( ( ( ( ( nba bubble ball 2020 ) ) ) ) )

hot take: pop’s former assistants are his failsons (bud, brett brown, mike brown, jacque vaughn, boylen)

it's uncanny how similar it is to all the belichick assistants that have flamed out

i knew harden would have a good playoff game eventually if we gave him enough tries

Worst 4th Quarter Points Differentials In Playoff History:

2020 Bucks vs. Heat ...... -27
1986 Spurs vs. Lakers ... -26
2015 Clips vs. Rockets ... -25
2003 Mavs vs. Spurs ..... -25
2002 Nets vs. Celtics ... -25

h/t @EliasSports

— Kirk Goldsberry (@kirkgoldsberry) September 5, 2020

he said worst but he meant biggest

that stat is completely shocking

Wow lebron!

that was fucking crazy

lebron james

the extra craziest thing about the bucks stuff is that the heat have been playing giannis this way for like 3 years and have frequently frustrated him. it's just a huge contrast watching the heat squeeze offense out of creativity and scouting while the bucks are playing as if they have never heard of the concept of preparation.

couple years back casey got fired from toronto like a week after winning coach of the year xp

This also happened to George Karl with the Nuggets in 2013. They won 57 games but were just 3rd in the west.

between the heat, celtics, and raptors the remaining east teams are probably some of the best coaching/preparation teams ever given that coaching/preparation has gotten better over time.

subtle but nice

Beard on the break 😤 pic.twitter.com/0S85Yw1h2a

— ESPN (@espn) September 5, 2020

lol russ needs to learn how to do that

what was bron thinkin about here

Hakeem must be so pissed right now pic.twitter.com/N5z84T5dE9

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) September 5, 2020

i get why harden drives everyone nuts but that subtle hesitation on the break is something that no one else even thinks to do

he is a scientist of the basketball arts

Might be Kuzma's worst game in the bubble: -21 in 21 minutes, four fouls, has had a tough time containing the Rockets guards in space, done little offensively.

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 5, 2020

*vomiting emoji*

oof

kuz is not good

“frank vogel looking for some scoring...” as waiters clangs a mid range jumper off the rim with 4:30 left in a playoff game... not the greatest omen for the lakers

houston winning this series would be genuinely funny i support it

a friend said that to me too but i think ultimately i want to see the lebron vs kawhi showdown

james harden loves him some game 1s, we'll see where this goes.

yeah that's where i circle back to w/ this series. if lebron is playing in a game 6 or game 7 he's putting up 35-15-15. if harden is playing in one he's shooting 2-13 from the field w/ 11 points

Lakers never looked into it

Everything starts with their defense and rebounding

lakers played at 75% speed the whole game

dont think ive cheered for a rockets team since... 95?

yeah i'm having a tough time with this one, heart would prefer both teams implode

rockets have the weird ability to make any game bad

Lakers have looked so bad all bubble, I think the rockets take this. Think the thunder had a shot too

xp its so impressive, really feel like they deserve the chip for it

The Bucks have made many, many, many questionable decisions in this series, but I *really* don't get why they aren't ducking under every Jimmy Butler PnR.

Butler shot 30.5 percent (!!!) on jumpers out of PnR during the regular season via Synergy.

🗣️ SOUND ON pic.twitter.com/nggOmsJ9Qm

— Karens In Paris (@NekiasNBA) September 5, 2020

not great coach bud

*2 point game*

[insert Rondo] pic.twitter.com/udBSoTwiRB

— pickuphoop (@pickuphoop) September 5, 2020

Rondo running around trying to look like he’s doing something smh

not gonna get it done!

Boston shot 7/35 (20%) tonight. This was the 7th time in NBA history a playoff team shot 20% or less on 35+ attempts. They've all come in the past 4 years and Boston now has 3 of them.

— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) September 6, 2020

i mean yeah

Jaylen Brown: "I'm a good shooter. I just got to make them."

— Boston.com Celtics News (@BDCCeltics) September 6, 2020

Raptors bandwagon up and running.

defending champs, y'know

It felt like one of those games (applicable to all sports) where Toronto was unable to put them away for much of the last quarter and were destined to lose.

nuggets up 19 after the first quarter, just as I expected

Nuggets looking sharp

dankver nuggs

Hey the 3rd seed in the West is pretty good

I believe it was Shaq tonight who said something to the effect of "Denver has two teams, the one that shows up and the one that doesn't"

tonight was like night and day as compared to game 1

if they get that garry harris a few more times this series that could be the difference. i still dont know what the nuggets best 5 lineup is but having grant and harris in together when kawhi and pg are in seems good.

the nuggets lost 3 of the 4 quarters but still won the game, which disproves my quarter theory

there should be a final tally where points are awarded for "winning the most quarters" like mario party

games should be comprised of one 48 minute quarter (divided into 4 sixteenths)