Three of the teams left benefitted immensely from play in the regular season (jazz, suns, hawks). The favorite did not. It might not matter much if Brooklyn wins, but its not a lock.
Utah, Phoenix and Philly would give them more trouble than this Milwaukee team. I wanted to believe in the Bucks but can only watch Giannis brick so many ft, 3s and have no late game offense.
Is that because Russā brain wired as such that heās incapable of playing well when itās May or June? Did Harden actually have Mamba Mentality growing up but lost it when he was traded to Houston?
Good players had bad game in specific situations, because professional athletes have bad games. Kobe had below average clutch stats, but we consider him some clutch legend.
This is because as you have hinted at, is more about media narratives than analytics.
Dirk was a loser until he wasnāt.
Same with 1000 other players in other sports.
Whatās weird about the Bucks is that in Games 1 and 3, they played great offense in the first quarter. Moved the ball well, pounded it inside on a small Nets team, etc. Built leads. Then they got away from that and went all iso ball with Giannis. They have to stop letting him be the one to initiate the offense from the top of the arc. Let him move around, get it to him in the lane, get in positions where nobody can stop him.
Also, stop shooting threes.
Do you guys want like advanced analytics saying Harden / CP3 are habitual playoff chokers? I donāt think youāre going to like the results.
Lots of sub 40% FG and sub 30% 3PFG splits at first glance.
https://twitter.com/KingJosiah54/status/1403158152372051973
https://twitter.com/KingJosiah54/status/1403165744330788870
BONUS:
Kobe slappies always ignore this fact when you bring it up.
Paul is a 47.2% shooter in the regular season over his career. He shoots 47.6% in the playoffs. 37.2% 3 pointer in the regular season, 36.7% in the playoffs.
He has 18.3 ppg in the regular season, 20.3 in the playoffs.
His numbers with the clippers are even better when it comes to playoff stats. Over 6 seasons he had 35% 3 point in the regular season vs 39% in the playoffs. 18.8 ppg in the regular season to 21.2 in the playoffs.
I fail to see something that will prove how he is a notorious choker who cannot possibly play well in the spring.
Guess he just ran really bad to take a massive dump down his leg and commit two egregious turnovers and foul the worst volume 3P shooter in league history (all in the span of 60 seconds) to choke away their best shot at a WCF. Those Clips teams must have been super unlucky year after year after year.
My main point has been about Harden. In the postseason, heās an inefficient chucker and one of the worst perimeter defenders in the league. Teams have frustrated him pretty easily when heās not getting all those ridiculous foul calls he gets in the regular season, and playoff defenses are much more difficult to break when teams play you for 7 games and have weeks to prepare.
Iām rooting for Chris and the Suns. Iād love to see him shake his playoff reputation, and that team is the easiest to root for.
Dude you brought up stats and said āyou will not like the resultsā. They donāt show it.
If we go back to the anecdotal and poopy pants (great poster) thatās fine.
Some article I remember liking back in the day. Canāt fully vouch for the methodology, but I think the concept of clutch perception is probably very true.
Hardenās stats in the postseason are not good. Shooting sub 40% from the field and sub 30% from 3 as a super high volume guy is bad. Hope that helps.
Thereās no doubt Harden had worse stats in the playoffs and as I said, we can discuss the basketball reasons for those. Your point on him being great at getting below average teams to 50+ wins is a very good one and has a lot to do with his playoffs problems. There could be others that I alluded to, such as his ability to create separation (I didnāt check his open look numbers, maybe itās not true).
I hold firm that āpooping pantsā is almost entirely a myth. As you can see with CP3 numbers. As you can see with Kobeās stats.
Steph goes down to 40% 3p in the playoff, which while is still great, is far below his regular season numbers. He goes from near 50% field goal percentage in his prime to 45%. Itās not because heās a pants pooper, but that would have been the perception has he not played in such amazing teams.
Westbrook has had multiple elimination games worse than that.
2012 Finals: 4-for-20 (including 0-for-5 from 3).
2014 WCF: 8-for-23 (1-6 from 3) and 7 TOs
2016 WCF: 7-for-21 (2-6 from 3)
Whatās worse is that Westbrook had a better, more efficient teammate that could have been taking these shots. Westbrook shooting 3ās is as bad a GA doing it now. Is it any wonder than Durant wanted out of there.
If you can point to me stanning Russ in the playoffs, Iād appreciate it. In reality, I said the opposite.
You made a comment "Probably the worst game an MVP candidate has had in recent memory in an elimination game. Unless Iām missing another Harden game.ā
All three of those games are worse.
Russ was an MVP candidate those years?
Regardless, Harden shooting 18% with 6 TOs and fouling out as the focal point of this team is worse IMO. But I havenāt watched much basketball in my day.
He was 4th in MVP voting in 2016.
He finished 4th in 2016 - which is by far the worst one as it cost them Durant. Maybe you should watch a bit more basketball.
Yea 7/21 is much worse than 2/11. Hopefully one day I know as much about basketball as you and Cornboy
Lol 7/21 with 7 Reb 13 assists and 3 TOs. GJGE
Whatās with repeating this? You kept saying other people donāt watch basketball when they donāt agree with you. No one else claimed you donāt.
I (and most NBA analytics) hold firm that being āclutchā and being a āpants pooperā are myths and are far more related to media narratives and results oriented. Iām fairly certain most people will continue to buy into that, just as that reddit post started with how Kobe is some super clutch beast.
