NBA 2019-2020 Season

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Sep 21, 2020 4:01 pm

That was a pretty clutch shot and a pretty pitiful job by Plumlee on defense. Never rely on a Dukie when the game is on the line!

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Sep 21, 2020 7:28 pm

They were clearly expecting that James would get the ball, but he's not the only show in town anymore

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:12 am

So at 1-3, I suppose Denver has the Lakers right where they want them.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:38 am

Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:12 am So at 1-3, I suppose Denver has the Lakers right where they want them.

Denver has played 18 games in 36 days. Joker did nothing in the fourth quarter even when they put him back in. I think they are done.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 1:46 am

Lakers complete the "gentleman's sweep" of 4/5 games and are in the finals for the first time in forever.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 2:55 pm

Lorini wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:38 am
Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:12 am So at 1-3, I suppose Denver has the Lakers right where they want them.
Denver has played 18 games in 36 days. Joker did nothing in the fourth quarter even when they put him back in. I think they are done.

As I was saying

Great game last night though, looking forward to Heat/Celtics later today.

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 5:58 pm

Lorini wrote:
Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:12 am So at 1-3, I suppose Denver has the Lakers right where they want them.
Denver has played 18 games in 36 days. Joker did nothing in the fourth quarter even when they put him back in. I think they are done.

I don't understand why they didn't run plays to free up Joker from 3 in either game 4 or 5. He just killed the Clippers from three late in that series and they needed 3pt shooting late in both games.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 7:16 pm

His 3 point percentage is 42% and his FG percentage is 51%. He’s way more likely to make contested FG's from the key than contested 3 pointers. Lakers play way better D than the Clippers.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Sun Sep 27, 2020 11:43 pm

Womp womp. Celtics were up by 6 with I think 8 minutes left, then managed to lose by 12. It's fine, but just kind of a frustrating series because it perpetually felt like the Celtics should be running away with it, but they just played WAY more sloppy than Miami, and Miami kept capitalizing on the Celtics' sloppy mistakes.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:14 am

So no old school Lakers - Celtics Finals. LeBron to face his old team and coach. Looks like Udonis Haslem is the only LeBron teammate left - I can't believe Greg Oden was on that Heat team! Should be a good series, I say Lakers in 5.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:30 am

The Celtics certainly have more star power than the Heat, but the Heat played together and everyone stepped up their game, especially in the 4th quarters. I'm not sure the Heat have enough to take down the Lakers four times, but I expect most games to be close.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:34 am

The Lakers have faced three times now who got to where they were by 'playing together'. Which is good and we saw I think the best basketball we've seen lately in all of the series. At the same time, skill goes a long way. None of the Heat team made 1st NBA team for a reason. "On paper" the Lakers are the better team. However the game is not played on paper and the Lakers are going to have to play at the top of their abilities to beat the Heat. They should, but as we know, we've seen 'should' before

.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:26 am

Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:34 am "On paper" the Lakers are the better team. However the game is not played on paper

They're played by little men inside my tv set.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:36 am

Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 10:34 am At the same time, skill goes a long way. None of the Heat team made 1st NBA team for a reason.

To be fair, only five players made the all NBA 1st team, so it's not exactly a knock on the Heat that none of their players are on it and Jimmy Butler did make the 3rd team. Of course, the Lakers have two of the five players on the 1st team.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:25 pm

Doc Rivers out as Clippers coach. No surprise there, the owner spent a ton on Leonard and George and got little for it.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:38 pm

Too bad for them the Bulls snatched up Billy Donovan.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:25 am

Well I will root for the Lakers but after looking at the RAPTOR stats for each team on fivethirtyeight.com, it doesn't look good really. Heat have way more scorers than the Lakers and the Lakers defense on a player by player basis really isn't that great. What's interesting though is that if you use ELO, the Lakers are favored to win, but really the lack of scorers vs the Heat is glaring.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/in ... odern-nba/
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... ions/heat/
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... ns/lakers/

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:27 am

Lorini wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:25 am Well I will root for the Lakers but after looking at the RAPTOR stats for each team on fivethirtyeight.com, it doesn't look good really. Heat have way more scorers than the Lakers and the Lakers defense on a player by player basis really isn't that great. What's interesting though is that if you use ELO, the Lakers are favored to win, but really the lack of scorers vs the Heat is glaring.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/in ... odern-nba/
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... ions/heat/
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... ns/lakers/

I think those are good for aggregate and long term trends, but to win 4 games, Davis and James can cover any scoring deficiencies.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:36 am

Lorini wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:25 am Well I will root for the Lakers but after looking at the RAPTOR stats for each team on fivethirtyeight.com, it doesn't look good really. Heat have way more scorers than the Lakers and the Lakers defense on a player by player basis really isn't that great. What's interesting though is that if you use ELO, the Lakers are favored to win, but really the lack of scorers vs the Heat is glaring.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/in ... odern-nba/
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... ions/heat/
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/20 ... ns/lakers/

I'm not fluent on how the RAPTOR models work, but giving the Lakers a 27% change of winning the Finals seems insane to me. As you've pointed out, they'll have the two best players on the floor. That can go a long way. It's true that the Heat are more balanced offensively, but the Lakers are no slouch defensively. James, Davis, and Danny Green all have defensive +/- rating ~ as good or better than the top Heat player (Bam). I'm taking the Lakers in 6.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:42 am

27% is laughable. If you had told me at any point during the season that all a healthy Lakers team (minus Avery Bradley) had to do was beat the Miami Heat I would have been ecstatic.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:45 am

Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:25 pm Doc Rivers out as Clippers coach. No surprise there, the owner spent a ton on Leonard and George and got little for it.

Did you know it's been 49 years since the Clippers were in the Conference Finals? That's kind of amazing given the talent they've had.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:53 am

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:45 am
Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:25 pm Doc Rivers out as Clippers coach. No surprise there, the owner spent a ton on Leonard and George and got little for it.
Did you know it's been 49 years since the Clippers were in the Conference Finals? That's kind of amazing given the talent they've had.

What year was that? I don't see it.

Total number of appearances

Los Angeles Clippers 0

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 1:03 pm

Jaymann wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:53 am
stessier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:45 am
Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:25 pm Doc Rivers out as Clippers coach. No surprise there, the owner spent a ton on Leonard and George and got little for it.
Did you know it's been 49 years since the Clippers were in the Conference Finals? That's kind of amazing given the talent they've had.
What year was that? I don't see it.

Total number of appearances

Los Angeles Clippers 0

The Clippers were founded 49 years ago.

Edit: I see I phrased the original statement poorly. My bad.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Tue Sep 29, 2020 5:06 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:45 am
Lorini wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 8:25 pm Doc Rivers out as Clippers coach. No surprise there, the owner spent a ton on Leonard and George and got little for it.
Did you know it's been 49 years since the Clippers were in the Conference Finals? That's kind of amazing given the talent they've had.

Keep in mind that for 33 years Donald Sterling owned the Clippers. He had no interest in the Conference Finals or anything else except watching other good teams beat the crap out of his teams. The only two players that had 'talent' while he was owner was Baron Davis and Blake Griffin.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:07 pm

How's that 27% looking now?

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:21 pm

Jaymann wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:42 am 27% is laughable. If you had told me at any point during the season that all a healthy Lakers team (minus Avery Bradley) had to do was beat the Miami Heat I would have been ecstatic.

Wait, that was a 27% chance at the start of the finals, not like a 27% chance at the start of the playoffs or the season? That does seem crazy (although this Heat team is pretty good).

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 1:49 pm

Jaymann wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:07 pm How's that 27% looking now?

Yeah really. If all the games go like last night, I'm expecting an apology from fivethirtyeight.com.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Thu Oct 01, 2020 1:49 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2020 12:21 pm
Jaymann wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:42 am 27% is laughable. If you had told me at any point during the season that all a healthy Lakers team (minus Avery Bradley) had to do was beat the Miami Heat I would have been ecstatic.
Wait, that was a 27% chance at the start of the finals, not like a 27% chance at the start of the playoffs or the season? That does seem crazy (although this Heat team is pretty good).

Yes start of the Finals. They did a podcast about it where they were supposed to explain the 27%, but my friend listened to it and said they never did.

Now the Lakers have increased to a 47% chance of winning!!! Whoohoo!

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 10:23 am

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:38 am

Terrible pass by Morris.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 12:01 pm

Jaymann wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 11:38 am Terrible pass by Morris.

Clearly he was expecting AD to catch and jam. I don't know what he said afterwards but that's what it looked like. Don't know if it was on AD to move toward the basket or if it was off the cuff and Morris was thinking AD would move toward the basket. Frankly I think AD should have moved toward the basket, but that's just a thought

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 1:37 pm

Lebron was wide open to Morris’ right; he just panicked.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 2:47 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Oct 10, 2020 1:37 pm Lebron was wide open to Morris’ right; he just panicked.

I didn't see Lebron as open, are you sure it wasn't just the camera angle? Or maybe that was why I didn't see him as open.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:48 pm

(Hopefully this works): that’s Lebron waving his hand at Morris.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 7:49 pm

He's so open, he has his own voting drop box.

Jaymann · Post by **Jaymann** » Sat Oct 10, 2020 9:03 pm

Morris couldn't make up his mind so he passed it between Davis and LeBron.

Lorini · Post by **Lorini** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 8:48 pm

That’s more like it. Hopefully it’ll continue through the third quarter.

Ænima · Post by **Ænima** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 10:21 pm

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 10:44 pm

As someone that didn’t have any skin in the game, that was not a very fun game to watch. Congrats to the Lakers, though.

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Sun Oct 11, 2020 11:06 pm

I only watched the 4th quarter. Was happy to see Kuz get a ring, but otherwise, meh.