Oh wow, maybe Steve thinks about bball gods, too? Klay and CP are playing. Steph and Dray are not, which I assume is due to not being 100% (Dray’s back). Steve says Steph’s ankle is fine which I’m interpreting as 95-99% but not 100% of course (we could see that in the replay when Curry winced and I don’t know of ankle tweaks that heal completely in 1.5 days). So, cool, I am in agreement fwiw.
DVDV mentions in a YouTube comment this morning that there’s a 62.5% chance of the first play-in opponent being SAC. Yep and now I’m kicking myself because I forgot to mention that a bus ride up to SAC is far better than getting in any type of plane. Shoot, thought I’d covered all bases in the article 🤦🏻♂️
So first let's acknowledge that the Pels shot 3s out of their minds and they were mostly not wide open shots unless they were super long 3s. The normal distance 3s were defended and often well defended. They were just on an insane hot streak that was not the Dubs fault in any way. We played great defense on Zion and others in the paint. That's the good news. The bad news is we threw the ball away a ridiculous amount of times. We hadn't been doing that but reverted to sloppy and maybe overly cocky passes. But in spite of all of that we could have, should have even won that game. I have 3 gripes. #1 gripe- In the most important game of the year, why couldn't Kuminga at least try to go? #2 gripe- Why wasn't TJD in at the end of the game instead of CP3 who is slow and vulnerable bringing the ball up from backcourt or dribbling in general, not a scoring threat mostly, and with Dray in there we don't need him to pass the ball. But we definitely needed the paint presence and electricity and energy of TJD to keep Zion contained, get rebounds, be an outlet for lobs or passes to score inside when they double Steph and Klay. #3 gripe- How many times are the Dubs going to lose games because they do exactly what the opponent expects them to do in the final seconds, which is give the ball to Steph and expect him to create his own shot and then end up doubled and not able to get off a quality shot or even a good pass to Klay because they expect that also of course? It is gross mismanagement of the final seconds not to run a play that takes advantage of the Steph gravity. Or if you insist of Steph taking the final shot, whatever happened to the "elevator doors" play? Or how about not having Steph handle the ball and instead pass off to Dray, have Klay be a decoy while Steph runs his ass off and relocates to get an open shot? Or put in Moody and have Steph and Klay be decoys to get Moody an open 3? Whatever, but please, please, please stop doing exactly the #1 thing that the other side expects you to do. We have lost so many games due to Steph basically wanting to be the hero at the end of the game rather than playing smart movement offense when we need it most. We blew that game. The Pels did not win it, we committed malpractice.
Oh wow, maybe Steve thinks about bball gods, too? Klay and CP are playing. Steph and Dray are not, which I assume is due to not being 100% (Dray’s back). Steve says Steph’s ankle is fine which I’m interpreting as 95-99% but not 100% of course (we could see that in the replay when Curry winced and I don’t know of ankle tweaks that heal completely in 1.5 days). So, cool, I am in agreement fwiw.
DVDV mentions in a YouTube comment this morning that there’s a 62.5% chance of the first play-in opponent being SAC. Yep and now I’m kicking myself because I forgot to mention that a bus ride up to SAC is far better than getting in any type of plane. Shoot, thought I’d covered all bases in the article 🤦🏻♂️
So first let's acknowledge that the Pels shot 3s out of their minds and they were mostly not wide open shots unless they were super long 3s. The normal distance 3s were defended and often well defended. They were just on an insane hot streak that was not the Dubs fault in any way. We played great defense on Zion and others in the paint. That's the good news. The bad news is we threw the ball away a ridiculous amount of times. We hadn't been doing that but reverted to sloppy and maybe overly cocky passes. But in spite of all of that we could have, should have even won that game. I have 3 gripes. #1 gripe- In the most important game of the year, why couldn't Kuminga at least try to go? #2 gripe- Why wasn't TJD in at the end of the game instead of CP3 who is slow and vulnerable bringing the ball up from backcourt or dribbling in general, not a scoring threat mostly, and with Dray in there we don't need him to pass the ball. But we definitely needed the paint presence and electricity and energy of TJD to keep Zion contained, get rebounds, be an outlet for lobs or passes to score inside when they double Steph and Klay. #3 gripe- How many times are the Dubs going to lose games because they do exactly what the opponent expects them to do in the final seconds, which is give the ball to Steph and expect him to create his own shot and then end up doubled and not able to get off a quality shot or even a good pass to Klay because they expect that also of course? It is gross mismanagement of the final seconds not to run a play that takes advantage of the Steph gravity. Or if you insist of Steph taking the final shot, whatever happened to the "elevator doors" play? Or how about not having Steph handle the ball and instead pass off to Dray, have Klay be a decoy while Steph runs his ass off and relocates to get an open shot? Or put in Moody and have Steph and Klay be decoys to get Moody an open 3? Whatever, but please, please, please stop doing exactly the #1 thing that the other side expects you to do. We have lost so many games due to Steph basically wanting to be the hero at the end of the game rather than playing smart movement offense when we need it most. We blew that game. The Pels did not win it, we committed malpractice.