Everything Playoffs 2022 (Non-Raptors Thread)

[Primer]

I'm all in on Mavericks now. That's who I want to win. Mavs vs Miami would be ideal finals. Let Lowry get his swan song and Luka take over as best player in the game.

[golden]

Not sure about that cause Dallas' defence is pretty damn good and was right in line with Miami all season. Outside of game 5, once the series went back to Dallas in game 3, the Mavs controlled, and for long stretches dominated, the Suns offence. They did the same to Utah after the first couple games.

Miami-Boston could be interesting. If Lowry was 100% I'd go with the Heat but it feels like a long, close series to me in any case.

Teams like Dallas, with no elite defensive players and an obvious weak link (Luka) playing elite defense all season long, and now into the playoffs... are why I continue to question Nurse's over-aggressive defensive schemes.

[slaw]

I'm all in on Mavericks now. That's who I want to win. Mavs vs Miami would be ideal finals. Let Lowry get his swan song and Luka take over as best player in the game.

My interest level is next to zero but Dallas is the only one of the four left that I'd cheer for. I don't like GSW (they are the only NBA team I can remember that I lost respect for when they started winning) and I hate all Boston teams. Completely ambivalent when it comes to Miami.

I am actually all in on the NHL playoffs. Haven't watched hockey in close to 20 years but the playoffs have been way more entertaining than the NBA.

[Primer]

My interest level is next to zero but Dallas is the only one of the four left that I'd cheer for. I don't like GSW (they are the only NBA team I can remember that I lost respect for when they started winning) and I hate all Boston teams. Completely ambivalent when it comes to Miami.

I am actually all in on the NHL playoffs. Haven't watched hockey in close to 20 years but the playoffs have been way more entertaining than the NBA.

Totally agree on the NHL. They've done an amazing job on creating parity in the league and it makes for a way more enjoyable product.

[slaw]

Teams like Dallas, with no elite defensive players and an obvious weak link (Luka) playing elite defense all season long, and now into the playoffs... are why I continue to question Nurse's over-aggressive defensive schemes.

I haven't seen more than 2 or 3 Dallas games all season, so my opinion is pretty meaningless. Honestly, I think a lot of it is good teams/players buying in to the coaching staff establishing a defensive identity and Kidd being a fresh voice likely went a long way by itself.

It also goes to show there are lots of ways to skin a cat.

[KeonClark]

My interest level is next to zero but Dallas is the only one of the four left that I'd cheer for. I don't like GSW (they are the only NBA team I can remember that I lost respect for when they started winning) and I hate all Boston teams. Completely ambivalent when it comes to Miami.

I am actually all in on the NHL playoffs. Haven't watched hockey in close to 20 years but the playoffs have been way more entertaining than the NBA.

Well us Calgarians are all gonna be swept up in it now. There's a storm headed this way..

[slaw]

Well us Calgarians are all gonna be swept up in it now. There's a storm headed this way..

My wife and her family are huge Oilers fans, so I'm surrounded on all sides....

[Yuri Gagarin]

Im cheering for Boston. Likeable dudes. Fk GS, tired of lukas smirks.

i abandoned hockey when the leafs wouldn’t sign a pretty good player that wanted to come here named wayne gretzky. Leafs game 7 was the first hockey game i watched in over 25 years. Its changed a lot for the better thats for sure. Faster, way more skilled (leafs could never make more than 2 passes in a row) corner scrums are kinda annoying and less colourful characters than back in the day but a good overall game to watch

[TrueTorontoFan]

Im cheering for Boston. Likeable dudes. Fk GS, tired of lukas smirks.

i abandoned hockey when the leafs wouldn’t sign a pretty good player that wanted to come here named wayne gretzky. Leafs game 7 was the first hockey game i watched in over 25 years. Its changed a lot for the better thats for sure. Faster, way more skilled (leafs could never make more than 2 passes in a row) corner scrums are kinda annoying and less colourful characters than back in the day but a good overall game to watch

I don't really watch a ton of hockey either. Gretzsky wanted to be a leaf?!

[golden]

Well us Calgarians are all gonna be swept up in it now. There's a storm headed this way..

The "Battle of Alberta" was pretty intense back in the day.

[KeonClark]

The "Battle of Alberta" was pretty intense back in the day.

The frenzy and buzz here is palpable. This is the biggest thing to happen in Calgary in 18 years, and Edmonton is no different. Take a gold medal Canada game and multiply the excitement by a high number, and extend it 2 weeks. 32 years since they've met in the playoffs.

[slaw]

The frenzy and buzz here is palpable. This is the biggest thing to happen in Calgary in 18 years, and Edmonton is no different. Take a gold medal Canada game and multiply the excitement by a high number, and extend it 2 weeks. 32 years since they've met in the playoffs.

I can't wait until the Raps get that kind of a rivalry. They sort of have one with Philly now, which is good and will hopefully grow. Problem is that the Nets have been mostly awful for a long time, same with the Knicks. Before that, Toronto was mostly awful. Without an obvious geographic factor, you need those nasty playoff series and Toronto hasn't had a consistent opponent to get there.

[Bonus Jonas]

Dallas goes as far as Luka takes them. The game looks easy for him. If Bridges, who was a DPOY candidate, couldn't stop him, could anyone in the Warriors' roster?

He kept hunting mismatches and kept finding Ayton and CP3 on switches. He is going to do the same against Curry, Poole and Looney. Of course Warriors have Kerr as their head coach and Draymond as their communicator on defense so they can figure it out.

That’s more on Monty than on Bridges

Bridges has shown he can be one of the best in the league at fighting through screens and recovering but Monty was insistent on switching every screen and just allowed the matchup hunting. Only adjustment was to double Luka on the pick and that got carved apart as well.

No clue why he didn’t try to hedge and recover screens with Bridges/big

[Bonus Jonas]

Warriors very well might not allow the switch as easily who knows

[golden]

That’s more on Monty than on Bridges

Bridges has shown he can be one of the best in the league at fighting through screens and recovering but Monty was insistent on switching every screen and just allowed the matchup hunting. Only adjustment was to double Luka on the pick and that got carved apart as well.

No clue why he didn’t try to hedge and recover screens with Bridges/big

Our 6'9" lineup might be the best suited team to slow down Luka and limit the role players. Same with guys like Kawhi, PG, Lebron, Giannis, etc...

The Sixers with a brutish MVP center and a lightning quick PG may have been the worst possible matchup for the Raps.