D'Antoni waited too long to play the Tuckwagon

The argument could explain why there were more blowouts now than in the past (if that is even true), but it would do nothing to explain why they would tend to occur in favor of the home team (if that is true).

Home shooters are more used to the rims and the spatial setup in the arena.

They feel "more at home" at home. Thus they shoot better.

I'm not sure that's what science is lol

Curry is allowing 0.88 points per possession in iso, so people saying he's the problem defensively is pretty lol. Players are shooting 44% from the field and 23% from 3s.

Meanwhile Harden is allowing 1.08 points per possession and allowing players to shoot 55% from the field and 50% from 3s.

No one is talking about Harden though...

It's precisely what science is.

Its vintage frauden. His defense has been historically bad. We see this every year.

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I think his playoff struggles are generally accepted...

Remember what frauden said after game 1? that others need to raise their game and show up. Frauden hasn't played a defensive possession this series. Livingston threw the ball behind the back and blew by frauden for a dunk ffs. What a disgrace.

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Harden deserves some crap for last year, but it's kind of dumb to criticize anybody against GSW because it just doesn't matter. They're an unbeatable team. You can't kill somebody for not beating an unbeatable team.

If the Warriors want to win a game, they'll win the game. If they want to win by double digits, they'll win by double digits. People naturally search for explanations and players/strategies to blame, but really GSW has way better players and have zero chance to lose without multiple injuries.

I wonder if/when NBA analysts will catch up to this and admit what's happening. Granted, "Team X is way better and has a 0% chance to lose" doesn't make for interesting analysis, but at some point, they will have to start admitting what we can all see.

Every playoff season, the media promotes a bunch of narratives about how this, that, or the other elite player can’t handle the pressure, can’t handle playoff intensity, has lost confidence, etc. Amazingly, 20-30% of posters on this site seem to fall for the narrative every year.

Curry is the perfect player for false narratives because the Warriors are polarizing and because his offensive game is higher variance than someone like LeBron. We haven’t yet reached the lunacy of “Matthew Delladova is Curry’s kryptonite”, but there is still time.

For the next 48 hours, maybe ESPN will try and convince us that Harden is the weak link on the Rockets. I’m sure AJ would be happy to run with that idea.

Increased frequency of playoff blowouts may not be a solveable problem. It’s probably attributable to the current emphasis on 3 pt shooting.

Hypothesis on the blowouts: increased importance of the "feedback loops" they talk about on Duncd On. Missed shot -> transition -> better shot -> half-court defense. Theory would be that teams are smarter about half-court defensive principles and transition or semi-transition becomes more important.

This is testable (but not by me) by seeing if the differential between halfcourt efficiency and transition efficiency is greater than it used to be.

I still cannot get over the fact that the Warriors epically choked 2 years ago and now probably won't lose a title until who knows when. People criticizing Harden are nuts, the Warriors are just unbeatable.

You can criticize Harden if he plays like ****. Not sure why you can't.

The entire Houston d has been bad for two games this series, offensively cp3 has struggled both assisting and shooting where’s he’s at 49% TS% while the rest of the rotation is near their normal ts%s or better. Hardens drat which I know isn’t the best stat has been better than the average of the team so far. The Houston d as a whole must play better, I.e. how they played in game 2, or this series could get ugly quick.

Harden is lucky that GSW play GSW basketball. If they played "let's target the oppositions worst defender" offense, Harden would be getting embarrassed on ever possession.

Scott foster is reffing tonight’s Celtics game....expect Cavs to win...

It's not like criticizing Harden means you think GSW isn't unstoppable.

When we criticize him, it's in the context that he is supposed to be 1 of the top 2-3 offensive players in the league and has looked bad against elite D the last two games of this series. This is the league MVP we're talking about here, it isn't like we're saying he sucks.

But yes, I agree this is largely inconsequential because GS is loaded.

what offensive players look good/great against elite Ds? the list is probably just Lebron and Durant and there are obvious reasons for that. harden offensively hasn't been awful but needs to be better.

But Harden's main value as a player is on the offensive end. If he isn't scoring, he isn't doing much because of his other deficiencies.

So he goes from being 1 of the top 3-4 players in the league to somewhere far lower than that pretty fast when he is struggling. Why I ranked all the elite 2way guys over him when doing my top 10 list (Bron, KD, Kawhi, AD)

Rockets need to play much, much faster imo. Targeting Curry in the half court is fine when the Rockets find themselves with 10 seconds on the shot clock and nothing going on. But it shouldn’t be the plan to the exclusion of getting a good shot up before the Warriors get organized. I feel like CP should be doing a better job of optimizing pace, which in this series means playing faster.

His PER minute stats haven't moved since this series has started during the playoffs and his stats like most are worse in the playoffs than the regular season (KD's don't increase either, Lebron is like the only player with serious minutes that does in this era). Big issue is GSW is just better than all the other teams he's already faced. Utah is elite defensively and he was fine that series.

I'd much rather have KD/Lebron than Harden, I think most would. That isn't saying much. He obviously feasts against bad teams and this year decided to go all out in the regular season. Harden deserves the MVP this season but he's likely in the 5-10 range of best players.

Durant is perfectly capable of having a bad playoff series. In 2015-16 playoffs, he was 42% from the field and 28% from 3, and the target of endless “Katie” comments in this forum.

Every player can have a bad series--Lebron had the 2011 finals and 2007 finals if you want to count that latter one. But most great players, especially all time greats, are pretty damn consistent and have a higher level of play when the pressure is on in the playoffs. I'm not sure if Harden is an all time great like KD or Lebron is but he sure as hell is in the next tier, i.e. the 30-70 range all time. Those players are typically great in the regular season and slightly worse in the playoffs or 2nd fiddles to other great players. In this era, Harden has a shot in titling but it's going to be tough with KD/Warriors and Lebron around. In series against those teams he has no shot at being the best player on court. Hell a healthy Curry is better than Harden, so 2 players are better than Harden on GSW.