Putting Our 4th Quarter Chokes At Home In Perspective

[Moranis]

Thing with Tatum is...his shoulder is either shot or he's just getting pressured in his first ever NBA Finals appearance.

But I've seen him making those crazy reverse passes and knocking down 3's from time-to-time so it seems like his shoulder isn't quite as troublesome.

I agree with Udoka. A lot of times it seems Tatum is hunting for fouls more than actually trying to make his shots. It's clearly a reason he's been blowing so many of these easy layups. Like if Tatum was hitting all the easy bunnies even at an "average" pace he'd easily be averaging 27+ PPG this series. Just way too many easy points being left off the scoreboard and Tatum's stats.

Or he has just been asked to carry so much of the load that he is just wearing down.  Coupled with a bum shoulder and it is easy to see how he isn't shooting as well (especially at the line where he is down like 12% from his season average to the finals).  Tatum's shoulder is bothering him and he is being asked to do so much offensively, he is just wearing down.

That is where not having another guy that is both a good shooter and good playmaker really hurts.  Smart is a good playmaker but a bad shooter and Brown is a good shooter but a bad playmaker.  If those two could just combine into one player, they'd be the perfect compliment to Tatum.

My biggest issue is that they seem to freeze Jaylen out of the offense for large stretches and it kills us especially when Tatum isn't shooting well, which has pretty much been every game this series unfortunately. Some of it was early foul trouble Game 2 where Jaylen started red hot, had to sit in the bench for a while and then was cold in the 2nd half.

But in Game 4, despite playing well and being a big reason we had those nice runs late in the 2nd quarter and early in the 4th, Jaylen took 2 shot attempts in the final 6 minutes.

I still maintain that the Warriors have no answers for Jaylen defensively and Jaylen can kill them, but sometimes I think they are forcing too much for Tatum to try and get him going, or Smart ends up having to take a tough shot late in the shotclock when the ball isn't moving.

Tatum only took 1 shot in the last 6 minutes.

5:23 Smart blocked by Looney at basket (Tatum ORB)
5:18 Smart made 3 pointer (Tatum assist)
4:36 Brown missed 13 footer
4:12 Brown missed 3 pointer
3:28 Tatum missed 3 pointer
2:45 Smart missed 3 pointer (Brown ORB)
2:36 Smart missed 3 pointer
1:55 Horford missed 3 pointer
1:32 Horford made 3 pointer (Tatum assist)
0:56 Brown turnover
0:39 White missed 3 pointer

[Phantom255x]

Thing with Tatum is...his shoulder is either shot or he's just getting pressured in his first ever NBA Finals appearance.

But I've seen him making those crazy reverse passes and knocking down 3's from time-to-time so it seems like his shoulder isn't quite as troublesome.

I agree with Udoka. A lot of times it seems Tatum is hunting for fouls more than actually trying to make his shots. It's clearly a reason he's been blowing so many of these easy layups. Like if Tatum was hitting all the easy bunnies even at an "average" pace he'd easily be averaging 27+ PPG this series. Just way too many easy points being left off the scoreboard and Tatum's stats.

Or he has just been asked to carry so much of the load that he is just wearing down.  Coupled with a bum shoulder and it is easy to see how he isn't shooting as well (especially at the line where he is down like 12% from his season average to the finals).  Tatum's shoulder is bothering him and he is being asked to do so much offensively, he is just wearing down.

That is where not having another guy that is both a good shooter and good playmaker really hurts.  Smart is a good playmaker but a bad shooter and Brown is a good shooter but a bad playmaker.  If those two could just combine into one player, they'd be the perfect compliment to Tatum.

My biggest issue is that they seem to freeze Jaylen out of the offense for large stretches and it kills us especially when Tatum isn't shooting well, which has pretty much been every game this series unfortunately. Some of it was early foul trouble Game 2 where Jaylen started red hot, had to sit in the bench for a while and then was cold in the 2nd half.

But in Game 4, despite playing well and being a big reason we had those nice runs late in the 2nd quarter and early in the 4th, Jaylen took 2 shot attempts in the final 6 minutes.

I still maintain that the Warriors have no answers for Jaylen defensively and Jaylen can kill them, but sometimes I think they are forcing too much for Tatum to try and get him going, or Smart ends up having to take a tough shot late in the shotclock when the ball isn't moving.

Tatum only took 1 shot in the last 6 minutes.

5:23 Smart blocked by Looney at basket (Tatum ORB)
5:18 Smart made 3 pointer (Tatum assist)
4:36 Brown missed 13 footer
4:12 Brown missed 3 pointer
3:28 Tatum missed 3 pointer
2:45 Smart missed 3 pointer (Brown ORB)
2:36 Smart missed 3 pointer
1:55 Horford missed 3 pointer
1:32 Horford made 3 pointer (Tatum assist)
0:56 Brown turnover
0:39 White missed 3 pointer

That brings me to another point. I saw someone tweet that the Jays only took 3 shot attempts the final 6 minutes while Smart took 4. Even late in Game 7 against MIA, Smart took 5 shots while the Jays barely took any and Smart missed them so MIA made a run to comeback.

The media wonders if this is the Jays shying away from the ball late in these games (especially Jaylen) or if defenses are basically playing tighter on the Jays and forcing Smart to beat them.

I think it can be a combination of both. I mean Curry has fantastic nights but you still see him commanding the ball and making plays + attempting shots even when the defense becomes more focused on him

There’s a lot to nitpick overall. I just wish this team could play consistently for a full 48 minutes but that seems too much to ask at this point

[ozgod]

Why don’t you post a log of games we pulled out in the 4th? Let’s start with games 1 and 3 of this series. It’s basketball. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in the basket. Sometimes it does.

It really is weird to me how the late-game losses are remembered so vividly and the late-game wins are totally forgotten.

People tend to remember bad things. They don't remember the details of the wins, all they remember is we won. But when you lose you remember every possible thing they did wrong 

We've actually been a good Q4 team most of the playoffs...it's the 3rd quarter that we have tended to struggle. But we were a solid 3rd quarter team during the regular season.

It's a make or miss league...in Game 1 we made 9 of 12 3s in the 4th quarter and outscored them 40-16. Some of the 3s were heavily contested. GS made 2 of 8. In Game 4 we made 4 of 13. GS made 3 of 8 but Klay and Steph made 2 and 1 at the right times. That's really what it came down to.

[slamtheking]

Thing with Tatum is...his shoulder is either shot or he's just getting pressured in his first ever NBA Finals appearance.

But I've seen him making those crazy reverse passes and knocking down 3's from time-to-time so it seems like his shoulder isn't quite as troublesome.

I agree with Udoka. A lot of times it seems Tatum is hunting for fouls more than actually trying to make his shots. It's clearly a reason he's been blowing so many of these easy layups. Like if Tatum was hitting all the easy bunnies even at an "average" pace he'd easily be averaging 27+ PPG this series. Just way too many easy points being left off the scoreboard and Tatum's stats.

Or he has just been asked to carry so much of the load that he is just wearing down.  Coupled with a bum shoulder and it is easy to see how he isn't shooting as well (especially at the line where he is down like 12% from his season average to the finals).  Tatum's shoulder is bothering him and he is being asked to do so much offensively, he is just wearing down.

That is where not having another guy that is both a good shooter and good playmaker really hurts.  Smart is a good playmaker but a bad shooter and Brown is a good shooter but a bad playmaker.  If those two could just combine into one player, they'd be the perfect compliment to Tatum.

My biggest issue is that they seem to freeze Jaylen out of the offense for large stretches and it kills us especially when Tatum isn't shooting well, which has pretty much been every game this series unfortunately. Some of it was early foul trouble Game 2 where Jaylen started red hot, had to sit in the bench for a while and then was cold in the 2nd half.

But in Game 4, despite playing well and being a big reason we had those nice runs late in the 2nd quarter and early in the 4th, Jaylen took 2 shot attempts in the final 6 minutes.

I still maintain that the Warriors have no answers for Jaylen defensively and Jaylen can kill them, but sometimes I think they are forcing too much for Tatum to try and get him going, or Smart ends up having to take a tough shot late in the shotclock when the ball isn't moving.

Tatum only took 1 shot in the last 6 minutes.

5:23 Smart blocked by Looney at basket (Tatum ORB)
5:18 Smart made 3 pointer (Tatum assist)
4:36 Brown missed 13 footer
4:12 Brown missed 3 pointer
3:28 Tatum missed 3 pointer
2:45 Smart missed 3 pointer (Brown ORB)
2:36 Smart missed 3 pointer
1:55 Horford missed 3 pointer
1:32 Horford made 3 pointer (Tatum assist)
0:56 Brown turnover
0:39 White missed 3 pointer

That brings me to another point. I saw someone tweet that the Jays only took 3 shot attempts the final 6 minutes while Smart took 4. Even late in Game 7 against MIA, Smart took 5 shots while the Jays barely took any and Smart missed them so MIA made a run to comeback.

The media wonders if this is the Jays shying away from the ball late in these games (especially Jaylen) or if defenses are basically playing tighter on the Jays and forcing Smart to beat them.

I think it can be a combination of both. I mean Curry has fantastic nights but you still see him commanding the ball and making plays + attempting shots even when the defense becomes more focused on him

There’s a lot to nitpick overall. I just wish this team could play consistently for a full 48 minutes but that seems too much to ask at this point

a fair point.  I think the advantage Curry has in that regard is that he is GSW's point guard so he is by nature the primary ball handler and the person who will primarily get the ball upcourt so the C's would have to force him to pass the ball to get it out of his hands. 

for the J's, they aren't the primary ball handlers, Smart (or White in some cases) is the one with the ball and GSW has to prevent a pass to either of the J's which is a bit easier and leaves Marcus/White as the one with the ball needing to score or do something to set up a score.  It's a real issue on a team without a PG who's a scorer and no discernible offensive scheme other than to just pass the ball around.  Take the passing away, and you're left with the ball in the hands of a PG who's not a scorer.