PLAY IN | (8) WARRIORS VS. (9) GRIZZLIES

[BallerTalk]

So is this another Curry failure that we are not allowed to talk about?

What failure?

Man, Rockets/Harden fans are so freaking bitter.

Steph is literally throwing the ball to the Grizzlies on most of his turnovers, and we can't even admit that, it has to be someone else's fault.

Lol and CP3 fans are almost just as bitter as Harden fans.

He wasn’t perfect, he had issues with TOs, but he was easily the best player on the court and almost willed them to a win...for the 2nd game in a row. Didn’t really get a lot of help out there.

Not sure what he failed at today, unless you’re saying not playing perfectly = failure.

A player widely regarded as an all time great and a CURRENT MVP candidate couldn't lead his team to a single win in two games to get his squad to the playoffs, despite being the overwhelming favorite at home in one of those games.
If that doesn't qualify as a failure on some level I don't know what does.

Oh, and I'm not bitter. I'm amused.
Amused by a Warriors loss, of course, but more so by the hypocritical whining coming from former front-runners and sh_ttalkers.
All the complaining about Curry having to face the same circumstances other solo stars have braved most of their careers.
All the whinging and reaching for excuses for why Curry came up shorter than players they deemed lesser.

Yes, I'm amused (though not surprised) by the delightful bit of perspective this little reality check has foisted upon some of you.

[infinite11285]

Ja Morant is just built different. You can’t stop someone whose first hater was his dad.

Can you expand on this. First hater was his dad?

https://www.si.com/nba/2019/06/19/ja-morant-nba-draft-critics-dad-haters-media-day

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[thebigbird]

The Curry slander is completely nuts. That Warriors team sans curry is 2012 Charlotte Bobcats bad and he dragged it single handedly to the play in.

LeBron dragged comparable supporting casts to the Finals in 2007 and 2018 but I keep hearing that Curry is better than him.

Silver spoon fans coming out in droves to defend Curry choking in the postseason once again. “But he was double teamed!!” Wow welcome to not playing with three other all stars. Dude lost an elimination game to a 21 year old fellow point guard. Not my MVP finalist.

[oldshoolballer]

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30 million a year. Incredible.

[NPZ]

All this money espn and tnt spending for these games and to get awful audio & production quality lol

National networks who owned rights to air the 1/8 West series are tryin to sell those games back to the teams' local networks, but even they're all, "Nah, we're good. We got some Friends and Seinfeld reruns to air for better ratings."

I don't like GS or MEM or Utah, but I do know that at least Curry had a lot of younger fans who like that video game trey crap he does. Walk-aways before the ball goes in and silly crap of that nature (he did that in a game where his season was ended). Yikes. But the kids love him and his needless logo treys. Memphis plays hard, but you'd hopefully want to offset a dull team like Utah w/ an opponent that has some kind of popular/current storyline IF not superstar names or a broad fanbase. NBA f'd that up in this case and had the Lakers nearly in a one-n-done game. If both LAL and GS were replaced by SA and MEM, maybe Silver thinks the better of this boosha, but nope. He's encouraged that these games drew better ratings than most RS games. Utah and Memphis is only ONE thick, hairy turd floating on the surface of the pool, not two.

[bigheadburton]

The west play in really delivered with three great games. My random thoughts from this game:

Brooks and Anderson had spectacular defensive games. Lets just not talk about the offensive end (especially for Brooks).
With JV and JJR in foul trouble Tillman honestly saved them this game. Huge plays on both sides of the ball.
Allen shot the three well and those two consecutive bombs in the OT was huge. Shooting spot ups is all he should do, him driving is not good.
Ja had a great game and the two buckets at the end was very impressive. One thing he need to stop doing is penetrate in to the middle and pick up his dribble. It felt like he did it a bunch of times and every time a teammate had to hoist up a terrible attempt at the end of the shot clock.

Green, one of the best defenders in the league, awful on the offensive end despite being a great passer. Had a couple of big buckets late, but overall just not good enough.
Curry was not quite as good as in the previous game vs the Lakers, but he still had a nice game. Also thought Poole played well offensively.
Warriors will turn the ball over some because of the way they play, but having so many inexcusable turnovers was a big reason they lost these two games.

Grizz vs Jazz will be fun.

[Sofia]

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30 million a year. Incredible.

12 on the shot clock too, that was real bad.

[DTP]

While Steph can definitely put on a show, let's not give him a pass for so many of his careless turnovers OR that possession where he literally had a wide open layup but instead took and missed at 3. Can't give up points like that in these type of important games.

[CKB]

Warriors should've kept D'Angelo Russell instead of trading for Wiggins to provide some perimeter shooting/ball handling and prevent teams from double teaming Curry.

[Statlanta]

I hate how this thread turned into an evaluation on Curry for Harden and LeBron fans.

I'm no Curry stan, I hate his shimmy antics, but using this performance against him against things like the 2015 WCF run or the 2007 ECF run is horrible like those players haven't disappointed with normal casts before.

[lambchop]

Warriors should've kept D'Angelo Russell instead of trading for Wiggins to provide some perimeter shooting/ball handling and prevent teams from double teaming Curry.

I agree, however, with a healthy Klay, Draymond would be their primary ball handler with Steph on the bench, while Klay does most of the scoring. Russell still would have been an excellent additional peace to have, but it is difficult to keep a player of his caliber happy with only 20 mpg.

[KqWIN]

So let the 17-20th teams get into the playoffs? Lol what

Not without winning the play in a tournament. It is meaningfully different than getting an auto pass into the playoffs. Being a 9 or 10 is also meaningfully different than being a 7 or 8. Making automatic entrance into the playoffs more exclusive rewards the teams that won enough games to avoid it.

9 and 10 is much different than 7 or 8 which is much different than 5 or 6. When positioning matters enough to incentivize teams to get into the next tier, it is a working system. The play in does this very successfully. There is so much more incentive to win games whether thats getting into 9/10, 7/8, or 5/6.

So do it for the 5th and 6th seeds then. You don't get to complain about 16 teams making the playoffs when the 20th best team with a losing record can get into the playoffs if they win 2 games in a row. It combines the worst part of the NBA playoffs (too many teams) and the worst part of the MLB playoffs (too few games)

Make up your mind. Is it easy to win the play in or not? You can’t have it both ways where it’s devastating because the 7/8 don’t get free pass but it’s also too easy for 9/10. I don’t like 16 teams getting a free pass. The reward for being the 7/8 was too much. But if they win one more game out of two...fine. The most important thing here is what it does to the regular season. Having a competitive regular season to the end is the most critical issue for the NBA and they have successfully created a better incentive structure for teams to win.

That’s why I love the play in tournament. Seeding is significantly more meaningful from 5/6 all the way down to 9/10. When seeding is more meaningful it rewards teams who win.

Do you seriously say there are less games? And here I was thinking this was an actual conversation and not a troll.

[Spud2nique]

Thank you Grizz!

[iamworthy]

If Curry doesnt will his team to a win it will be very disappointing. That being said, Warriors by 10, Curry scores 39.

Well he had 39 but.....

[Doranku]

Who did it better?

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[Flash4thewin]

Westbrook and Beal make the playoffs but that’s too much to ask from Curry?

[dautjazz]

Lol some people had the Warriors over the Jazz.

[Rainwater]

Sorry, but I am not impressed by Jah. He is kinda over hyped. Reminds me of Steve Francis.

Do you have a second?

I am man enough to admit when I was wrong and I was truly wrong in this case, lol.