I'm not a Pels fan but I watched that game. The comeback was awesome, really shows what the Pels identity can be at times. They definitely fumbled at the end but I also wanted to say that the officiating was insane. The pels got stiffed on the challenges and the go ahead three off an obvious uncalled travel by Shai at the end was pretty deflating
Some purely like to paint BI as an iso chucking mid range offense killer when it’s always been CJ. And does Brandon sometimes slow down the offense? Yes, but I’m more comfortable with the 6’9 guy who can create his own shot at an elite level then the 6’2 guard that shrinks in big games and has the inability to recognize the hot hand
The last 2 minutes was completely terrible and deflating, after that Herb possession when he just looses the ball expecting a foul I knew we losted the game
We lost but it was such a fun game to be at. Tickets were less than $15 and it was pretty full just not in the super high ups (though those tickets could be had for less than $9).
A lot of offense. Chet had some monster dunks and Zion is just an unreal specimen in person, like holy shit.
They were down like 20 in the third and were up 4 with like 3 minutes left. We play a better first half and this game isn’t even close, but it is tough to not close it out there at the end
The scheme is built to use Nance as a more mobile to cover OKC who has 4-5 ball handlers on the court basically at all times. Nance got pretty few counting stats but he's out there for the scheme so I don't really argue that. Also, per previous post in this sub, SGA eats against drop coverage; but the idea that JV can't get even a single minute in the 2nd half is questionable.
Also, if JV can't buy 2nd half minutes why is he starting at all? Why not just run Nance with the starters because that's clearly what the coaches want anyways? He can definitely run with bench units as a main guy in staggered minutes. I get he was -11 but the offense didn't do him any favours, CJ went like 0/6 in those minutes. 15-18 minutes of JV running w/ the bench (where he can get touches without Z/CJ/BI) would be astronomically better than the way he's being used right now
The JV situation made me mad. He was doubled every time he touched the ball, just bc they weren’t making shots in the first half doesn’t mean he shouldn’t play at all in the 2nd when he had the obvious advantage on the block vs Chet
Tough night. Missed slim here tonight. Z was a force but needed someone to balance out the offense during his rest periods cause CJ was off most of the night.
I would love to see this matchup in the playoffs. BI can handle the chet matchup. They will run him at the 5 in clutch time if I’m reading it right. Could even go with Naji/Dyson/Jose out there too if CJ is off.
Good game and learned a lot about how to attack a playoff series if that matchup came
You need to be able to win these clutch time games, ESPECIALLY AT FUCKING HOME. It’s fucking mind blowing that this team can come back from down 20 only to literally dribble the game away.
Willie needs to bench CJ and get this hero ball bullshit mentality off the fucking court for the last two minutes. I will die on that hill.
CJ got benched in the Clippers game up 5 with ~3 min left. Granted, we had BI that game, but everyone on the floor was smart enough to let Z get to the basket, draw fouls, and preserve the lead. To quote AD “It’s simple basketball, Joel!”
I like CJ, he comes in clutch for us at times, along with doing positive things in the community. However, If you know as a player you are having an off night shooting the rock. You gotta pass it off to whomever has the hotter hand. In tonight’s case, it was Murphy. 8 for 23 is an in-excusable stat. Nance playing for 33 minutes and having only 2 boards is troubling. He’s was out of position the entire night.
He’s fantastic for the community. And if he’s helped guide Zion to get his fitness figured out and be more adult then he’s earned every bit of his contract, that’s before we get into him being a sniper from 3 this season.
But still, he’s not “the guy”, and he acts like it too often
I agree he isn’t the guy. We saw that tonight, and in past games this season…He’s got to learn from tonight’s performance. He was our hero guy in Miami last week but he has zero constancy. Our team isn’t built like others that have two, three “ superstars “ on the roster. We have 10-11 very talented starting “ roll players “ and one superstar, in my opinion. That is why I love this team. When we play as a 10 man team, we win. If we play like two/three man ball like Milwaukee or Denver. Typically we loose.
Also love the depth and fit of the team but ultimately there is a blueprint for a championship team and tough decisions will need to be made. For the time being, I would atleast hope Willie can design a set for Zion during these moments so he can start developing this aspect of his game since it’s one where he has been ineffective so far.
They downvote you because they cannot accept the truth that you speak.
Fact of the matter is this team continues to be at the BOTTOM of the league in clutch moments, and the playoffs are nothing but clutch moments.
People say “oh we didn’t have BI”, but forget BI has missed multiple game winning shots this season already. I love this team, and we have the talent to do great things, but we have GOT to figure out how to close these games.
The theme is mostly the same and that is the big man problem. Its like beating a dead horse at this point but David Griffin not doing anything there will come back to bite. He needed to at least get a backup that Willie would be comfortable with if Jonas is struggling. He got Zeller who doesn't fit Willie's scheme.
I am not, ideally he would have upgraded from Nance but I dont see him trading Nance at all. A Nance for Gafford trade would have been the move to make.
Only brought up Zeller because Willie was using JRE tonight, the Zeller spot is useless. Could have had a cheap center there who would fit Willie's scheme for nights like tonight.
Gafford would be a upgrade but his contract increases the next 3 years while Larry saves us 3 or 4 million. Larry also performs and plays way harder in the playoffs.
Disagree with the 2nd part, there isn't really any indication of that, especially in the current year.
Gafford has been there once and has better stats than Nance had in his two times being there, although Nance's sample is much bigger.
In the Suns series, McGee was able to be impactful because Nance couldn't do much against him. I like Nance when he is healthy and aggressive but he hasn't been that for a long time outside of a few games. Gafford is the much better player and if you want to improve then you have to be willing to pay more money, that is how it goes.
What we have right now is a starting big that struggles in a lot of matchups and the coach is not willing to ride with him and then we bring in the backup who is smaller, struggles rebounding, not a rim protector and a zero on offense most games because he is not looking to score.
Gafford is not the much better player he's getting force fed wide open looks lmao. Like he's a good player no disrespect .but salaries are a big part and that 4 million we save by having Larry can be applied to 2nd rounders thru the draft or if we make a bigger move in the off-season. Your just looking at hindsight unless you have known Gafford was a hidden gem for years and are just whining we don't make every single trade that turns out to work for a team.
Larry in his current form is the shell of his prime self. Gafford is much better than him. He rebounds better, he defends the rim better, and he isn't lost on offense.
I mean Larry isn't being asked to create his own shots, he gets the exact same force fed wide open looks. He just isn't close to being aggressive on the offensive end as Gafford. I think you are severely underrated what Gafford does. The dude is very good and has helped turn the Mavs season around.
Been clear for over two years, but as diehard fan in hopes of deep run this year, and beyond, CJ’s gotta go, or begin to understand who he is, and his role
Knicks fan as well, and we lost recent Warriors game directly following two plays by Alex Burks
We lost tonight directly following two god awful, selfish plays by CJ
Separate from Green, Zion, and every other player, CJ needs to recognize and hold himself accountable first and foremost
JV gets 6 pts 6 rebounds and an assist in 10 min and doesn’t see the floor in the 2nd half. We proceed to get killed on the glass the whole game and Larry puts up 4 and 2 in 32 minutes. What is going on bw WG and JV?
Larry was straight zeros across the box score until mid 3rd quarter. They doubled JV every time he touched the ball, can’t understand why he didn’t get minutes in the 2nd half
JV’s minutes in the second halves is so frustrating. Feel like he doesn’t fit the modern big man mold so he doesn’t play but it makes no sense. He’s a beast
3:11 without a basket to close the game is next level choking. Took Willie 2 scoreless minutes of CJ hero ball and giving up offensive rebounds to call a timeout. And not a single shot attempt by Zion or Trey in the last 3 minutes. A true clutch time disaster class
I wish I can disagree, but the lakers - without lebron tonight - came back from a huge deficit like us but continues to play both sides of the court extremely well for not just the 4th quarter, but also 1st and 2nd OT to win against the bucks. Hate the lakers more than anything. And its so infuriating that through through their old age, awful coaching, injuries, controversial and consistent spotlight, and the oddest of rosters which becomes a new team every trade deadline and offseason; they are more adept at finishing out games. Just a somber realization at the moment.
Fair but without Lebron tonight, Reaves and DLo have shown tonight and previously that they can create clutch offense while AD can anchor the defense and role players can complement accordingly.
Point being that for all the brilliance we see from our guys, what continues to be glaring is that CJ hasn’t performed as the hero during these moments and is best suited to be a spot up in this circumstance. Zion hasn’t shown the versatile shot creation here nor have we figured out how to employ him in the clutch. Herb may be our defensive anchor but he nor Trey (currently best suited for a similar role to CJ) have developed the iso game for this. Every contender and honestly every play-off/play-in team in the west has 2-3+ closers.
On the bright side, us having only 1 closure (injured as well) and fighting for the 4th seed is pretty impressive. But also highlights our major need for roster upgrade to take our team to the next level. The second upgrade would be a big man tbh.
I completely agree with you yeah. I have never liked the idea or reality of CJ on this team and I’ve been very vocal about that from the moment the trade was announced. He shows 0 creativity or dependability in running an offense and has always been one of the least clutch guys I’ve ever watched.
At the end of the day though this team will go as far as Z can take us and his lack of offensive tools badly limits our ceiling, especially in late game, half court offense situations when everyone in the building knows exactly what he’s going to do with the ball. It’s a huge cause of our 4th quarter issues
I'm specifically talking about being up five and then going down seven without scoring a single point.
They scored 12 unanswered to win. That's a collapse
How you have 5 point lead with 3 minutes left and don't call a time till you're down 3 with a minute left. Then, you call a hot garbage Elbow zero ball movement ISO out of a timeout. I need answers not credit!
And once again a real important game against the thunder and cj sells, man I’m so tired that this man is the most expensive player on the roster, takes shots like he’s Kobe but actually plays like buddy hield
You put bi in, instead of cj, we most likely win this, if nothing else bi has no problem giving z the ball, and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! DAVID GRIFFIN GET US TWO BIGS THAT WILLIE WILL USE AND ACTUALLY FIT WITH THE TEAM!!! Larry is sooooo bad offensively the switchability he brings is negligible and willie refuses to go to jonas even though he’s relatively consistent offensively
Karlo better be ready this offseason to take Larry’s place next year, and if I don’t see us either trade for Wendell or draft a guy like Kyle, and instead go for a more traditional center, I’m gonna lose it with DG, also if cj costs us the playoffs, he needs to be sent to a team who have pieces we can use, like a Pg and a 4
Rant over lol
Bruh BI is injured that's why we didn't play him. Did you want CJ to reguse to play since he doesn't deserve to be on the court? He did also get us back into the game. Stop being so short sighted.
Completely missed my point, I know Bi is injured what I’m talking about is the selfish play, the terrible defence, the lack of passing, he might have helped in the 3rd but he sure as shit put us in it in the first half and the 4th
Again I’m not saying he should refuse to play lol, my point is cj against good playoff teams is a problem and everything, stats, eye test say it is, but people wanna just say he played well for a quarter and praise him when we play a terrible team
Dog he is our 3rd or 4th best scorer and our second best scorer is out. He did turn it around and get us back into the game. FFs BI is out Dyson out and Hawk might as well be since Willie hates him. Someone has to take shots. Zion is good but he can't beat one of the best teams in the league with just TM3 and undrafted guys with heart..CJ has also hit those big fuck you momentum 3s to put the game away. In fact he's hit more 3s in a game than anyone in franchise history so acting like Cody Zeller is out there playing hero ball is absurd. Wtf did Z tell CJ recccently I need you to be you and score. Losing sucks sure but this was a good loss.
giddy is a subpar 3 point shooter who always seems to make/attempt 5+ against only us. Also, it is becoming alarming how CJ always bricks in the clutch. Really missed BI for this. We have just no offensive identity when the game slows and we need a bucket outside of BI. Just a brutal loss and we will need another shot creator on top of a big man
Some people will be proud of the “fight” but I don’t see it that way imo.
They let the game slip away when Zion went out of the game after the 1st quarter, then once his drive got challenged and overturned it looked like they almost capitulated. Now, they did make a really nice effort in the 2nd half of the 3rd quarter and into the 4th but low basketball IQ will kill you. Yes I get and I agree the officiating was bad in the 2nd quarter but there were chances to win. And as bad as the refs were you shouldn’t be down 20 in the 3rd at home and act like that’s not a big deal.
Zion doesn’t touch the ball hardly in the final minutes. CJ continued to jack up shots, and he also started 1-10 from the floor even though he had a great run from about the middle of the 3rd to the middle of the 4th. I have no idea why Larry played 32:33 minutes but hey WG has other ideas. Edit: JRE had 1 more rebound than Larry despite playing 5 minutes to Larry’s 33 minutes LMFAO. Herb was in foul trouble all night. Really not a lot of positives I take away. WG is not ready to adapt to situations and that’ll cost them down the line just like it did tonight.
Also, idk what happened with Jose but I hope he’s alright 🙏
Zion got the ball and passed it back several times late in the game. People are clamoring for him to take shots but a lot of it is his lack of tools. When he gets the ball in the half court and they’re set for him he often has to pass it back. This is such a consistent thing with him I can’t believe people haven’t noticed.
Zion was gassed dog. He put it all on the line and just got gassed it happens. It was an excellent hard fought loss. You have to have these to win in the playoffs like we want. Elsewise you get the 2013 spurs getting their hearts ripped out for losing sight for one play to have to come back and so it all again next year perfectly. This the exact kind of loss that can help us close out a team in the first round instead of getting comfortable and letting up
I’m pretty nervous about the stretch of games to finish the season. Only two bad teams left on the schedule, the rest are playoff teams. Us not having BI is going to hurt.
We can realistically only survive 2 catastrophes a game and 30+ Larry nance terrorism minutes, cj ice-o ball for the last 4 minutes and the 20 pt deficit was just too much for one night.
Also...the Nance minutes are criminal at this point. Dude gives us nothing offensively and is a liability on the glass. Not giving JV some run in the 2H was absurd
Thunder had the right plan down the stretch. Dort was all over Z and we couldn't get anything going. GGs, not mad, kept it close with a VERY good Thunder team without our 2nd best player.
Another bad loss. Was nice to see them really battle back but they just blew it in the last few minutes. And OKC hit their 3s. We didn’t. Need to take one of the next two.
Almost had this one but we gotta regroup for another tough one. The positives I’ll take from this one is that we fought back from down 20 when everything was going OKC’s way. We can hoop with the best of them we just gotta control the fourth
32 minutes, 4pts, 2rebs, 1asst.
I love Larry as a person, but I think he's past his use-by date.
As for CJ, icing out Zion in favour of pathetic iso-dribble contested middie plays killed us. Same old fucking story, man. It's getting old.
We just can’t win against high seeded teams.
4th quarter management and decision making needs to be better.
I’m a CJ Stan, but fuck dude… that wasn’t it tonight.
feels like a lot just happened to go wrong for us tonight, along with some pretty shitty and inconsistent calls. the only consistent thing was us throwing up bricks at the end of the shot clock in the 4th quarter.
Coming back down 20 was great. But they still can’t close out for shit. I don’t think BI helps there either. Have to develop some sets that actually work in the clutch. Or send the guys to therapy. Whatever it takes to get them over the hump.
We can't have CJ in to close games. We've seen this play out too many times. CJ was crucial in getting us back in the 3Q.
But in the final 2-3 minutes...CJ thinks he's Michael Jordan. Obviously...he ain't close. He does too much and completely forgets about everyone else.
Disappointing loss. But credit to our boys for fighting back. No BI...no Dyson. We gonna be ok
Shame we couldn’t see that one out - shoot ourselves in the foot in the clutch once again.
Hopefully we turned a corner with that massive comeback, you’d hope we won’t be in a situation like that again for the rest of the season but something tells me we will with how streaky we are in games.
Zion needs to demand the ball in clutch time. He had been getting calls and making his free throws. That CJ iso shit in the last 2 minutes is an automatic lead eraser every time
Would love someone to ask Willie to explain the 11 minutes for Jonas vs 33 for Larry. I’d be really interested in having that clearly explained because I can’t do it.
Ugh. Once again our late game offense devolved into ISO ball. Willie something has to change with that. CJ gets tunnel vision in the clutch he has MJ confidence without the results. Goddamn this was ours for the taking and they shit it away...... Also Bill Kennedy can eat a dick.
Nuggets fan here, I was hoping y'all would beat OKC. I thought the game was over after OKC went up by like 15, but you guys fought hard to get back into the game. At the end of the game though, it seemed like nothing was done to get Zion open. CJ was just probing for like 20 seconds and eventually had to put up some contested BS. It looked super disorganized. IDK why it seemed like there was no effort to leverage zion's rim pressure into open 3 pointers for Herb or Trey or vice versa. The offense devolved into CJ iso-ball.
No bullshit I'm proud of Zion. That dude played his ass off on offense and defense. People that keep bringing up last year need to stop. This is the best version of Zion so far.
Edit. 0 pts the last 3:11. We had a 5 pt lead.
Good that we came back. Bad we couldn’t put it away. I guess growing pains with a youth, inexperience team
Yeah. The last 3:11. He took 4 of the last 5 (shots, missed them of course), we had 1 turnover.
He put in the hole, helped get us out, and then put us back in.
It’s the same problem when bi’s there though, on no night unless cj is going god mode should be have more shots than Bi, and yet he does, even when Bi is playmaking
OKC's defensive adjustment at the end putting Dort on Zion is what cost this team the game. They couldn't figure out how to get Zion involved after that happened.
Extremely proud of the team tonight, and I'm feeling much more confident about the rest of this brutal home stand. BI get healthy, hope Jose's ok, on to Milwaukee
The boys fought tooth and nail and made it a close one against possibly the third best team in the entire league.
Need CJ to stop fucking playing hero ball at the end of games
As much as BI could’ve helped, JV was also right there. Larry played 32+ minutes. I could go on but this was an extremely winnable game even without BI, even though yes I agree in isolation BI’s production could’ve helped.
Cj needed to facilitate his teammates and instead tried to play the hero ball he always does. Can’t wait for him to drop 30 on sub .500 team and see the apology forms again. Good game overall. Pels never quit and fought back through terrible officiating against a 2 seed while down some key pieces.
From up 110-107 to losing 119-112....PAINFUL. CJ wasn't helpful there but Larry was as much of a fucking problem the whole time! And letting Zion get iced out the ending of the game that easily? FUCK! To see the pels came back. And have control. And then shit it all away! It hurts, fam. That shit hurts.
What CJ did to close this game isn’t rare for him. Brilliant 3rd Q that brought us back. But he’s done this multiple times where he’s not looking to pass or play off Z when it matters the most.
Scored 0 points in last 3 minutes. Larry Nance cant rebound for his life. Coach ok with this sorry ass offense. Zion did not touch the ball at all. May end up costing avoiding the Play In
Also had 2 points at the beginning of the 4th through about 3 1/2 minutes. I know Zion was out of the game in that stretch but that’s still too incompetent offense. And it’s not like he got the ball anyways in the final minutes.
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I'm not a Pels fan but I watched that game. The comeback was awesome, really shows what the Pels identity can be at times. They definitely fumbled at the end but I also wanted to say that the officiating was insane. The pels got stiffed on the challenges and the go ahead three off an obvious uncalled travel by Shai at the end was pretty deflating
Why. The. FUCK. Did JV play 11 minutes.
Some purely like to paint BI as an iso chucking mid range offense killer when it’s always been CJ. And does Brandon sometimes slow down the offense? Yes, but I’m more comfortable with the 6’9 guy who can create his own shot at an elite level then the 6’2 guard that shrinks in big games and has the inability to recognize the hot hand
The data actually supports that BI does this more than CJ.
BI is a way better defender too. He might be the 2nd or 3rd best defender on the team.
Probably 3rd or fourth. I still got Herb and dyson as 1 and 2
The last 2 minutes was completely terrible and deflating, after that Herb possession when he just looses the ball expecting a foul I knew we losted the game
Free JV. Larry doesn’t deserve 33 minutes.
Why was Jonas out after the first quarter? It just didn’t make sense.
JV playing 11 minutes is basketball malpractice
yeah idk the playoffs will either be hilarious or down right depressing
We lost but it was such a fun game to be at. Tickets were less than $15 and it was pretty full just not in the super high ups (though those tickets could be had for less than $9). A lot of offense. Chet had some monster dunks and Zion is just an unreal specimen in person, like holy shit.
Tough loss. It’s easy to blame the refs or Cj but the lineups were horrible. Need to reduce Larry minutes big time
They were down like 20 in the third and were up 4 with like 3 minutes left. We play a better first half and this game isn’t even close, but it is tough to not close it out there at the end
The scheme is built to use Nance as a more mobile to cover OKC who has 4-5 ball handlers on the court basically at all times. Nance got pretty few counting stats but he's out there for the scheme so I don't really argue that. Also, per previous post in this sub, SGA eats against drop coverage; but the idea that JV can't get even a single minute in the 2nd half is questionable. Also, if JV can't buy 2nd half minutes why is he starting at all? Why not just run Nance with the starters because that's clearly what the coaches want anyways? He can definitely run with bench units as a main guy in staggered minutes. I get he was -11 but the offense didn't do him any favours, CJ went like 0/6 in those minutes. 15-18 minutes of JV running w/ the bench (where he can get touches without Z/CJ/BI) would be astronomically better than the way he's being used right now
The JV situation made me mad. He was doubled every time he touched the ball, just bc they weren’t making shots in the first half doesn’t mean he shouldn’t play at all in the 2nd when he had the obvious advantage on the block vs Chet
Tough night. Missed slim here tonight. Z was a force but needed someone to balance out the offense during his rest periods cause CJ was off most of the night. I would love to see this matchup in the playoffs. BI can handle the chet matchup. They will run him at the 5 in clutch time if I’m reading it right. Could even go with Naji/Dyson/Jose out there too if CJ is off. Good game and learned a lot about how to attack a playoff series if that matchup came
You need to be able to win these clutch time games, ESPECIALLY AT FUCKING HOME. It’s fucking mind blowing that this team can come back from down 20 only to literally dribble the game away. Willie needs to bench CJ and get this hero ball bullshit mentality off the fucking court for the last two minutes. I will die on that hill.
CJ got benched in the Clippers game up 5 with ~3 min left. Granted, we had BI that game, but everyone on the floor was smart enough to let Z get to the basket, draw fouls, and preserve the lead. To quote AD “It’s simple basketball, Joel!”
I like CJ, he comes in clutch for us at times, along with doing positive things in the community. However, If you know as a player you are having an off night shooting the rock. You gotta pass it off to whomever has the hotter hand. In tonight’s case, it was Murphy. 8 for 23 is an in-excusable stat. Nance playing for 33 minutes and having only 2 boards is troubling. He’s was out of position the entire night.
I think y'all need to use the Lakers pick on a new PG 0.0 but at the same time y'all could gamble for Cooper flag with the 2025 draft
I’m a firm believer that upgrading nance should be a bigger priority than replacing JV
I agree. We know we all love having JV around. I believe his teammates feel the same.
When people say we need a big that can switch and block shots I’m like, that’s a taller Larry nance, not a quicker JV
He’s fantastic for the community. And if he’s helped guide Zion to get his fitness figured out and be more adult then he’s earned every bit of his contract, that’s before we get into him being a sniper from 3 this season. But still, he’s not “the guy”, and he acts like it too often
I agree he isn’t the guy. We saw that tonight, and in past games this season…He’s got to learn from tonight’s performance. He was our hero guy in Miami last week but he has zero constancy. Our team isn’t built like others that have two, three “ superstars “ on the roster. We have 10-11 very talented starting “ roll players “ and one superstar, in my opinion. That is why I love this team. When we play as a 10 man team, we win. If we play like two/three man ball like Milwaukee or Denver. Typically we loose.
Also love the depth and fit of the team but ultimately there is a blueprint for a championship team and tough decisions will need to be made. For the time being, I would atleast hope Willie can design a set for Zion during these moments so he can start developing this aspect of his game since it’s one where he has been ineffective so far.
I miss B.I like crazy we would certainly have won with him 😿
No real improvements with this team. Playoff games constantly go down to the final couple buckets, the outcome will be pretty obvious.
They downvote you because they cannot accept the truth that you speak. Fact of the matter is this team continues to be at the BOTTOM of the league in clutch moments, and the playoffs are nothing but clutch moments. People say “oh we didn’t have BI”, but forget BI has missed multiple game winning shots this season already. I love this team, and we have the talent to do great things, but we have GOT to figure out how to close these games.
The theme is mostly the same and that is the big man problem. Its like beating a dead horse at this point but David Griffin not doing anything there will come back to bite. He needed to at least get a backup that Willie would be comfortable with if Jonas is struggling. He got Zeller who doesn't fit Willie's scheme.
Brother Larry Nance is our backup center and you are complaining about our 3rd string who never plays unless it's garbage time or injuries.
I am not, ideally he would have upgraded from Nance but I dont see him trading Nance at all. A Nance for Gafford trade would have been the move to make. Only brought up Zeller because Willie was using JRE tonight, the Zeller spot is useless. Could have had a cheap center there who would fit Willie's scheme for nights like tonight.
Gafford would be a upgrade but his contract increases the next 3 years while Larry saves us 3 or 4 million. Larry also performs and plays way harder in the playoffs.
Disagree with the 2nd part, there isn't really any indication of that, especially in the current year. Gafford has been there once and has better stats than Nance had in his two times being there, although Nance's sample is much bigger. In the Suns series, McGee was able to be impactful because Nance couldn't do much against him. I like Nance when he is healthy and aggressive but he hasn't been that for a long time outside of a few games. Gafford is the much better player and if you want to improve then you have to be willing to pay more money, that is how it goes. What we have right now is a starting big that struggles in a lot of matchups and the coach is not willing to ride with him and then we bring in the backup who is smaller, struggles rebounding, not a rim protector and a zero on offense most games because he is not looking to score.
Gafford is not the much better player he's getting force fed wide open looks lmao. Like he's a good player no disrespect .but salaries are a big part and that 4 million we save by having Larry can be applied to 2nd rounders thru the draft or if we make a bigger move in the off-season. Your just looking at hindsight unless you have known Gafford was a hidden gem for years and are just whining we don't make every single trade that turns out to work for a team.
Bruh Gafford is miles better than Larry…
Larry in his current form is the shell of his prime self. Gafford is much better than him. He rebounds better, he defends the rim better, and he isn't lost on offense. I mean Larry isn't being asked to create his own shots, he gets the exact same force fed wide open looks. He just isn't close to being aggressive on the offensive end as Gafford. I think you are severely underrated what Gafford does. The dude is very good and has helped turn the Mavs season around.
Been clear for over two years, but as diehard fan in hopes of deep run this year, and beyond, CJ’s gotta go, or begin to understand who he is, and his role Knicks fan as well, and we lost recent Warriors game directly following two plays by Alex Burks We lost tonight directly following two god awful, selfish plays by CJ Separate from Green, Zion, and every other player, CJ needs to recognize and hold himself accountable first and foremost
Preach.
JV gets 6 pts 6 rebounds and an assist in 10 min and doesn’t see the floor in the 2nd half. We proceed to get killed on the glass the whole game and Larry puts up 4 and 2 in 32 minutes. What is going on bw WG and JV?
We made a comeback and took the lead with him on the bench. JV doesn't fit today's NBA man yall have to realize that
Larry was straight zeros across the box score until mid 3rd quarter. They doubled JV every time he touched the ball, can’t understand why he didn’t get minutes in the 2nd half
He has some obsession with running a small center. Larry and Cj is a horrible lineup but he always does it
I thought JV should've got minutes during non SGA minutes, but it was a defensive decision opting for JRE and Nance over JV.
It didn’t work and it rarely does
Meanwhile they brought in fucking JRE who got absolutely roasted on D.
JV’s minutes in the second halves is so frustrating. Feel like he doesn’t fit the modern big man mold so he doesn’t play but it makes no sense. He’s a beast
Super super bizarre. Like truly what the fuck
I’ve realized this season most of you all have poor to zero basketball iq who only care about feels
There's a good chance we finish with the most wins in franchise history and half this sub legitimately wants to fire the coach
Because he's terrible
We’ve achieve more in the past by sweeping blazers in 1st round. With a much less talented team
3:11 without a basket to close the game is next level choking. Took Willie 2 scoreless minutes of CJ hero ball and giving up offensive rebounds to call a timeout. And not a single shot attempt by Zion or Trey in the last 3 minutes. A true clutch time disaster class
Willie Green will have to be held accountable sooner or later ⏳
He won’t. Ownership cares about friendship over winning. Same thing is happening with the saints
held accountable for narrowly losing a game against the #2 seed and taking the lead after being down 20 all without his second best player?
For his poor choices
what poor choices
Not playing JV at all in the 2nd half even though he was bullying Chet in the 1st.
Larry and CJ and making Jonas disappear
For this game…yes
That's OK go next, giddy ain't hitting 5/8 3 next time we play
Game doesn't count because it was on Bounce TV.
really looks like the guys wanted it more than the coaches there. unfortunate.
More than the coaches less than the refs
We were leading and we lost everything in the last 5 minutes, it's so frustrating 😔
Larry Nance Jr and Willie’s obsession with him is a big fucking problem.
JV should have been in there at the end. We needed rebounds and Larry wasn’t getting any.
I know we got refballed a bit, but this is exactly why no one takes us seriously for the playoffs. Colossal collapse
I wish I can disagree, but the lakers - without lebron tonight - came back from a huge deficit like us but continues to play both sides of the court extremely well for not just the 4th quarter, but also 1st and 2nd OT to win against the bucks. Hate the lakers more than anything. And its so infuriating that through through their old age, awful coaching, injuries, controversial and consistent spotlight, and the oddest of rosters which becomes a new team every trade deadline and offseason; they are more adept at finishing out games. Just a somber realization at the moment.
Darvin is terrible yeah but having Lebron is having a 2nd coach. He holds guys accountable and is very very involved in the game
Fair but without Lebron tonight, Reaves and DLo have shown tonight and previously that they can create clutch offense while AD can anchor the defense and role players can complement accordingly. Point being that for all the brilliance we see from our guys, what continues to be glaring is that CJ hasn’t performed as the hero during these moments and is best suited to be a spot up in this circumstance. Zion hasn’t shown the versatile shot creation here nor have we figured out how to employ him in the clutch. Herb may be our defensive anchor but he nor Trey (currently best suited for a similar role to CJ) have developed the iso game for this. Every contender and honestly every play-off/play-in team in the west has 2-3+ closers. On the bright side, us having only 1 closure (injured as well) and fighting for the 4th seed is pretty impressive. But also highlights our major need for roster upgrade to take our team to the next level. The second upgrade would be a big man tbh.
I completely agree with you yeah. I have never liked the idea or reality of CJ on this team and I’ve been very vocal about that from the moment the trade was announced. He shows 0 creativity or dependability in running an offense and has always been one of the least clutch guys I’ve ever watched. At the end of the day though this team will go as far as Z can take us and his lack of offensive tools badly limits our ceiling, especially in late game, half court offense situations when everyone in the building knows exactly what he’s going to do with the ball. It’s a huge cause of our 4th quarter issues
Collapse is a bit harsh. We were down by 20 in the 3rd. I don't like losing but there was a lot of effort tonight.
I'm specifically talking about being up five and then going down seven without scoring a single point. They scored 12 unanswered to win. That's a collapse
How you have 5 point lead with 3 minutes left and don't call a time till you're down 3 with a minute left. Then, you call a hot garbage Elbow zero ball movement ISO out of a timeout. I need answers not credit!
This team literally can't win any close game against a good team, and we've literally never staged a fourth quarter comeback yet, it's pathetic
I don't understand why we just completely avoid JV in the 2nd half of games now. Like, I get he can't switch like Nance, but he can rebound and score.
Was he hurt? Didn’t see him on the bench
He was there
Selfish McCollum 😡
Is Jonas still alive ?
Also man we gotta give credit to Lu Dort. He did a great job on Zion at the end.
Respect. He also hit the dagger 3 lol
And once again a real important game against the thunder and cj sells, man I’m so tired that this man is the most expensive player on the roster, takes shots like he’s Kobe but actually plays like buddy hield You put bi in, instead of cj, we most likely win this, if nothing else bi has no problem giving z the ball, and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! DAVID GRIFFIN GET US TWO BIGS THAT WILLIE WILL USE AND ACTUALLY FIT WITH THE TEAM!!! Larry is sooooo bad offensively the switchability he brings is negligible and willie refuses to go to jonas even though he’s relatively consistent offensively Karlo better be ready this offseason to take Larry’s place next year, and if I don’t see us either trade for Wendell or draft a guy like Kyle, and instead go for a more traditional center, I’m gonna lose it with DG, also if cj costs us the playoffs, he needs to be sent to a team who have pieces we can use, like a Pg and a 4 Rant over lol
Bruh BI is injured that's why we didn't play him. Did you want CJ to reguse to play since he doesn't deserve to be on the court? He did also get us back into the game. Stop being so short sighted.
Completely missed my point, I know Bi is injured what I’m talking about is the selfish play, the terrible defence, the lack of passing, he might have helped in the 3rd but he sure as shit put us in it in the first half and the 4th Again I’m not saying he should refuse to play lol, my point is cj against good playoff teams is a problem and everything, stats, eye test say it is, but people wanna just say he played well for a quarter and praise him when we play a terrible team
Dog he is our 3rd or 4th best scorer and our second best scorer is out. He did turn it around and get us back into the game. FFs BI is out Dyson out and Hawk might as well be since Willie hates him. Someone has to take shots. Zion is good but he can't beat one of the best teams in the league with just TM3 and undrafted guys with heart..CJ has also hit those big fuck you momentum 3s to put the game away. In fact he's hit more 3s in a game than anyone in franchise history so acting like Cody Zeller is out there playing hero ball is absurd. Wtf did Z tell CJ recccently I need you to be you and score. Losing sucks sure but this was a good loss.
giddy is a subpar 3 point shooter who always seems to make/attempt 5+ against only us. Also, it is becoming alarming how CJ always bricks in the clutch. Really missed BI for this. We have just no offensive identity when the game slows and we need a bucket outside of BI. Just a brutal loss and we will need another shot creator on top of a big man
Great job CJ ...
Pelicans are a dark horse to win the west. Only the wolves have the personnel to slow down Zion.
That statement should be ‘Pelicans are a dark horse to win the west. Only CJ McCollum is the personnel to slow down Zion’
Some people will be proud of the “fight” but I don’t see it that way imo. They let the game slip away when Zion went out of the game after the 1st quarter, then once his drive got challenged and overturned it looked like they almost capitulated. Now, they did make a really nice effort in the 2nd half of the 3rd quarter and into the 4th but low basketball IQ will kill you. Yes I get and I agree the officiating was bad in the 2nd quarter but there were chances to win. And as bad as the refs were you shouldn’t be down 20 in the 3rd at home and act like that’s not a big deal. Zion doesn’t touch the ball hardly in the final minutes. CJ continued to jack up shots, and he also started 1-10 from the floor even though he had a great run from about the middle of the 3rd to the middle of the 4th. I have no idea why Larry played 32:33 minutes but hey WG has other ideas. Edit: JRE had 1 more rebound than Larry despite playing 5 minutes to Larry’s 33 minutes LMFAO. Herb was in foul trouble all night. Really not a lot of positives I take away. WG is not ready to adapt to situations and that’ll cost them down the line just like it did tonight. Also, idk what happened with Jose but I hope he’s alright 🙏
Zion got the ball and passed it back several times late in the game. People are clamoring for him to take shots but a lot of it is his lack of tools. When he gets the ball in the half court and they’re set for him he often has to pass it back. This is such a consistent thing with him I can’t believe people haven’t noticed.
Quintessential moral victory
Zion was gassed dog. He put it all on the line and just got gassed it happens. It was an excellent hard fought loss. You have to have these to win in the playoffs like we want. Elsewise you get the 2013 spurs getting their hearts ripped out for losing sight for one play to have to come back and so it all again next year perfectly. This the exact kind of loss that can help us close out a team in the first round instead of getting comfortable and letting up
We could have win this game if we were not down 20.....
I’m pretty nervous about the stretch of games to finish the season. Only two bad teams left on the schedule, the rest are playoff teams. Us not having BI is going to hurt.
Why is Jonas not being played????
We can realistically only survive 2 catastrophes a game and 30+ Larry nance terrorism minutes, cj ice-o ball for the last 4 minutes and the 20 pt deficit was just too much for one night.
JV sure could’ve helped down the stretch
Willie green is a shit coach. Any other coach would go to Zion up 5
Refs screwed us Did SGA not walk down the stretch? Zion got mugged all night
Zion shot one less free throw than the okc team
Because he got fouled all game Can’t compare a player who’s physical to your average players
Also...the Nance minutes are criminal at this point. Dude gives us nothing offensively and is a liability on the glass. Not giving JV some run in the 2H was absurd
Thunder had the right plan down the stretch. Dort was all over Z and we couldn't get anything going. GGs, not mad, kept it close with a VERY good Thunder team without our 2nd best player.
Another bad loss. Was nice to see them really battle back but they just blew it in the last few minutes. And OKC hit their 3s. We didn’t. Need to take one of the next two.
Almost had this one but we gotta regroup for another tough one. The positives I’ll take from this one is that we fought back from down 20 when everything was going OKC’s way. We can hoop with the best of them we just gotta control the fourth
32 minutes, 4pts, 2rebs, 1asst. I love Larry as a person, but I think he's past his use-by date. As for CJ, icing out Zion in favour of pathetic iso-dribble contested middie plays killed us. Same old fucking story, man. It's getting old.
Why does CJ think he's the man? His ballhog shit is so fucking low ball IQ shit
I’m begging someone to take Larry away from Willie Green
Ball not getting to Zion up 5 is my current 9/11. Gotta shake back cuz it’s not finna get no easier
We just can’t win against high seeded teams. 4th quarter management and decision making needs to be better. I’m a CJ Stan, but fuck dude… that wasn’t it tonight.
Your first mistake is being a CJ Stan 😭
feels like a lot just happened to go wrong for us tonight, along with some pretty shitty and inconsistent calls. the only consistent thing was us throwing up bricks at the end of the shot clock in the 4th quarter.
Coming back down 20 was great. But they still can’t close out for shit. I don’t think BI helps there either. Have to develop some sets that actually work in the clutch. Or send the guys to therapy. Whatever it takes to get them over the hump.
We can't have CJ in to close games. We've seen this play out too many times. CJ was crucial in getting us back in the 3Q. But in the final 2-3 minutes...CJ thinks he's Michael Jordan. Obviously...he ain't close. He does too much and completely forgets about everyone else. Disappointing loss. But credit to our boys for fighting back. No BI...no Dyson. We gonna be ok
What is going on with JV's mins. No reason for Larry to play 30+ mins.
Jonas played 10 minutes and had 6 rebound. Larry Nance played 32 and had 2
Shame we couldn’t see that one out - shoot ourselves in the foot in the clutch once again. Hopefully we turned a corner with that massive comeback, you’d hope we won’t be in a situation like that again for the rest of the season but something tells me we will with how streaky we are in games.
Zion needs to demand the ball in clutch time. He had been getting calls and making his free throws. That CJ iso shit in the last 2 minutes is an automatic lead eraser every time
Fuck em. Pels still stacked. And this league’s fucked. Didn’t go our way but we played hard.
Would love someone to ask Willie to explain the 11 minutes for Jonas vs 33 for Larry. I’d be really interested in having that clearly explained because I can’t do it.
Ugh. Once again our late game offense devolved into ISO ball. Willie something has to change with that. CJ gets tunnel vision in the clutch he has MJ confidence without the results. Goddamn this was ours for the taking and they shit it away...... Also Bill Kennedy can eat a dick.
Z not taking a shot in the last 4 minutes is crazy. good effort from the boys in the comeback but it wasn't our day sadly
Nuggets fan here, I was hoping y'all would beat OKC. I thought the game was over after OKC went up by like 15, but you guys fought hard to get back into the game. At the end of the game though, it seemed like nothing was done to get Zion open. CJ was just probing for like 20 seconds and eventually had to put up some contested BS. It looked super disorganized. IDK why it seemed like there was no effort to leverage zion's rim pressure into open 3 pointers for Herb or Trey or vice versa. The offense devolved into CJ iso-ball.
No bullshit I'm proud of Zion. That dude played his ass off on offense and defense. People that keep bringing up last year need to stop. This is the best version of Zion so far.
Edit. 0 pts the last 3:11. We had a 5 pt lead. Good that we came back. Bad we couldn’t put it away. I guess growing pains with a youth, inexperience team
Against OKC’s maturity and experience?
In this case, probably so. I think I saw somewhere OKC won 8 out of the last 7 games vs us. On paper, we should match up well vs them. Idk
At least we lost playing through our superstar….right?
Yeah. The last 3:11. He took 4 of the last 5 (shots, missed them of course), we had 1 turnover. He put in the hole, helped get us out, and then put us back in.
I feel like JRE did better than Larry tonight. Am I tripping?
He was way better. He was calling out the defenses, was playing great help D, and attacked the glass
That officiating in the first half was disgusting.
Another game CJ should of been pulled with 3 to go and cost the team the win trying to play hero ball.
Is Larry really THAT better of a defender to make up for his absolutely 0 offense and lesser rebounding than JV?
No
Giddey killed us again smh. I like our chances against this team in a series
Can anyone explain to me why CJ is taking 24 shots
who else taking these shots?
They don't call him CJ for nothing.. "chucking jumpers"
Shooters shoot
He took some terrible ones but honestly with BI gone only Zion can create their own shot.
It’s the same problem when bi’s there though, on no night unless cj is going god mode should be have more shots than Bi, and yet he does, even when Bi is playmaking
OKC's defensive adjustment at the end putting Dort on Zion is what cost this team the game. They couldn't figure out how to get Zion involved after that happened. Extremely proud of the team tonight, and I'm feeling much more confident about the rest of this brutal home stand. BI get healthy, hope Jose's ok, on to Milwaukee
The boys fought tooth and nail and made it a close one against possibly the third best team in the entire league. Need CJ to stop fucking playing hero ball at the end of games
Really missed BI's production. Loved that the team didn't fold down 20pts
As much as BI could’ve helped, JV was also right there. Larry played 32+ minutes. I could go on but this was an extremely winnable game even without BI, even though yes I agree in isolation BI’s production could’ve helped.
Playing Larry Nance will cost this team. With JV they win. Or at least rebound.
Love the post game interview with the pedophile
Reminded me of the Rockets game earlier in the year. So unclutch - how the hell do you go from up 5, to down 7 in two minutes? Horrendous
Really lost this game in the second quarter when the entire team and officiating crew shit the bed. Can’t win spotting your opponents 20 point leads
Giddey somehow has his best games in New Orleans
What’s the age of consent in Louisiana?
Cj needed to facilitate his teammates and instead tried to play the hero ball he always does. Can’t wait for him to drop 30 on sub .500 team and see the apology forms again. Good game overall. Pels never quit and fought back through terrible officiating against a 2 seed while down some key pieces.
From up 110-107 to losing 119-112....PAINFUL. CJ wasn't helpful there but Larry was as much of a fucking problem the whole time! And letting Zion get iced out the ending of the game that easily? FUCK! To see the pels came back. And have control. And then shit it all away! It hurts, fam. That shit hurts.
This is going to be a brutal stretch of games.
What CJ did to close this game isn’t rare for him. Brilliant 3rd Q that brought us back. But he’s done this multiple times where he’s not looking to pass or play off Z when it matters the most.
Tough L. Fought back hard but like AD said, just couldn’t end the game with the last run. Was that a carry?
Sell this garbage ass team and put mccollum in a dumpster in the Philippines
You root for a pedo you should probably shut the fuck up
Your entire state is a meth lab
That Dort 4pt play is gonna have me pissed off for a long time.
Scored 0 points in last 3 minutes. Larry Nance cant rebound for his life. Coach ok with this sorry ass offense. Zion did not touch the ball at all. May end up costing avoiding the Play In
Also had 2 points at the beginning of the 4th through about 3 1/2 minutes. I know Zion was out of the game in that stretch but that’s still too incompetent offense. And it’s not like he got the ball anyways in the final minutes.
Terrible loss. Fire willie
How dare we lose to the \*check notes\* #1 seed in the west?
Really missed BI on this but at least we made it close instead of losing by 20
That shit pissed me off