As the Lakers/Grizzlies shifts to Los Angeles, the next two games assuming Ja Morant comes back will be interesting. When Morant wasn’t playing in game 2, the offensive gameplan seemed a bit more intentional. Tillman succeeded the way he did primarily because of the attention Luke, Bane, and Jones would get off handoffs. Tillman took advantage of the space and small slip-ups. Their secondary guys succeeded against a half-court Laker defense without Morant. JJJ was nowhere near foul trouble and they came out on top in rebounding by a smidge. If they can replicate those efforts on the road, I’d favor the Grizzlies.
On the Lakers side, their non AD minutes have been very bad, and LeBron looks gassed already and is clearly playing through injury. Their role-players are still good, but not exceptional. They went at Kennard as much as possible, but the game never fell out of reach. Their roleplayers so far just seem to come and go.
Expect Jenkins to make a concentrated effort to get AD out of the paint by any means; his defensive presence is really the only thing stopping the Grizzlies from absolutely tearing apart the opposition. Maybe more JJJ at the five? Dillon did a decent job defending AD in spots as well. Perhaps once Morant comes back, they can roll out high screen and roll with Morant and AD’s man. LeBron can still man the paint by himself sometimes, but he’s 38. Rather challenge LeBron and Vanderbilt than AD at this point. We’ll see how both teams adjust in game 3. Also, Dillon Brooks is bold as hell.
Suns/Clippers is all about math now. Suns are doubling down on their pull-up twos, and that’s the most striking difference between game 1 and 2. When the starters are making twos, they’ll win. When Clippers are making threes and/or getting to the line, they win. The Suns lack of depth is apparent, so they no longer look like contenders to me. They’re going into this with house money at this point, but this series without PG is still winnable.
If the Suns can adjust to the physicality and find a doubling scheme for Kawhi, they should be fine. Kawhi looks to be the best player in the series thus far, but we’ll see how the workload affects his efficiency as the series goes on. Suns don’t have a clear edge in anything outside of midrange efficiency. It’s weird to see that as a winning formula for a series, so there is a chance the Suns go down here.
I liked the adjustment for the Cavaliers in Game 2. More minutes for Levert at the 3 and a more aggressive Garland. Double Brunson with their centers and force them to make reads or finish. It seems they dislike their forward rotation so much that we even had a Danny Green sighting.
As the series shifts to New York, I’m not sure what kind of adjustments we can expect to see from Thibs, but I would find a way to test Green/Levert’s defense. Either Brunson screens with their man or you take your chances with your other guards. Keep the pressure on making them plug that leak. On the Cavaliers’ end, they might want to find other ways to cover Brunson especially if Randle gets more comfortable.
On the Lakers side, their non AD minutes have been very bad, and LeBron looks gassed already and is clearly playing through injury. Their role-players are still good, but not exceptional. They went at Kennard as much as possible, but the game never fell out of reach. Their roleplayers so far just seem to come and go.
Expect Jenkins to make a concentrated effort to get AD out of the paint by any means; his defensive presence is really the only thing stopping the Grizzlies from absolutely tearing apart the opposition. Maybe more JJJ at the five? Dillon did a decent job defending AD in spots as well. Perhaps once Morant comes back, they can roll out high screen and roll with Morant and AD’s man. LeBron can still man the paint by himself sometimes, but he’s 38. Rather challenge LeBron and Vanderbilt than AD at this point. We’ll see how both teams adjust in game 3. Also, Dillon Brooks is bold as hell.
Suns/Clippers is all about math now. Suns are doubling down on their pull-up twos, and that’s the most striking difference between game 1 and 2. When the starters are making twos, they’ll win. When Clippers are making threes and/or getting to the line, they win. The Suns lack of depth is apparent, so they no longer look like contenders to me. They’re going into this with house money at this point, but this series without PG is still winnable.
If the Suns can adjust to the physicality and find a doubling scheme for Kawhi, they should be fine. Kawhi looks to be the best player in the series thus far, but we’ll see how the workload affects his efficiency as the series goes on. Suns don’t have a clear edge in anything outside of midrange efficiency. It’s weird to see that as a winning formula for a series, so there is a chance the Suns go down here.
I liked the adjustment for the Cavaliers in Game 2. More minutes for Levert at the 3 and a more aggressive Garland. Double Brunson with their centers and force them to make reads or finish. It seems they dislike their forward rotation so much that we even had a Danny Green sighting.
As the series shifts to New York, I’m not sure what kind of adjustments we can expect to see from Thibs, but I would find a way to test Green/Levert’s defense. Either Brunson screens with their man or you take your chances with your other guards. Keep the pressure on making them plug that leak. On the Cavaliers’ end, they might want to find other ways to cover Brunson especially if Randle gets more comfortable.
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