taurean prince whispering in jordan mclaughlin's ear
three medium lights from the worst basketball game of the year
i had the misfortune of watching the heinous play-in game between the los angeles lakers and minnesota timberwolves last night.
if you missed it, here's the wolves' shot chart in the 4th quarter:
but here on medium lights we find and focus on the nice hidden gems. three plays from last night that i thought were cool:
1. taurean prince's whisper
prince tells mclaughlin to set the screen on lebron james to get himself a wide open corner 3.
2. rui hachimura's cut
bron drew the help defense and dennis schroder hit the shot, but it was rui's cut that took mike conley (schroder's original defender) into the paint that freed up the open 3.
a lot of guys would've just stood there, spaced out, and ball-watched. nice job of still playing fundamental basketball in the moment.
3. mike conley's free throws
he had to make all three free throws with the game on the line, and got it done. math tells us anyone who shoots above 79.5% from the line is good in that situation, but honestly how many guys in the league would you trust there? 50? less?
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random thoughts:
the wolves put up this amazing website campaigning for votes to get jaden mcdaniels on the all-defensive first team (which he deserves): https://www.nba.com/timberwolves/badnight
i still love markelle fultz's game. it gives me the same tingle, albeit smaller, as when i watch shai gilgeous-alexander. he's a big guard with a subtly-funky offensive game. his shiftiness, body control, vision, and footwork are all fantastic. he's tremendously skilled in the midrange area (47% from 15 feet on high volume). and he gets after it on defense. my best player comparison: he's this era's shaun livingston.
i read one of the best lines the other day from a stranger on the internet: "paul george has a poet's game." and it's true. sometimes i feel like his bag is too deep for his own good - he can literally do anything and everything on the court (and do it well) any given moment, so it's almost like he occasionally goes through decision paralysis and/or overdoes it when doing something much simpler would've probably been more effective. but when it's clicking, his game is absolutely beautiful.
jarrett allen challenges every single opposing dunk attempt when he can. i think that's worthy of praise.
i'm not sold on the denver nuggets. nikola jokic is amazing of course, but i'm very dubious about their ability to defend as a team. their point-of-attack defense is terrible, and jokic doesn't affect shots at the rim. jamal murray should be be targeted on every single possession in the playoffs. their only chance is to hope for misses and outscore opponents; i don't think that's a sustainable way to win four playoff rounds in a row.
the nba's new take-foul penalty actually worked! i don't have the numbers on it, but anecdotally fast breaks are back and game flow is much better this season.
tyrese maxey shot 29% from 3 in his one season at kentucky and 30% his rookie year in the nba. he's now on the trajectory to becoming literally one of the greatest shooters in nba history. over the last 2 years, he's shooting 39.7% on 297 pull-up 3s and 45.3% on 373 catch-and-shoot 3s. wild.
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I'm not sure I would say someone having a just above 50% chance of making all 3 (assuming free throws are independent events) would make me feel comfortable...