I posted this at the end of the first qtr of the Lakers game after they scored neatly 70 points combined. They'll end with close to 250. Not sure what "shutting down" means to you, but clearly not the same thing it means to me. I gave up on the Clips game yesterday. That's not the type of basketball I want to watch
Yep, what a strange set of optics some people have. 250 points...just like I said. Yeah they really shut them down by allowing 115 points. Anyone that appreciates defense would say Portland really sucked and the Lakers just sucked. These new standards on what defines a great defense are just hilarious.
Uh huh. And while you were watching that outlier (and the Celtics game), let's look at what that defensive product has been overall for the last couple of days.
Yesterday we had 250, 231, and 227 points scored
The day before we were looking at 256, 272, 268.
A friend of mine use to say he didn't watch the NBA during the regular season because the players took the 1st through the 3rd quarter off and starting playing defense in the last 5 minutes of the game. But he loved "playoff" basketball because that's when they started playing defense (that's laughable this year). I could just see the coaches in the huddle during that Clips game..."hey guys, just make sure you get the ball last because the last one with the ball wins this game". ROTFLMAO!! It's a fucking joke!
If you like basketball you can literally watch the last two minutes of 95% of the games and miss nothing. If the game is close....all you need is the last 2 minutes. If not it is probably boring as fuck anyways. Pretty much no other sport is like that. Endless cycle up and down the court for 2-3 points until the end
Yes, the Lakers shut them down. The game is played at a faster pace now, 51pts in a half is nothing at a 100 possession per game pace. Pts per possession/efficiency is all that matters. This isn't a strange set of optics, it is common sense analysis of the game for anyone with a modicum of intelligence on the subject. Also, who cares what happened in the 2nd half? The Lakers were up 30 and you made the posts well before then.
Obviously Portland can't stop the Lakers. They're an overwhelmed 8th seed.
But the reason I asked the question is because usually when people make posts like that, they are referring to a particular game that triggered the post and the most recent games didn't align w/ that. I get what you were saying in general, just wondered what game/bet was the straw that broke the camels back and made you shut it off. Sounds like it was Clippers if anything.
They all broke the back and no, the game is played at the pace that is chosen by the coach (sorry, but that's a bullshit response). Last I checked, there's still 24 seconds on a game clock and 12 minutes per quarter. And I for one am surprised that Doc Rivers, an ex-Celtic, would choose to play a run and gun style of play versus the Mavs. Often times, teams that are offense oriented eventually meet a team that will smother the offense, slow the clock down, and completely get the offensive minded team out of sync. One needs to look no further than a multitude of Celtics teams, the Bulls in general (but in particular during the Michael Jordan era), the Pistons "bad boys" team, many of the New York Knicks teams, and some of the Spurs teams in the earlier part of the 2000s.
Admittedly, the classic example is what the Pistons did to the Lakers. They used up the 24 second clock on every possession, typically got an offensive rebound, and often kept the ball away from the "showtime" Lakers for a minute at a time. They also beat them up physically. When those Pistons got up by double digits, you typically weren't coming back (none of this last one with the ball bullshit).
The NBA right now is essentially unwatchable for anyone that like a balanced brand of basketball.
