NBA 2024-25 Season Thread

trying to figure out *why* the mavs were better late in the season + playoffs, and they traded for pj washington, who has been meh. he looks ok, a guy you can throw out there. he's been hitting 3s in the playoffs anyway, and playing ok defense. but they also traded for gafford, an alleyoop machine who plays solid defense.

they flashed a graphic during the game the other day showing the mavs have more alleyoops in the playoffs than anyone in like 20 years or whatever, do the celtics have a plan for that with or without krispy zinger? i guess playing better defense on luka/kyrie with jrue/white/tatum/brown/whoever so the bigs stay home on gafford. they should be pretty effective, but it'll be interesting to see how it plays out

Almost certainly not, but I also expect the Celtics to play better than they did against Indiana.

Indy had the 5th worst regular season defense in the league.

Dallas was 21st overall but 9th after they made the trades.

That said, Dallas D has looked good against OKC and MIN and both those teams depth has seemingly evaporated to the point that they only have one on ball creator to deal with. The Clippers kinda carved them up for the first 4 games and got tons of open 3s. Boston has way better options than anyone Dallas has played.

If anything, line should be higher

Dallas and Boston played 2 times this year, and Dallas had Kyrie and Luka for all 3 games

Boston -2.5 @ Dallas
Boston -9.5 v Dallas

(Boston won by 9 and by 28)

That implies that during the regular season, Boston was 5-6 points better than Dallas

Dallas was 34-26 in their last meeting and finished the season on a 16-4 run. At the start of the playoffs though, my best approximation of Vegas lines had Boston +11.5 and Dallas +6.5. Dallas was rated 2 points worse than the Clippers and beat them mostly without Kawhi, then they were rated even with OKC and beat them in 6 (overcoming HCA) and were rated about 0.5 points worse than Minn plus HCA and are up 3-0 on them.

Boston's rating likely hasn't changed much since their last game against Dallas. They cruised through the rest of the reg season and have cruised through the playoffs going 12-2 against woefully outmatched and injured competition. Having Porzingis out hurts a bit. Although Vegas was also clearly pricing in some Luka injury to the Minn series as well.

If Dallas has closed it to a 3.5 point deficit, that's 50% (pk) at home and 30% (+7) on the road, which would get you to about 73.5% for Boston with HCA

A 3 point deficit is 51% at home and 32% on the road, which would be about 70%

To get to the no juice line of ~67%, you need to shrink it to a 2 point deficit, where they're 52% (-1.5) at home and 35% (+5.5) on the road

That said, I am annoyed, because I was hoping the line would be closer to 72% and then I too was going to bet even more on Dallas

It's spelled "wins"

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Whine

one thing I will say as good as Dallas defense has been, they've found a lot of hiding spots and ways to shrink the floor against these West teams

Celts have a true 5 man offense with KP...No Mann, Westbrook, Giddey, Dort, Chet, McDaniels, Gobert types that make it easier for Luka and Kyrie to hide

PJ Wash, DJJ, Gaff are really good defenders but the limitations of some of these teams has made them look a bit better than they are

The best backcourt in NBA history is Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars. Just saying.

the number of points wolves have wasted at end of quarters ****ing up 2 for 1s and what should be final possessions is unbelievable

calling mavs best backcourt ever is peak nba soap opera clickbait mainstream analysis

luka is like 6'8 250, hes not a guard

Wall and Beal

It’s 2024. Positions haven’t mattered for over 5 years.

Get with the times!

Very clearly a “backcourt” player when they start Irving/Doncic/Jones/Washington/Gafford

KAT got blocked like he was Spud Webb.

Timberwolves in 7

Maybe they shouldn't foul Doncic behind the 3-point line?

I got a +1040 on the TWolves to win the series. Feeling good about it

main takeaway from that game is adjustment to put mcdaniels on kyrie and make it harder on him

he wasnt doing anything vs luka anyway

I see Minnesota getting the next one and making it at least a little interesting...

I just don’t understand why Inside still does on-location WCF if they are unable to control loser fans hanging around to scream at the camera

If anyone can blow a 3-0 lead, it’s Jason Kidd.

The crowds do this every year and it’s still annoying even if they’re saying something I agree with. Both need to go. (Or get more security empowered to throw people out)