Joe Johnson was pre-picked for Monday's game, but the Nets' win in Game 3 ensures that I can still pick Joe in Game 5. I still think the Nets will lose the series; it just gives me extra time to pick from the other teams facing elimination on this date.
The Bucks extended their series but are expected to fall to the Bulls on the road. I recommend staying away from picking a Buck -- we do not know where their PRAs will fall. Giannis and MCW teased us with their Game 3 burst, but then fell back to earth in Game 4.
The Blazers who are facing a sweep are the preferred source of picks. LaMarcus Aldridge is a must-pick for those saving him for elimination. I like Damian Lillard in Game 4 because Mike Conley will not play due to injury. I already used both, and so my pick goes to the trending Nicolas Batum. I hope to get high 20s from him.
Good luck with your pick.
Disgusted by the 22 by DeRozan. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteEasiest pick ever for me tonight. I'm going Aldridge over Batum, Giannis or Johnson.
I had the feeling the Raptors wouldn't have their full hearts on that G4.
DeleteCertainly agree with the Batum pick. I'm jealous you get to pick him. If I could go back I'd take Lillard in game 3 and grab Batum today, and skip on Tyreke Evans altogether. For anybody thinking about a Brooklyn Net today, like Joe Johnson, don't. If they win game 4 and the Blazers lose, we are looking at picking at least 2 more Nets players, if not 3. Who would have thought the Nets would last this long.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure whether Lillard will be better with Conley out. There's a good chance he's dealing with Tony Allen all game. My hope in picking Lillard is that Allen picks up some fouls and then there will be nobody in the backcourt who can guard him. We shall see.
I'm really excited about tomorrow. Will write more about it tomorrow, but what will be interesting is what direction people take. Will you hedge your bets and play it safe, or will you risk it and decide who you think will win and pick from one team only? These are the questions you will need to have answered by tip off. I know what I'm doing, but more about that later.
Good point Tangent! I decided to follow your advice and go Batum. JJ was tempting but as you said, it's better to keep him for game 5 when the Blazers will probably be already on holidays.
DeleteCurious to hear your opinion on Spurs-Clippers, I keep on considering the Spurs as the winner team but if they lose game 5 I have to pick one from them. And if there will be a game 7 then, will be a coin toss. What an exciting series!
I'm with you Taong and Batum gets my pick for tonight, keeping JJ for wednesday's game 5 and probably facing elimination. I already picked LMA and Lillard, and I wanna ride Nicolas' hot streak! My last 3 picks are Ellis 45, Lillard 33 and Griffin 46, and happy with them after the 12 PRA by Lowry and the 8 by Thomas. My rank smiles a little bit more in 65 percentile lol.
ReplyDeleteAs for tomorrow it's Dirk time for me and I'll wait game 6 to decide which player to pick from either Clippers or Spurs. My idea of the Spurs winning the series didn't change after yesterday but I wait to see which team will be facing elimination. CP3 for the Clippers or Leonard/Duncan for the Spurs.
Taking a look to round 2, these will be the probable matchups:
-CAVS-BULLS
-HAWKS-WIZARDS
-WARRIORS-GRIZZLIES
-SPURS/CLIPS-ROCKETS
Right now I only picked Griffin from these 8 teams, and round 2 will be way more difficult to predict and I hope more balanced. There's still a lot of time to reach our targets guys!!
Good luck for tonight's pick!
true, lots of time left. those who picked on the winning side and playing the weekly prize are going to plummet in the next rounds. your 65p for all we know is 90p among those who play this game the right way.
DeleteRound 2 will be crucial imho. It will be a jungle because the predictions are very difficult and after that round will be very difficult to recover with just 4 teams in contention and less games to play.
Deleteglad for the batum rebound in the last second and the foul from zbo. pushed batum to 29, not bad
DeleteLMA owners are also happy when Batum missed just so that he could grab a quick additional 3 PRA. How nice of him. Share the love.
DeleteI am so stupid. Never, I repeat, NEVER change a pick. I switched from Dirk to DeRozan. Bam, blowout in Washington, total lack of effort from the Raptors who hurt me this time around. Would have been good if I had switched Lowry and DeRozan, but this sucked big time.
ReplyDeleteBut at least the Mavs won (with 33 PRA from Barea and 31 from Aminu?), so I don't have to chose in the difficult series and still get to pick my man after all. Dirk day after tomorrow.
As for tonight I will chase some PRs, no As. Brook Lopez gets my pick. Maybe the Blazers will avoid the sweep and I get to pick Lillard, maybe not. I hope that Lopez will get more than Lillard. This week, my picks haven't been good, so how about a nice little 31-18-1, just to show he can dish out an assist if he wants to?
DeMar's PRA is not much lower than Dirk's was, so that's alright
DeleteHow about Jimmy Butler? Next series against LeBron, so maybe he's a good choice?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, Damian!
DeleteSo Batum gets my pick...
DeleteThe one team that has had the most hideous performance and lack of total effort in the 2015 Playoffs has been the Toronto Raptors. First this team started out by getting rocked in their own building losing the first 2 games of the series. Then they went back to Washington and got beat in Game #3, then got absolutely throttled in Game #4 by 31 Points. After losing the first two home games it came as little surprise that this team got swept, but getting totally annihilated in the process was a sheer disgrace. Even #8 teams taking on #1 teams played better and had a better showing for themselves than what the Raptors did.
ReplyDeleteMy pick DeMar DeRozen (22 PRA) was nothing special in this final game, which was short of his best playoff game (44 PRA). That was a net loss of -22, just by changing the days of when he was picked. All other Raptors players were disgraceful in this game, except for Kyle Lowry (33 PRA) shockingly, who was nearly a complete waste of space in every other game of this series (also having 12, 17, and 26 PRA lack of efforts, although the 26 PRA game was okay).
The Dallas Mavericks in contrast fought back on home court playing with pride and lived to fight another day (where they will probably get beat back @ Houston), but at least they fought and did not get beat on their home court. So Kudos to them.
The best PRA from losing teams came from the Dallas vs. Houston game (mainly since you don't really know who will win Spurs vs. Clippers at this point). Monta Ellis put up a nice crisp 40 PRA, JJ Barea had 33 PRA, same as Lowry for the Raptors, Isaiah Thomas rebounded to a nice 35 PRA game, Jared Sullinger came out of nowhere for 32 for the Celtics after doing next to nothing throughout their first round series. Al Farouq Aminu even had 30 PRA for the Mavericks.
So there was good PRA scores to be had from losing teams, just not from the Raptors, other than Kyle Lowry, and DeMar DeRozen was pretty much worthless vs. his expectations. He was 30+ in every other game with a series high 44 PRA, but that was not to be last night.
Atlanta has not exactly overwhelmed the Nets being a #1 seed vs. a #8. In fact the Nets won Game #3 at home in that series. So I will stay away from that. The Bulls should wrap things up tonight, and Milwaukee is not exactly teeming with superstars, so I won't pick from them at this point.
ReplyDeleteI will pick from the Portland vs. Memphis series. Mike Conley is out, replaced by Beno Udrih supposedly in the starting lineup. How this affects Memphis is anyone's guess, but I think they will still end up winning this series after being up 3-0. They might lose tonight in Portland though (or sweep if they adjust well to Conley's loss). Even if Portland does win tonight though, I still think they will lose in Memphis as the Grizzlies have owned the Trailblazers especially when playing at Memphis in the past.
I am liking LaMarcus Aldridge tonight for my pick in an elimination game playing in front of his home crowd. Hoping for a huge effort out of him of 45+ PRA tonight to get back on track and get ready for the 2nd round.
LA should perform well to sell himself as a FA. Might be his last game as a Blazer. Portland is already talking about it even before G4.
Delete33 with Lowry was awesome to think if I actually picked him on Friday instead of Dirk when I was I would have lost out on alot of pts.
ReplyDeleteToday I have LMA I actually almost forgot to pick him some how yeh I know crazy !!!
Taong if possible for tomorrow's write up could you mention the pros/cons for each team from the Clip/Spurs series it should help alot out. no pressure :)
Sure thing!
DeleteThe 0% who picked Deron Williams are jumping for joy right now. Wow. What a performance!
ReplyDeleteAnd Nets stay alive hehe! Brooklyn crowd is resilient
Delete