theyre fine i mean theyre all fine wiggins is a career 35% shooter from three hes fine
― lag∞n, Monday, 30 May 2022 22:40 (two years ago) link
you do have to guard him you have to guard all of them but are they going to totally roast you well probably not
― lag∞n, Monday, 30 May 2022 22:41 (two years ago) link
there are two guys on the warriors who you say a little prayer whenever they get the smallest window to hoist
― lag∞n, Monday, 30 May 2022 22:42 (two years ago) link
elite guys if you will
― lag∞n, Monday, 30 May 2022 22:43 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 00:01 (two years ago) link
i'm obligated to take c's in 7. this is going to be really interesting--the celtics have the best defensive backcourt in the nba yet have had to spend these playoffs gaming for durant, giannis, and butler. put up or shut up time against curry, klay, and poole. on the other hand the warriors have played against a defense remotely like this and it's worth filing away that memphis stressed them a little bit with some talent, but a lot more effort and energy. they're going to need to find a different gear to run their stuff against boston.
i'm very torn on what rob williams means to this series. he can definitely disrupt drives but still gets lost against teams that move the ball effectively. on offense if healthy he could really punish golden state with his verticality at the rim, they have no one who's going to do anything about that. the warriors swing guy is probably poole--definitely a player type that can give the celtics trouble but they could hunt him on the other end.
health will obviously be critical, i'm hoping marcus and rob are moving a bit better and while the warriors injuries are with their role players every little bit counts at this point. i don't see the return of iguodala or payton being meaningful--if they do come back they'll most likely be limited in one way or another.
i hope this is close and fun, everyone deserves that.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 00:55 (two years ago) link
i hope its close and fun but the celtics winning easily would be fine too
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 01:24 (two years ago) link
Question from a baseball fan. I assume because of Nate Silver's involvement, the projections on 538 are analytics-based. They have the Celtics at 83% to win the series (they've been projecting the Celtics to win for many months), which I find really surprising. Is this the equivalent of an old-school/analytics argument in baseball, where the Warriors have so-called intangibles on their side (experience, history, comeback narrative), while the Celtics are the obvious favourite if you don't believe in that stuff?
― clemenza, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 02:23 (two years ago) link
i don't think the statistical case for the celtics is nearly as strong as that projection would claim. they've been the statistical best team in basketball for a while now but the warriors are right up there too. their offense has been lethal when they avoid turnovers.
the type of intangibles you're talking about also aren't really a thing at this point in the playoffs, both teams have been through a gauntlet to get here and i think most would agree that the celtics have had a harder path.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 02:29 (two years ago) link
I think the reason why most ILHers have picked the Celtics is that in a seven game series the best team, or at least the best team in aggregate after injuries are taken into account, will win about 80% of the time. The need to win four reduces variance quite a bit. The margin between teams needs to be extremely thin to make a seven game series a total toss up. Going in, the C's look a bit stronger in their match-ups, but it should be a closely contested series, either 6 or 7 games. And hella fun!
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, 31 May 2022 02:53 (two years ago) link
well in general if you like the road team you should pick them in 6 but this particular celtics team seems to operate differently
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 03:17 (two years ago) link
celtics have tried more threes in the 2022 playoffs than GS have :o
a lot of that probably has to do with playing the bucks but still
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 10:32 (two years ago) link
538 likes the celtics prob cause they were by the numbers pretty clearly the best team for the second half of the regular season, the regular season can be deceiving in basketball tho, most close nba watchers had them as a contender in a crowded field of contenders which turned out to be more accurate than 538 seeing them as dominant, likewise 538 has them as big faves to win this series where its prob pretty much a toss up, tho i guess you do have to give 538 credit despite being a bizarre site by and for deranged weirdos for liking the celtics more than the average casual fan who didnt really see them as contenders at all
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 10:37 (two years ago) link
I would also say, Clemenza, relative to a sport like baseball, how teams match up against each other is a much, much bigger factor in basketball. Ergo much harder to use the data of previous performance against other teams to make those kinds of predictions. That said, the Celtics have famously played the Warriors well for the past several years. I believe I saw a tweet that they are the only team in the NBA with a winning record against them over the past 8 years or something(?!). On the other hand, they have of course never met in the playoffs and - again, different from other sports - the playoffs really are a whole different game. In a regular season matchup the Warriors aren't going to switch up their whole style of play from game to game, but in the playoffs you can (try to) mold your whole thing to take advantage of your opponent, as they do the same to you. That's why hoops are the best baby
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 13:58 (two years ago) link
yeah in the warriors famous 73-9 season the celtics had a win and an overtime loss vs them (with a different (much worse) team than the current one mind you)
their prioritization of perimeter defense has kept it a good matchup through roster turnover i guess
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 14:07 (two years ago) link
it kind of a classic matchup in the san francisco is the boston of the west coast
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 14:32 (two years ago) link
are you sure it isnt seattle
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 14:40 (two years ago) link
seattle is just idk what you even do with seattle
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 14:41 (two years ago) link
give them a basketball team back, for starters
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 14:44 (two years ago) link
they need to take it lets see something from the city of seattle
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:11 (two years ago) link
how much cooler would the durant-westbrook-harden thunder have been if they had been the seattle supersonics and not the oklahoma city thunder. would presti have gone into the tax to keep harden? would durant have stayed? we can only assume yes to both questions
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:17 (two years ago) link
oh yeah and also they wouldve learned to share the ball and keep harden happy as well, because of seattle chill vibes, another yes.
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:18 (two years ago) link
yeah i think ultimately that trio was just never going to work not enough basketballs
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:20 (two years ago) link
im sure ive posted about it on here before but i was actually a sonics fan as a kid and only switched back to the celtics in 08 when they were finally good at the same time as the sonics died. i am not a pure celtics fan despite living in MA my whole life
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:21 (two years ago) link
the initial celtics pitch when i was first old enough to watch & enjoy basketball was "their star player has died and they are going to be bad for a while" which was not compelling to child me
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:23 (two years ago) link
lmao yeah that was a rough time
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:24 (two years ago) link
awful
fact fans in this thread may want to note that the len bias pick belonged to.... the seattle supersonics before they traded it for gerald henderson and cash
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:29 (two years ago) link
well add to all that the mid90s Sonics were fun as hell, I definitely rocked a Kemp jersey even in a Celtics fan house
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:38 (two years ago) link
kemp was a phenomenon, he transcended team loyalties
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 15:53 (two years ago) link
― Clay, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 16:02 (two years ago) link
Got golden state in 6!— Jayson Tatum (@jaytatum0) May 28, 2015
― Chyiv Kyiv (Fetchboy), Tuesday, 31 May 2022 17:58 (two years ago) link
At least for the conference finals, 538 had the Mavs as the favorites (maybe even overwhelmingly so) to reach and even win the finals.
― Gianni Fursace (Leee), Tuesday, 31 May 2022 18:50 (two years ago) link
that vaguely makes sense to me that hthe same model would like the celtics and mavs
― ciderpress, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 19:46 (two years ago) link
“Analytics darlings”
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 22:26 (two years ago) link
I'm rooting for the Warriors for an odd reason: when the Raptors won, I really admired that I never heard Curry or any of the Warriors blame or even mention losing Durant and Thompson for the series. Maybe the Raptors would have won anyway, but realistically, probably not. But no one on the Warriors tried to put any kind of a damper on that at all--they let us enjoy that moment 100%.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 22:39 (two years ago) link
they are true mensches
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Tuesday, 31 May 2022 22:46 (two years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 00:01 (two years ago) link
the people have spoken. the series will be won on the road
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 00:19 (two years ago) link
15-11 is a pretty tight split!
― Clay, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 00:31 (two years ago) link
Smh at all these GSW homers
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 00:33 (two years ago) link
heard that most of the warriors voters are casuals
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 01:22 (two years ago) link
15-11 seems about right.
― Spottie, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 01:35 (two years ago) link
Casual homer here for sure
― DJI, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 14:47 (two years ago) link
same
― Chyiv Kyiv (Fetchboy), Wednesday, 1 June 2022 15:14 (two years ago) link
smh you guys need to study up
🚨NEW WORDS ALERT🚨Folks, the NBA Finals are (nearly) here! I did my best to get you prepared for the series.-matchups you’ll see-potential matchup counters-plays to watch out for-how Steph/Tatum will be defendedAaaaand more. Enjoy my labor!https://t.co/Wx9S8cTKHE— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) May 31, 2022
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 15:18 (two years ago) link
im rooting for all the players to have a fun time and the boston celtics to win
― johnny crunch, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 15:30 (two years ago) link
agreedis it just because i started getting into basketball again over the last couple of years, or is it objectively true that ancillary NBA-related content on youtube, podcasts, twitter etc has absolutely gone supernova
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 15:35 (two years ago) link
not just NBA, basically any type of content that can be made at home went supernova due to pandemic
― ciderpress, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 15:47 (two years ago) link
yeah makes sense
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 15:51 (two years ago) link
I’ve been told on good authority that it’s not yet Thursday. The waiting is the hardest part…
― that's not my post, Wednesday, 1 June 2022 16:03 (two years ago) link