[NBA Playoffs] First round games open thread
- Thread starter Capt. Factorial
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IIRC, the sequence of events was something like:
- Pierce hit the game winner against Toronto in Game 1 last year, shouted "That's why they brought me here!"
- Had the (questionable) game-winning block against Toronto in Game 7, that eliminated Toronto.
- Prior to this year's playoffs, he said something to the effect of, "Nobody's afraid of Toronto; they don't have the 'it' that you need."
this is why i'm not ready to crown anthony davis as the league's best big man. twice at the end of the second quarter the pelicans needed buckets to stay in the game. the warriors took away everything easy, so the pels tried to post up davis on back to back possessions, and twice he had no chance at all. he's an incredible talent, and an undeniable superstar, but it remains to be seen if he can function as a go-to player when his team needs him to be, particularly in the playoffs when defenses tighten up considerably...
their defense is outstanding, per the usual. but that's my point. in the larger conversation of who the best big man in the league is, i'm gonna evaluate assertiveness and dominance into the equation. demarcus cousins gets more than four free throws in that first half, for example, because he's gonna lay into the defense. bogut gives big cuz fits, too, but he'll rarely be rendered passive or entirely ineffectual...
fair enough, but sometimes davis completely disappears from games. for all his efficiencies, sometimes his impact isn't felt as strongly as it should be for a "best big in the nba"-caliber talent. i imagine that will change as he continues to evolve, but i'm not yet ready to elevate him beyond my eye test, no matter how dazzling his stats may be. we'll see how he responds in game 2, because the pels looked spooked in this one...
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