ATL - Road teams now up 5-0 (Indy, NYK, Den, GSW)

[RiotPunch]

Kawhi is Omar from The Wire when healthy.

[Plossum]

Hopefully Kawhi doesn’t break down this year. He’s great to watch in this mode.

[RiotPunch]

Hopefully Kawhi doesn’t break down this year. He’s great to watch in this mode.

Way more fun with him in the West.

[pifhluk23]

And those of us calling for us to drop to #6 are being vindicated. Knicks were down big G1 and lost G2 at home. Pacers are a much better team.

[soxperry]

And those of us calling for us to drop to #6 are being vindicated. Knicks were down big G1 and lost G2 at home. Pacers are a much better team.

Or maybe Detroit is just a bad matchup for them in ways that we cannot replicate.

[pifhluk23]

And those of us calling for us to drop to #6 are being vindicated. Knicks were down big G1 and lost G2 at home. Pacers are a much better team.

Or maybe Detroit is just a bad matchup for them in ways that we cannot replicate.

NY's 2 best players play worse in the playoffs, their shooting %s fall off a cliff. That's the team you want to play in the playoffs. Brunson 12/27 in both games and that's Good for him in the playoffs... Not to mention both of them are weak as hell defensively and Brunson is small. Knicks was an infinitely better matchup for us.

[Bucksmaniac]

And those of us calling for us to drop to #6 are being vindicated. Knicks were down big G1 and lost G2 at home. Pacers are a much better team.

Or maybe Detroit is just a bad matchup for them in ways that we cannot replicate.

NY's 2 best players play worse in the playoffs, their shooting %s fall off a cliff. That's the team you want to play in the playoffs. Brunson 12/27 in both games and that's Good for him in the playoffs... Not to mention both of them are weak as hell defensively and Brunson is small. Knicks was an infinitely better matchup for us.

The foul baiting would be worse against us, and we probably have as many or more guys who would fall for it. That said it’s looking like an even proposition between those two options at best.

[soxperry]

And those of us calling for us to drop to #6 are being vindicated. Knicks were down big G1 and lost G2 at home. Pacers are a much better team.

Or maybe Detroit is just a bad matchup for them in ways that we cannot replicate.

NY's 2 best players play worse in the playoffs, their shooting %s fall off a cliff. That's the team you want to play in the playoffs. Brunson 12/27 in both games and that's Good for him in the playoffs... Not to mention both of them are weak as hell defensively and Brunson is small. Knicks was an infinitely better matchup for us.

I just dont buy that we would be able to guard both of them. The shooting thing could flip at any moment. Playoffs are small samples against specific teams. We are not exactly a tough playoff defense. Agree to disagree I guess

[German Athens]

Yeah, our problem with NY is that their two best players are the types we have the most problems with, and that’s because of how they can target brook.

We would have struggled to contain Brunson even if we had prime Jrue just like how we struggled to contain Trae.

Brunson would have attacked our deep drop, and gotten comfortable looks in the midrange, and then towns would have gotten open looks up top. If we pre-rotated, Towns then would have looked to post up the smaller defender and clear out a side.

[German Athens]

Detroit did well defensively because their whole team moves well in space. Duren would come to the level in the pick n roll, their guard would get over the screen, and they would force the smallest guy on the court to get rid of the ball.

Then they had longer players moving on the weakside jamming up momentary advantages. They are fast.

There’s a reason Brunson went to mostly ISO’s late, and that’s because Detroit couldn’t send two to the ball as easily and recover like they could when a screen was called.

[Ron Swanson]

Detroit had a slightly better defense than us (11th) this season despite their top rotation being littered with dudes who are straight up mediocre or outright bad defenders (Tobes, THJ, Beasley, and Schroder are 4 of their Top-6 in minutes). Kinda sick of this narrative the last 2-seasons that "personnel" continues to be our problem when all these teams all over the league are consistently doing more with less than what we have. I don't even think Bickerstaff is that good of a coach, but it must be nice having a guy who actually, you know.....has a gameplan and has his guys looking engaged and prepared.

[German Athens]

Kawhi, since 2021, and in 17 playoff games, has shot 67.7 ts%.

What the absolute ****?

That’s mostly on jumpers.

[Ron Swanson]

Gonna be pretty wild if this "one foot in the grave" version of Kawhi continues to be the best player on the court for the rest of this series.

[paulpressey25]

Read on Twitter

[GoldenAntlers]

Seeing Kawhi playing well in the Playoffs is a treat.

Not for me. I just relive May of 2019 nightmares.

If that guy even just played like an all-star, we win that series. Instead he became prime Jordan, starting with the bull&%# shot that knocked Philly out in the round prior.

Kawhi has been the best player in the league since he was on the Spurs. Injuries and weirdness obviously derailed that, but I enjoy seeing the best at their best.

2019 sucked, but not because of Kawhi. It was everyone else that pissed me off.

[RogerMurdock]

Thibs complained about Brunson of all people not getting the calls:

"I don't understand how on one side you talk about direct line drives. The guy is getting fouled and it's not being called," Thibodeau said. "And look, I don't really give a crap how they call the game, as long as it's consistent on both sides. So, if Cunningham is driving and there is marginal contact and he is getting to the line, then Jalen deserves to be getting to the line. It's really that simple."

[German Athens]

Seeing Kawhi playing well in the Playoffs is a treat.

Not for me. I just relive May of 2019 nightmares.

If that guy even just played like an all-star, we win that series. Instead he became prime Jordan, starting with the bull&%# shot that knocked Philly out in the round prior.

Kawhi has been the best player in the league since he was on the Spurs. Injuries and weirdness obviously derailed that, but I enjoy seeing the best at their best.

2019 sucked, but not because of Kawhi. It was everyone else that pissed me off.

I think this is definitely extrapolating out too much, but he would have been a guy in the conversation for like a decade, and it’s a shame we missed out on that.

[BUCKnation]

Jokic hasn't been good in the 4th of both of these games.

[MickeyDavis]

Thibs complained about Brunson of all people not getting the calls:

"I don't understand how on one side you talk about direct line drives. The guy is getting fouled and it's not being called," Thibodeau said. "And look, I don't really give a crap how they call the game, as long as it's consistent on both sides. So, if Cunningham is driving and there is marginal contact and he is getting to the line, then Jalen deserves to be getting to the line. It's really that simple."

Cade went to the line 12 times, Brunson 11. And maybe Brunson would get more calls if he wasn't foul baiting and flopping all over the place.

[German Athens]

Every time someone touches Brunson he turns into a bobble head.

That could be contact in the front court or back court. It’s exhausting to watch, and flies in the face of what the game is supposed to look like.