NBA Season/Playoffs 2025-26

[Who]

Interesting listening to Jay Williams talking about NY and their lack of quality ball-handlers in the starting lineup outside of Brunson. This has bothered me for some time. Both M Bridges & Anunoby are limited ball-handlers. J Hart is probably their next best ball-handler.

Anyway, Jay Williams was talking about how well San Antonio are pressuring Brunson and forcing down the shot clock before NY get into their offense.

Jay Williams was also pointing out the number of possessions where Brunson was taking 15 secs before he passed to a teammate. And possessions where Brunson never passed the ball to a teammate and shot himself instead. That this is killing NY's ball movement.

Draymond Green and others were pointing out the key to opening up Brunson is getting the ball more to KAT in the high post as a facilitator and moving Brunson off the ball earlier in the possession then having him come back and get it off of movement. I agree. Same point Jay Will was making. Brunson is dribbling in front of 5 defenders with all 5 Spurs defenders focused on him and ready to help.

Jay Will was also saying how Castle is bigger and stronger than Brunson. As is Dylan Harper. And they are just as quick if not quicker than Brunson. Difficult matchups. They are wearing Brunson down with their physical defense hounding Brunson as he tries to bring the ball upcourt.

This point reminds me a lot of Luka Doncic. It drives me nuts when LAL (or DAL before, like in 2024 Finals) allow teams to beat up Luka all the way up the floor instead of having a different player bring the ball up. Especially since LAL have A Reaves & LeBron who can comfortably do so. Or in DAL in 2024 Finals when Luka had Kyrie. Instead they kept having Luka bring the ball up and allowing the defense to tire him out and hurt his FG% as the game went on.

Same thing happened with LAL and Chicago in 1991 Finals. Jordan and Pippen were hounding Magic for 94 feet. At least LAL were smart enough to get Magic to pass ahead to either Sam Perkins or Vlade Divac to bring the ball up against the Bulls bigs and then get it back to Magic nearer the 3 point line to setup the offense.

New York gotta stop letting San Antonio beat up on Brunson. Let Hart bring up the ball. Or bring in McBride instead of Hart to help Brunson if Hart isn't playing well. Then get it to KAT in the high post more and have Brunson play more off-ball so San Antonio can't load up on him defensively so easily.

[Goldstar88]

LeBron James: "San Antonio, they're a team that doesn't have ego. They have their personal beliefs on what they can bring to the table. We all do, we're all competitors, but that team is egoless.

[Who]

Tim Legler talking more about the Knicks lack of ball-handling and the Spurs pressure. He is pointing the Knicks problem is not just that Stephon Castle can pressure the ball upcourt so can multiple other Spurs guards.

So if NY ask Josh Hart to bring the ball up court instead of Brunson, he will be pressured by D Fox. If it is M Bridges, it will be D Vassell, and Bridges isn't a good ball-handler to begin with. Anunoby is a straight line ball-handler in the halfcourt and not someone who brings the ball up. He would be pressured by Champagnie.

Maybe they should have Towns do it. Towns is either the 2nd best or 3rd best ball-handler in that starting unit. Either him or Josh Hart. Bridges and Anunoby are 4th and 5th. I pointed out above in the 1991 Finals the Lakers had Divac or S Perkins bring the ball up to stop Chicago pressuring Magic Johnson. Same thing.

Sorry. Distracted by the Towns idea. Legler felt that it had to be Brunson because NY lack any quality alternatives to Brunson.

[Moranis]

Tim Legler talking more about the Knicks lack of ball-handling and the Spurs pressure. He is pointing the Knicks problem is not just that Stephon Castle can pressure the ball upcourt so can multiple other Spurs guards.

So if NY ask Josh Hart to bring the ball up court instead of Brunson, he will be pressured by D Fox. If it is M Bridges, it will be D Vassell, and Bridges isn't a good ball-handler to begin with. Anunoby is a straight line ball-handler in the halfcourt and not someone who brings the ball up. He would be pressured by Champagnie.

Maybe they should have Towns do it. Towns is either the 2nd best or 3rd best ball-handler in that starting unit. Either him or Josh Hart. Bridges and Anunoby are 4th and 5th. I pointed out above in the 1991 Finals the Lakers had Divac or S Perkins bring the ball up to stop Chicago pressuring Magic Johnson. Same thing.

Sorry. Distracted by the Towns idea. Legler felt that it had to be Brunson because NY lack any quality alternatives to Brunson.

I think they just need to get the ball out of his hand in the half court more.  Using Towns in the high post would help. Let him run the offense from there.  That might also force Wemby out of the post more, which would open the lane a bit more for drives, cuts, etc.

[Who]

Collin Reid
@CollinReidPS

Spurs in Game 1-2 this post-season: 3-5

Spurs in Game 3-7 this post-season: 10-3

[Who]

Some Spurs stats from the Finals

Wemby's stat line is far and away the best of anyone in the series. 29ppg 9.7rpg 3.3apg and 5 stocks per game - 3.3bpg 1.7spg. His 29ppg is coming on 59.4%.

S Castle - 18ppg 5.7rpg 4apg 54.8% TS 8 TOV
D Harper - 14.7ppg 7.7rpg 2.7apg 50% TS 3 TOV
D Fox - 13ppg 6apg 3.3rpg 45.9% TS 9 TOV

Interesting to group the 3 guards together and compare them to one another. S Castle clearly performing the best statistically. D Harper's scoring efficiency was dragged down by a bad shooting night in Gm 3. His points per game and rebounds per game have been excellent given his inconsistency throughout most of the season. D Fox is still struggling. Very bad shooting. 18 assists to 9 turnovers but his ball-handling is helping keep down the turnovers of others especially S Castle.

Champagnie - 12ppg 5rpg 62.8% TS
D Vassell - 11.3ppg 7.3rpg 2.7apg 63.8% TS

Then the two shooters on the wing. Surprising D Vassell has taken so few shots in the series. 24 FGA total. 8 FGA per game. He has shot the ball well. He needs to find some more shots especially with the three guards above all struggling from the perimeter. Fox 2-11 3PTA. D Harper 2-15 3PTA. Castle is actually leading them with 5-14 3PTA. Castle should not be your best guard shooter. Champagnie has shot 10-22 3PTA (22 of 26 total shots) and Vassell 7-17 3PTA (17 of 24 total shots). That is driving their high TS%.

Keldon Johnson - 4.3ppg 2rpg 41.6% TS 13.7mpg

A different type forward. A physical bulldog. He is struggling badly in the series.

Tim Legler went through the past 6th man of the year award winners who played in the Finals. I believe there was 8 of them. Bobby Jones, McHale (twice), Bill Walton, Kukoc, Caruso. Legler also pointed out the 6th man of the year went to the Finals 4 straight seasons when the award was first given out but only around 4 in almost 40 seasons since then. Kukoc, Caruso and now Keldon Johnson. I am missing someone. I forgot who the 8th guy was. Oh James Harden in 2012.

So all the other guys except for Harden & Keldon improved their regular season numbers in the Finals vs their numbers in the regular season that won their 6th man of the year award so Keldon Johnson's terrible play so far is an outlier. Although Harden sucked in 2012 too. Actually 12.5ppg 5rpg 3.5apg 53% TS is much better than what Keldon is doing. Harden shot only 37.5% FG but his 3s and FTs got him up to 53% TS. That is above what D Harper & D Fox are doing in this series. Nevermind Kelond Johnson.

[SparzWizard]

Collin Reid
@CollinReidPS

Spurs in Game 1-2 this post-season: 3-5

Spurs in Game 3-7 this post-season: 10-3

Seems they get the jitters to open the series but play well the rest of the way. Including a Game 7 win in OKC.

But ofc, no team in NBA history has ever won an NBA Finals after losing the first two HOME games. Will that still be the case this series?

[Who]

Joel Embiid has appeared in just 96 of 246 regular-season games over the past three seasons