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^^ Expecting a massive Jokic game on Saturday. Win or lose, that's what ATGs do when the season is on the line..Don't think it will be enough even he goes berserk for the rest of the series. The Clippers are just deeper and better.
A reporter just asked the Memphis coach: "With all the hurt from the end - or close to the end - of your season, how does that sit with you?"
Can you imagine if Pop was asked that question?
Pop: <stares awkwardly at reporter for 10 seconds> ....... "Badly."
Or if he was feeling feisty, he would repeat the question mockingly before giving a nothing response. "How does that sit with me? Well...I think it will sit with me in an undesirable fashion, probably."
God dammit, I'm starting to miss that old already.
Last edited by Arcadian; 04-25-2025 at 12:20 AM.
^^ Expecting a massive Jokic game on Saturday. Win or lose, that's what ATGs do when the season is on the line..Don't think it will be enough even he goes berserk for the rest of the series. The Clippers are just deeper and better.
While I picked the Clippers in 6 and still think it ends up that way, wouldn't shock me if the Nuggets win the next three tbh. Jokic is the best player in this series by a mile and playoff Harden/post-2019 Nephew are as undependable as they come.
It's really hard to bet on Harden in Game 5 and later in a series
calling it now lakers and clippers in the wcf
The Bucks and Nuggets situation should be a cautionary tale for this iteration of the Spurs. Both those teams waited too long to move off of their players. Overpaid a few of them too.
Like MPJ should be gone - break that money up and use it to bolster bench. Owners hanging on to this dude because of “vibes”.
Just bad stuff from both front offices.
Same could be said for Jamal Murray. Dude had one great playoff run which yes, got them a ring.
But then they gave him the bag and he hasn't been nearly as effective. Was awful in the last playoffs minus two big shots, and has been just okay this playoffs. Also was so bad for team Canada in the Olympics he got benched.
Toronto is a natural trading partner for Murray if Denver wants to move him.
He just stood there and watched one of his guards give up a crucial layup. He could have blocked it. He was close enough. He got pulled.
I don't have a strong opinion either way because I haven't thought about it enough... but maybe Giannis and Jokic aren't quite the dominant impact players that they're made out to be?
Have you listened to Joe Mazzulla interviews? He sounds like he studied Pop the way players studied and emulated their game after Jordan. He's pretty hilarious in that same vein.
Can you imagine if Pop was asked that question?
Pop: <stares awkwardly at reporter for 10 seconds> ....... "Badly."
Or if he was feeling feisty, he would repeat the question mockingly before giving a nothing response. "How does that sit with me? Well...I think it will sit with me in an undesirable fashion, probably."
God dammit, I'm starting to miss that old already.
I don't think that's the case. Looking at Jokic's team, there are only 3 guys with positive BPMs besides Nikola: Gordon at +1.2, Murray at +0.8, and Braun at +0.3. The rest of the team is entirely in the negative. Compare that with SGA's situation in OKC, where like Jokic he leads the team, but has 11 teammates in the positive range, with numbers like +4.3, 4.0, 4.0, 3.4, 2.4, 1.3, 1.3, etc... SGA has 7 teammates with better BPMs than Jokic's best teammate.
nuggets are cooked. i have no idea what westbrook's injury is or what his status will be for the next game but gordon is clearly not at 100% and murray seems out of sorts. clippers are clicking on all cylinders.
Regardless of which era someone prefers, role players are more important than ever. There's nothing a single player can do if his supporting cast is garbage.
Giannis is at 35/15/4 on 65% FG in these two games, basically prime Shaq numbers while also playing great defense.
G1 his teammates shot 4-26 from 3PT through three quarters, what's Giannis even supposed to do?
Nuggets supporting cast shot 5-23 in G3.
You can say just listing shooting splits is a shallow way to look at things, but in today's game chances of winning playoff games against serious opposition are low if you can't shoot the ball as a team.
Unless maybe it's an elite defensive roster, which Bucks and Nuggets obviously aren't.
With that being said, OKC still doesn't convince me. I predicted Clippers to beat them and I'll stick to that until I see Williams and Chet deliver against serious opposition.
MPJ is apparently playing with a shoulder injury that would usually require a month long recovery.
There is an interesting, unproveable dynamic at play though... does SGA make his teammates better, to the point where they have positive BPMs, but Jokic does not? Or Does SGA just have better teammates who make him look better?
I tend to think that both these guys are great and Jokic has a crappy team around him while SGA has a well constructed team around him... just throwing discussion points out because it's interesting to think about here in the dull days with no Spurs basketball.
Nah Denver really messed up with the owners being cheap when they shouldn’t have been and then being expensive when they shouldn’t have been. A max contract for an oft injured PG who has never made the all star team is stupid. Paying MPJ $30 million a year is also stupid. Getting rid of KPC was stupid. And so was firing Malone. Just tanked a year of prime Jokic for no reason
The bucks is due to injury and bad contracts as well. Not much Giannis can do when Lillard is trash. Glad the Spurs didn’t listen to me on that one. And Middleton was equal trash making $40 million a year. Spurs need to find the right role players and draft specialists going forward for specific roles as well
Clippers finished the regular season on a 19-3 run.
Losses were against OKC (2 points), Cavs (5 points, no nephew) and Pelicans (7 points, lmao).
Their loss in Denver was a 2 points, OT loss.
They're arguably the most in form team in the league.
with backstabbing POS nephew playing as well as he ever has (at least offensively, while still being a great, yet not peak-level defender)... there isnt a team they cant beat. Zubac has been incredible for them all year. Powell has been great for them all year. and Harden outplayed all expectations throughout the year.
and like you said, they're basically firing on all cylinders right now
Yeah, Zubac is looking like an unexpected hero for them.
Dunn has been amazing defensively, same goes for Jones Jr and Batum despite his age.
As for all cylinders, Powell has dropped off a bit and Bogdanovic has been a non-factor.
He averaged 11ppg on 43% from 3pt over 30 games since he joined, but has scored just 2 points in 3 playoff games, 37 minutes played.
If those two get in rythm, Clippers might just be able to match OKC's depth.
There's Ben Simmons, too.
The Nuggets weren't winning this series even if they were healthy.
Their one card left to play is probably Porter Jr. for depth. I wonder if the Spurs are/will be interested.
Thunder vs Clippers will probably (puncher's chance for the Celtics) be for the championship.
Assuming they make it past Denver, I want to see how Kawhi does against that Thunder defense. So far the only theoretical Achilles' heel for OKC is that they can get bullied because they're playing smaller guys. Kawhi's one of the only wings I've ever seen who could absolutely just body Lu Dort. Chet's a gamer but he's still skinny. I'm not sure you can crack the OKC defense with 5 out offense, they might be too fast and smart for that with all the small guys they play, but maybe you can still bludgeon them into submission if you have drivers that are big/strong enough.
It’s gonna be a of a series, and likely the challenger to Boston in the Finals.
The Bucks are the worst coached team I have ever seen that didn't have Pop at the helm. Jesus.
The other thing that’s pretty incredible is that the diagnosis from Spurs doctors over 6 years ago that Kawhi has a degenerative disorder is most likely 100% correct, and the fact that he, with load management and time off from injuries, can still be an elite player is kind of amazing. I know this isn’t the best arena to talk about Kawhi’s resilience and perseverance, but hurt feelings of San Antonio fans aside, it’s a remarkable story. He easily could’ve retired a multimillionaire, but instead continues to fight against set back after set back.
Still think they should be huge underdogs vs OKC. But wouldn't surprise me if the Clippers are the toughest challenge OKC faces this playoffs even with the way Harden s the bed the final 3 games every series he is in (other than the 2012 WCF).
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