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Post by jrmzt on Apr 24, 2022 18:30:23 GMT -5
Honest question -- had these Nets played another team instead of us, would they have fared better? I mean, we're up 3-0 but BRK has shot the ball pretty good and none of the wins were blowouts -- but we've played well enough to hold them off. Maybe against another team, KD and Kyrie would be playing like superstars and BRK would be up 3-0, or 2-1 and sports media would be hyping BRK to the Finals. But against us and our vaunted defense, their tail is tucked between their legs and they're on the verge of being swept. Brooklyn with the exact same cast (minus Kyrie last year but a hobbled Harden) took the Bucks to 7 games and nearly beat them if not for an inch on KD's foot. So I'm gonna say that if the Bucks didn't tank and had to play the Nets, it'd likely be 2-1 to the Bucks or the Nets. They obviously had a formula to attack the Bucks last year or that the Bucks couldn't handle KD the way we have been able to.
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Post by jrmzt on Apr 24, 2022 18:31:07 GMT -5
And thinking about it further..is it blasphemy to say that Tatum is on par with Giannis as a defender? Should Tatum be considered for an All-Defense team???
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 24, 2022 18:58:42 GMT -5
And thinking about it further..is it blasphemy to say that Tatum is on par with Giannis as a defender? Should Tatum be considered for an All-Defense team??? I think Tatum has made a big impression defensively. Like he's more interested in impacting on defense more than offensively. Not many superstars want to expend most of their energy on that end of the court. Giannis has the height and length advantage, but Tatum is closing the gap. His timing and anticipation on steals is good.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 25, 2022 17:02:06 GMT -5
As Woj says, Simmons is working through mental and physical issues.
Mental issues are harder and trickier to deal with. I'm not sure when they started, but who knows if we'll ever see Ben Simmons playing at the level he was at.
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Post by eja117 on Apr 25, 2022 17:10:57 GMT -5
As Woj says, Simmons is working through mental and physical issues. Mental issues are harder and trickier to deal with. I'm not sure when they started, but who knows if we'll ever see Ben Simmons playing at the level he was at. I am not saying Simmons is a bad person on any level at all, but I won't believe that he will play again until I see it, and not a second sooner. I think he's fragile physically and fragile mentally and fragile emotionally and here we are.
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Post by eja117 on Apr 25, 2022 18:22:40 GMT -5
If the Nets get swept at home tonight the Nets will have to take drastic action this off season. Simmons can't possibly fix this. Not by a long shot.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 25, 2022 20:20:30 GMT -5
If the Nets get swept at home tonight the Nets will have to take drastic action this off season. Simmons can't possibly fix this. Not by a long shot. Do they give Kyrie a max extension? A guy who is all flash but not someone who carries a team?
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Post by eja117 on Apr 25, 2022 20:29:08 GMT -5
If the Nets get swept at home tonight the Nets will have to take drastic action this off season. Simmons can't possibly fix this. Not by a long shot. Do they give Kyrie a max extension? A guy who is all flash but not someone who carries a team? I'd talk to Durant about it and give him nothing, or tell him he's free to seek out a trade or a sign and trade. I think he's a cancer.
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Post by eja117 on Apr 25, 2022 20:36:10 GMT -5
Kyrie is such a quitter. Case in point. Smart misses the 2nd shot, which means the Nets were down by four with about 1.2 seconds left. Had he launched it right then he miiiiiiiggghhhttt have hit a three and gotten fouled for a free throw to tie the game, but down by four this option did not even occur to this player that earns millions and is supposedly an elite genius player.
What a loser. A quitter and a loser. He is a net negative to any team. Instead he just took the sweep like there was nothing on Earth he could do about it at that point in time.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 25, 2022 20:36:33 GMT -5
Do they give Kyrie a max extension? A guy who is all flash but not someone who carries a team? I'd talk to Durant about it and give him nothing, or tell him he's free to seek out a trade or a sign and trade. I think he's a cancer. I know right. Kyrie chirped about BRK not jelling -- well, he didn't help by not being able to play all those home games because of his decision not to get vaxxed.
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Post by jmost on Apr 25, 2022 21:23:58 GMT -5
Kyrie did the same thing at the end of the first half. The Nets inbounded the ball with 1.3 seconds left and didn't even try a heave. I thought right then he had quit.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 26, 2022 2:05:10 GMT -5
Ben Simmons was not even at the arena tonight, because of "back problems".
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Post by jmost on Apr 26, 2022 8:08:27 GMT -5
The Celtics, and fans, have every right to feel good about themselves right now, but I'm going to say that we're going to have to be even better next year to beat the Nets - assuming a few things: Joe Harris is back and healthy. Kyrie is back and with the team all year. And Simmons is back and healthy. I'd be more concerned about the mental side of things with him though.
If they get back a 40%+ 3 point shooter in Harris, a first team all defense player (as well as a great passer and good rebounder) in Simmons, and they get to build team chemistry over 82 games because Kyrie's vaccination status isn't keeping him off the court, they will be better and probably considerably.
4-0 feels like we blew them out but the games were close and in Game 4 it took Claxton missing 10 free throws for us to win. We can't count on that. So regardless of how the rest of this playoff season turns out, I feel we have work to do over the off-season.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 26, 2022 9:23:53 GMT -5
The Celtics, and fans, have every right to feel good about themselves right now, but I'm going to say that we're going to have to be even better next year to beat the Nets - assuming a few things: Joe Harris is back and healthy. Kyrie is back and with the team all year. And Simmons is back and healthy. I'd be more concerned about the mental side of things with him though. If they get back a 40%+ 3 point shooter in Harris, a first team all defense player (as well as a great passer and good rebounder) in Simmons, and they get to build team chemistry over 82 games because Kyrie's vaccination status isn't keeping him off the court, they will be better and probably considerably. 4-0 feels like we blew them out but the games were close and in Game 4 it took Claxton missing 10 free throws for us to win. We can't count on that. So regardless of how the rest of this playoff season turns out, I feel we have work to do over the off-season. That's the gnawing question that's been bugging me. Had another team faced BRK, would they have swept them? Heading into the playoffs, BRK was right on our tail the last 15 games in Net rating. They were trending the right way. Odds makers gave them the 3rd best odds to win the title (ahead of us by a good margin). But we stopped Durant and Kyrie, for the most part, and that's what did them in. But we certainly did not play our game all that well either.
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Post by jmost on Apr 26, 2022 10:22:53 GMT -5
On another note, Barkley had a funny line in the post-game show. He asked if the Nets were going to hang a play-in banner in the arena.
I have little patience for almost all sports talk shows, but the TNT gang is always entertaining and often illuminating. Ernie asked how high Tatum had risen in this series and Shaq immediately said "High".
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