OK, I’m not a big bball fan (unless Michael Jordan is on the floor), which is good, otherwise I wouldn’t find this really funny:
About 5 times in the past few weeks, I’ve turned on the Bulls game in the car when I’m going out somewhere. The Bulls are up by 18 or 20 in the late 2nd quarter when I leave the car. By the time I get back to the car, the post-game show is on. Bulls lose by 8.
So its YOUR FAULT. Quit turning on the game. When you ignore them, they do well. You turn them on, and then the whole place goes to crap!
I think the Bulls are second only to the Knicks in devastating losses. Late December/early January I think they had three games in two weeks where they lost after having a 90%+ win likelihood.
What is the biggest disparity between Home/Road win percentage in NBA history and are the Warriors on pace to break that this year?
edit: What Is Going on With the Golden State Warriors’ Home-Road Splits? - The Ringer
3rd worst since the NBA/ABA merger and 11th all time but many were in the 1950s.
I think I heard them mention that the other night and they are close but not quite there. Yet.
I don’t watch much NBA Basketball, but this seems pretty obvious, though in practice, I’m guessing it’s a lot harder to pull off for a lot of the game’s time.
I think the best way to be successful is to have backup guards AND starting guards who can apply pressure. Eventually, teams will add in a small forward to rotate in the duty. Then, teams will figure out how to beat the press (long pass to an open teammate under the basket).
So, my question is how often do teams press? Every other throw-in? Every third? two out of every three? How frequently after defensive rebounds (harder to do, I assume)? Just wondering, so I don’t have to watch.
Congrats to the Kings on breaking their playoff drought. They don’t play enough defense to make a deep run but they are fun to watch on offense. Which is a bit odd given that Mike Brown was the Warriors defensive guru.
Dammit, Dallas, stop taking advantage of The American Sports Franchise Model and lose games now to win in the draft later without any repercussions!! Oh yeah?? Repercussion THIS!
Fun thing about this is that NBA Basketball players hate to raise their Number of Games denominators, as it will affect their placement in history and their bargaining position for the next contract. So, instead of playing five minutes than sitting out the rest (saving the team $750K in fines), they don’t want to play any of the game. Because, hey, they might not be on that current team next year.
Guess what, NBA: Mark Cuban doesn’t care about a wrist-slapping:
Cuban was fined $600,000 in 2018 for publicly admitting that the Mavericks were tanking, saying on NBA legend Julius Erving’s podcast that he had taken the team’s veteran players to dinner and explained to them, “Losing is our best option.”
Cuban also admitted that Dallas tanked in 2017, saying after that season on “The Dan Patrick Show” that the Mavs “did everything possible to lose games” once they were eliminated from the playoffs.
What they should do is force the mavs to give their pick to the Knicks anyway since that is why they tanked to begin with
She was pretty effective in the game. Her shrieks seemed to really upset their foul shooting. I thought it was pretty funny.
What would be considered a deep run? Second round with a victory over defending champs? Conference finals? Don’t sleep on these guys. They have HEALTHY players right now and Brown could likely scheme some stops when needed.
I would consider conference finals or further a “deep” run. If they do that I’d say they exceeded expectations.
They’ve already had a successful season but I think in this round or the next their defense is going to catch up with them.
Obviously beating defending champ warriors who are just 90minutes down the road from them would be huge for them and their fan base but the warriors have had their own defensive issues this year, especially on the road.
As a 3 seed, getting out of round 1 is all that is really expected, especially from a young team that nobody gave a chance to in round 1 since they haven’t had a winning record or been in playoffs in 17 years. Round 2 could be a blessing with a depleted Memphis team or vulnerable old Lakers team who will wear down.
What do those past years have to do with this year?
I am constantly amazed at how tradition works in lots of sports. It’s as if some teams simply believe they will win while others don’t understand how it works to win a series.
Eh, it’s a media thing.
See: BoSox 2004
LA Kings 2012.
LEI 2016
Is that “tradition” or just a combination of the right players/coaches at the right time, regardless of the team’s “history of losing” most of which goes back farther than the existence of the players themselves?
I wrote
“As a 3 seed, getting out of round 1 is all that is really expected, especially from a young team that nobody gave a chance to in round 1 since they haven’t had a winning record or been in playoffs in 17 years.”
I listened to talking heads on ESPN pupu them. Younger teams with rising stars are always under-valued compared to Steph, LeBron, Durant. Durant has lost his last 7 playoff games and the Suns were still favored to win the west. The Kings were an underdog despite GS not being able to win more than 11 games on road. The 17 years don’t matter, but losing record and little to no recent playoff experience for many individuals and a collective team can make some difference.
I like the way the Kings play with high energy and have a rooting interest as a college classmate’s kid is on the team. I wasn’t close to him or stay in touch but it is still a 1 degree of separation. I hope the Kings, Nuggets and Grizzlies all advance. Then, despite being top 3 teams in West, Clippers and Suns would still be regarded as the favorite since Durant/CP3/Booker and Leonard/Westbrook/George all have more name recognition.
It’s an enjoyable brand of basketball to watch.
That said I can’t really think of any teams that won the championship with a bottom 5 NBA defense in recent memory.
As I said the Warriors have their own defensive problems this year that were way worse on the road than at Chase. But last year the Warriors had a #2 defense last year and were missing 2 key pieces from that defense in Wiggins and Payton for large stretches of this season. So as a Warriors fan if they can some how flip the switch and play defense like they did last post season, I could see the Dubs making another run because the offense is still there.
However G1 looked like a lot of GSW road games this year in that they didn’t defend particularly well and they didn’t close out the 2nd half when they had a lead. So unless they tighten up and play better D, Sacramento is probably advancing this round.
I just don’t see Sacramento having the personal to suddenly become a good defensive team for them to keep advancing they will be bucking recent NBA trends. But then 9 years ago a young 3 point shooting team wasn’t given a lot of chance to go deep either so who knows.