Round 3, Fight!


Congratulations to the Indiana Pacers (for earning a rematch with the Heat), and to the Oklahoma City Thunder (for their third West Finals appearance in the last four years)!!!

And I am giving kudos to the Washington Wizards (for their deepest run in years) and the Los Angeles Clippers (for their resilience). Watch out for John Wall next year. And watch out for a much improved Clippers organisation, too!


Now, let's see who people think will win in the Conference Finals...


Comments

  1. 25 from Jordan - I consider that a victory! He didn't match up well against OKC so getting that was great. Paul and Griffin were business as usual - I'm glad DeAndre kept it close! I like the Heat and the Thunder to win. I think this is Durant's year.

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    1. That is very good for Jordan...... Good for you!
      .....MR RELIABLE :)

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    2. Will certainly be a super BIG year for KD if they win it all. MVP, Finals MVP and a title. But wait, let's not count the chickens because the eggs came first (go figure hehe!).

      I think it's the Spurs. Then OKC next year, especially if Heat loses this year and LeBron bolts.

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  2. As I have no way of watching the games I always walk through the play-by-play after the fact to kind of have a feeling of "I don´t know what´s going to happen, it´s exciting" :)

    When I started scrolling down the Clippers game I saw two things: BG kept missing lots of shots (8 for 20 in the end) and the game seemd destined for another blowout. But then the Thunder came back and managed to win. So no game 7, but at least I can save all of the Thunder´s players (meaning: I have still the two picks they provide).

    BGs 37 was good, even if could have been a little better, but KD was crazy. 39/16 is insane. That leaves me at 743 (or 801 virtually, yeah, cracked the 800). Now I am going away for the weekend and I don´t know if I can pick for sunday. Not that it would matter too much :D

    But for all the ballyhoo in these playoffs, what do we have in the conference finals? 1 versus 2 in the East and in the West. Booooring... ;)
    And everybody said these were the greatest playoffs ever. The results are still the same in the end.

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    1. just don't forget to set up your sunday pick right before you leave.

      enjoy your weekend!

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  3. I can not believe the Clippers blew that since I lost Blake Griffin when I really believed there would be a G7 after the way G5 ended and I could have avoided picking Pacers/Heat until G2 which was big given I only have 2 legitimate Pacers left. It sounds like the Clippers anger was good for the 1st quarter only as they lost each of the last 3 quarters all by at least 6 points. As bad as this was Clippers in 7 would have been worse as I would have used both major Clippers, they'd have advanced and not 1 but 2 great players would be gone. Still sucks though needed G7.

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    1. I looked at your recent comments; you didn't say you still had Griffin. :( If I had known, I would have pushed you to pick Griffin over Wall. If there is a G7, then pick DeAndre.

      Anyways, your gamble indeed would have been sneaky and sweet if it worked.

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    2. Never again will I expect a Game 7 after what happened with the Clippers. I felt they were so upset from the Game 5 collapse that they'd go up by double digits early and not look back. Well I was right about the first part, but they did more than look back as they lost each of the last 3 quarters by at least 6 points each. While it of course was bad to lose Blake it also sucks that I have to pick in G1 of Heat/Pacers with an already thin lineup to pick from. With that being said if that G7 had taken place the Clippers had won it would be twice as bad as I'd lose not 1 but 2 great players and have no one legitimate to pick from the Clippers.

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  4. Serge Ibaka (calf) to miss the rest of the playoffs. Not good news for everyone, and especially not good news for those having used any or all of the OKC Thunder roster already. Not that Ibaka is reliable by any means, but it will be a transition finding out who will be his replacement, and who will post up the best PRA in his absence.

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    1. KD will have to do more rebs to offset Ibaka's. So he will be a nice Game1 pick. For those who already used KD, Westbrook will be a hot pick as well.

      Then everyone should watch Game 1 to see who will step up and deserve to be picked. I will guess that Adams will pick up the slack, just like he did Game 7

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  5. Wow I miss out on Ibaka but I used KD too. KD would have had some monster games oh well. Spurs in 6

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    1. Same here. But Spurs in 5. Ibaka is integral to this team's system. Watch Spurs take advantage of the absence of OKC's best rim protector. Spurs I think wins 2 home games, steal 1 in OKC, then win Game 5. Spurs cannot win Game 6 in OKC.

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  6. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!!

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    1. I feel bad for KD now. You know how it is losing Harden to FAcy, Westbrook to injury last year, then Ibaka now. Can't seem to catch a break.

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    2. No kidding.... Adam's will pull the weight hopefully.

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    3. Harden was traded haha. And the Thunder didn't get much in return.....

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  7. Btw, DTTF Conference Finals are now open. Set your picks for Game 1 and whole Week 5, before you go off with your weekend.

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  8. Since Serge Ibaka is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs, I am expecting Durant to play PF at some stretches of the game while Caron Butler plays SF. Nick Collison also gets a boost while Perry Jones might become relevant. Overall, this hurts OKC's chance at winning the title and more importantly, those who used KD and Russ are in big trouble. Will see first how OKC will react to this scenario. Might go with a Spur on Game 1 just because of the limited choices in OKC

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    1. Don't forget Adams too. If you still have KD, might be good to pick him. Otherwise, Tim Duncan may be a viable plug-in while the Thunder figure out what to do with their frontcourt.

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    2. I also like Parker for that reason. Against the Clippers, they couldn't stop Paul from the outside. And without Ibaka, who's going to stop Parker from going to the rim? I'm just hoping that Tony is healthy enough to log significant minutes. I'm picking him while I can.

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    3. Right, parker too is a good choice. Use him while that hamstring injury is still Grade1

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  9. Not sure if I'm still with OKC to win the series, but we'll see. As long as they have Durant and Westbrook, that will count for something. I'm feeling pretty good after a well played and very luck round 2 with Paul 44 (playoff best), Williams 23, Durant 53, Aldridge 29, Griffin 46 (best), Lillard 33, Beal 30, Batum 36, Wall 37 (best), Johnson 44 (best) and Jordan 25. Here's is where my team stands:

    The Mav Nots:
    PRA: 872
    Rank: 626
    Percentile: 97
    Used: Paul George, Kevin Durant

    But enough with the old, let's talk round 3. I've identified the guys I want to pick. They are:

    - Pacers: West (25.5), Stephenson (24.7), Hill (19.6), Hibbert (13.6)
    - Heat: James (41.8), Wade (25.4), Bosh (21.1), Chalmers (14.6), Allen (14.2), and perhaps Birdman (10.9)
    - Spurs: Parker (26.7), Duncan (25.9), Leonard (22.6), Ginobili (21.8), Splitter (19.2), Diaw (14.1), and perhaps Green (11.9), Mills (10.8) or Belinelli (9.1)
    - Thunder: Westbrook (43.0), Jackson (16.8), and perhaps Adams (6.5), Butler (10.5) or Perkins (9.4) depending on who steps up without Ibaka.

    That is 17 players not including my "perhaps" guys. The most games this can go is 21, and 18 is a more likely amount of games. I feel good about that. My strategy in the East - make sure all 4 Pacers have been picked, and for every Indiana win, pick one of the big 3 from Miami. That will last all 4 to 7 games of a series I don't know what to expect from. In the West, there aren't many Thunder left. I was OK with that when I picked Durant, because look at the Spurs. So I'm going to start with a Pacer (Stephenson) and a Spur (Parker) and go from there. Not much more set in stone, I'm going to be flexible depending on how the games go. Best of luck this round to you all!

    Keep up the excellent work with the blog Taong! The league on DTTF is 2222 members strong, easily the largest league. That's just awesome stuff!

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    1. Awesome pick plan, Tangent. With that roster available you can still crack 99percentile. I envy you, I'm currently at 93p and having used KD,PG,DW,TP. I gotta be crafty onwards to have a chance to crack 96p.

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    2. im at 99% lol feeling pretty good about this, even though ive used kd and pg already

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    3. That's strong smetrokiva!
      Keep it up

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    4. I wish I had 4 good Pacer players to pick from. You are in great shape, other than using Paul George. Using Durant from the other series may hurt, but at least the Spurs have extra players to pick from for that series, even if OKC is very limited. For the finals, it would be better for the Spurs to advance from a DTTF perspective, as OKC has few options past the Big 2, and not many good ones. Adams and Collison now are definite players, depending how this works out.

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  10. I wish they would DTTF would straighten their page up.
    .....when I click on HOT picks it still has LAC players listed in there
    Just makes it so confusing lol

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    1. They still show coz some haven't corrected their picks yet.

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    2. and still when I go to the section to pick my player an list it by percentage pick... there is no percentage next to each player.. it's cool though... lol

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    3. Do support really respond back to people's issue? I sent like 7 emails to them and no one has respond back yet. I had Noah pick lock-in on 4/29 for 31 PRA. One week later, my pick was gone and so did my points for that day. I'm so disappointed with them.

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  11. Went with Chris Paul on the Clippers elimination game, and he posted up 43 PRA (one off of his playoff high of 44), so I am quite ecstatic with that. Also the Clippers lost, so no drama playing both Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, as the Clippers have since been eliminated. Everything worked well for a change.

    Now we move on to the Conference Finals. In the Indiana/Miami series, I have quite a mess to deal with as I already used Paul George, George Hill, and David West from the Pacers, leaving only Lance Stephenson and Roy Hibbert as good(?) options, and a bunch of scrubs that will be very lucky to get 10 PRA. Unfortunately in my situation, since a sweep is very unlikely here, I am going to have to mix and match Pacer scrubs in with a couple of Heat players to try to make it though this series. So I need to plan for at least 5 or 6 players here. The Heat have at most 8 options on their team, one great one (LeBron for an elimination game if necessary), Wade who can be very decent, Bosh who can completely disappear vs. Indiana (only cracked 20+ PRA in two games out of ten), Mario Chalmers, who can reach low 20's if lucky, and some scrubs capable of posting PRA scores in the upper teens.

    So choices are not good for me to say the least, with already using 3 Pacers, and the 2 best options, before the Miami/Indiana series even started. Indiana doesn't have much of a bench, and really only use 4 players that even post numbers higher than 10 PRA. Of those choices, C.J. Watson, Luis Scola, Evan Turner, and if really desperate, Ian Mahinmi, seems to be it. Scola seems the most capable, then Watson, then Turner, and these are the only three players I would even think of picking, at least until I see something further that would offer a better choice.

    With this game being played at Indiana, I will roll the dice with Evan Turner today, and hope he can crack 10+ PRA, which I would deem somewhat of a success. I definitely don't want any part of Turner on the road. I know this is sad. That's why you do not want to pick from winning teams, in earlier rounds. Otherwise you end up with this mess in later rounds. But it is what it is.

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