Did Duncan get worse, or exposed, or injured, or what?
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I think they found better players (Strus, somewhat healthy Oladipo)
Also Duncan wasn’t the +4 standard deviation three point shooter this year.
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These Celtics heat games haven’t been all that close but they’ll be 2-2 after tonight haha
He gots paid. That’s all dat matters in the end.
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After the Warriors do their obligatory no show in Game 4 and blowout win in Game 5, do they just hand them the title?
Neither Miami or Boston will keep up with them regardless of their defenses.
If Healthy both teams can absolutely hang with GSW. If Boston is healthy I’d take them in 6
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I’d love to see a non Golden State title.
Not a fan of any the teams remaining, but liked to see a new winner 2008 and 2013 last title for each.
At least Dunc finished out the game strong going 4 of 8 from 3. Think he just needs a little bit of warming up after not playing for so long.
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I get that Strus has been solid and a little better defensively…but it was still odd for Duncan to go for 27 in 22 minutes the first game and then immediately play just 6 minutes the next game.
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Duncan is an awful defender who will get targeted on every play and Strus provides the same amount offensive output with better defense. According to Heat fans.
I would take either east team if healthy over GSW.
Well, he certainly did this year. If Duncan gets back to 43% shooting on that volume it’s a different story.
These playoffs have been so bad.
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Funny, I was wondering if someone was tracking this. I was thinking that with the exception of Suns/Mavs, we haven’t had a ton of blowouts, or at least hadn’t throughout the first two rounds. I don’t necessarily count when Golden State mails in Game 4. Overall I’ve been thinking this was much less a problem this year than in the last three or four.
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Conference finals have been trash. Play ins were stupid good. Most of the first round games were awesome.
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Most of round 1 was awesome? Or does it just seem that way because of how few good games we have seen recently?
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Miami-Atlanta 3/5 games were decided by 10+ (2 by 20+)
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Philly-Toronto 4/6 decided by 15+
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Milwaukee-Chicago 3/5 decided by 15+
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Boston-Brooklyn had some close games, but it was a sweep
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Phoenix-NO 4/6 decided by 10+
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GS-Denver 2/5 decided by 15+
So I guess Dallas-Utah (which was mostly relegated to NBATV) and Memphis-Minnesota were the good ones (and even Mem-Minn had a couple blowouts). That’s an awful lot of games that weren’t in question in the 4th quarter.
Then Conference Semis:
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Miami-Philly 4/6 decided by 14+ (2 by 20+)
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Boston-Milwaukee 7 game series where 4/7 were decided by 12+ (2 by 20+)
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Phoenix-Dallas 7 game series where 5/7 were decided by 10+ (4 by 20+!)
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GS-Memphis 3/6 by 14+ (2 by 30+!)
That’s 10 games that were 20+ in the semis that were essentially unwatchable.
I feel like there are lots of games that end with a 15-point disparity but that were 8 to 12 point leads for most of the way.
I’m definitely an NBA skeptic and hate the alternating blowouts issue but I’m enjoying the playoffs more this year than I have in a while. Maybe I’ve just picked the right spots to tune in this year.
Whether they were 10 point games that finished 15+ or 20 point games that finished 15+, either way there is no drama at the end of most of these games. I want the back and forth big shot making in a raucous playoff atmosphere. That’s what is fun and that has been missing most of this postseason. I’m usually a huge fan of the NBA playoffs, but I have found myself turning off a ton of games at the end of the third quarter
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The earlier rounds had one great game per day. The conf finals hasn’t been as fun.
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I agree. That’s ideal. But I also don’t mind 3 quarters of a good game before one team pulls away. A 10-point lead is not a big lead in the NBA. The lesser team hanging around for a while makes it interesting enough, and I don’t want to think games like that contribute to a problem in the way that games two through four of the Boston/Heat series are a problem.