The Playoffs Thread

[sodmoraes]

Heard some people saying they would prefer Middleton than Tobias. I think i rather keep Harris ..

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[Sixersftw]

Boy, the nets sure do suck, guys

Honestly, I can't explain why the Bucks have been so impotent in this series. Nets are playing better defense than them, too. They look shook or something.

Defensively, I have no **** idea. They look miserable. Offensively, they have no means of generating easy or predictable offense. In the playoffs, when Giannis isn't allowed to unilaterally commit offensive fouls and the rest of his bull stops working their offense just screeches to a halt.

I think we're likely getting smoked by this Brooklyn team but god it can't look this bad.

[sodmoraes]

After seeing Nets dismantle Bucks without Harden we should probably sit Embiid . Not worth it riskying his health . Even if we beat Atlanta we will be steamrolled in the ECF..

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[Negrodamus]

Griffin washed. Physically cannot even dunk anymore (until he joins the Nets and is actually good in the playoffs).

[ProcessDoctor]

The writing was on the wall that we were a bad matchup with this Brooklyn team when they almost beat us with Kyrie alone. Add 3 unstoppable scorers? Not even close.

Don't think it'll help that our fans were chanting "KD sucks" as he was sitting on the sidelines.

[Stanford]

Dunno why Bucks fans hate us so much. We share the exact same misery.

[Sixersftw]

Dunno why Bucks fans hate us so much. We share the exact same misery.

Because we are at peace with our fraudulent-ness.

[Slick SickSir]

Its almost like.... you cant win in the playoffs if you have a guy who cant shoot or play in the half court

Weird.. good thing we arent like the bucks amiriiiite

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

Its almost like.... you cant win in the playoffs if you have a guy who cant shoot or play in the half court

Weird.. good thing we arent like the bucks amiriiiite

Gee, none of us even thought of that until you arrived. The idea of having a creator in the halfcourt that can get to the basket and score off the dribble hasn't been heavily discussed at all over the last three years

[kuclas]

We got to be like roger Federer. He didn’t want to face Novak D who would destroy him in the French open. Better just to lose this round and avoid getting throttle by the nets.

At least this can save Embiid knees and more excuse to unload Ben Simmons.

[Negrodamus]

We got to be like roger Federer. He didn’t want to face Novak D who would destroy him in the French open. Better just to lose this round and avoid getting throttle by the nets.

At least this can save Embiid knees and more excuse to unload Ben Simmons.

Weird way to watch the game. We just watched the presumed favorites in the West go to the wire against Doncic and a bunch of journeymen. If Embiid can play at MVP form, I don't think any team is unbeatable in this playoffs.

[DCasey91]

We are no guarantee to beat the Hawks when they have the best offensive player between us. Didn’t think it will be but as it stands now this is no gimme.

Doubling Young doesn’t work out in the end if it’s repeated and Thybulle/Simmons works in theory but in reality our already comprised offense would look even worse if both are out there.

We don’t have a guard that can punish Trae on the other end. So he definitely has spots to hide.

On the other side though there’s a huge concern he’s very very adapted at creating mismatches because of our size it’s far easier to do that. The flip side is our size should dominate them but not if we play at their pace/speed.

Hawks shot 7/11 when Young was doubled. He’s the second best when getting double trapped after Jokic. But doubling Jokic is stupid anyway.

Face up Thybulle is the best strategy here. Matisse though as playing devils advocate will probably get lit up quicksmart if he himself doesn’t change his tactics on Young. Anyone that’s behind Young your not doing anything on the deterrent side of things. That’s exactly what he wants.

It’s funny but the way Trae is playing right now is exactly how Nash should have played. He left a lot of production on the table. Hunt mismatches, be a scorer/shooter, breakdown defenses all in one. It just ups the threat stake to a new level. Nash was a top 5 shooter/playmaker all time should have capitalized more on that. Trae is doing that as we speak. Stockton should have done the same to a lesser extent. Nash 20-25+, Stockton 18 min.

With us we are not Bucks level at giving away three pointers but let me tell you we are not far off it either.

[76ciology]

Story of the 2nd round so far.

Offense rules.

[DCasey91]

Story of the 2nd round so far.

Offense rules.

Greater offense > Greater defense. Besides none of the teams left are defensive juggernaughts they never were to begin with. Jazz/Bucks have always been suspect on that end.

It’s a smart as heck tactic to target non threats/easily exploitable weaknesses from roleplayers all the way up to superstars, it’s just makes them unplayable/less valuable as it should be from now into the future. Hell a back to back MVP has been exploited because of it for years now.

Durant/Irving/Harden would
Murder Gobert and Mitchell and co so easily. Way different tier group of players here.

Embiid for how high we rate him falls into the exploitable category without the outside gravity in crunch time.

Efficient Shooting/Shot making/Shot creating is now at such all time high premium.

[sixers4real]

Never believed in Bucks as a team. They are mentally not a strong team. Had they lost the first OT game to the Heat, no one knows how that series would go. They were celebrating Middleton buzzer in game 1 like they won it all. That gave them confidence.
I predict they can get their confidence back in Game 3, and then win game 4.

But I don't believe that the Nets can win it all without Harden. I truly believe we can beat them if we get past the Hawks. Very very important game 2.

[cool93]

We got to be like roger Federer. He didn’t want to face Novak D who would destroy him in the French open. Better just to lose this round and avoid getting throttle by the nets.

At least this can save Embiid knees and more excuse to unload Ben Simmons.

Weird things happen. Harden already got hurt, Kyrie and Durant aren't exactly ironmen. You put yourself in a best possible position to succeed and roll the dice.

[76ciology]

Yeah I think it's less about the actual guy on him and more the help you send. They were playing a pretty conservative scheme at the start in terms of Embiid dropping and not hard trapping. Probably wanted to see if they could get away with playing it like that, got their answer and adjusted accordingly in the second half. We'll see what they do the rest of the series.

I don't think putting Curry on him is an awful idea for the reasons you mentioned, but keep in mind if you want to trap or switch you're going to result in Curry having to switch onto whoever the other guy was covering, and that's a pretty easy way for the Hawks to get a mismatch.

What do you think of just switching the PnR?

I think Trae is not a good finisher in the paint, this is why he likes to settle with floaters.

I’d put Ben on Trae so Ben can switch with either Capela and Collins.

I’d probably live with Trae bombing over Biid’s outstretch arms. Worst case is Biid closing out on Trae, force him to drive then we just rely on team defense and rotation.

I believe Pop did the same thing against Curry back then.

I don't like the idea of always switching because then the offense can manipulate you into bad matchups. Switching isn't just about the matchup after the first switch it's all the other switches that can happen over 24 seconds. You can really only do it when you have enough guys that you are comfortable with covering any of the offensive players and I wouldn't say that about a lineup with Harris or Curry in it, and I would probably include Embiid in that, less because of his physical ability and more because I don't want him doing that all game.

I thought the strategy they used in the second half with alternating between hard traps before the pick and hard shows after the pick was reasonably effective. I imagine they'll have to cycle through a bunch of different coverages though by the time the series is over.

Just selecting switching and we’re not gonna switch everything. And switching specifically to weaken or remove the Trae 2 man game.

I like the idea of putting Ben on Trae. And Ben would just switch to the big of any big who tries to play a 2man game with Trae.

I dont like the trapping that much because i find us to be slow on rotating on defense because of Seth and Embiid. Another thing is I dont think we can do that for the entire game because this will exhaust Embiid.

And if Hawks would then let Bogdanovic be the playmaker instead, then it’s already a win on defense.

[76ciology]

Its almost like.... you cant win in the playoffs if you have a guy who cant shoot or play in the half court

Weird.. good thing we arent like the bucks amiriiiite

You can’t win if your team can’t run the pick and roll.

Because the league and the game have both designed to make the PnR as the most effective offensive action.

The only way to take it out is to switch the PnR and turn it into Isolation. Then if it’s a mismatch, then turn that isolation into more of a zone defense.

[76ciology]

Here’s something not talked about.

If Nets are able to beat the Bucks, then they’re more likely to beat the Sixers. This is because Bucks is a more advanced version of the Sixers.

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

I don't know man. Anything can happen. If Embiid and the knee can hold up, then I'm all for playing on. Brooklyn looks unbeatable, but you just never know with these things. Injuries happen.