Kanter's playing soooooo much better on defence in the playoffs than he did in NYK - it's just day and night - but I don't think that he can reasonably be asked to play Millsap 1-on-1. So .. coaching??

lilard has to go back in there to confront Jokic, not take the fade away. the goal is to get fouls on Jokic, not take low expectation shots.

Jokic is a freak and a very weird dude

I like Collins. Hot take, I know, but the first times I'm actually watching him.

Jokic is awesome. Almost bad game proof with his skills.

we need stats on 3s under various levels of pressure

The whole game is horrible. Kanter can't be fouling guards. Portland has to attack Jokic on every play. Why is this hard?

it is [checks clipboard] Tuesday night. There is no one watching these games. In the USoftA.

Beyond absurd foul call on Dame against Lillard. Called for pulling hin to the ground when he did not touch him in the play.

Seafood can come back to the thread without nausea imo

To be absolutely clear, I wasn't trying to imply that 100% of Curry's greatness is reliant on that stuff. That's why I mentioned his unprecedented finishing, great handle, finishing ability, etc. My point was he's more
reliant on that than any other great player I can remember. Important distinction to make imo.

With that being said I think you make a lot of good points about Kerr's system probably having a decent impact on the amount Curry plays off the ball and attempts to exploit that stuff.

All I’m thinking about is how excruciating it would be for Dame to come back like he did in game 5.

Chaz, agree they should have attacked joker more.
Normally he refuses to play defense at all when in foul trouble, but he was waaaay too aggressive with 2 fouls for my liking. Kind of a dumb quarter from him imo.

jeez two dog assed performances in critical game fives, gimme a break

Game is more like a preseason than a playoff one

Well for the Blazers and Celtics it's gonna be preseason pretty damn soon.



Brief yet firm handshake. And I do mean firm, that's your handshake tchaz.

Edit: Also I'm a sucker for a chess reference. +2000 TZ Points

Really awful performance in the 3rd. Siiiiigh and GG.


This game takes a lot of my fire away for Game 6, because lol winning Game 7.

.

It's that altitude man.

Here's a little known factoid:

Bobby Fischer played Bent Larsen in his second candidates match (leading up to his 1972 World Championship victory over Spassky, he defeated Taimanov first and then Petrosian after Larsen). Fischer lobbied and pushed for the match to be played in Denver because he knew that he would be well prepared for playing in the altitude while Larsen likely wouldn't.

You see Fischer used to train physically by swimming, playing tennis, etc. in the Catskills (Upstate NY) so he was used to exerting himself physically in a higher altitude. With chess tournament play / match play there actually is significant physical exertion. Breathing rates increase, muscles contract more frequently, blood pressure increases, more calories are burned than one would normally think. Kramnik lost about 20 pounds playing his World Championship match vs. Kasparov and he had lost another 20 pounds in the preparation for the match beforehand. Karpov also lost significant weight in his match with Kasparov, which was discontinued at one point over a legit concern for the players' health.

Larsen's blood pressure spiked considerably while playing the match and his blood pressure remained elevated even after being medicated as well.



Extra +500 TZ Points

This is such a lame evening of playoff basketball that Magic can't even be arsed to tweet about it.

Magic Johnson:

"The Boston Celtics and The Portland Trail Blazers need to go back to the drawing board. Their coaches are going to have to make sure their players come back and play hard next game! It's do or die in the NBA Playoffs!"

lol nailed it!

5 TZ Pints

to match the # of wins Magic had as an NBA coach (to go along with 11 losses)

SCORE!

It's mind bottling how dumb he is yet he amassed such a huge fortune from post NBA playing career business ventures.

It's probably undeniable proof that we're living in a simulation.

Dat Magic Smile Tho

^^ yeah this, which is intimately related with being a mega media darling, which can really skew someone's sense of reality, which shows up in the darndest ways, which applies, potentially, very much, to you know who

Yeah kind of an anti-climactic night. I enjoyed it but yeah definitely not the puckering I had all game 4.