NBA Season/Playoffs 2025-26

[No Nickname]

Julian Champagnie was really bad all game. The coach played Barnes zero minutes. A guy that has won a championship and averaged 26mpg during the regular season.

This coach is a moron.

Champagnie's defense is atrocious.  Brunson got by him at will, even without a screen.  Just really, really bad effort. 

[No Nickname]

And for 2s

14-21 for 66% 1st half
5-22 for 23% the 2nd half

They made eight baskets total the entire second half? Five twos and three threes

9 points on 17 attempts from 3 and 10 points on 22 attempts from 2 means they were actually more efficient from 3 despite shooting under 18%.  Wild.

The Spurs scored 14 in the 3QTR and 16 in the 4QTR.  30 points in the entire second half, after scoring 41 and 35 in the first two quarters.

And while you have to credit the Knicks, they also had a Josh Hart blown wide open layup in the last two minutes and Brunson shooting a stupid 32-foot shot with five seconds left instead of driving to the hoop (his absolute specialty).

[No Nickname]

Also, why do you foul Alvarado with 5.7 seconds when he's stopped, and facing the opposite direction? 

I guess the Spurs coach couldn't have known that, when Alvarado was dribbling up the court, so he was yelling "foul him, we have a foul to give."

But boy it seems like they should have just tried to trap him when Alvarado was stuck at half court.

[rondohondo]

Anyone else think Fox was paid off last night? I'm being serious, the turnovers he made and decisions in the 2nd half, had me scratching my head. Something felt very off on some of those plays. He looked like Terry Rozier.  I think it should be looked into....

[smicker16]

No lead is safe anymore in this league with how much variance there is quarter to quarter with the 3pt shooting. No matter what team it is that is the case now so at least it is not only the Celtics.

The Knicks deserve it but it is interesting the league seems to be changing. I used to always think you need an MVP/top 5 player to win it all but now with the Cs winning in 2024 and Knicks potentially this year and even the Pacers last year if Hali did not get hurt that is becoming maybe not as necessary although still a huge factor for sure. Not sure if it is due to 3pt shooting being an equalizer or the cap changes. Maybe a bit of both but will be interesting to see how that goes.

[SparzWizard]

Disappointing as some of Celtics' playoff failures have been over the years, Spurs in 2013 and 2026 are the biggest NBA Finals chokes I've seen in my lifetime.

If you're talking about all-time NBA Finals chokes then you can never leave out the 2016 Warriors. Went 73-9 in the regular season and blew a 3-1 series lead in the Finals.

[slamtheking]

Spurs 14-26 from 3 1st half for 53%
Then 3-17 from 3 2nd half

Very Celtics like 

So 17 for 43 for the game, 39.5% overall.  Seems like they shot the 3 pretty well overall.  This is how the element of chance works.  17 3s in a half is not that many these days.  The discrepancy in make % is striking, but I don't see the issue being they took too many 3s in the 2nd half.  Another way to look at it, they missed 12 3s in the first half and 14 in the second.  If they had gone 12-26 in the first and 5-17 in the second, does that change anything?

I think what this continues to show is that the swing or variation in 3P% in the playoffs can be much wider than what is typical in the regular season.  It makes some intuitive sense although I have not done a dive into the stats, just observing this anecdotally.  So does this mean a team should take fewer 3s in the playoffs if that is what got them there?  Take fewer in the second half than the first, expecting that you will miss more due to pressure?  Everyone keeps bashing coaches for this but I am not sure what you really want them to do.

I think the reasonable expectation is that when a team's primary offensive approach stalls out, they have a plan B that they can switch to in order to continue scoring.  Also, knowing when to pull the plug on Plan A when it's not working. 

continuing to chuck 3's when they're not going in is a recipe for losing