A day late but here is a new thread for the new season!
What are everyone’s predictions?
Thread title changed for new season
You said it there, teamwork with Butler at the centre of it.
Still buzzing after that.
A massive V, but still massive effort to be needed.
A bit of hope anyway
Really stupid of Denver not to take a time out for the last possession.
Butler continued his run of poor games, BUT the Heat won in Denver. It could be a big miss by Vegas coming here.
Poor games? Explain please?
I think you'll have to explain how he's playing well since game 3 in Boston I'm afraid. My opinion is widely held and supported by his numbers.
Isn’t he carrying an injury? He’s definitely not driving to the basket as much
More to basketball than numbers, it’s disingenuous to say he is playing poorly just because he isn’t putting up the same numbers as he did in previous series. He is still productive and as shown, finding ways to win. Will they need some big games from him, yes, but most good things go through him anyway
Well, I know there's more to basketball than numbers, but he is off-colour. They've survived this stretch, so if he sorts it out, it won't matter.
He played very well last night. Playoff Jimmy was back. Clutch performance with eight points and four assists in the fourth quarter. A total team performance too, he was at the centre of everything going on last night for the Heat.
Edit to add: That's just offense I was talking about, he was phenomenal on defense.
Phenomenal on defense? Well I don’t know what game you were watching, but I didn’t see that. No blocks, no steals and his second worst defensive rating since game 2 vs Milwaukee, in terms of the numbers (which matched the eye test imo).
As it was, he shot 36% from the field and needs to get back to contributing more consistently across every game if Miami are to win this series. At least, logic would suggest he needs to.
It's you that didn't watch the game obviously. Murray scored a playoffs low 18 points, the reason for that was Jimmy Butler who switched on to him. He missed the three pointer at the end because Butler was all over it.
Using stats suggests to me you are making your mind up on things without actually watching the game.
Sometimes the stats line up with the performance but other times they don't.
Butler was brilliant defensively. Offensively he was very involved without providing points or assists until those things were needed in the clutch.
This is mad stuff tbh. A player plays poorly most of the game (“poor” defined as relative to what we know he is capable of) and because he hits a couple of jumpers in the 4th and his team won we hear the “playoff” version of the player is back. It’s absurdly results orientated.
The Heat won game 2 inspite of Butler, not because of him. Gabe Vincent produced the 5th all time points in a finals game from an undrafted player (Duncan Robinson is 3rd on this list from 2020, lol) and they shot red hot from 3, and blazing hot in the 4th quarter as a team from the field.
I’m sure Jimmy can and will play better. You’d think they’ll need him to.
So you have nothing to say about him shutting down Jamal Murray? He gets no credit for 21 points, 8 in the clutch, and 9 assists, 4 in the clutch.
His rebounds were low because he was defending on the perimeter where Murray likes to start his moves.
So Murray has his lowest points total in the playoffs, his last five were 26, 25, 37, 37, 31. Butler was the reason for this and you don't get stat sheet marks for that but you just ignore it like it's not important or never happened.
Steve Kerr even talked about it, saying they looked at Jokic and decided that he's gonna do what he does and let him at it. So they started Love to let Jimmy play Murray and that worked out until the fourth quarter where Butler had to bring it home.
Stop reading stats and watch the game.
So did you actually watch the game ? Don’t lie now…..
Jeez, others criticizing LL and his takes? I’m still in hospital so may be seeing things…..
Great podcast with Tim Legler on The Lowe Post. He really is a top class analyst, and to think Perk and Mark Jackson have more profile media slots than him. 🙄
I watched G2 but late due to having a tube in my throat and lung at the moment, which is delightful as I’m sure you can imagine. Lots of bad calls in that game went Miami’s way esp. the big no call goal tend by Bam on Murray’s shot…..how they can miss one that obvious is beyond me and frankly shocking in a game of this importance. If that’s called Denver don’t need a 3 to tie, so these missed calls are crucial.
Poor decision not to take a time out (they actually had 2 left) for that last play too. Really poor. Legler does a great breakdown on why in the podcast I mentioned in the previous post.
Denver lost that game on a few minutes of sloppy play at the start of the 4th. I still fancy them in 6 though.
I hope you have a speedy recovery. It's not nice having all those invasive things happening.
Yes I watched the game.
I suppose some star players face less criticism than others, and #wins is the singular stat people struggle to see past.
He did a great job on Jamal Murray and worked as a team player. Immediately after the game you'll see my post where I responded to a post talking about teamwork and said that the person I quoted had said it all, I said teamwork with Butler at the centre of it.
He doesn't have to score 30+ points to have a great game. He had a great game 2.
I have a feeling Miami are going to do it again tonight. Spoelstra is such a great coach. He has his players capable of changing how they play to get what he needs from his team.
We don't know what he'll do at any given time. Will he put Butler on Murray again and just let Jokic do his thing? Will he decide now that he can get at Jokic?
I've a feeling he'll do something similar to game 2 as in put Butler on Murray because if you shut him down you have a great chance to win. Butler will be even more up for the job after spending a game doing it.
🙄
Now that is lazy analysis. Am I surprised given the source? Absolutely not.
This really is a pivotal game tonight for both teams. I do think Denver are more talented and deeper than Miami but we’ve been saying that for Miami in all bar one play off series so far. I still expect Denver to win this series, so I would expect them to win tonight. That said, they’ll have to be significantly better defensively than they have been in Games 1 and 2, and have no “switched off” minutes either.
I wouldn’t be shocked however if Miami win.
Wow, what can anyone say to that….lol. I can’t believe Iam saying this but are you referring to LeBrons criticism on here ?
Doesnt even matter but my point still stands, just because Butler hasn’t had the crazy stat games doesn’t mean he has been poor just means that he hasn’t been as sensational, he has done well to still help his team despite all the defensive attention on him plus it looks like he has a bit of an injury
Pumped for this game, I think Denver could very well put a hammering on Miami but who knows with this Miami team, just hope it’s close. Watching it in New York today, strange watching a game this late. (Hope you are feeling better btw)
Watching from hospital bed, might as well watch it on silent with Mark Jackson doing commentary.
Great defense there by Love.
Still weird seeing him out there, he is like 45 in my head, feels like he had a lot of wasted years
Jokic called for an offensive foul in Q1, next play up Jimmy Butler pushes off and no call.
Aaron gets hammered twice on the same play and no call, then Bam initiates contact at the other end and gets the call.
I’d be pretty pissed if I was Denver at those.
