Semifinals Matchup Set: Knicks vs Celtics

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Being a fan >>>>>>> reasonable

Need some crazies around to keep it spicy, too many and it turns into an insane assylum. Its a delicate balance...

Were in the 2nd round of the playoffs against the Cs. Why be scared, or reasonable, or measured. All that is for the grind. This is basketball. Knicks basketball.

And more importantly we have the best player in the series, and the best wing defender. Im riding with em.

Fck Boston.

Were leaving this sht with 4 wins.

I look forward to the Guan0 "I hate it here" posts by the 3rd quarter of game 1.

[spree8]

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

His DFG% at protecting the rim is the worst by anyone in the playoffs. He has a DFG% of 75% at protecting the rim, allowing opponents to shoot 8.5% better. We are pretty much cooked.

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Damn, got em



Sorry melo

[3toheadmelo]

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

His DFG% at protecting the rim is the worst by anyone in the playoffs. He has a DFG% of 75% at protecting the rim, allowing opponents to shoot 8.5% better. We are pretty much cooked.

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Well well well, look who's using net ratings after you disowned that stat a week ago.

NoDopeOnSunday wrote: Look at MeLonoma trying to use context to explain a negative net rating, it hasn't even been a month that you told him it's a lineup stat

Meanwhile KAT has a DFG% of 75% protecting the rim. We got a modern day Bargnani.

[3toheadmelo]

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

His DFG% at protecting the rim is the worst by anyone in the playoffs. He has a DFG% of 75% at protecting the rim, allowing opponents to shoot 8.5% better. We are pretty much cooked.

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Damn, got em



Sorry melo

Got something for you too

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[Guano]

Need some crazies around to keep it spicy, too many and it turns into an insane assylum. Its a delicate balance...

Were in the 2nd round of the playoffs against the Cs. Why be scared, or reasonable, or measured. All that is for the grind. This is basketball. Knicks basketball.

And more importantly we have the best player in the series, and the best wing defender. Im riding with em.

Fck Boston.

Were leaving this sht with 4 wins.

I look forward to the Guan0 "I hate it here" posts by the 3rd quarter of game 1.

3rd quarter?!

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Down 10 in the 1st and im going to be yellow jacket angry.

[Chanel Bomber]

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

His DFG% at protecting the rim is the worst by anyone in the playoffs. He has a DFG% of 75% at protecting the rim, allowing opponents to shoot 8.5% better. We are pretty much cooked.

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Not to mention rim protection numbers are not a measure for defensive performance, although they're often correlated.

KAT's not our worst defender, so the mono-focus on his defensive woes seems a bit unfair. There's no denying he's a pretty weak defender, but the Pistons scored more with Brunson or Mikal on the court than they did with KAT, per their defensive on/offs per 100 possessions for the series.

All three of these players will need to step up on defense against Boston.

3toheadfakenews at it again

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Were in the 2nd round of the playoffs against the Cs. Why be scared, or reasonable, or measured. All that is for the grind. This is basketball. Knicks basketball.

And more importantly we have the best player in the series, and the best wing defender. Im riding with em.

Fck Boston.

Were leaving this sht with 4 wins.

I look forward to the Guan0 "I hate it here" posts by the 3rd quarter of game 1.

3rd quarter?!

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Down 10 in the 1st and im going to be yellow jacket angry.

I would think you would hold it together longer than that, as a man that leads a militia and fights Grizzly bears with nothing more than a buck knife.

[Chanel Bomber]

Boston are the favorites of course. They have no glaring weakness, they have the best player in the series and they are extremely well coached. But I think on paper we have the horses to compete with them and - if luck is on our side - beat them.

The keys are obviously Brunson and KAT because Mazzula will order his team to hunt them mercilessly on defense. So those two will need to play much better defense for us to compete, starting with a higher level of intensity.

On offense, I think both KAT and Jalen will need to be particularly efficient and punish their matchups. This is where Jrue's health is such a key factor. Brunson has to dominate against Pritchard. KAT needs to punish switches and hit his 3s.

The rest of the team has fewer question marks. Some may make crucial plays, but I think I know what to expect from OG, Mikal, Mitch and Hart.

I expect the Celtics to have the edge in coaching. But Thibs can't get completely outclassed in this series for us to have a chance.

Tatum's the best player in the series but we have the best ball-handler and the most clutch player in the series in Brunson, who I believe has another level he can go to.

Going with the romantic Knicks in 6 pick as I want to be optimistic about Jalen and KAT rising to the occasion, despite the data pointing towards an easy Celtics series win.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Boston are the favorites of course. They have no glaring weakness, they have the best player in the series and they are extremely well coached. But I think on paper we have the horses to compete with them and - if luck is on our side - beat them.

The keys are obviously Brunson and KAT because Mazzula will order his team to hunt them mercilessly on defense. So those two will need to play much better defense for us to compete, starting with a higher level of intensity.

On offense, I think both KAT and Jalen will need to be particularly efficient and punish their matchups. This is where Jrue's health is such a key factor. Brunson has to dominate against Pritchard. KAT needs to punish switches and hit his 3s.

The rest of the team has fewer question marks. Some may make crucial plays, but I think I know what to expect from OG, Mikal, Mitch and Hart.

I expect the Celtics to have the edge in coaching. But Thibs can't get completely outclassed in this series for us to have a chance.

Tatum's the best player in the series but we have the best ball-handler and the most clutch player in the series in Brunson, who I believe has another level he can go to.

Going with the romantic Knicks in 6 pick as I want to be optimistic about Jalen and KAT rising to the occasion, despite the data pointing towards an easy Celtics series win.

The fact the Pistons were so successful with Duren on Hart and Harris on KAT gives me little hope for the series, there's realistically only two ways out of that defense. It's either Hart makes threes on volume and a good percentage, or you play big and penalize them for trying to guard your big like that, the problem in this series is the Celtics can go big too, and both their bigs can hit threes on volume. They can maintain the KP on Hart defense, and have Horford on KAT, which is just nasty, cause the old man can still defend at a high level, even on switches.

[3toheadmelo]

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

His DFG% at protecting the rim is the worst by anyone in the playoffs. He has a DFG% of 75% at protecting the rim, allowing opponents to shoot 8.5% better. We are pretty much cooked.

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Not to mention rim protection numbers are not a measure for defensive performance, although they're often correlated.

KAT's not our worst defender, so the mono-focus on his defensive woes seems a bit unfair. There's no denying he's a pretty weak defender, but the Pistons scored more with Brunson or Mikal on the court than they did with KAT, per their defensive on/offs per 100 possessions for the series.

All three of these players will need to step up on defense against Boston.

3toheadfakenews at it again

You and Nodope have disowned the net rating stats, but now you want to use it because it fits your narrative.

KAT is easily our worst defender. He's by far the worst rim protector in the league according to all metrics. There's really no excuse for him to have a DFG% of 75%. Why do you think the Pistons were calling us soft?

He played great on defense in game 1 but went back to playing like ass. That's what he does.

ChaHell wrong again!

[NoDopeOnSundays]

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Not to mention rim protection numbers are not a measure for defensive performance, although they're often correlated.

KAT's not our worst defender, so the mono-focus on his defensive woes seems a bit unfair. There's no denying he's a pretty weak defender, but the Pistons scored more with Brunson or Mikal on the court than they did with KAT, per their defensive on/offs per 100 possessions for the series.

All three of these players will need to step up on defense against Boston.

3toheadfakenews at it again

You and Nodope have disowned the net rating stats, but now you want to use it because it fits your narrative.

KAT is easily our worst defender. He's by far the worst rim protector in the league according to all metrics. There's really no excuse for him to have a DFG% of 75%. Why do you think the Pistons were calling us soft?

He played great on defense in game 1 but went back to playing like ass. That's what he does.

ChaHell wrong again!

I'm not using blanket net ratings, I'm using on/off with players in and out of the lineup, which encompasses a lot more lineup data. When KAT went off the floor, we were losing the minutes he was out, that's just a fact.

The real question is, why are you in here trying to sow doubt in our players? Very interesting, maybe hoping Tatum has a big series for your Cs?

[Chanel Bomber]

Boston are the favorites of course. They have no glaring weakness, they have the best player in the series and they are extremely well coached. But I think on paper we have the horses to compete with them and - if luck is on our side - beat them.

The keys are obviously Brunson and KAT because Mazzula will order his team to hunt them mercilessly on defense. So those two will need to play much better defense for us to compete, starting with a higher level of intensity.

On offense, I think both KAT and Jalen will need to be particularly efficient and punish their matchups. This is where Jrue's health is such a key factor. Brunson has to dominate against Pritchard. KAT needs to punish switches and hit his 3s.

The rest of the team has fewer question marks. Some may make crucial plays, but I think I know what to expect from OG, Mikal, Mitch and Hart.

I expect the Celtics to have the edge in coaching. But Thibs can't get completely outclassed in this series for us to have a chance.

Tatum's the best player in the series but we have the best ball-handler and the most clutch player in the series in Brunson, who I believe has another level he can go to.

Going with the romantic Knicks in 6 pick as I want to be optimistic about Jalen and KAT rising to the occasion, despite the data pointing towards an easy Celtics series win.

The fact the Pistons were so successful with Duren on Hart and Harris on KAT gives me little hope for the series, there's realistically only two ways out of that defense. It's either Hart makes threes on volume and a good percentage, or you play big and penalize them for trying to guard your big like that, the problem in this series is the Celtics can go big too, and both their bigs can hit threes on volume. They can maintain the KP on Hart defense, and have Horford on KAT, which is just nasty, cause the old man can still defend at a high level, even on switches.

Absolutely. I'm just choosing to be hopeful for this series. It's not necessarily reasonable. I share your concerns as well.

Hart's definitely a liability entering the series. This is not a good matchup for him, as Mazzula is incredibly clear-minded and aggressive about exposing weak points on the opposing team. But playing great defense - which he hasn't done all year and I love Josh - would be a start in offsetting this offensive dilemma.

This series for us starts on defense imo. Boston are almost an impossible puzzle to solve for us but getting big contributions on defense would be a start in narrowing the gap. A few of our players need to step up, not just KAT.

[3toheadmelo]

Not to mention rim protection numbers are not a measure for defensive performance, although they're often correlated.

KAT's not our worst defender, so the mono-focus on his defensive woes seems a bit unfair. There's no denying he's a pretty weak defender, but the Pistons scored more with Brunson or Mikal on the court than they did with KAT, per their defensive on/offs per 100 possessions for the series.

All three of these players will need to step up on defense against Boston.

3toheadfakenews at it again

You and Nodope have disowned the net rating stats, but now you want to use it because it fits your narrative.

KAT is easily our worst defender. He's by far the worst rim protector in the league according to all metrics. There's really no excuse for him to have a DFG% of 75%. Why do you think the Pistons were calling us soft?

He played great on defense in game 1 but went back to playing like ass. That's what he does.

ChaHell wrong again!

I'm not using blanket net ratings, I'm using on/off with players in and out of the lineup, which encompasses a lot more lineup data. When KAT went off the floor, we were losing the minutes he was out, that's just a fact.

The real question is, why are you in here trying to sow doubt in our players? Very interesting, maybe hoping Tatum has a big series for your Cs?

You're just using the stat because it fits your narrative now you're too predictable.

I am sowing doubt in KAT's ability to play against contenders. He has been a no show all year long against those teams. It is the harsh reality, which you won't ever admit. The C's had a field day every game with KAT because he is literally the worst defending C in the league. The only way saving KAT's defense is by having 4 OG's around him, which actually might not even be enough

[NoDopeOnSundays]

Boston are the favorites of course. They have no glaring weakness, they have the best player in the series and they are extremely well coached. But I think on paper we have the horses to compete with them and - if luck is on our side - beat them.

The keys are obviously Brunson and KAT because Mazzula will order his team to hunt them mercilessly on defense. So those two will need to play much better defense for us to compete, starting with a higher level of intensity.

On offense, I think both KAT and Jalen will need to be particularly efficient and punish their matchups. This is where Jrue's health is such a key factor. Brunson has to dominate against Pritchard. KAT needs to punish switches and hit his 3s.

The rest of the team has fewer question marks. Some may make crucial plays, but I think I know what to expect from OG, Mikal, Mitch and Hart.

I expect the Celtics to have the edge in coaching. But Thibs can't get completely outclassed in this series for us to have a chance.

Tatum's the best player in the series but we have the best ball-handler and the most clutch player in the series in Brunson, who I believe has another level he can go to.

Going with the romantic Knicks in 6 pick as I want to be optimistic about Jalen and KAT rising to the occasion, despite the data pointing towards an easy Celtics series win.

The fact the Pistons were so successful with Duren on Hart and Harris on KAT gives me little hope for the series, there's realistically only two ways out of that defense. It's either Hart makes threes on volume and a good percentage, or you play big and penalize them for trying to guard your big like that, the problem in this series is the Celtics can go big too, and both their bigs can hit threes on volume. They can maintain the KP on Hart defense, and have Horford on KAT, which is just nasty, cause the old man can still defend at a high level, even on switches.

Absolutely. I'm just choosing to be hopeful for this series.

Hart's definitely a liability entering the series. This is not a good matchup for him, as Mazzula is incredibly clear-minded and aggressive about exposing weak points on the opposing team. But playing great defense - which he hasn't done all year and I love Josh - would be a start in offsetting this offensive dilemma.

This series for us starts on defense imo. Boston are almost an impossible puzzle to solve for us but getting big contributions on defense would be a start in narrowing the gap. A few of our players need to step up, not just KAT.

The Magic gave out a blueprint on how to play the Celtics and not get annihilated every game, basically just switch everything and live with them isoing you to hell without giving up 3s scrambling in rotation. Once you get them out of hunting for threes, you have a small chance.They held the Celtics to 106ppg for that series and limited their 3-point attempts to 31 per game. Will we do that? I doubt it, but that's one of the ways to try and keep it close, and they were able to do that with Corey Joseph on the floor.

Like you said, Mazzula goes after weaknesses, and did that in the 4 games against us because he knows we're going to sink to guard the paint. We had the 3rd worse DRTG against the Celtics this year, only the Suns and Blazers were worse. No rational person can argue that we have worse defensive personnel than the goddamn Wiz or Hornets, so how we guard them needs to change for us to have a chance.

[Chanel Bomber]

We were -6.06 when KAT was off the floor in the series, we lost the minutes when he was out of the game.

Not to mention rim protection numbers are not a measure for defensive performance, although they're often correlated.

KAT's not our worst defender, so the mono-focus on his defensive woes seems a bit unfair. There's no denying he's a pretty weak defender, but the Pistons scored more with Brunson or Mikal on the court than they did with KAT, per their defensive on/offs per 100 possessions for the series.

All three of these players will need to step up on defense against Boston.

3toheadfakenews at it again

You and Nodope have disowned the net rating stats, but now you want to use it because it fits your narrative.

KAT is easily our worst defender. He's by far the worst rim protector in the league according to all metrics. There's really no excuse for him to have a DFG% of 75%. Why do you think the Pistons were calling us soft?

He played great on defense in game 1 but went back to playing like ass. That's what he does.

ChaHell wrong again!

I didn't use net rating, but the defensive on/off per 100 possessions of each player.

In defensive on/off, Brunson was worse than KAT in the regular season and Detroit series. Hart was worse than KAT in the regular season. Mikal was worse than KAT in the Detroit series.

Defensive EPM, probably the best defensive impact metric currently, ranks KAT above Brunson (by far our worst) and Hart, and on par with Mikal.

You're bringing a knife to a gunfight with this DFG stuff.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

You and Nodope have disowned the net rating stats, but now you want to use it because it fits your narrative.

KAT is easily our worst defender. He's by far the worst rim protector in the league according to all metrics. There's really no excuse for him to have a DFG% of 75%. Why do you think the Pistons were calling us soft?

He played great on defense in game 1 but went back to playing like ass. That's what he does.

ChaHell wrong again!

I'm not using blanket net ratings, I'm using on/off with players in and out of the lineup, which encompasses a lot more lineup data. When KAT went off the floor, we were losing the minutes he was out, that's just a fact.

The real question is, why are you in here trying to sow doubt in our players? Very interesting, maybe hoping Tatum has a big series for your Cs?

You're just using the stat because it fits your narrative now you're too predictable.

I am sowing doubt in KAT's ability to play against contenders. He has been a no show all year long against those teams. It is the harsh reality, which you won't ever admit. The C's had a field day every game with KAT because he is literally the worst defending C in the league. The only way saving KAT's defense is by having 4 OG's around him, which actually might not even be enough

What exactly is my narrative? Here's what you said.

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

When in reality, the team was losing minutes anytime KAT was off the floor. You want to say wild things, frame your agendas, then when you get checked with stats you start spazzing out.

I'm not even using the same net ratings as you.

[3toheadmelo]

Not to mention rim protection numbers are not a measure for defensive performance, although they're often correlated.

KAT's not our worst defender, so the mono-focus on his defensive woes seems a bit unfair. There's no denying he's a pretty weak defender, but the Pistons scored more with Brunson or Mikal on the court than they did with KAT, per their defensive on/offs per 100 possessions for the series.

All three of these players will need to step up on defense against Boston.

3toheadfakenews at it again

You and Nodope have disowned the net rating stats, but now you want to use it because it fits your narrative.

KAT is easily our worst defender. He's by far the worst rim protector in the league according to all metrics. There's really no excuse for him to have a DFG% of 75%. Why do you think the Pistons were calling us soft?

He played great on defense in game 1 but went back to playing like ass. That's what he does.

ChaHell wrong again!

I didn't use net rating, but the defensive on/off per 100 possessions of each player.

In defensive on/off, Brunson was worse than KAT in the regular season and Detroit series. Hart was worse than KAT in the regular season. Mikal was worse than KAT in the Detroit series.

Defensive EPM, probably the best defensive impact metric currently, ranks KAT above Brunson (by far our worst) and Hart, and on par with Mikal.

You're bringing a knife to a gunfight with this DFG stuff.

Not sure why you keep harping on EPM when it's widely one of the most disregarded stats out there. It ranks players like Zubac over players like AD, Jalen Williams, Anthony Edwards. It's like the new version of RPM that no one takes seriously.

You don't like DFG, that's fine. There's other metrics that show he's literally the worst defending C.

Going back to those games against top-10 offenses, Towns has allowed opponents in those games to shoot 63% from the field -- ranking 346th out of 346 players to contest at least 50 shots against those teams, per ESPN Research.

On layups and dunks in those games, Towns is allowing 70% shooting -- and opponents are shooting 60% overall on layups and dunks against him, which is the worst mark of any player to contest at least 300 of them.

Me and sham told you that KAT's defense at the 5 was absolutely terrible for years but you didn't want to hear it. Now what happened

[3toheadmelo]

I'm not using blanket net ratings, I'm using on/off with players in and out of the lineup, which encompasses a lot more lineup data. When KAT went off the floor, we were losing the minutes he was out, that's just a fact.

The real question is, why are you in here trying to sow doubt in our players? Very interesting, maybe hoping Tatum has a big series for your Cs?

You're just using the stat because it fits your narrative now you're too predictable.

I am sowing doubt in KAT's ability to play against contenders. He has been a no show all year long against those teams. It is the harsh reality, which you won't ever admit. The C's had a field day every game with KAT because he is literally the worst defending C in the league. The only way saving KAT's defense is by having 4 OG's around him, which actually might not even be enough

What exactly is my narrative? Here's what you said.

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

When in reality, the team was losing minutes anytime KAT was off the floor. You want to say wild things, frame your agendas, then when you get checked with stats you start spazzing out.

I'm not even using the same net ratings as you.

Hard to take you seriously when you're flip flopping on net ratings you continue to dig yourself in deeper holes you'll never get yourself out of. Dying on the hill on KAT's defense in 2025 is insanity.

[NoDopeOnSundays]

You're just using the stat because it fits your narrative now you're too predictable.

I am sowing doubt in KAT's ability to play against contenders. He has been a no show all year long against those teams. It is the harsh reality, which you won't ever admit. The C's had a field day every game with KAT because he is literally the worst defending C in the league. The only way saving KAT's defense is by having 4 OG's around him, which actually might not even be enough

What exactly is my narrative? Here's what you said.

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

When in reality, the team was losing minutes anytime KAT was off the floor. You want to say wild things, frame your agendas, then when you get checked with stats you start spazzing out.

I'm not even using the same net ratings as you.

Hard to take you seriously when you're flip flopping on net ratings you continue to dig yourself in deeper holes you'll never get yourself out of. Dying on the hill on KAT's defense in 2025 is insanity.

What hole? You just throwing out buzzwords hoping they stick, your words -

One of the reasons why we barely beat the Pistons was because of how awful KAT was on defense.

Don't run now MeLo, help explain to me how we were losing the minutes he was off the floor convincingly if he was the one of the reasons we barely beat the Pistons when he was on the floor. How can these two things coexist?

[Fat Kat]

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