how many points did the grizzlies need to win an overtime game against the spurs on the road? 94 points. It doesn't matter what shooting percentage the grizzlies shoot because the grizzlies don't win with shooting percentage anyway.
OKC has always been playing that way and doing very well, so it would not be much different in playoffs if WB was healthy. I agree Scott Brooks is a terrible coach. He didn't know how to adjust after WB went down. If POP was the coach, I am sure OKC would be more competitive.
Also, they get a lot of offensive rebounds. Last night, there was one sequence of events where the Grizzlies grabbed 6 offensive rebounds and missed 7 shots in a span of about 15 seconds. That probably killed their fg%, but regarding the big picture, what's the overall impact?
People did not say that the playoff run was bogus. What they say is that Memphis is not a contender until it has a better offense. Even after getting a little better trading away Rudy almost-on-Durant-level Gay, their offense has been mediocre all season long. No team can claim to be a contender without BOTH a top 10 defense AND a top 10 offense. OKC is #4 on defense and #1 on offense. Memphis is not in the same league at #2 and #17.
You need to win with both offense and defense at this stage of the playoffs. Yeah, you just needed 94 pts to win, but yet you didn't have enough offense to do even that. It's a big problem. Don't get me wrong, Memphis is s good team, just not good enough to be a true contender with the offense they have now. Oh, that shooting percentage does matter. A couple of more % would've won you game 2 at SA.
If you have to ask that, then you should watch more basketball. And that's why they aren't going to win a championship with that mentality.
Use some common sense and, if you're capable of it, some critical thinking. On second though, you're probably incapable of that so I'll spell it out for you. Team A has 10 possessions, misses one, and scores 18 pts on 10 FGA. 90% fg%. Team B has 10 possessions, makes its first 9 FGA, misses its 10th, misses its 11th, an offensive rebound tip attempt, misses its 12th, an offensive rebound tip attempt, misses its 13th, an offensive rebound tip attempt, misses its 14th, an offensive rebound tip attempt, and misses its 15th and final shot. Team B ended up with 18 pts on 15 FGA. 60% fg%. So regarding the big picture, what's the overall impact of all those missed tip-ins?
That's the logic Carmelo Anthony has also. Ask Knick fans to explain why his fg% is so low compared to other stars. Furthermore, that logic is too simple and not a winning formula. Ask yourself why you have to consistently get offensive rebounds to score. Great teams have go-to plays that will deliver. They do NOT depend on offensive rebounds, which aren't guaranteed. Bad offensive teams depend on that. Ultimately, Memphis is below average offensive team. They will not be legit contenders until they fix that offense.
I'll also add that since Memphis traded away Rudy Gay, they have nobody they can go to for a game-winning shot. This has hurt them twice this post-season. Once when they went to Z-Bo with a garbage iso to try to win a game in regulation against OKC. The second time was last night when Bayless just jacked up a 3 in ot to try and tie it. Perimeter playmaking and the ability to make tough, contested jumpers is extremely important in the playoffs, especially down the stretch, as teams clog the paint and refs are less likely to call a foul when there's contact going to the lane as they prefer to have the players decide the outcome at the end of games. The Griz have very little of both. Rudy Gay?
The way memphis rendered KD , Ibaka and just about every Thunder player was proof enough. They play GREAT perimeter defense which is why people are saying that. With Allen and Prince KD was getting suffocated to the point they made him look like a joke at times. SA has Duncan and is one of the most well balanced teams in league history. Westbrook or not, OKC wasn't going to beat Memphis.
That wasn't the point of your post, the point of your post (and made even more clear in a subsequent post) was to mock the people who said, with plenty of evidence behind it, that the Gay trade was good for Memphis. Clearly you disdain the statistician's point of view, so I won't bring oRtg and dRtg into this, but the Grizzlies never made it out of the first round with Rudy Gay, had a much higher winning percentage after the Gay trade than before, and are now at a point they've never been before, again without Rudy Gay. Whatever the heck Memphis needs, Rudy Gay was not providing it. Memphis did not need a player who specialized in ball-stopping isolations, taking contested inefficient shots, not playing defense, and not distributing the ball.
Memphis' offense is better without Rudy Gay. They still desperately need perimeter long range shooting. Just off the ball shooting. Someone like JJ Reddick.
while i don't agree or disagree with the sentiment that the grizzlies are better with or without rudy gay, to claim PROOF of your argument by citing the fact that the grizzlies never got out of the first round with him isn't fair. That's like saying the grizzlies never made it to the conference finals without Tony Wroten. While this is technically correct, Rudy endured an entire rebuilding process once he was drafted (shane was gone) and a 1year and a half later the Pau trade happened, which rendered the grizzlies a perennial lottery team for 4 years. After that, and once the grizzlies got good Rudy got hurt. Rudy had 1 playoff series in which to PROVE he could carry a team. 1 series.
Any body else got the feeling that this series will be decided by home field advantage? In other words, each team wins all its home games.
Umm...losing a top 5 player makes everyone else elevate their games to replace that top-5 player production. KD did that for 5 games (including Houston) before tailing off. Ibaka and other Thunder players aren't all-stars. So again, let me repeat: losing a player who gets you 23 points, 7-8 dimes, 5-6 boards, and always pushes the pace (whereas Memphis slows down the pace) and you expect the same result? It's like the Bulls losing a healthy Derrick Rose (same type of player) and you expect the Bulls to do the same? Ridiculous.
No, it will be over in 6, if even. The Spurs' big 3 haven't even played well and shot horribly. Tony Parker will get better with this long rest between games. So you would expect the Spurs' best players to put up better performances. Duncan has sucked offensively along with Manu. And Parker needs more rest. I'm sure Memphis will play better offensively to the tune of shooting in the low 40s compared to the mid-30%s. But the Spurs will steal a game in Memphis.
I understand that, but he hates Morey and disdains "Moneyball" so the real evidence (post-trade, dRtg and oRtg improved for the Grizzlies, in particular oRtg significantly) is not something that he would accept. So I gave him "traditional evidence" instead.
