4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

[DamnYanks2]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Stop it MPJ. Love that jumpshot.

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[DamnYanks2]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Dagger. Great pass by Joker.

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[JazzMan]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

RIP Suns 1st seed

May 1st, 2021 - May 2nd, 2021

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[DamnYanks2]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Boogie getting hosed on these calls.

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[dubcity]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

OKC went 38/111 from the field tonight. That feels like such a bizarre stat.

[JazzMan]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Please, please give us a Lakers/Clippers 6/3 matchup lol

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[cima]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

The Clippers 3 point shooting continues to baffle me...


Morris 46.7%
Kennard 46%
Jackson 43.8%
Cousins 42.9%
George 42.1%
Beverley 41.6%
Mann 41.4%
Batum 40.8%
Kawhi 39.7%

[ojandpizza]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

The Clippers 3 point shooting continues to baffle me...


Morris 46.7%
Kennard 46%
Jackson 43.8%
Cousins 42.9%
George 42.1%
Beverley 41.6%
Mann 41.4%
Batum 40.8%
Kawhi 39.7%

I thought this was a pretty good write up on the Clippers shooting and the Morris at the 5 small ball unit.

Spoiler

Los Angeles Clippers
Lineup: Marcus Morris at center

If the 2020-21 Clippers maintain their current efficiency, they will go down as the greatest jump-shooting team in NBA history. The only other team to shoot 41.6 percent from behind the arc in a season without a shortened 3-point line is the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, who did so on lower volume. They beat those Warriors in the mid-range as well, 44 percent to 43.4 on higher volume. They have the NBA's best 3-point percentage above the break and in the corners. Rajon Rondo has added sorely needed shot-creation. Reggie Jackson and Terance Mann are (finally!) starting to generate shots at the basket. But this is a team that will win or lose the championship based on its jump-shooting.

Morris at the five is their death lineup. The Clippers have played 396 possessions with Morris at center this season. That's not a sustainable sample size, but it's not a tiny one either. In that time, according to Cleaning the Glass, they've scored 138.4 points per 100 possessions.


Hang on. Take a deep breath. Go collect yourself. Ready to continue? Good.

I reiterate: the Clippers have scored 138.4 points per 100 possessions with Morris at center this season. Here's some perspective on that: the actual death lineup, even after it added Durant in 2017, scored 126.9 points per 100 possessions in 476 total possessions. That's a gap of 11.5 points per 100, bigger than the 10.7-point gap between the No. 1 ranked Nets offense and the No. 27 ranked Pistons offense this season. Again, we are dealing with small and unsustainable samples here, but these numbers are so preposterous that they can't be ignored entirely. The Clippers, as a team, have an effective field goal percentage of 63.9 percent in these minutes. Only six players in NBA history have ever matched that feat over a full season (on at least 10 shot attempts per game). The average Clippers field goal with Morris at center this season has been more efficient than a 2015-16 Stephen Curry shot attempt. Let that sink in.

So why aren't the Clippers going to these groups more? Defense, for starters. They've given up a ridiculous 126 points per 100 possessions. That's another unsustainable number, and it's one that should drop significantly in the small-ball-centric playoffs. Lineups featuring Morris, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George with any combination of Rondo, Mann, Patrick Beverley and Nic Batum should be able to switch comfortably against most lineups. But these groups are getting killed on the glass, and nothing is changing that. The Clippers wouldn't dare try this against Davis, James and the Lakers. They're too big. It offers far too little resistance at the rim.

But if they need to get into a track meet with the Nets, or combat Phoenix's lethal bench units? This is their trump card, an offense explosive enough to beat anybody no matter what happens on defense.

[ojandpizza]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Also on the Lakers new starting 5 and how they willingly went away from the best starting line-up in the league to go back to one that will likely have the same issues last years line-up with Mcgee had.

Spoiler

Los Angeles Lakers
Lineup: Dennis Schroder-Kentavious Caldwell-Pope-LeBron James-Anthony Davis-Andre Drummond


Swap Marc Gasol in for Drummond and the unit above blasted opponents by 13.9 points per 100 possessions before Davis got hurt. The theory of the lineup was sound: space the floor properly for the James-Davis pick-and-roll and your offense effectively becomes unguardable. Davis masked Gasol's physical deficiencies. Gasol provided supplementary playmaking. Schroder provided supplementary ball handling. Every box was checked.

The Lakers know the consequences of poor spacing in a James-Davis starting lineup well. They lived it last season with JaVale McGee. Why they chose to go back to it with Drummond is a subject of intense debate, but we've long passed the point of discussion. Drummond is going to be the starting center entering the postseason. Yes, the Lakers will move Davis to center when they have to, and yes, Vogel is open-minded about lineups, but the margin of error is thin here. Imagine a scenario in which the Lakers face the Clippers in the first round. If it takes them two games to realize this unit doesn't work, they might be down 2-0 to a team fully capable of beating them.


James hasn't yet played with this group yet, but the early returns on the Davis-Drummond pairing have been discouraging. In 83 minutes together, they've been outscored by 26 points, and their defensive rating of 119.2 is the second-worst of any two-man Lakers combination that has played that many minutes. With Drummond on the floor, Davis turns into a jump-shooter, and if he doesn't maintain the Kevin Durant-like efficiency of his 2020 postseason run, that minimizes his value.

Things will click back into place once LeBron returns because... well... it's LeBron. He won't tolerate Drummond's low-post shenanigans or inconsistent defensive effort. He'll weaponize Drummond's size in the pick-and-roll, and Drummond's rebounding should help ignite the transition offense that the Lakers relied so heavily upon last season.

But it should be lost on no one that the Lakers had the best starting lineup in basketball and willingly discarded it to get to this point. This unit can't just make sense to justify its existence. It has to thrive, and if it doesn't, Vogel needs to recognize that quickly and pull the plug. That's easier said than done. Promises were no doubt made to recruit Drummond in the first place. He's a 27-year-old impending free agent. He wants to play. So does Gasol. So does Montrezl Harrell (whose place in the rotation, given his defensive issues, should be subject to more scrutiny). This is a politically fraught situation, and it's going to take deft management to handle it.

I'll go ahead and drop the link if anyone wants to also read the Jazz and Suns piece. I feel like the Nuggets not being listed here is odd, but with Murray out maybe that makes sense. https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/n...o-5-mavericks/

[MrDubya]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Nets blowing a huge lead. Milwaukee Kicking *** in the second quarter

[ProfessaPackMan]

4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Giannis out here cooking as usual

I would hope this DJ guarding Giannis experiment doesn’t last this long if they were to meet in the playoffs.

[MrDubya]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

I think Van Gundy has a valid point. If a player is complaining about a call the refs made, they review it and the player was correct, why should he be fined for the tech? I dunno, just seems unfair. I’ve actually felt that way for years, with all of the egregious missed calls in recent times.

They often do the thing where they’ll come on the next day and admit that they missed the call. I’m always thinking like, “Well, what does that accomplish, if your missed call cost the other team the game, and you’re not gonna reverse the decision?”

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Who is the Bucks’ DJ?

Out here playing all the hits on each Bucks’ possession, lol

[Hassan Darkside]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Giannis about to put a 50-burger up.

But you gotta live with him shooting jumpers. He's just hitting them all today.

[MrDubya]

Re: 4/20 - 5/3 Games Discussion Thread

Giannis about to put a 50-burger up.

But you gotta live with him shooting jumpers. He's just hitting them all today.

He is slaughtering cats tonight. Also 8 rebounds and 4 assists to go along with his 49 points.