Game #21: Houston Rockets 119 - Toronto Raptors 109

[MixxAOR]

don't let Mike Scott get going. please for the love of god

[G__Deane]

Giannis is averaging less than 32mpg. Bucks are really really good.

And he's been able to sit out half and full 4th quarters when they are blowing out teams. And he just turned 25, ride that horse lol

[S.R.]

Bucks are really good but are also playing role players a lot who got played off the floor in last year's postseason. They have a bunch of guys like Ilyasova and even Lopez who can be gameplanned for, just nobody bothers in the regular season. Middleton is not the greatest second banana. So I expect a certain amount of skepticism will persist until they prove otherwise.

But Giannis is definitely better again this year, and that will be the make or break for them. Does he finally become a guy who can't be stopped in a 7 game series? He's pretty damn amazing.

[G__Deane]

Bucks are really good but are also playing role players a lot who got played off the floor in last year's postseason. They have a bunch of guys like Ilyasova and even Lopez who can be gameplanned for, just nobody bothers in the regular season. Middleton is not the greatest second banana. So I expect a certain amount of skepticism will persist until they prove otherwise.

But Giannis is definitely better again this year, and that will be the make or break for them. Does he finally become a guy who can't be stopped in a 7 game series? He's pretty damn amazing.

I think he's the best player in the league now depending on what you value. Anthony Davis right there. Kawhi better all round player.
But the torch has definitely been passed

[S.R.]

We'll see how this shakes out with more data, but Nurse might want to rethink aggressive Harden traps out near halfcourt:

Going into Monday's game against the Sacramento Kings, other Rockets had hit an astonishing 15 of 21 3s directly off passes Harden tossed out of traps, per ESPN Stats & Info data. (This does not include conventional traps on pick-and-rolls -- just all-out two-against-one traps.) On those shots, the closest defenders were more than seven feet away. Four of Houston's 10 best games in terms of shot quality -- their expected effective field-goal percentage based on the location of each shot, the shooter and the proximity of the nearest defender -- have come since Nov. 20 in Denver, per Second Spectrum.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...-teams-winning

[MixxAOR]

We'll see how this shakes out with more data, but Nurse might want to rethink aggressive Harden traps out near halfcourt:

Going into Monday's game against the Sacramento Kings, other Rockets had hit an astonishing 15 of 21 3s directly off passes Harden tossed out of traps, per ESPN Stats & Info data. (This does not include conventional traps on pick-and-rolls -- just all-out two-against-one traps.) On those shots, the closest defenders were more than seven feet away. Four of Houston's 10 best games in terms of shot quality -- their expected effective field-goal percentage based on the location of each shot, the shooter and the proximity of the nearest defender -- have come since Nov. 20 in Denver, per Second Spectrum.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/...-teams-winning

yeah scheme is to let other players beat you and they did.

[S.R.]

yeah scheme is to let other players beat you and they did.

Well, it is that simple but it isn't. Teams like Toronto have ramped up the execution of that scheme - they're trapping harder, earlier, further away from the basket. And the early returns on being that aggressive with the scheme aren't great. The role player's shooting %'s are all trending up because - surprise surprise - NBA players with wide open shots tend to make more of them.

I'm not big on doubling hard on a superstar like Harden, not as hard and as often as the Raptors just did. Other teams will beat you (Lebron/Cavs flashbacks). You need a good defender who can guard one-on-one for a lot of the game, then throw different looks e.g. traps, doubles, at unexpected times to keep the star as off balance as possible while also not exposing your own defense too badly.

And in OG, Norm, and RHJ, the Raptors have several guys who can be aggressive one-on-one on the perimeter. I don't like the overenthusiastic trapping scheme.