if it wasny for green and bradley getting injured, boston would have plenty of wings to throw at lebron and wade, but I'm going to say that bostons offense is better than indianas, sorry indy fans, to many isos to be good.

of the four teams remaining, I'm confident that boston has the best defense, and has the second and third best defenders still active.

I'm not saying boston wins, but there's a reason these games will be played.

x2fst

1272 Posts

May 27 2012 12:00 GMT

#2882

On May 27 2012 12:49 Holcan wrote:
I'm not sure if you are aware that rondo shot the highest percentage on the left(right*) side of the court from the free throw line back to the three point line, but he did in this years regular season. he hits his shots from that range, its just become rhetoric that rondo had no mid range game, he does have a solid jumper. is it the best on his team? nope, that's why you see him forcing a garnett post play until they leave him wide open.

[image loading]

He misses the 3-15 foot shots because they are often blocked, or just a floater, which he isnt skilled at, thats a completely different problem than not being able to shoot, he can shoot, he just cant finish in the paint like Westbrook, Wade or Rose :p.

it's a bit misleading since rondo is left wide open and invited to shoot that shot. these locations are really small too, rondo probably shot a statistically pretty weak sample of shots from here, as did almost everyone listed. hoopdata's stats are more useful, where rondo shot 39% on 2s from 16ft+, and 27% from 10-15ft, where he was too close to be left wide open

and he's clearly a good finisher inside, his stats here are actually on decent volume and he's in the same ballpark to rose/rwb over time (these shooting stats are notoriously prone to variance). he'd most likely be even better if he could shoot fts better, less foul avoiding adjustments etc

http://www.hoopdata.com/player.aspx?name=Rajon Rondo

Tyree

1508 Posts

May 27 2012 14:44 GMT

#2883

Without Bosh, KG can reign and make it easy for himself. The whole experience vs athleticism thing is annoying, as there is evidence that neither prevails all the time. Last year it was "LOLMavs" that were going to get swept by the Heat in the finals, yet looked what happened.

Heat are favorites but that is as long as Wade and LeBron are carrying the load, if one of them starts having off games, then the Cs will murk them.

MassHysteria

United States3678 Posts

May 27 2012 14:57 GMT

#2884

Idk, even still, Boston does have 1/4 of the spots on that chart (of the spots that actually mean more -not counting Cunningham's spot-).

And..."(Spurs) have outscored opponents by about 15 points per 100 possessions in the last 30 games. The 1995-96 Bulls, the winningest team in league history, outscored opponents by 13.6 points per 100 possessions, the largest recorded margin." ( http://nba-point-forward.si.com/2012/05/25/spurs-thunder/#?sct=nba_t12_a0 )

woahh.

Chunhyang

Bangladesh1389 Posts

May 27 2012 15:28 GMT

#2885

On May 27 2012 23:44 Tyree wrote:
Without Bosh, KG can reign and make it easy for himself. The whole experience vs athleticism thing is annoying, as there is evidence that neither prevails all the time. Last year it was "LOLMavs" that were going to get swept by the Heat in the finals, yet looked what happened.

Heat are favorites but that is as long as Wade and LeBron are carrying the load, if one of them starts having off games, then the Cs will murk them.

I do think Miami is far better at defending the entry pass though. Less Garnett, less chance that he goes nuts on them.I totally can see Ray Allen finding his game against them though. 3 point defense, not that good.

Jerubaal

United States7684 Posts

May 27 2012 17:48 GMT

#2886

I think the crux of our disagreement is that you seem to think that if the defense is playing off of Rondo and zoning or giving help, there is something better he can do than shoot the ball. I'm arguing that it is often the case that the best thing he can do is to shoot the ball, and in this past series he was often left open, was unwilling to shoot and did not make some other magical play.

a176

Canada6688 Posts

May 27 2012 17:52 GMT

#2887

lets not forget rayray isnt exactly shooting at his best ...

Holcan

Canada2593 Posts

May 27 2012 21:47 GMT

#2888

There always is something Boston can do, their offense is like 5 possible plays until Rondo pulls the trigger on one, I'm fine with option 5 as often as options 1-4 arent looking at better shots. You can't say something like "Rondo needs to shoot when someone sags" thats what Rose or Westbrook would (and should) do, but Rondo is playing with 4 other players whom can create space for their shots within seconds after Rondo takes a random shot, that puts his whole team out of offensive sync, thats not fair to Ray and Paul's old asses running of screens constantly either. They can't control how to get the ball, they need Rondo to have wide eyes, and smarts to get them in shooting motion.

And Garnetts post play is obviously superior to Rondo's jump shot, so why don't you feed him every possible possession? Your problem is, you see Rondo's man leaving him, with confidence, and Rondo deciding on running another play, or reposting Garnett, than taking the shot that is there at 14 seconds (and will be there at 4 seconds). You watched Boston try to do the Paul to Garnett post set-up as much as possible in late game scenario's, even using Ray on this technique a few times, they do this because their defender must respect them more than Rondo, they were also running clock so a shot under 10 seconds was preferred, and its takes Rays hurt ass that long to deliver a solid pass to Garnett :D

floor exercise

Canada5847 Posts

May 27 2012 22:13 GMT

#2889

If Boston's Big 3 of KG, Rondo, Bass, Pierce and Allen show up they can't be counted out

MilesTeg

France1271 Posts

May 27 2012 22:19 GMT

#2890

Oooooh yeah, about as pumped as I've ever been for a game. Even though I'm back in Europe I'm considering staying up for that one (I miss Asia and the breakfast game!).

VENDIZ

1575 Posts

May 27 2012 22:55 GMT

#2891

On May 28 2012 07:19 MilesTeg wrote:
Oooooh yeah, about as pumped as I've ever been for a game. Even though I'm back in Europe I'm considering staying up for that one (I miss Asia and the breakfast game!).

Haha, my sleeping pattern during the NBA season is completely messed up because I stay up for the Bulls games (often starts at 02:00CET), and often there's a nice Western matchup starting right after.. life as a european is hard