May 16, 2022·edited May 16, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot
You guys, I'm SO relieved! My husband has been a fan of the Suns since Barkley and we have some very different fan styles (he's unbearable and I'm super quiet, and he's always trying to get me to engage in bickering, and just gets to exhaust me).
I didn't actually want the Suns to lose, but I also didn't want Warriors to play against them. I don't know if you get me...
"SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry leads all playoff scorers with an average of 9.4 points per fourth quarter (minimum four played), and his 41 points in the clutch is second only to Ja Morant (42). Opponents are shooting 39.3 percent on attempts he defends, and he even has a couple of critical stops in crunch time. The attention he draws is the foundation of the offense, opening doors for big games from Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson.
Yet, it still feels like Curry hasn’t had a Curry game. Not yet."
The Mavs are going to come into Chase a little tired but with imo that game 7 mentality, if we play sloppy and careless with the ball in the first quarter we could easily tank our first game in a hurry and get the Mavs off to a running start, need to match their focus and intensity from the tip
Greetings from the BATT (Big Ass Train Trip)! We got on the Crescent line in Washington DC last night, went through Virginia and slept through North Carolina. We woke up in South Carolina, have been passing through Georgia and are about to enter Alabama for the first time in both of our lives.
For those interested, we published Part 1 of the BATT series, which is an preview/overview of the entire trip, plus the overnight trip from Oregon to Sacramento aboard the Coast Starlight. If you want to skip the overview and just see the train ride, it starts at 5:45. If you’d be so kind as to give the video a like/thumbs up, that’d be appreciated. https://youtu.be/tMrQxhVmK64
"Dallas targeted Paul most of all—an ironic twist after Paul had so tormented Doncic in the Suns’ runaway victory in Game 2. Paul defended the screener on 24 plays in Game 7, per Second Spectrum, the most for any player in the game.
That’s the highest figure for Paul in any game he’s played in the last five seasons. In fact, the five highest figures for Paul in the last half-decade have all come in the last five games. The Mavericks targeted him with screens like no other team has ever done before. "
I wonder if the Mavs knew something about that alleged thigh injury Paul has. Forcing a guy to run around screens is likely to punish a thigh injury as there's a lot of banging going on in that kind of a scenario.
If we live by the 3 and die by the 3 this makes me a bit more concerned...
From MavsMoneyball before G7:
The Mavericks played the Jazz in the first round in a series in matchup of the first two teams in the league in net three point attempts. The Mavericks dominated the battle of three point attempts in that series. The Mavericks attempted 251 threes while limiting the Jazz to 179 attempts. That is an advantage of 12 three point attempts per game which led the playoffs in the first round and it happened against the team that led the league in net three point attempts during the regular season.
That advantage has only increased in the second round. The Mavericks have attempted 234 threes in this series while the Phoenix Suns have only attempted 156. That means the Mavericks are averaging 13 more three point attempts per game than the Phoenix Suns.
But also from one of there posters:
Luka has improved defensively, but part of that improvement is IMO the coaching of team defense rather than Luka massively improving individually. He is still the weakest defender who takes way too many plays off.
People are also completely oblivious to the fact that one great player doesn't get you anywhere great in today's game like it used to, because the role players across the league are so much better than they used to be. Most of the top teams have at least one all star caliber side kick to go with their superstar if not more than one. We don't.
Opinion poll: which team has better defense, Memphis or Dallas? I tend to think Dallas (6th in defensive efficiency after the KP trade) because they are smarter not because they are more athletic.
For the Kuminga heads... Slater has posted footage of JK matched up against Luka in the regular season:
https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/1526084209420341248
You guys, I'm SO relieved! My husband has been a fan of the Suns since Barkley and we have some very different fan styles (he's unbearable and I'm super quiet, and he's always trying to get me to engage in bickering, and just gets to exhaust me).
I didn't actually want the Suns to lose, but I also didn't want Warriors to play against them. I don't know if you get me...
"SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry leads all playoff scorers with an average of 9.4 points per fourth quarter (minimum four played), and his 41 points in the clutch is second only to Ja Morant (42). Opponents are shooting 39.3 percent on attempts he defends, and he even has a couple of critical stops in crunch time. The attention he draws is the foundation of the offense, opening doors for big games from Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson.
Yet, it still feels like Curry hasn’t had a Curry game. Not yet."
Marcus Thompson, Athletic ($): https://theathletic.com/3314852/2022/05/16/steph-curry-warriors-mavericks/
Since they totally imploded, shouldn’t we now refer to them as the “Phoenix Black Holes”?
Slater with a great preview (The Athletic, $): https://theathletic.com/3313054/2022/05/16/warriors-mavericks-preview-matchup-predictions/
Bill Simmons on his podcast did a draft of the players in the Warriors-Mavs matchup, and if I remember correctly it ended up like this:
Luka (Simmons), Steph (Rusillo)
Draymond (Simmons), Brunson (Rusillo)
Poole (Simmons), Klay (Rusillo)
Wiggins (Simmons), Finney-Smith (Rusillo)
W's with 5 of the top 7 which is not bad.
Miami, Dallas, Boston, San Francisco. Florida, Texas, Massachusetts, California. These conference finals are definitely not a win for small markets.
The Mavs are going to come into Chase a little tired but with imo that game 7 mentality, if we play sloppy and careless with the ball in the first quarter we could easily tank our first game in a hurry and get the Mavs off to a running start, need to match their focus and intensity from the tip
Greetings from the BATT (Big Ass Train Trip)! We got on the Crescent line in Washington DC last night, went through Virginia and slept through North Carolina. We woke up in South Carolina, have been passing through Georgia and are about to enter Alabama for the first time in both of our lives.
For those interested, we published Part 1 of the BATT series, which is an preview/overview of the entire trip, plus the overnight trip from Oregon to Sacramento aboard the Coast Starlight. If you want to skip the overview and just see the train ride, it starts at 5:45. If you’d be so kind as to give the video a like/thumbs up, that’d be appreciated. https://youtu.be/tMrQxhVmK64
Holy shit Pat Bev dropping truth bombs about CP3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4-5kEprU4E
Interesting note from https://www.theringer.com/2022/5/16/23074464/phoenix-suns-dallas-mavericks-luka-doncic-chris-paul-game-7:
"Dallas targeted Paul most of all—an ironic twist after Paul had so tormented Doncic in the Suns’ runaway victory in Game 2. Paul defended the screener on 24 plays in Game 7, per Second Spectrum, the most for any player in the game.
That’s the highest figure for Paul in any game he’s played in the last five seasons. In fact, the five highest figures for Paul in the last half-decade have all come in the last five games. The Mavericks targeted him with screens like no other team has ever done before. "
I wonder if the Mavs knew something about that alleged thigh injury Paul has. Forcing a guy to run around screens is likely to punish a thigh injury as there's a lot of banging going on in that kind of a scenario.
Curious to see if Curry looks stronger/quicker after these days of rest.
I wonder how much coming back from his foot injury has affected him.
Crazy to think he's lost this much a step when he looked like the best he's ever looked last year.
Or has been playing next to Poole all season, and thus needing more defensive responsibility taken it's toll?
Ok so, is there any point to blitzing/doubling Luka? I’d love to know why or why not!
Given that Luka moves slower and is mostly a half court offensive player, can't Looney guard him close to an extent that anyone can guard Luka?
If we live by the 3 and die by the 3 this makes me a bit more concerned...
From MavsMoneyball before G7:
The Mavericks played the Jazz in the first round in a series in matchup of the first two teams in the league in net three point attempts. The Mavericks dominated the battle of three point attempts in that series. The Mavericks attempted 251 threes while limiting the Jazz to 179 attempts. That is an advantage of 12 three point attempts per game which led the playoffs in the first round and it happened against the team that led the league in net three point attempts during the regular season.
That advantage has only increased in the second round. The Mavericks have attempted 234 threes in this series while the Phoenix Suns have only attempted 156. That means the Mavericks are averaging 13 more three point attempts per game than the Phoenix Suns.
But also from one of there posters:
Luka has improved defensively, but part of that improvement is IMO the coaching of team defense rather than Luka massively improving individually. He is still the weakest defender who takes way too many plays off.
People are also completely oblivious to the fact that one great player doesn't get you anywhere great in today's game like it used to, because the role players across the league are so much better than they used to be. Most of the top teams have at least one all star caliber side kick to go with their superstar if not more than one. We don't.
Opinion poll: which team has better defense, Memphis or Dallas? I tend to think Dallas (6th in defensive efficiency after the KP trade) because they are smarter not because they are more athletic.