NBA Season 2021-22

[colincb]

MIA blew a 17 point 4th quarter lead.

The Miami Meltdown continues

[tazzmaniac]

Grizzlies are now 16-2 without Morant.  I'm not saying they are worse without him, and they certainly could use his scoring in crunch time in the playoffs, but the fact that they are winning at that rate and over that many games without him doesn't speak all that highly of his value as a player.

So they've beaten Sacramento x2, Toronto, Portland, OKC, Philly (without Embiid), Miami (without Adebayo), New Orleans, LAL & LAC, Indiana x2, Houston x2, Dallas (without Doncic), and most recently, Brooklyn.

It's definitely interesting, but a lot of the time they're beating teams that are either weak or missing their best player. I would probably not read too much into it. Morant's stellar offence definitely outweighs his quite weak defence

He's no Bane but he's good.


 

The Grizzlies team +/- is slightly worse with Morant on court than when he is off court.  There are several Grizzlies, including Bane, with better +/- than Morant.  With Morant on court, their offrtg and defrtg are 114.9 and 111.2.  With Morant off court, their offrtg and defrtg are 111.4   and 104.2.  So somewhat worse offensively but much better defensively.  In the regular season at least, they've got plenty of quality depth. In the playoffs, depending on matchup they could be better off with Morant off court.

'

Isn't Morant's skill as an offensive player basically what you want in playoff games? Also as the user above pointed out, of all the games they played for that gaudy record basically only Toronto and Brooklyn were legitmate playoff team that were at full strength. Dallas without Doncic and Philly without Embid would likely be lottery teams. You certainly pile funky off on stats playing the houstons, okc, indianas and sacramentos of the world. Feel like people are overanalyzing this one a bunch like whoever said the Celtics were better off without Brown a while back.

What was the last team led by a Morant-type player to make the finals?  Iverson led Sixers?  Those teams are generally bounced in the 1st or 2nd round assuming they even make the playoffs.  16-2 without your only star play is pretty impressive regardless of who you played. 

 

[blink]

MIA blew a 17 point 4th quarter lead.

The Miami Meltdown continues

oh man 4 teams within 1 game of 1st with about 8-9 games to go.  I don't ever remember this happening before ever?

Literally anything can happen at this point.
Why not us??!!!  Lets go C's keep inflicting the pain, and grab the #1 seed!

[SHAQATTACK]

MIA blew a 17 point 4th quarter lead.

The Miami Meltdown continues

Was there a fight this time …..did Spo and Riley open a can on Jimmy Butler 

[Vermont Green]

And MIA have the Nets tonight. MIA could be out of first place by morning.  MIL has MEM.  They could lose too.  Otis anybody’s ball game at this point.

I had a thought the other day. Do divisions even matter anymore?  Why even bother with them.

[Who]

I love Miami's top 5 players but I am not convinced they have the depth to beat any of the other 4 top teams in the East (BOS, MIL, BRK, PHI) in a playoff series.

I see them as a level below those 4. Then Chicago below Miami as 6th best in the East.

[SparzWizard]

And MIA have the Nets tonight. MIA could be out of first place by morning.  MIL has MEM.  They could lose too.  Otis anybody’s ball game at this point.

I had a thought the other day. Do divisions even matter anymore?  Why even bother with them.

Divisions don't matter anymore after they strip away home-court advantage for the first round. It's probably to hang the division banner and make your arena look pretty that's about it hahahah

[RJD1974]

MIA blew a 17 point 4th quarter lead.

The Miami Meltdown continues

oh man 4 teams within 1 game of 1st with about 8-9 games to go.  I don't ever remember this happening before ever?

Literally anything can happen at this point.
Why not us??!!!  Lets go C's keep inflicting the pain, and grab the #1 seed!

There's a pretty good chance the Cs are tied for the #1 seed as soon Monday morning. Which is amazing.

[Donoghus]

The tiebreaker situation is looking more & more like its going to come into play.  Which could bode very well for the Celtics.

[DefenseWinsChamps]

I feel like we are all breaking some cardinal rules for fans both on this thread and the Tatum thread.

NO JINXES!

[W8ting2McHale]

When the Celtics were floundering in mediocrity back in December, I was expecting them to turn it around and the pretenders at the top of the league to come back to earth. Charlotte fell quickly enough, then Cleveland and Chicago started slipping.

It took a bit longer than I expected for Miami, but I never saw them as anything better than a 4-5th seed. (I saw the Celtics as a 2-3 if they could get over injury and inconsistency) I wasn’t expecting this implosion though, something more gradual like Chicago.

[colincb]

And MIA have the Nets tonight. MIA could be out of first place by morning.  MIL has MEM.  They could lose too.  Otis anybody’s ball game at this point.

I had a thought the other day. Do divisions even matter anymore?  Why even bother with them.

Divisions don't matter anymore after they strip away home-court advantage for the first round. It's probably to hang the division banner and make your arena look pretty that's about it hahahah

Divisions matter for tie-breakers.

https://ak-static-int.nba.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/06/NBA_Tiebreaker_Procedures.pdf

[colincb]

MIA Meltdown continues

Down 35 to BKN with less than 4 minutes to go and they look every bit as bad as the score.

[Neurotic Guy]

MIA Meltdown continues

Down 35 to BKN with less than 4 minutes to go and they look every bit as bad as the score.

Just posted on the game thread...  Bucks down pretty big at Memphis to near end of 3rd.

Sixers at Phoenix tomorrow.   Crazy race heating up... probably Heatless.

[footey]

Celtics with a win tomorrow will move up to 2nd in the standings.

Not bad for a team that seemed all but dead in 11th place just a few months ago....