2019 NBA Finals Game Two Thread

The Canadian cliches seemed to work last time. I think we can take all the credit for Toronto’s game one win over Golden State.

So let’s do some more Canadian cliches, to help our neighbors to the north win another game over the Warriors. Because that’s southern hospitality, right there.

Let’s see, health care! Definitely health care.

If you’ve ever backpacked around the world, those little maple leaf patches on packs, stickers on luggage and prominent tattoos on Canadian foreheads.

Yes, the charming sentiment of “Sorry! Don’t mistake me for an American! I’m not, even if YOU can’t tell, I definitely can. Because healthcare. If you’ve looking for a random, hapless, American to kill to make some sort of political point, it won’t help! I’m Canadian. No one will care!”

So a little bit on basketball, maybe? Why not.

The Raptors have such a diverse squad in terms of what they can do. The Rockets got killed by Draymond Green being able to both control Clint Capela, for whatever reason, and also, seemingly, help all over the court. He could bolster Steph Curry’s “Slap and Fall” defense, and make traps with Klay Thompson especially deadly.

I believe he could do this because he was able to position himself perfectly, knowing that he simply didn’t have to defend certain areas, because the Rockets simply wouldn’t operate in the mid-range.

I believe NBA offense is a matter of controlling and attacking space. I have said for a while that no matter how high the value of a specific shot, its value must fall if the other side can defend it perfectly. Ceeding ¹⁄₃ of the offensive space allows for a great defensive team to focus on only ²⁄₃ of the floor. You’ve given away control of ¹⁄₃ of the space, and the defense can gear to only defend 2/3.

It’s a testament to just how correct (in most respects) the Rockets approach is that they enjoy the success that they do. It also appars that the team can’t just spot a great defense ¹⁄₃ of the floor. We have ample evidence of this as I see it. I also have some concerns that the Rockets offense is now largely a product of individual brilliance, and there’s no real way to scrounge up points outside of such individual efforts. To me the perfect balance is to have a system that optimizes lesser players while still allowing a great player to display unique abilities.

The failure this season, of say, Boston, seems to be because the system they use, while good, is meant to make a team like, say, Butler, competitive with a team full of first round picks, like, say, Duke. In the NBA that sort of plan tends to squelch the individual brilliance of the extreme outliers who populate the Association. It’s why, to me, their team last season was more successful with young players operating in the system and faltered when it because clear that their roster had established and emerging talents that needed to operate to maximize their own games.

It’s a difficult problem, but the point was to highlight what seem to be extremes - the Rockets increasingly pure ISO approach and its failures, and Boston’s system approach, and it’s own shortcomings.

Where is the sweet spot?

Anyhow, go Raptors! Sooorry, but could you please avenge our deaths?