Steven Adams has been a big loss for Memphis. Just a bad matchup with Towns. Their D and rebounding has taken a major step back without him.
MEM should do better against Phoenix. Adams will be able to play Ayton. Then they can stay big and squeeze the court. Force CP3 to try and beat them from midrange. Actually, I kinda like MEM's ability to win that series with no-Booker.
Memphis will play the Warriors not the Suns in the next round.
We calling the series?
I wasn't, I was only intending to comment on the seeding, though reading what I wrote it didn't quite come off that way.
I'd be surprised if Minnesota won the next 2, but they certainly could. I have far more confidence in Toronto than I do Minnesota, as an example.
I agree with that because of the Embid injury, but Minnesota was kind of in control of at least 3 of these games. Guess I would be surprised if the home teams don’t win the next two.
Game 7 in Memphis with Memphis winning that does seem like the most likely outcome of the series at this point.
And while I think Toronto has a greater chance of winning the series than Minnesota does, I do actually think Philly wins tonight and ends it in 6. I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but I expect Philly to come out with supreme aggression early and put the game away basically before it starts. However, if Toronto does win tonight, then Philly will probably have more pressure on it than any team has ever faced in the 1st round.
And we've all seen everyone on Philly blow up and not handle pressure very well in the past. That game 7 would be so fascinating if Toronto can actually force the series there. I really want it to happen.