.

Thats about the size of it.

I talked strategy with all 3, so I felt that compromised my ability to judge with integrity.

[CellarDoor]

Well we don't appear to have judges out of all the ones we started with as well as the eliminated participants, so not sure what you guys want to do.

[ronnymac2]

I'll do a writeup for cellar vs. mac in a few minutes. I was supposed to do it friday but was super busy. My bad.

I quickly went through the AITN vs. Miller matchup. I think the emphasis on spacing from the judges- namely, spacing coming from 3-point shooting- is too much. I'll readily admit that I am guilty of this in the past as both a judge and participant. Still, you'd think that offenses prior to 1990 (3's weren't a huge weapon until around that time) were incapable of functioning without the 3-point line. When you watch old games, you see players can space the floor without shooting from 23 feet out. You can set picks. You can cut and move around. You can be a dominant offensive rebounder. You can still stretch the floor with range.

Now, I know that the 3 helps. Ideally for me, I'd want great 3-pointing on my team, because it's the easiest way to spread the floor. It's not the only way though.

BTW, that series would have been very good. Shaq would keep Jabbar off the glass, but he couldn't stop KAJ. KAJ can handle physical defense when it comes to his scoring. He's also versatile, so he doesn't always have to play against Shaq with his back to the basket. Jabbar had a shot from 15-17 feet, which Shaq wouldn't defend.

T-mac was an excellent rebounder, but prime Moncrief was a beast who played taller and longer than 6'3 or 6'4. I'm watching a game of his right now-he's the one guy historically who I wouldn't be that confident describing his game- and he's starting to remind me of Wade ito playing bigger and longer than he really is (not commenting on style of play or effectiveness though). I'm liking what I'm seeing. Moncrief's height disadvantage doesn't mean Mcgrady will rebound better. I do think Mcgrady would defend Moncrief well though....his defense is underrated a bit and his style of defense fits against moncrief's mid-post offense. Especially with KAJ and Nate backing him up.

That'd be a great series. Very defense oriented. In a defense-oriented series like that, I like to say that the team with the offensive option who can be a constant for the team wins. I think Shaq is a little bit more effective as a scorer than Jabbar, so I likely would have votd for his team. Still, incredibly close. Good job guys, and congrats to Miller for the win.

[ronnymac2]

Cellar vs. Tmac.......

I'll try to be quick about this.

Hakeem is going to get his against Big Bob. It's that simple.

I'm surprised Bird and Barry are guarding each other. I think they'll torch one another. I don't think Larry can guard Barry. Barry is so underrated as a scorer. He's not just a shooter. He used everything and everybody on the court to get himself into scoring positions. On the other side, Bird's post game and ability to get open off screens is going to be very effective against Barry.

The power foward matchup isn't huge, but Lucas's shooting takes an athlete/rebounders away from the middle and off the glass. I don't think Buck Williams will be very effective. To be honest, I'd have liked to see more Hawkins at the 4 spot. 17 minutes is too little.

The backcourt would be a nice edge for Cellar- Ray Allen helps that out a bit though. Still, Cellar gets the edge here. Vince's shooting takes MRR away from the passing lanes. I don't think he can defend Vince, who is one of Cellar's main volume scorers. Allen comes in and allows TMAC to go at Vince on the other side, which is good.

GP vs. CP3 is by far the best matchup in this whole tournament thus far. Both of these guys are angry bulldogs who are physical and bring a certain confidence and- dare I say, swagger- to their teams. They talk ****. They are competitors. They won't back down. I know I made a farely large overstatement in the first sentence of this paragraph, but still....this is a fantastic matchup. I think Gary's post game will be effective against Chris. Having GP in the post limits transition opportunites because Paul is below the foul line. Gary can get inside, and with Lanier pulling Olajuwon away from the rim sometimes, GP will get his.

I think Payton can limit Paul in iso's. His defense was just great. However, Paul has other ball-handlers on his team (Barry, MRR, and Hakeem in the halfcourt), and he has nice pick-n-roll partners (Hakeem and Lucas), so GP's pressure d won't be able to disrupt Paul from initating the offense and and Chris can get open off screens. This matchup tightens the series up....having somebody who can go back at Paul AND Barry is huge.

The benches will do their thing. Bowen and Artest do their thing on defense. They will be ineffective against two of the GOAT offensive players. Sabonis is a big body who's immobility hurts against Hakeem. Nance will be nice against Hawkins and Buck, though I think against Buck, Buck will rebound well. O'neal is good, but nothing special here. The only bench player who I see having a large impact here is Ray Allen, and that's only sort of equalizing the advantage Vince has against MRR.

Soooo....man, I don't know. Hakeem's advantage seems to play here as I don't think Lanier can put enough pressure on Hakeem. The defensive strategy against Dream isn't that great either. Also, having the pf advantage by a little bit only reinforces the frontcourt edge for TMAC. However, Bird is going to have a giant series. He's also the best closer. The backcourt edge goes to Cellar by a bit as well, and though having a frontcourt edge is more important, Cellar has effective inside players here like GP and Bird. I think this is going to be a moderately paced series, with both teams running when they can, but neither being able to totally control the pace. Some of these matchups on both sides just don't allow for one team to dictate anything.

I'm going to go with TMAC's team. The way I see it, TMAC's team is better, but Cellar comes back with some nice matchups (mainly in the backcourt and with Larry Legend, who i know from experience is a pain to match up with in these things). Usually, the better team in a series wins. Only when said better team doesn't have a remarkable constant (big-game/clutch player, super-defense, remarkable offensive well from which constant high-percentage shots flow regardless of defense, etc.) will matchup disadvantages really come back to haunt them. I vote for TMAC in a tremendous series that will be exhilarating to watch. Great job guys.

P.S. I tried and failed to be quick about it. Haha