The Official Dwayne Wade <<<<<< you thread

Disagree Dani, its not just the blocks.

He just forces them to take bad shots and as Kenny Smith said at half time he makes them second guess themselves leading to bad decisions.

Another thing is his activity inspires those around him to play better D, Westbrook for example i think fed off the energy.

Although it wasn't just Ibaka, starting Reggie Jackson and giving Lamb more minutes were key also.

Well that is not showing up at all. As I said, Spurs shot the same % at the rim when he was in and when he wasnt.

They missed some open jumpers, thats about it.

The Franchise wrote:Wade playing well, no question about that BB. However, lets chill a little..we havent got to the part of the series where he has to play 2 games in 3 days..

Games 1 and 2 were separated by only 1 game..

Yeah but that was the start of a series after the Heat being off for like 10 days?

Just saying, lets wait and see.

The Franchise wrote:Well that is not showing up at all. As I said, Spurs shot the same % at the rim when he was in and when he wasnt.

They missed some open jumpers, thats about it.

That's in no way a coincidence IMO and the only reason Spurs were still in it at half time was because Manu went off from 3 if that doesn't happen you are looking at close to 20 point lead at half time easy.

The shots they were getting in games 1 and 2 weren't happening because of Ibaka's presence forcing them to make bad shots and his attitude on D rubbing off on his team mates.

IDK what their actual FG% at the rim was but Ibaka definitely changed their shots inside. And the thing with the Collison made FGs comparison is that they play much different minutes meaning Collison doesn't have to worry about foul trouble or stamina. He can be aggressive every time, he doesn't have to give up a single easy basket. With that said the 3-4% difference is pretty big.

1st set is Ibaka as the primary defender, second is the rest of their posts
PPG 7.0 11.1
FG pct 25.0 50.7
Pts/play 0.50 1.13

Overall contested FG%:
game 1: 63%
game 2: 55%
game 3: 45%

They guarded the perimeter much better overall as well, which also could be an effect of having Ibaka as a safety net.

For me Mole, those numbers are pretty meaningless without context.

First of all, points in the paint. They scored less points overall than in the other games, they didnt win. They scored less points outside the paint...if I said Reggie Jackson instead of Sefolosha was the reason for this, that would without context.

The FG% only proves my point I feel. They missed open shots, outside the paint. Because inside it, they shot similar %.

Ibaka helped on the boards, no argument there. Teams always get more FT's at home. Doesnt mean anything related to Ibaka imo.

I can shot many examples of Ibaka (understandably) having no effect at the rim. He got dunked on by Leonard, and there was 2 Duncan drives and another Leonard one he didnt even leave the ground on. I dont understand why Barkely says he changed so many shots at the rim...because again, they made the same % in him in the game. So whatever shots he supposedly changed, still went in.


For the record, they shot 50% exactly at the rim with and without Ibaka. No doubt, he is better than Collision (who didnt play), wouldnt argue otherwise. Just feel like his play on offence and his overall emotional boost was a much bigger tangible thing than his defence..which was obviously good, but wasnt why the Spurs lost or even really failed to score at the previous clip.

They best thing Ibaka did on defence for me was the screen and roll hedging, he can hold on to Parker longer which means others can recover.

I wasn't really arguing the FTs tbh, just so happens it was part of the graphic i wanted to show to give my side of the argument.

Anyway ignoring the numbers, just going off what i saw it just seemed no where near as easy to get to the rim.... everytime Parker got to the rim he was second guessing himself and doesn't seem as confident same goes for Duncan really.

They know Ibaka is there so as Kenny said they have to look for him.... that doesn't happen with Collison more than anything Ibaka has a mental impact on the Spurs than a physical one and he forces them to take tougher shots.... to the point where they don't go to the rim as much and start looking for outside shots.

I saw the same in game 1 between Pacers and Heat, while the Heat could get to the paint the shots were so tough and contested that they ended up settling for jumpers.... same happened here for me.

I do agree however and said as much already that the emotional boost was a massive impact as they entire group on the floor played much better defense because of it.

Fair enough. I felt like Kenny was waffling and taking Pop's words out of context. He was repeating Pop saying "look for Ibaka" as a sign that they were aware of his presence..when I felt he was saying that because Ibaka always comes for everything so you have to draw him in and then kick it to the open guy.

But anyways, fair enough. There is no stat which shows hesitation and second guessing yourselves so your correct.

I'm just saying that because i don't want to seem like im copying him and pretend like im not lol.

There's really no stats for it as you say, but while watching the game they did seem more hesistant.... although i didn't think about it before was the screening and roll hedging you mentioned and holding onto Parker for longer....

That could have had an impact on perceived hesitation as it would more physically draining to fight through the screens with Ibaka there so there is less space to work with when he's in the paint.

From the stats I see Ibaka is giving up 50% at the rim, up from 44 during the regular season.

Also another thing is Ibaka plays most of his minutes with Perkins next to him(56% at the rim in the playoffs) or by himself at the 5 in their small lineup. He doesn't have the size, but regardless I don't think he's a true rim protector like Hibbert or w/e, more of a intimidator(second guesser is probably more appropriate).

Most prolific shot blockers tend to give up a fair percentage more than their counterparts simply cause they are trying to block everything instead of playing straight up D. Ant Davis 49% & Jordan 49.4% are good examples.

I'd agree with that. But Hibbert aside, who do we consider actual rim protectors compared to guys who just go for everything.

I'd like to think Noah falls on the Rim protector side of things. Likewise, Tim Duncan..Bogut maybe?

All 3 of those guys imo. Maybe Howard and that's pretty much it

Robin Lopez had a great year defensively but I'd need to see another year of that before he's up there with the other 4

@ESPN_Numbers: Most playoff games with 25 Pts, 5 Reb, 5 Ast: (NBA History)

LeBron: 74 games
Michael Jordan: 73

Stephenson with 9 pts, first FG was in the 4th quarter in garbage time

Who was the last team that got to 4 NBA finals? Can't remember anyone recently (90's and 00s)

Lakers. 3 peat and then Malone and Payton came, they went to the finals and got hammered by the Pistons.





More info regarding the Spurs-OKC game btw.

Spurs had 42(!!) uncontested field goal attempts in game 3. They made just 14 of them. The last time Tony Parker had a playoff game this bad (9pts, 30.8%fg, 4ast, 4tos) was 10 years ago against the Lakers when he was 21 years old.

Nope it was Bird's celtics 84-87.. Spurs won in 2003 after the Lakers three-peat, the Lakers came back the next year with Malone and Payton

Oh wow, time plays tricks on you. Your right.

Payton and Malone were brought in BECAUSE the Spurs won.

Still think they would of won that if Malone didnt get hurt.

Lebron James has surpassed Michael Jordan in playoff games with the stat line of at least 25-5-5. Witness.

I watched a bit of the post game pressers on ESPN. Paul George was insisting that they outplayed the Heat "I'm looking at the stats right here and we outplayed them." Breh, you were down 20 in the 4th quarter, game wasn't even close

The delusion. George has been the biggest disappointment of all on this team. I never heard of him before he was drafted and therefore never expected him to become something...but its clear he has the talent for it, but he isnt right now.

McAgger wrote:Who was the last team that got to 4 NBA finals? Can't remember anyone recently (90's and 00s)

Did some stat searching and it looks like it's only been done 2 TIMES in all of NBA history outside of that unmatching Boston rape of 10 consecutive finals. 2 *bleep* times

Lakers 82-85
Celtics 84-87

This Heat side's about to go down in history ffs.

OKC

Gotta give credit to Scott Brooks, he's actually made adjustments the last couple games. Adams played more minutes than Perkins, and Lamb played 19 mins to Fishers 9.

dmize wrote:I watched a bit of the post game pressers on ESPN. Paul George was insisting that they outplayed the Heat "I'm looking at the stats right here and we outplayed them." Breh, you were down 20 in the 4th quarter, game wasn't even close

Wow.   

Cuncussion still in play imo.