That heat performance is going to in the record books for awhile - 53% on 43 3pa
As much as I’d like to say they “figured the Celtics out”…that ain’t happening again. They got 37 up in game one so it’s not like getting the attempts is the problem here.
I know everyone says Devin Booker but the guy that got away in terms of being a perfect Beilein fit in my mind is Jalen Brunson
I do think it’s cool the Knicks assembled the 2015-2018 Villanova Wildcats and…they’re good
Lakers should have lost to the Pelicans on purpose because they would have worked the Thunder
This nuggets lakers series has been easily the highest quality basketball. Winner of this series (probably nuggets) sweeps the next series.
Nuggets aren’t sweeping TWolves.
Honestly the nuggets aren’t playing THAT great. They’re just better across the board than the lakers
Yeah when it comes to the Lakers and Lebron James, media is always going to hype the sheet out of them. There’s also this taken from an article posted back on March 26th. Not sure if it’s entirely true but if so, absolutely insane
I’m not sure where that was pulled from but I’m looking at Basketball Reference. The Lakers were +507 attempts this season. The Celtics were +232. The Bucks were +196. The Magic were +183, and the Knicks were +169.
The Pistons were -233. Not as bad as I would’ve thought.
Now, LeBron does attack the rim a lot, which will draw contact and whistles, but the Lakers have historically gotten a favorable whistle. And so do superstars. Also, only having one guy who contests a lot of shots (Davis) will reduce giving up FT’s.
Still, looking through some championship teams here and there, I haven’t found one with a bigger margin than these Lakers. LeBron’s Championship Cavs team was a -72, at least in the regular season.
Agree, nuggets havent played that great this series, wolves are a tough matchup for nuggets too. They throw mcdaniels on murray and have size for jokic.
Yeah TWolves took 2 out of 3 against the Nuggets in the regular season. It will be a good series
wolves were arguably denvers toughest series last year and they are better and less injured this year
Yeah that one’s gonna be tough. Nuggets would rather see anyone except them
I think the main problem is that Lebron is 39 and has about 14 minutes a night of max effort team carrying play in his body, and when he’s at that level, they’re good (they keep taking double digit leads), but he can’t sustain it, Davis is mercurial at best, and the rest of this roster is pretty trashy (you can’t convince me DLo for instance isn’t just a massive net negative)
So when Lebron is grabbing pick-sixes and bullying his way to the rim, they’re as good as anyone because he’s awesome. But the amount of time he can summon that activity level is declining.
Just a reminder the Suns swept the TWolves in the regular season by a net margin of 6 bazillion points
What I pulled combined this season and all of the 22-23 season, still crazy
The Lakers FT stats are hard to square in terms of play-style. They are towards the bottom of the league in drives, and if you look at tracking data on NBA.com, they don’t take a particularly large number of “heavily contested” shots (defender within 2 feet) - pretty middle of the pack.
The funny thing is that Lebron and his rep is a factor (same for Jordan back in the day) but they shoot a ton of FT’s even when he doesn’t play. I think it’s a Lakers thing?
Yeah it’s really not confusing what’s going on there. We’re in a GOAT transitional zone so you actually need a starting 5 of well above average NBA players. Lebron is still awesome but people have maybe forgotten what an unstoppable force of nature he was in 2016.
They’d probably still lose this series with that Lebron but it would maybe be a lot more obvious his supporting cast was a huge issue.
LeBron as a player GM stinks.
At least his recommended moves got the Lakers another title.
I don’t think MJ front office moves every assisted the Wiz or Bobcats/Hornets to a single playoff series win. Plenty of busts, though.
the devil works hard but @JD1 works harder (to discredit jordan and the 80s/90s bulls at every opportunity 
)
