I get the rule, but I don't like offensive goal tending. A bucket is a bucket.

But worked for us, so all good.

PatAg said:

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+/- does get misapplied a lot. It's not simply "we are worse or better when this player is on the court".

Lively is clearly giving us more than Gafford, but we do NEED Gafford.
I would not mess with the minutes they are getting, or the order in which Kidd is playing them.

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I don't study lineups in a lot of depth, but one thing is the same every game. Lively plus Gafford = 48. I think they played together for 1 second last night.

Are there any other situations where 2 players, and only 2 share 48 minutes every game? The good news is that no juggling is necessary. If Kidd wants to go 30/18, he doesn't have to move any other pieces.

shack009 said:

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That's pretty cool and explains how they reviewed it so quickly.

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And that it wasn't even close once the tech was applied. They should be able to do this on blocked shots as well. Pretty simple to tell whether the ball is past the top of the parabola or not.

Indiana blew their shot losing game one, looks like this series will go 5 at most now.

Boston is gonna be extremely tough to beat. Their role players have been playing out of their mind all season.

n/m

Infection_Ag11 said:

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Indiana blew their shot losing game one, looks like this series will go 5 at most now.

Boston is gonna be extremely tough to beat. Their role players have been playing out of their mind all season.

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And now Haliburton is hurt.

Guitarsoup said:

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Infection_Ag11 said:

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Indiana blew their shot losing game one, looks like this series will go 5 at most now.

Boston is gonna be extremely tough to beat. Their role players have been playing out of their mind all season.

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And now Haliburton is hurt.

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Celtics about to go on the dumbest run to the finals ever. The East was already so dumb and then add the injuries to Butler, Embiid, Giannis, all of the Knicks, and now Halliburton. Such garbage.

I don't know man, some of those teams that came out of the East immediately post-Jordan were a joke. The Nets went to the Finals one of those years without beating anyone with over 45 wins.

Yeah that's fair, the use of "ever" was definitely a little much.

But when you consider all the major stars in the East that were injured, it was way too easy. Sixers, Bucks, and Heat are all non-playoff caliber without their injured stars. Cavs are a low level playoff team without Mitchell and Allen, of course Mitchell sat every game after game 1 in their series with the Celtics. Now Halliburton is hurt and the Pacers aren't a playoff team without him. Knicks barely had enough guys to field a team. We are talking 5 of the top 20ish players in the league, including 2 of the top 6-7.

Just abominable.

And the league is in a really good place with a lot of good players. The injuries were just devastating to every team in the East, just parting the seas for the Celtics.

This celtics team is as talented as those warriors teams from a few years back and it would be an all time let down if they dont win it all

Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday, KP, Hauser and Pritchard. Thats an insane rotation

I wouldn't go THAT far. At their peak the Warriors had 4 future half of famers in their prime including 3 of the 5 best shooters ever.

Interesting take from Bill Simmons on his most recent pod: the wolves should feel good because that was about as perfect of a Luka game as you could ask for. No mention of the t wolves shooting the lights out in the first quarter and the Mavs shooting poorly from 3 all game. Luka only shot 30% from 3 and was under 50% from the field.

He still like Minnesota in the series, but says he wouldn't bet on it.

I respect the unique nature of the take.

Gotta love the mental gymnastics. Luka hitting close to his career averages in all categories except under in 2pt% and 3pt% is a "perfect game". While Minnesota hitting a bazillion 3s and still losing is not sign to worry.

I haven't watched Minnesota, but it's hard to imagine a better 1st half from their offense. Maybe they can clean up their interior defense, but then I would expect our 3pt% to go way up. I just don't see how they find another gear.

Ya I think the "gear" is ANT. He only attempted 2 shots in the paint. That's gonna change. Whether that means more offensive success or not, no idea but he has to at least attempt to put rim pressure on Dallas' D.

Yeah I'm hoping he is a little over aggressive and misses open guys and ends up driving right in to Lively or Gafford. I think he is going to get about 25 shots up.

I don't think there's any chance they sit Rudy for longer stretches, but it is in my mind as something that's possible so that Ant will have more space to drive. It's hard for Ant to get in to the lane when Gafford and Lively can just sit back there.

But Gobert was their best plus minus guy in game 1. Their defense is completely different without him.

Really hard to sit Rudy when KAT is playing like ***** 6-20 and timid won't cut it, even if you hit the occasional 30' spot up three.

HE WAS TIRED SIR!

Yeah I'm not expecting it all. I just wonder if they say to themselves "we have to get Ant going and the way to do that is to space the floor more."

Ant wanted no part of the paint last game and that just has to change.

And on the other end, Luka has to keep getting in to the paint. He had the right mentality in this one and he needs to keep his foot down. I know he will take about 10 threes, but he still needs to touch the paint as often as he did last game.

#NBAPlayoffs WEST FINALS – GAME 2
⏰ 830PM ET
🏀 @dallasmavs at @Timberwolves
🏀 #15 Zarba, #58 Tiven, #27 Ervin
📺 @NBAonTNT #NBA #NBAReferees

Alternate Official: Gediminas Petraitis pic.twitter.com/mnPcUNbscY

— NBA Referees (@OfficialNBARefs) May 24, 2024

shack009 said:

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Interesting take from Bill Simmons on his most recent pod: the wolves should feel good because that was about as perfect of a Luka game as you could ask for. No mention of the t wolves shooting the lights out in the first quarter and the Mavs shooting poorly from 3 all game. Luka only shot 30% from 3 and was under 50% from the field.

He still like Minnesota in the series, but says he wouldn't bet on it.

I respect the unique nature of the take.

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his disdain for the mavs has really destroyed any respect I have for him. I still love rusillo, but BS is bs these days. He's also just not that interesting anymore -- he helped carve out a non-ESPN only sports following, especially in written and podcast media, but his pod is beyond mediocre now.

I'm not sure why anyone listens/still listens to Bill Simmons.

It is clear Simmons doesn't even pay attention to sports outside Boston and major events. It's amazing that he is able to fill up so much air time every week.

Side note, when he wrote The Book of Basketball, he did a book signing tour and I borrowed an Astros Clemens jersey from a friend to wear to it. This was back in 2004ish, so right around when Clemens won the Cy Young with the Astros. I'll buy your book because it is about basketball, but also **** you , Bill.

Guitarsoup said:

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It is clear Simmons doesn't even pay attention to sports outside Boston and major events. It's amazing that he is able to fill up so much air time every week.

Side note, when he wrote The Book of Basketball, he did a book signing tour and I borrowed an Astros Clemens jersey from a friend to wear to it. This was back in 2004ish, so right around when Clemens won the Cy Young with the Astros. I'll buy your book because it is about basketball, but also **** you , Bill.

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Yep, and that's with NBA, which he's "known" for. It's really hilarious when he tries to talk about football. Dude is just irrelevant these days, but still maintains a cult following like Howard stern or Dan Patrick, etc, even though much better personalities have passed them by.

Any game avoiding Tony Brothers is a blessing.

shack009 said:

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Interesting take from Bill Simmons on his most recent pod: the wolves should feel good because that was about as perfect of a Luka game as you could ask for. No mention of the t wolves shooting the lights out in the first quarter and the Mavs shooting poorly from 3 all game. Luka only shot 30% from 3 and was under 50% from the field.

He still like Minnesota in the series, but says he wouldn't bet on it.

I respect the unique nature of the take.

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Luke had a great 4th quarter, and a good game overall...perfect? Cmon Bill.
Its crazy how ill informed he has become, while pretending he is some expert anaylsis.
I miss when he was more about just being funny and having fun sports takes and he would no life watching all the games.

I thought he had good analysis of our OKC series and he's been really complimentary of the Mavs when deserved over the last couple of months of the season and in the playoffs. That's why I thought his take that Minnesota should feel good was so odd. Minnesota won almost every important category that determines winning and they still lost. Not sure how good I would feel about that.

Role guys like PJ and DJJ didn't even have good games relative to what they did last series. If the Mavs get a good PJ game or a game from DJJ like Minnesota got from McDaniels in Game 1 then we are talking about a blowout.

shack009 said:

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Any game avoiding Tony Brothers is a blessing.

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.@stephenasmith believes Jalen Brunson should've made first-team All-NBA over Luka 👀 pic.twitter.com/YMXfXMz7mB

— First Take (@FirstTake) May 24, 2024

Brunson over Luka for NBA first team? keep pandering to the NY bball fandom

Brunson has turned into a fantastic player and I wish we would have kept him (though we wouldn't have Kyrie had we done so, or he'd have been a part of the Kyrie trade). But Luka is, at worst, the third best player in the world right now. Brunson is a volume scorer with size/athleticism limitations.

Debating on watching this game on mute with Reggie miller calling it

wtf was that

How can they not tell us why thr timeout was called. The crowd was randomly making noise right before it