Curry's Flurry Meets Ant's Fury for this Semifinal Jury! | Official Timberwolves (#6) vs. Warriors (#7) West Semifinals Thread

[Rekkapryde]

I posted at 4:12 am EST. I'm expecting peace and quiet

This fakkit replied at 4:16

yall so stupid

 

[MVike28]

Would GS be controlling this series if Steph was healthy - yes or no?

i think that is a distinct possibility of course

Steph is literally the engine of the Dubs, its actually criminal the talent they've surrounded him with. Dude should be gunning for his 6th title now.

But Randle is punishing their front court so..i don't see where Steph being present or not changes that.

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

i think that is a distinct possibility of course

Steph is literally the engine of the Dubs, its actually criminal the talent they've surrounded him with. Dude should be gunning for his 6th title now.

But Randle is punishing their front court so..i don't see where Steph being present or not changes that.

It changes everything.

To save myself the trouble of typing out all the reasons why, I'll just quote a few of my posts -

Spoiler

He struggles at the first sign of resistance.

He's mentally weak, has a limited skillset and is reliant upon the officiating dictating how successful he is because he resorts to brute force rather than any notable skill.

That's why his flaws haven't been exposed because he's played against two teams that can't provide much resistance to big men. Any starting level PF would be eating in his place too. And it's really less about the actual frontcourts, themselves, and more about how imbalance in a squad creates fractures elsewhere, because it forces other players to overcompensate in areas that they otherwise wouldn't have to and that affects the rest of their respective games.

Because Minny have an infinitely better balance throughout their team, in comparison to the Lakers and Steph-less Warriors, it's made it easier for him to perform. He has a greater platform to play off because he's already playing with a headstart. He's barely had to defend in this series because the sheer size and deterrence that Gobert, Naz and McDaniels are imposing on GS is already enough to take them out of the contest.

Then he can come down the other end of the floor against a mentally-defeated, smaller team, get a switch on a guard/wing player (or fatigued one), or someone like Looney or TJD, and half the job is already done.

I just outlined to you that it's not about Steph's defense, it's how GS can control the games.

Steph covers up the fact they have a non-existent frontcourt, purely for what he can do and how they harness him on offense which allows them to dictate play. Not only from a strategic standpoint, but Minny can rest on defense knowing they don't have to chase him all over the floor, and then have to recover after chasing him to guard his teammates who're left open (which affects how much energy they have on offense).

Minny can do what they want, when they want, because there's no consequences for them at the other end. They've essentially had two series' where they've played significantly handicapped teams - Lakers had no frontcourt and the Warriors don't have one.

Julius wouldn't be doing shyt if Steph was playing. The only player that would have a chance at shifting the tide would be Ant.

We saw what happened in the first half of Game 1 when Minny was knee deep in the shyt and nobody looked comfortable on offense.

It has everything to do with Steph not being on the floor.

If he was playing, GS would be dominating/controlling the games more often than not, and that would mean less time and opportunities for Minny to enforce their will on the contest. Minny has had the luxury in these last two games to make mistakes on offense because when they do inevitably go on runs, GS has little to no chance to match them.

These low-scoring, low-efficiency games are the perfect disguise for someone like Julius to hide the fact he relies on getting away with excessive contact (push-offs, dropping his shoulder and pushing through his defender etc) to generate offense because he has minimal skill and game awareness. It's why the officials are letting him get away with a whole lot of shyt because that's been the nature of how these games have unfolded.

If he puts up a wild shot or throws an errant pass, it doesn't really matter, because GS can't come down the other end of the floor and take advantage of it.

All he's been doing in this series is recklessly driving into the lane, and when he has no option to get a shot off, he throws the ball out for one of his teammates to bail him out.

That's been his game since he came into the league. And it hasn't changed.

Just have a look in the brief period that Steph played in Game 1 and you'll see how much it would affect him (and the team). Because he nor the T'Wolves were punishing shyt when Steph was on the floor.

In fact, I think a good example of this would be -

Even though Sengun had a decent showing for large parts of the 1st round, if the Rockets played the Warriors (without Steph), he probably would average 30 on them. He would dominate from start to finish. The likes of Jalen Green would probably end up having a respectable series too. Houston would be controlling that series where they'd all be able to perform well, consistently.

 

[Trav]

It's almost ova







No mo' flurries soon

 

[Jplaya2023]

With a healthy steph its atleast 2-2 warriors would have won game 3 and the twokves srill win last night because they finally made shots

 

[ManBearPig]

With a healthy steph its atleast 2-2 warriors would have won game 3 and the twokves srill win last night because they finally made shots

To me the Warriors would have been up 3-1 if Curry was out there

 

[Don Homer]

Anyone with sense could see this. Last 2 games, we’ve had the worst offensive rating of all the playoff teams. I wonder what changed

 

[NotAHotep]

Paying 60 million for a guy who puts up 9 shots.

 

[MVike28]

Paying 60 million for a guy who puts up 9 shots.

Didn’t watch second half but how in the hell did he end up with that?

 

[Joe Sixpack]

Where's @CHICAGO

Why is he ducking me?



Playoff Jimmy followed up that 14 point game with takin 9 shots last night

"Bu Bu Bu Bu Jimmy is a superstar!!"

 

[Joe Sixpack]

Playoff Jimmy!!!

 

[Joe Sixpack]

 

[aceboon]

Is Podmond gonna play with some pride tonight

 

[bl2k8]

Jimmy better put up at least 20 shots tonight

 

[Trojan 24]

Julius sabotaging early, watch out