Around the NBA: Playoff Edition #2

[erlim]

Boston can beat the Cavs. Seriously, they are loaded with more talent than the early championship Bulls. IT is better than Jordan and Avery Bradley is better than Pip. And it's not even close! Jimmy Butler is like Gerald Wilkins.

[sh0ck]

Watching the Cavs dominate like this pretty much validates GarPax's line of thinking. Get younger and hope to add in 2018 when LeBron is 34 and hopefully declining.

[kyrv]

Toronto is such garbage. Cavs sleepwalk again through the Finals. So much for all their regular season struggles meaning anything.. I actually think the Bulls would have given them the most trouble with a healthy Rondo and Wade.

Did you hear Dwane Casy before this series? Such a little whiney beeyotch crying about how nobody wespects the poor Raptors. Oops.

[sh0ck]

lol, Harden flopped so hard that he hurt his neck

[GetBuLLish]

Players fishing for shooting fouls has been taken to such an extreme level it can really hurt the game overall. This has gotten ridiculous.

[dumbell78]

Boston can beat the Cavs. Seriously, they are loaded with more talent than the early championship Bulls. IT is better than Jordan and Avery Bradley is better than Pip. And it's not even close! Jimmy Butler is like Gerald Wilkins.

So you're trolling, that's cool. Ignoring you is easy enough now.

[erlim]

Watching the Cavs dominate like this pretty much validates GarPax's line of thinking. Get younger and hope to add in 2018 when LeBron is 34 and hopefully declining.

Same issue with the early 2000s bulls though. Why would anybody come here when Portis will be our best player.

[RedBulls23]

Boston can beat the Cavs. Seriously, they are loaded with more talent than the early championship Bulls. IT is better than Jordan and Avery Bradley is better than Pip. And it's not even close! Jimmy Butler is like Gerald Wilkins.

There is this rule where there is no trolling allowed, so knock it off.

[sh0ck]

Watching the Cavs dominate like this pretty much validates GarPax's line of thinking. Get younger and hope to add in 2018 when LeBron is 34 and hopefully declining.

Same issue with the early 2000s bulls though. Why would anybody come here when Portis will be our best player.

I'm sure Jimmy will still be on the roster by then.

[RedBulls23]

Read on Twitter

Man, that is some level of disrespect.

[Repeat 3-peat]

Hope Tony Parker's knee is okay.

[Rerisen]

Wall isn't a bad defender

The numbers disagree with you.

The Wizards defense was 8.4 points better with him OFF the floor this year. He has a negative DRPM.

This is despite all his backups stink as you say.

If hiding your star defensively is a bad idea because of rest purposes, I'm assuming you supported Jimmy Butler guarding Isaiah Thomas for the entire game? What are your thoughts on Pop not using Kawhi on Harden? He didn't guard him. Must mean he is being hidden or is bad, right?

Jimmy/Isaiah = Not same position.

Kawhi/Harden = Not same position.

Wall/IT = Same position.

'Hiding' a bad defender involves moving them off their position.

You examples are not that, plus, defenders have more trouble guarding someone from a different position - I said to start our series I doubt Jimmy could even guard IT well all game because he is a 6'7 power style SF while IT is a quick little jitterbug. Also moving your best defender to guard a new position can also cause unfavorable matchups for you at other spots on the floor. For example having Jimmy guard IT all game means Isiah Canaan has to guard Jae Crowder, mouse in the house all game.

Wall is flat out getting lit up, or his inability to guard his position is causing his team to get lit up. Either way the result is John Wall's counterpart is far and beyond the main reason the Wizards are down 0-2.

Historically in the NBA, if teams are close at all in playoffs to the same talent level, the team with the best single player wins the vast majority of series.

When David Robinson met Hakeem Olajuwon in the playoffs, 2 best centers in the league, Robinson put up fine numbers, star numbers as usual. The problem is Hakeem put up even better numbers, and it was decisive, and forever what people remember about who was better.

[veji1]

Hope Tony Parker's knee is okay.

Sucks big time, we might have seen his last meaningful game right here... He turns 35 in less than 2 weeks, he was slowing down pretty hard already the last few seasons but playing with a purpose this postseason. If he blew an ACL or so, you don't really come back from that when you are a 35 year old PG... If you are a massive 35 year old C, you might still be useful plodding around. Not so at his position. Sad.

[GimmeDat]

For those interested -

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[kingkirk]

The numbers disagree with you.

The Wizards defense was 8.4 points better with him OFF the floor this year. He has a negative DRPM.

This is despite all his backups stink as you say.

I really don't care what the numbers say. If you're trying to tell me the Wizards are better off defensively by having Wall on the bench and instead they'd be better off having Brandon Jennings or Trey Burke on, then I really don't care what his DRPM is. I don't care what their defensive rating is when he sits. It's meaningless information without that context.

Wall is flat out getting lit up, or his inability to guard his position is causing his team to get lit up. Either way the result is John Wall's counterpart is far and beyond the main reason the Wizards are down 0-2.

This is a ridiculous take if you've watched the first two games. The Wizards have opened up huge leads with their starters. The moment they've gone to their bench, those leads have cratered and all advantages they have had evaporated.

Trying to pin this all on Wall for being a 'bad' defender is ludicrous. The man is averaging 30 points, 14.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 2 blocks, but he's the problem because Isaiah has also been great?

Sure, let's ignore the fact that Wall is leading the team in scoring and running the entire offense. Let's ignore Bradley Beal, who is averaging 20 points on 38% shooting. Let's ignore that Wall's backups have yet to score a point in this series, and the entire outside of Kelly Oubre have combined to only score 24 points through 2 games.

Wall doesn't have to be the best player in the series for Wizards to win. It's not a rule. It's an advantage, but it's not a rule. You're way off on this one.

[Rerisen]

No one tried to 'pin it all on Wall'.

That's a strawmen. It's just the matchup under discussion.

To win this series the obvious advantage the Wizards had, is Isaiah Thomas should not be able to guard either of their starting guards, neither Wall nor Beal, and they should be lighting *him* up to the tune of .600+ TS, not the other way around.

Heck Rondo looked like prime Rondo against IT, Wall is doing nothing other than what he should be doing vs the worst defending starting PG (IT) in the league, or whoever else has to guard him because of it. Instead he's scoring volume points at .537 TS% *yawn*.

But that might be enough offensively from Wall, if they were even doing half as good a job as Atlanta did last year containing IT (17.4 PER, .519 TS%).

You are acting like letting IT put up 36 PER in the prime matchup in the series (on ludicrous efficiency) is somehow 'ok' or they are gonna win like this. No chance.

[Ice Man]

But that might be enough offensively from Wall, if they were even doing half as good a job as Atlanta did last year containing IT (17.4 PER, .519 TS%).

Isaiah is a better player this year, so perhaps Washington's more realistic aim was to hold IT to what Chicago did -- 23 per game, 56% TS%.

[Rerisen]

But that might be enough offensively from Wall, if they were even doing half as good a job as Atlanta did last year containing IT (17.4 PER, .519 TS%).

Isaiah is a better player this year, so perhaps Washington's more realistic aim was to hold IT to what Chicago did -- 23 per game, 56% TS%.

That would be a good start certainly.

I just don't think IT would be doing this to Derrick Rose or Chris Paul. Those guys would want to guard their man and win the personal matchup.

[Rerisen]

Here's all Isaiah's buckets in Game 2, watch the ones Wall is guarding him (even just the 2nd and 3rd baskets from Thomas) the effort from Wall is just pathetic, he doesn't even try to get around the screen or chase on the 2nd play. He just gives up.

This guy has a lot to learn. The other guys (Beal, Porter, Oubre) at least stay with him and make him take tough shots. Wall just quits on plays and ends up throwing up his hands over and over as he watches IT sink shots. Yes, he is a bad defender, at least now. Last year he rated about neutral and 2 years ago, positive. So I see Westbrook syndrome here.

http://stats.nba.com/events/#!/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=202738&TeamID=1610612738&GameID=0041600202&ContextMeasure=FGM&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Playoffs&LeagueID=00&PlusMinus=N&PaceAdjust=N&Rank=N&Outcome=&Location=&Month=0&SeasonSegment=&OpponentTeamID=0&VsConference=&VsDivision=&GameSegment=&Period=0&LastNGames=0&DateFrom=&DateTo=&PORound=0&ShotClockRange=&PerMode=Totals&MeasureType=Base&section=player&sct=plot

[DanTown8587]

Here's all Isaiah's buckets in Game 2, watch the ones Wall is guarding him (even just the 2nd and 3rd baskets from Thomas) the effort from Wall is just pathetic, he doesn't even try to get around the screen or chase on the 2nd play. He just gives up.

This guy has a lot to learn. The other guys (Beal, Porter, Oubre) at least stay with him and make him take tough shots. Wall just quits on plays and ends up throwing up his hands over and over as he watches IT sink shots. Yes, he is a bad defender, at least now. Last year he rated about neutral and 2 years ago, positive. So I see Westbrook syndrome here.

http://stats.nba.com/events/#!/?flag=3&CFID=&CFPARAMS=&PlayerID=202738&TeamID=1610612738&GameID=0041600202&ContextMeasure=FGM&Season=2016-17&SeasonType=Playoffs&LeagueID=00&PlusMinus=N&PaceAdjust=N&Rank=N&Outcome=&Location=&Month=0&SeasonSegment=&OpponentTeamID=0&VsConference=&VsDivision=&GameSegment=&Period=0&LastNGames=0&DateFrom=&DateTo=&PORound=0&ShotClockRange=&PerMode=Totals&MeasureType=Base&section=player&sct=plot

Wall was the primary defender on Thomas times on just made baskets (so we're not looking at attempts but just baskets that were made)

- Poorly fought through a screen
- Got caught trailing Thomas and backed off to avoid the foul where Thomas pulls up and draws a foul
- Offensive rebound pass back
- Wall went over a screen when he should have gone under though in Wall's defense, his D wasn't as bad as it appears, Horford moved a good two feet on the screen to make it appear Wall took an awful angle.
- Wall got screened (Morris didn't call it out) then Morris was in awful position (on the right side guarding a left-handed Thomas) and allowed Thomas to get all the way to the rim
- Wall got screened, Gortat wasn't there to take away the shot
- Wall got beat, looked tired (2.5 minutes in to OT)

That's it. So Thomas went for 53 and about no more than 10 points came from "poor John Wall" defense. The vast majority of Thomas' baskets came via a screen and the Wizards big having no awareness OR the Celtics use a smaller player and switch it and then Thomas drives.

Does Wall have to be better ALL the time, sure. But his defense clearly wasn't the issue in why Thomas went off. I think the Celtics have to do a MUCH better job of making the screener's man (so Gortat or Morris) make Thomas give up the ball. Far too many times they were overly concerned with a pass to Horford (even when he wasn't at the three point line) and simply didn't make Thomas slow or change direction, meaning that Wall or whoever was guarding Thomas couldn't get back to the play.