Scratch another contender off the Warriors' to-do list. Hot damn, they brought it tonight. Draymond and Looney were on another level defensively and Steph's 4th quarter was 💦💦💦! You wanna know how defensively-intense this game was? The 20-15 third quarter score with two of the most prolific scorers in the NBA should tell you something about that. In fact, the whole team did an amazing job on defense making the Sixers go through multiple guys to get even a decent shot up, spacing and funneling guys to where they knew their teammates were and contesting without fouling.
In the bad games the perimeter guys would funnel people to a spot where the backup defender (often Wiseman) couldn't get into proper position to defend, or even if they did the rotations elsewhere were too delayed and someone was getting an open 3 (or a hard closeout and free throws). This game (and vs Boston, too) the rest of the team was already in the right spot most of the time, so Philly couldn't find the advantage and ended up needing Embiid to take a tough one. And, I'm sure this is something that varies night to night, but based on how they did when we played them, Tatum looks way more unstoppable than Embiid.
I like Oubre coming off the bench right now. I'm still not happy with some of his tunnel vision inefficient shots, but his timing and length on cuts is starting to line up with Poole's ability to catch the defense off-guard, which helps get quality shots for the bench. And he really can use those long arms to great effect on the defensive end.
Sure, the team didn't start the game well at all (how often do you win a game after going down 12-nothing??) but some of that was just decent looks bouncing out and the rest was Seth Curry being on fire and giving his bro a hard time. Don't worry, Seth cooled off in the second half (honestly I blame the rest of Philly not giving him the opportunities) while his big bro was just getting hotter and hotter.
Plus, no new injuries on either side! Always thankful for the health and safety of the players. The league is just so much more fun when guys can actually play.
Any chance the Warriors could pry Thybull away from the 76ers? He looks like he would be awesome in the Warriors system. He moves off ball with purpose on O and plays tough D all game.
Really liked the look of the Poole + Looney + all wings bench lineups. I hope Oubre gets his energy back and they can use those in the playoffs to wreck the other team’s bench.
Looney and Draymond are two of my favorite players. They do everything to help the team win and help Curry look good.
I just don't buy the Sixers as real contenders. They lack 2 very important ingredients:
1. A high-level perimeter creator capable of scoring and creating for themselves and others.
2. Scheme versatility - Embiid is a DPOY-level drop big, but you can't play drop against the Stephs/Kyries/Hardens/Lillards of this world. And I doubt he has the mobility to consistently hard-double and rotate. Being a big in the modern NBA is really really hard lol.
Apparently Jokic and Embiid are top picks for MVP. Dubs beat Nuggets 116-107, steph goes for 53/6/4, Jokic 27/12/8. Dubs beat 76ers 107-96. Steph goes for 49/3/5, Embiid 28/8/3. No question about it, we got the MVP.
Warriors have 9 home games remaining (all with some fans) and 5 road games remaining. 5 games remaining against current top 8 seed teams (3 against non play-in teams). 2 sets of back to backs remaining.
4 games behind the Blazers, 2 games behind the Mavericks (playing them once), 1 game behind the Grizzlies (playing them once).
Get JTA and Paschall healthy and it's time to make a run. And hopefully while they make said run, the Hawks, Celtics, Knicks, Heat, and Hornets keep winning so they can keep their pick.
https://www.letsgowarriors.com/p/warriors-eyeing-playoffs-thanks-to 4/20 inspired rantings now activated
Keeping my eyes on Portland as the season comes to a close. They are currently up four games in the standings from us, but:
- they have a six game road trip coming up; Indiana, Memphis, Brooklyn, Boston, Atlanta, Cleveland
- they have three games against Memphis (one game up in the standings from us)
- they are 4-6 in the last ten games
- they have games against the Clippers, Denver x2, the teams up above
- they end the season @Utah, @Phoenix, and vs Denver (although Utah and Phoenix might be resting at that point).
I think Dallas is going to be hard to catch down the stretch, but I would not rule out passing Portland and Memphis and finishing in the 7 spot.
Game blacked out and could not even tape a replay. Comcast can bite me.
https://clutchpoints.com/3-reasons-stephen-curry-is-rightful-mvp-over-joel-embiid-nikola-jokic/amp/
Do the Warriors lose their pick if they wind up in the League Top 10 or the Conference Top 10?
Scratch another contender off the Warriors' to-do list. Hot damn, they brought it tonight. Draymond and Looney were on another level defensively and Steph's 4th quarter was 💦💦💦! You wanna know how defensively-intense this game was? The 20-15 third quarter score with two of the most prolific scorers in the NBA should tell you something about that. In fact, the whole team did an amazing job on defense making the Sixers go through multiple guys to get even a decent shot up, spacing and funneling guys to where they knew their teammates were and contesting without fouling.
In the bad games the perimeter guys would funnel people to a spot where the backup defender (often Wiseman) couldn't get into proper position to defend, or even if they did the rotations elsewhere were too delayed and someone was getting an open 3 (or a hard closeout and free throws). This game (and vs Boston, too) the rest of the team was already in the right spot most of the time, so Philly couldn't find the advantage and ended up needing Embiid to take a tough one. And, I'm sure this is something that varies night to night, but based on how they did when we played them, Tatum looks way more unstoppable than Embiid.
I like Oubre coming off the bench right now. I'm still not happy with some of his tunnel vision inefficient shots, but his timing and length on cuts is starting to line up with Poole's ability to catch the defense off-guard, which helps get quality shots for the bench. And he really can use those long arms to great effect on the defensive end.
Sure, the team didn't start the game well at all (how often do you win a game after going down 12-nothing??) but some of that was just decent looks bouncing out and the rest was Seth Curry being on fire and giving his bro a hard time. Don't worry, Seth cooled off in the second half (honestly I blame the rest of Philly not giving him the opportunities) while his big bro was just getting hotter and hotter.
Plus, no new injuries on either side! Always thankful for the health and safety of the players. The league is just so much more fun when guys can actually play.
Wiggins had some TOUGH rebounds today. Need more of that from him. Though I continue to worry about him getting tired for the playoffs
https://twitter.com/stevejones20/status/1384326771877634054?s=20
Embiid asking Dray why he wont guard him lol
Any chance the Warriors could pry Thybull away from the 76ers? He looks like he would be awesome in the Warriors system. He moves off ball with purpose on O and plays tough D all game.
Curry is the show.
Really liked the look of the Poole + Looney + all wings bench lineups. I hope Oubre gets his energy back and they can use those in the playoffs to wreck the other team’s bench.
Looney and Draymond are two of my favorite players. They do everything to help the team win and help Curry look good.
I just don't buy the Sixers as real contenders. They lack 2 very important ingredients:
1. A high-level perimeter creator capable of scoring and creating for themselves and others.
2. Scheme versatility - Embiid is a DPOY-level drop big, but you can't play drop against the Stephs/Kyries/Hardens/Lillards of this world. And I doubt he has the mobility to consistently hard-double and rotate. Being a big in the modern NBA is really really hard lol.
How long would JTA be out? I kinda remember concussion protocol being a week long
Apparently Jokic and Embiid are top picks for MVP. Dubs beat Nuggets 116-107, steph goes for 53/6/4, Jokic 27/12/8. Dubs beat 76ers 107-96. Steph goes for 49/3/5, Embiid 28/8/3. No question about it, we got the MVP.
After tonight's games:
1] Jazz - 43-15 - W1
2] Suns - 41-16 - W1
3] Clippers - 40-19 - W1
4] Nuggets - 37-20 - W3
5] Lakers - 35-23 - L1
6] Blazers - 32-24 - L1
7] Mavs - 30-26 - L2
8] Grizzlies - 29-27 - L1
9] Warriors - 29-29 - W1
10] Spurs - 28-28 - W2
11] Pelicans - 25-32 - L3
Minnesota & Houston are tied with the worst record [15-43] after tonight.
Hottest team in the league right now is the Knicks with a 6-game winning streak.
Warriors have 9 home games remaining (all with some fans) and 5 road games remaining. 5 games remaining against current top 8 seed teams (3 against non play-in teams). 2 sets of back to backs remaining.
4 games behind the Blazers, 2 games behind the Mavericks (playing them once), 1 game behind the Grizzlies (playing them once).
Get JTA and Paschall healthy and it's time to make a run. And hopefully while they make said run, the Hawks, Celtics, Knicks, Heat, and Hornets keep winning so they can keep their pick.
In case you missed it, Nico Mannion was featured on Shaqtin A Fool (Spoiler alert 🚨: He won.)
https://youtu.be/Da0tRvZfVhg