it's complicated
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For the Rockets, this was not an adjustment. It was a return to principles they drilled all season with an eye on the Warriors. They had developed habits, and those habits carried them within one win -- and who knows, maybe one hamstring pull -- of the NBA Finals.The Cleveland Cavaliers have few habits, unless you count lazing through the regular season and fatuous melodrama. They are trying to develop habits on the fly against an opponent that demands something barely short of perfection -- an opponent against which "switch everything" is only step one of a feasible game plan.Like a student cramming for finals after skipping class the entire semester, the Cavs cobbled a brand new blueprint just for these Finals....The new plan meshed habits old and new. It amounted to playing two schemes at once. It was perhaps the best combination of ideas available on short notice. It was also entirely predictable that a team with such a weak defensive infrastructure would fail when suddenly confronted with multiple sets of rules. Information overload can paralyze even elite defenses.Failure came, repeatedly, in the first quarter of Game 1. When Curry targeted Love, the Cavs collapsed in a haze of confusion: Are we switching? Wait, I thought we were trapping? Oh god, they scored already....Houston had a basic rule for defending Curry, says Jeff Bzdelik, the architect of their switchy defense: When Capela switched onto Curry, no one was allowed to help from anywhere -- even if Curry slithered inside Capela off the bounce. Houston had confidence Capela could bother Curry from behind. They would live with Curry hitting contested layups because 3s would surely kill them...."It's like you're in a boat with three holes in the bottom," Bzdelik says of defending Golden State, "and you only have two pegs to plug them. You just have to keep moving the pegs around."The Rockets understood switching alone wouldn't be enough. They practiced how and when to help off Golden State's non-shooters, Bzdelik says. They had rules for specific situations -- baseline drives when the best shooter is in one particular corner, penetration down the middle, and more. Cleveland is improvising with lesser talent.
Golden State set 40 ball screens for Curry in Game 2, their fourth-highest single-game total since Durant joined, per Second Spectrum data. Two of the three games above that one on the same list: Game 1 of these Finals, and the Game 5 clincher a year ago. Two more among the top-10 such games happened in the just-concluded conference finals against Houston.The Warriors lean on Curry's pick-and-roll game when they feel threatened, and when they see Love.
I like how no one's posted anything during this ass whooping
Yep and now Decision 2.0 gets to ramp up.
I’m coming around to the idea that Lebron just stays in Cleveland. They need to clean house though. JR, Hill, clarkson and Thompson should be gone. Possibly Love. I would go after PG, Leonard, and Cousins. Keep Korver and get Ariza and maybe Reddick. It’s gonna be expensive as fuck but they should just do it
Yeah, how KD's dick taste, Stoney? Eat shit.
So Kawhi wants out and he wants to go to la but all the Lakers have to offer are Lonzo and Kuzma? Am I the only one who sees that this is ridiculous if you’re the spurs?
“The (Hornets) locker room did not like Dwight Howard,” @bwood_33 says on @SiriusXMNBA “Guys were just sick and tired of his act.”
Eight-time NBA All-Star Dwight Howard told ESPN Thursday that he wants a buyout of his $23.8 million expiring contract, and sources said that his new team, the Brooklyn Nets, is trying to make it work.
[Bielecki] Gortat says he's 99% sure he'll get traded soon. "The decision has been made by the front office." Says he's anticipating a move to the Western Conference within a couple of days.
Are the Lakers projected to get anyone good this year? That's all I want to know.
Doesn't think the game at a high level.
Doncic headed to the Mavs, playing on the same team as Dirk will make the stereotype-based analysis easier for the pundits, good move
Struggles to beat opposing wings off the dribble. Plays catch-and-hold basketball.
Do the Suns now have Shaq and Kobe 2.0?