Last year I begrudgingly ended up pulling for the Rockets because despite hating them I thought they were the only team that could get it done. This year though I don't really care and it's been far more enjoyable watching them be their usual choking selves.

One of the things that's annoyed me even more about Houston this year is that the abject ugliness of their offense is frequently justified on the basis that the math just says they should play that way. To me this is yet another illustration of the media-driven cult of Daryl Morey where anything and everything Houston ever does just gets chalked up as the rigorous and rational application of sheer analytics. Just as all of his front office moves are simply evidence of a genius at work, even when they look bad at a casual glance (e.g., the Chris Paul contract), so too is their atrocious looking offense. This of course is complete nonsense, as both the Warriors throughout their reign and most recent Spurs championship teams featured offenses equally influenced by the numbers and nowhere near as painful to watch as this Houston team. It's just that those teams simply applied analytics rather than also constantly telling a fawning media how much they did so (though to be fair the asshole owner of Golden State comes close).

Steph is just one of a kind. Forget ranking 1-10 or whatever. He's just a guy you're gonna tell your grandkids about decades from now. Kevin Durant is not.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

exactly. Chucking up 3's didnt work. Need to play inside more. There's only one Splash Bros.

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Jeff Van Gundy the fans are harder on Harden than Steph...why? The play by play guy said maybe Harden hasn't won anything!

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

Of the 3 people actively discussing this 2 of them obviously actually saw Akeem's career from start to finish.

You aren't one of them.

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You sound stupid. There was a lot that Durant did while playing with OKC that was "detrimental" to winning.

As far as Embiid goes they win over 67% of their games when he plays and under 50% of their games win he doesn't play. Obviously he does very little that is "detrimental" to winning with that being the case.

He had a +40 last game. None of the other Starters had over a +15 yet he is "detrimental" to winning.

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27-1

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At what point do people start getting on Morey and D'antoni?

Houston shot more threes than Golden State in every game that series.

This despite the fact that the 3 best 3 point shooters on either team happen to be with Golden State.

Some instances they shot more than double or close to double the amount of 3's. It's a stupid way to play basketball.

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That's the rub, everybody shifted to a 3 point heavy offense the last 5 years to mimic GS.. only problem is Curry and Klay are rare, add in KD and it's a one in a generation team.

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Yep. Killer part for Houston is that every game they lost were winnable games.

Chris Paul is a deadly mid range jump shooter but he is discouraged from taking them by an idiot coach and GM who believe that basketball should be played on computer screens and in laboratories.

Everyone is lauding how well Kawhi Leonard is playing but all he is doing is simply playing Old School 80's basketball. So is the Freak.

Kawhi is taking and making a lot of mid range, pull up jump shots. He isn't simply hanging around the 3 waiting for kickout passes.

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To me it's not just the amount of 3s but the way Houston's entire offense is run that's so annoying to me. I'm not even a big fan of watching Golden State's offense either but I can at least appreciate the ball movement they use to get so many of their 3s compared to Harden and Paul dribbling the air out of the ball for 20 seconds every possession only to chuck, flop, or both.

The offense is geared to take high volume 3 point shots though. Remember that idiot D'Antoni infamously said his goal is to avg 50 three point shots a game.


I don't even mind running a ton of clear outs if you have guys to do it with. The problem with Houston is that they have eliminated about 80% of the court with that dumbass offense. You know that they aren't going to shoot 15-18 shots so you know that you don't have to defend against it.


There is no way in the world that a contested step back 3 point shot is better than a wide open mid range shot but that idiot D'Antoni and that goof Morey seem to think it is.

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The funniest moment last night was when Houston had a 3-on-1 fast break and Tucker just refused to take advantage of it because he couldn't get an open 3. It was like seeing something from the first month of Boylen's tenure when he didn't want the Bulls to even try to score in transition.

I hope I am wrong, but I don't see Denver or Portland giving the Warriors any trouble....even with KD hurt

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Chris Paul got old really fast.

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I think without KD either will beat them.

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Only Washington will suffer the consequences of a worse contract.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I hope you are right.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Looking like the Bucks and Warriors

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I'm going to bounce from the spot for awhile but I will be back at some point to argue with you about this hoops stuff again. Playoffs have been great this season. See ya up the road.

I'm out.

I'm thinking Philly upsets Toronto @ home in a close game and Denver routs Portland.

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Great start for Jokic

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Portland doing their best Celtics imitation.

This is my first time watching Jokic.

Reminds me of an overgrown FavreFan.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Damian Lillard is selling them out

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Not so fast.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Jokic offers you nothing defensively. Absolutely nothing. Portland is relentlessly attacking the rim. No rim protection at all.

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On the Portland side, Collins gave them some breathing room with his D.

Oaktown!

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

He is athletic. Real springy. Kanter is worse defensively than Jokic. This matchup is a matchup between the two worst defensive centers in the league. Definitely the worst two defensive centers in all of the playoffs.

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