NBA Playoffs 2012/13

ButtersSuki

Lionel Hollins fired from the Grizzlies. Strange times in the world of NBA Coaching.

stuchyg

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Lionel Hollins fired from the Grizzlies. Strange times in the world of NBA Coaching.

Was he not out of contract anyway. Might be a good pickup for nets

ButtersSuki

stuchyg wrote: »

Was he not out of contract anyway. Might be a good pickup for nets

Out of contract end of June, but he's just taken them to their first WC finals and posted most wins ever in a season after shedding their top scorer in Jan! And he attended all 3 of their pre-draft camps, the last of which was yesterday!

Clipps and the Nuggets in talks allegedly.

I see J Kidd is being spoken to by the Nets. Another bizarre one. He has a high basketball IQ, but the guy has never coached at any level. Big, big risk. To assemble a team at the cost it had to put the Nets together and then hire a completely unproven coach would be bonkers.

Nuri Sahin

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA
Y! Sources: Patrick Ewing has reached agreement to become the associate head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats.

padraig_f

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Lionel Hollins fired from the Grizzlies. Strange times in the world of NBA Coaching.

I don't think he's a bad coach, but thought he was out-coached pretty badly in the conference finals, never coped with Pop's adjustments, and just little things I noticed e.g. Jerryd Bayless celebrating to the crowd after making a shot, not getting back on defense, the kind of undiscplined stuff you don't see on the best-coached teams.

I like the ambition, if you think a guy's ceiling is the conference finals (and the ability to make adjustments is key in the playoffs), then you need to find someone else. It could be a fit thing as well, I noticed the Grizzlies hired ESPN stats guru John Hollinger this season, which indicates they're using analytics more, and maybe Hollins didn't fit with that direction they're going.

Paully D

Bookies make Spurs 2 point favourites tonight. Who are you all on?

PizzamanIRL

Spurs will win tonight. Then Miami will quickly settle and take game 4. After that I don't know.

If Miami win tonight it's probably over for the Spurs already. If Miami are able to take Game 3, they should be able to at least take one more from the remaining 2 road games leaving it 3-2 going back to Miami for 2 home games.

A lot of ifs.

Nuri Sahin

Paully D wrote: »

Bookies make Spurs 2 point favourites tonight. Who are you all on?

Spurs and under.

opr

On the Heat straight win.

Opr

opr

I thought that whole half seemed quite laboured. Just seen Haralabos post the below on twitter. Hopefully the intensity gets turned up a few notches in the second half.

The pace in the 1h was a laboriously slow 41 possessions. Slow pace definitely favors the Spurs.

Spurs Offensive rebounding 50% of their misses and shooting 47% from 3, and only up 6 - is shocking.

Opr

Paully D

Kawhi is a machine on the boards.

leggo

LeBron 3-for-14. Ouch. And déjà-vu.

leggo

leggo wrote: »

LeBron 3-for-14. Ouch. And déjà-vu.

Scratch that. Seriously...every time I post here mid-game the opposite starts to happen... :pac:

Nuri Sahin

Gary Neal has reached big head mode in NBA Jam. What a game he's having here!

PizzamanIRL

Spurs are ****ting on Miami right now!

Crazy seeing LeBron mess up so much.

leggo

Anyone know what Miami's playoff loss margin record is?

Nuri Sahin

One word. Beatdown.

Well done Spurs, now 2-1 up for the series.

Carcharodon

First team to put in too solid back to backs could be the winner in this series, hard to see Miami getting done like that again.

I still would be relatively confident of heat taking this over 7 especially considering what happened to Parker.

ButtersSuki

Hope TP is ok....esp. as I put a large wedge on him being MVP and the Spurs winning.....:eek:

I have to say Green has been my MVP so far.

padraig_f

Deleted User wrote: »

I have to say Green has been my MVP so far.

I was thinking during the Spurs-Grizzlies series that one of the signs of a great coach is how much he gets out of his role-players, and yeah Green and Leonard have been great (also not a total coincidence that Wade is guarding Green).

Looking at his bio there....waived by the Cavs in 2010. This year he was 7th in the league in 3P% and 8th in makes, now playing a key starting-role in an NBA Finals.

The commentators mentioned some shooting-coach the Spurs have who's supposed to be brilliant, helped Leonard a lot with his shot as well apparently.


Edit:
I see from Ken Berger's column today, Chip Engelland is that guy's name...

"The Spurs' shooting coach, Chip Engelland, only had Leonard for three days before the lockout began, but it was enough time to teach the 19-year-old from San Diego State to lose the behind-the-head, slingshot motion on his jump shot."

LeBron is struggling for a reason: Kawhi Leonard's defense

padraig_f

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Hope TP is ok....esp. as I put a large wedge on him being MVP and the Spurs winning.....:eek:

Yeah hard to really enjoy that epic Heat beatdown with the uncertainty over Parker. They closed the game out without him, but they're not going to make 16/32 3-pointers again in this series.

buyer95

Didn't catch the game live, I dunno if I can be bothered watching an absolute blowout, is it worth the watch?

padraig_f

buyer95 wrote: »

Didn't catch the game live, I dunno if I can be bothered watching an absolute blowout, is it worth the watch?

It's the Heat getting blown out, which you don't see very often, so worth watching from that point of view.

If you want to watch the most important part, I'd say watch from the middle of the 2nd quarter to end of the third. The Spurs played all the basketball in the first half, but thanks to Mike Miller getting hot from 3 and some favourable refereeing calls, the Heat went on a run to close the half down just a few points.

Having weathered the storm up to half-time, you kind of expected the Heat to wake up and burn them in the 3rd quarter, like they do to a lot of teams, but it didn't work out like that, and I think that part's quite interesting to watch. The game was effectively over at the end of 3.

ButtersSuki

TP confirmed as having a Grade 1 hamstring tear. Normal recovery time is 1 week (as a minimum). Game 4 Thursday and 5 Sunday.....hmmm, could be a problem.


Word from Beantown is that Doc might be walking .......bad news for the C's but very good for someone else. Interested teams, start your bidding.....

If he goes, I'd expect Garnett to retire or join whatever team Doc goes to.

leggo

ButtersSuki wrote: »

TP confirmed as having a Grade 1 hamstring tear. Normal recovery time is 1 week (as a minimum). Game 4 Thursday and 5 Sunday.....hmmm, could be a problem.


Word from Beantown is that Doc might be walking .......bad news for the C's but very good for someone else. Interested teams, start your bidding.....

If he goes, I'd expect Garnett to retire or join whatever team Doc goes to.

SA have the job half-done anyway, if they can split those two games before returning to Miami then they'll still be going to plan. I'd consider them marginal favourites right now. Miami have a LOT of work to do as the Spurs have shown they can handle LeBron when he's not getting the support he needs. So Miami can't just rely on him having monster games. This series feels like the Dallas 2011 one all over again after last night (I know Miami won Game 3 then, but still).

Can see Doc going to the Clippers and taking Garnett with him there. That's the kind of move that would guarantee Chris Paul would re-sign, too, so they'd throw money at the pair of them and it's an attractive prospect for both in the short- and long-term. If that all happens, the Clippers immediately become Championship contenders; with raw talent, a hungry leader, an experienced veteran with a ring to his name and a solid coach. They'd take some beating.

ButtersSuki

leggo wrote: »

SA have the job half-done anyway, if they can split those two games before returning to Miami then they'll still be going to plan. I'd consider them marginal favourites right now. Miami have a LOT of work to do as the Spurs have shown they can handle LeBron when he's not getting the support he needs. So Miami can't just rely on him having monster games. This series feels like the Dallas 2011 one all over again after last night (I know Miami won Game 3 then, but still).

Can see Doc going to the Clippers and taking Garnett with him there. That's the kind of move that would guarantee Chris Paul would re-sign, too, so they'd throw money at the pair of them and it's an attractive prospect for both in the short- and long-term. If that all happens, the Clippers immediately become Championship contenders; with raw talent, a hungry leader, an experienced veteran with a ring to his name and a solid coach. They'd take some beating.

Yeah, agree to a point but Doc ain't working for chump change and the Clippers historically have never paid coaches well. It would take a mindset change from the owner to make this happen but agree it would make for a great fit for all parties and Doc + Garnett would bring serious mental toughness to that team.

As a Celtics fan, I wish him well wherever he goes - as long as it's not to the Lakers or the Heat!

Paully D

****ing typical that an important Spurs player would pick up an injury

Parker is saying he is hopeful for game four?