Did elephants fly?

The Sixers may not be as deadly as they thought they would be with Harden

It is too early to decide the fate of the experiment with Ambide and Arden, but even now one can see both the potential and the problems.

And also: Phoenix is ​​not getting enough respect, Golden State from France is a new member of the Splash gang, and what's the scenario that could save the Nets' weird season?

Ravitz with 5 points ahead of the playoffs

Assaf Ravitz

21/03/2022

Monday, March 21, 2022, 3:30 p.m.

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Danny Abdia speaks after the season record against Denver (the Wizards' official website in Hebrew)

The Philadelphia roller coaster

Joel Ambide and James Harden do not have much time to get to know each other until the playoffs, and already after 11 games together the combination between them looks like a roller coaster.

In the first games it looked like the scariest team in the league, later on it managed to disappoint a lot in some games (like in tonight's loss to Toronto) and return to impress in others.

There are things that the new Philadelphia is doing at the highest possible level and there are moments when it seems like a confused and problematic team.

Produced n 'Roll between Harden and Ambide seems unstoppable, because Ambide is unstoppable when he gets a ball while moving to the basket and Harden schedules these dedications perfectly.

This is not a move that can be substituted and defenses find themselves helpless in front of him.

Tyrese Maxi feels very comfortable in the third rib role, taking advantage of the spaces the two stars create to attack the ring and get good shots, over time Tobias Harris also adapts in a more secondary role.

The Sixers' defense is working well so far,

The quintet includes two senior defensive players and a lot of active hands that make it difficult for the opponent.

The top five has a net rating of 20.2 and it looks great.

The main question mark is actually Harden himself.

Amidst all the mess, it's easy to forget that the bearded man is already 32 years old and carrying an injury throughout the season.

The figure that may best indicate his condition is the shooting from a range of up to 8 feet from the basket (about 2.5 meters).

Since 2015 Harden has not dropped from 55 percent from that range, but in Brooklyn he scored at 48.4 percent, the lowest figure in the league at the time (!).

In the first few games in Philadelphia he looked like another player and scored close to the basket in excellent percentages, but maybe that has to do with the adrenaline of change and the long rest, because in the last six games he has already scored 42.4 percent from that range.

This is not a negligible statistic, but the range from which Arden throws most of the shots close to the basket, his odd floaters that over the years have come in and this year much less.

It seems that it is difficult for him to stand up for a shot while in contact as he is used to.

Ultimately, the most important question for Philadelphia right now is whether James Harden is still James Harden.

The additional questions are related to things that are currently working but not sure if they can be trusted in series against strong rivals.

For example, what will happen when rivals attack Arden and Ambid in Pick v. Roll on defense.

The first is used to making substitutions, the second is used to waiting close to the ring when the outside player fights a block, any defensive decision can turn out to be a victory for the attack.

We will have to wait and see what happens when the defenses completely ignore Matisse Thaybol and keep 5 on 4 with another high waiting close to the point.

This may be the way to deal with Harden's and Ambide's n 'roll production, and Thibull is too critical of the defense to give up.

The bench is one big question mark: Danny Green, Diandra Jordan and Paul Millsap are at a stage where it is no longer clear if they can provide effective minutes in the playoffs, but Doc Rivers has no choice but to give them those minutes.

Shake Milton does not function all year.

George Niang has looked great lately, but this is an unproven player who completely collapsed in the playoffs last year when he was in Utah.

More on Walla!

Tonight: Another disappointing loss to Philly, Boston celebrated in Denver

To the full article

Maybe it will not become as deadly as we thought?

Ambide and Harden (Photo: GettyImages, Mitchell Leff)

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Phoenix is ​​better than last year

There is almost no talk of the best team in the regular season, which is on its way to a season of about 65 wins despite suffering from several absences from senior players, including the current injury of Chris Paul.

Understandable.

Phoenix continues where it left off last season, with the same seven senior players, with the same methodical and effective method under the direction of CP3.

There's not much to say about her.

So here's something to say: Phoenix this year is a better team than last year, even significantly better.

And remember, this is a team that reached the final and was a few passers away in two or three games, and some great moments from the life of Yannis Antocompo, winning the championship.

The improvement comes mainly thanks to the improvement in the personal ability of the youngsters who make up most of the rotation, and Paul's injury allows them to stand out.

The most significant leap was made by substitute expert substitute Cameron Johnson, who for several months now looks like an upgraded player.

In the last 40 games he has scored 3.1 3-pointers per game at 46.9 percent, a combination of quantity and quality of a top three-point scorer in the league.

He is so tall that it is difficult to stop his ascent for shooting, and during this period he also expresses a new ability to create shot situations for himself.

Chin Diandra Eyton also looks like a better and more diverse player, mainly because he has expanded the range in which he is particularly effective.

Eyton is hitting 61.8 percent this year on the part of the color that is far from the basket, the highest percentage in the league among 226 players with at least 50 shots from that range.

He throws away the same amount he throws under the basket, and his favorite slot is a step below the penalty line, from where he scores a pretty amazing 67.9 percent.

For the rest of the players this is an upgrade of nuances: Devin Booker has improved his control of the game, knows when to flow with the method and when to take matters into his own hands and become an unstoppable scorer;

Michael Bridges does a little more action with the ball;

Cameron Payne is constantly learning from Paul the secrets of game management and since the CP3 injury has provided 9.5 assists on 2.2 turnovers, numbers not far from the original, and his collaboration with Eyton is excellent.

To that can be added the joining of Jabeil Maggie and Bismack at Yombo giving Monty Williams what he did not have in the playoffs: a worthy replacement center for Eighton's rest minutes.

Paul makes the life of such chins especially easy on offense.

Arun Holiday, Landry Shamett and especially Tori Craig who returned are taking care of a very deep rotation in legitimate players.

As long as Paul returns in time for the playoffs, it is impossible not to mention Phoenix at least as one of the top contenders for the title this year.

Better, scarier.

The Suns (Photo: GettyImages, Michael Reaves)

A splash trio

Steph Kerry's injury means that the trio of Steph, Clay Thompson and Raymond Green managed to play a few minutes together during the season.

Even Andre Iguodala has barely seen parquet in recent months.

But this is a quartet that really does not need more time to rub together, the quartet that has gone through the most together in the last decade.

They just need to be fit and reasonably fit in the playoffs, and that may be a less straightforward task.

Meanwhile, even at Golden State the injuries of the senior players allow the youngsters to manifest, most recently it was Jonathan Cuminga, the seventh-round top-flight athlete, who seems ready sooner than expected to contribute to a big team (what a wonderful Rockies cycle have we already said?).

But Steph's injury interrupted the league's interesting experiment the week before.

In the three games before the injury, Steve Kerr put Steph, Clay and Jordan Paul together in the top five, and actually made the Splash Brothers a trio for everything.

Paul seems to belong entirely in the role of third brother, he has joined the relentless movement and blockages to each other with and without the ball that defenses in the league do not know how to deal with even seven years after the Warriors began to make them consistent.

The transition from two to three opens up an amount of possibilities that seems endless and forces the defense to work several times harder.

In 129 minutes in common, this trio has a net rating of 32.6, one of the highest in the league of trios that played at least 100 minutes together (and there are thousands of those).

Kerr probably won’t make the top five together in the playoffs, but they may well finish games together.

The low quintet that includes the trio, Andrew Wiggins and Raymond Green could be one of the most intriguing in the playoffs.

Offensively it is not clear how to stop it, the question is whether they will be able to survive on defense and on the rebound.

So one of the key questions of the team, perhaps of the playoffs as a whole, is whether Clay Thompson is able to get back to something that comes close to his defensive ability from before the injuries.

In a situation like this there will be two senior defenders in this five that will make it easier for the chance to keep good enough to allow the offense to make a difference.

The new member of the triangle.

Jordan Paul with Kerry and Raymond Green (Photo: GettyImages, Jim McIsaac)

Ja and Luca's defense ministers

Memphis and Dallas are considered lone star teams.

Ja Morant and Luka Doncic are debating the MVP title because they are leading teams to a very impressive success without a real sub-star.

Both are surrounded by a reasonable ensemble of players, but it is very difficult to succeed today without at least two senior players.

But another reason for the success of both is the defense.

Both teams started the season very badly defensively, but made a complete turnaround in the field.

Dallas is currently ranked sixth in defensive efficiency and Memphis seventh, if you look at data since January 1st they rise to second and fifth place, respectively.

In both cases there are good methods of the coaches and teamwork, but both also have a senior defensive player that a large part of the success is recorded in his name.

These defensive star duo will be two key players in the playoffs.

In Memphis, this is Jaren Jackson Jr..

The talented and young tall (22 years old) has not yet positioned himself in attack, the shooting from the outside does not work and he hardly removes, he has more losses than assists in every season of his career.

But on defense he has turned this year from an interesting and immature potential to one of the scariest players in the league.

With 2.2 blocks per game from the power forward position, Triple J interferes with every shot in his environment.

He's another one of the tallest serving as senior assistants like Yannis, Robert Williams and Evan Mobley, and like all three of them he makes opponents think three times before they approach the point that his long hand can pop out of nowhere.

He is stronger and better guards inside players, and agile enough to deal with outside players as well.

The complex statistics mark Triple J as one of the top defensive players in the league, and over time his name emerges as a legitimate candidate for the title of defensive player of the season.

Dallas' Dorian Pini-Smith is a less glittering defensive name, but not sure less important.

If until this year he is considered the default of the Mavericks, for those who keep the rival stars because no one else will do it, this year he is already a stopper at the highest levels that only gets better as the season progresses.

In recent weeks he has been neutralizing stars of all kinds, from Donovan Mitchell through Jason Taitum to Kevin Durant.

He also functions as a defensive leader, constantly talking and directing, always in the right place for help.

He is the most important player in the stable and surprising defense of Dallas.

Pini-Smith's offense is also in the best period of his career, and in the last 12 games he has scored 14.1 points per game, including 3 threes at 50.7 percent.

He feels much more confident performing actions with the ball, penetrations or dedication that continue the offensive flow.

He's another one of those stories of players who came out of nowhere, without being drafted, and he may be the second most important player in a playoff team with interesting potential.

Without him, Ja would not have been Ja.

Triple J (Photo: GettyImages, Justin Ford)

Another angle to Brooklyn's bizarre situation

Kyrie Irving's smuggler refuses to get rid of him, and as it seems at the moment this situation will continue into the playoffs as well.

If there seemed to be a chance for change from New York City, that hope quickly faded.

If I understand the rules in New York right now, Kyrie is allowed to attend games but not attend them, he is not allowed to enter the locker room but he is allowed to peek from the keyhole, and if he buys a hot dog at the buffet he is allowed to add ketchup but not mustard.

Recently we get a reminder of how dangerous Brooklyn can be with Kyrie alongside Kevin Durant, even as Ben Simmons is still trying to recall how it works to be a basketball player.

Since the All-Star, the Hunts have won four of the five games Kyrie has played in, including beautiful wins in Milwaukee and Philadelphia, scoring at least 120 points in each.

Brooklyn is on track to become the first team in history to favor away games over home games.

The good news is that it is rated so low that it will play all of its series without a home advantage.

The bad news is that in order to get to these series she will have to win the play-off tournament, because her chances of getting into the top six are extremely slim.

Brooklyn is currently in eighth place in the East, and if she stays there she will be very interested in the close battle between Toronto and Cleveland for seventh place (if Chicago continues to lose she will also join this battle).

Why?

Because the seventh hosts the eighth in the first game of the tournament, in Toronto Curry will not be able to play because it is problematic for him to enter Canada, in Cleveland he will be able to.

Brooklyn's safest way to the playoffs is to finish eighth and play in the bruised and inexperienced Cleveland with Kyrie.

If she had to scramble to Toronto without Irving, an unconventional, uneasy team would face her there in a single game, and an excellent crowd that had not seen a playoff game since the 2019 championship.

If the Nets lose this game, they will host the next game against the winner between 9th and 10th place, which means that again they will have to do without Kyrie for a game of being or ceasing.

Can wait for them there Atlanta, the surprise of the previous playoffs.

Toronto and Cleveland have little chance of making noise in the playoffs, making it difficult for the top teams in the East, but their battle for sixth place could prove crucial for the team that is completely capable of changing power relations in the East, for reasons that can only happen in 2022.

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Tags

• Philadelphia Sixers

• Phoenix Suns

• Golden State Warriors

• Brooklyn Nets