Best Of Three

The Cavs and the Warriors swept their respective series.

The Celtics, Wizards, Rockets and the Spurs are going to Game 5 tied at 2-2. The Wizards are playing great, and the Rockets figured out the Spurs. In previous seasons, I would have said that if the Wizards and the Rockets win Game 5, then I'm picking a Celtic and a Spur in Game 6. Or along the lines of I want to make sure I don't lose the chance of picking the star players.

Not this season. I am sticking to my guns. If that means I will crash and burn in the Conference Finals and The Finals, then so be it. Boom or bust.

Game 5: Capela and Gortat
Game 6: Gordon and Porter
Game 7: Beverley and Morris

UPDATE: Staying the course, although Beverley seems good for Game 6 :)
UPDATE2: Switched Game 6 to Beverley because Mills is his opposing starter PG, and Gordon as third guard on floor seems less effective.

Comments

  1. I think you are taking the right strategy here. Might as well go for it. If the Wizards or Rockets win game 5, however, I won't be joining you, mostly because it's a big risk for two teams that in my opinion get destroyed by the Cavaliers and Warriors, who are clearly the best teams.

    For future years, if you aren't having a great year and really want to make a push to win, stick by a contrarian pick that you believe in. For example, pick only Spurs in the second round and take that chance your feeling the Rockets can win the series holds true. For me, I had that Wizard feeling at the start of the series. I've picked two Wizards so far, Gortat and Beal. If I'd gone with Celtics, I could have banked on a Wizard win, which would have near guaranteed me first place if it happened. Weirdly enough, having not picked a Celtic so far, and now my best play is to go for a Celtics series win, as there have been plenty of people who picked one or two so far when they went down 0-2 to Chicago. However, if the Wizards win Game 5, I'm not taking the chance and picking Isaiah Thomas.

    For tonight, I've got trevor Ariza. He's playing a huge amount of minutes right now, and his three point shooting is being utilized quite effectively. If Houston moves on to the next round, I'm not sure how much Ariza will be used. He didn't have that strong of a season, but he's on fire right now, so I'll ride that. For game 6, it will be one of James Harden or Kawhi Leonard.

    For tomorrow, I've got Otto Porter. Like Trevor Ariza, he's getting a lot of usage right now in the series. For game 6, it will be one of John Wall or Isaiah Thomas.

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  2. The Jazz haven´t been good for me this postseason. In the end I picked Shelvin Mack because he was pretty solid in the last games. Then I decided to change the pick to... Rodney Hood, of course. Even Joe Johnson would have been better, how sad is that?

    Tonight, I really made a big mistake. Picked Capela in one game and it turned out I already picked him. Luckily my buddy mailed me at work to inform me of my mistake.

    So, Nene is out, Parker is out. Who is better off with that deal? I still believe in the Spurs, hence the Capela pick. But I am not too sure, therefore it´s Aldridge in the other game.

    Game 6 of this series will be easy. Harden or Leonard. The same pick that just about everybody will chose. The other series? Not so easy.

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  3. It is an easy call for me. Ive picked two rockets and no spurs. So pick aldrige, hoping for a big game 5 and then pick the best player, kawhi or harden, for game 6.


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  4. Maccabi de LevantarMay 10, 2017 at 10:18 AM

    Finally a good pick for me with Ryan Anderson and a Rockets loss. The only problem was watching Kawhi not playing the final seconds of the game and OT. I hope he can recover, or I am not so sure the Spurs can advance without him. Obviously my pick goes to The Beard. I guess Manu can't block all of his shots :-p

    Tonight, I am not sure at all about who wins this series. Celtics have home court, but my feelings are that the Wizards have been better by now. But I will stick to my guns too, and pick Gortat. I hope Celtics can improve and advance with all of their roster available

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  5. The next two days are the exciting ones for me - James Harden and John Wall back-to-back. I'm able to watch both games from start to finish, which is one of the reasons why I didn't pick them in Game 5 as I wasn't going to be able to watch. Sometimes, you've just gotta save your stars for the times you get to watch and enjoy them put up the points for you! (Or cringe if it is going badly...)

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    1. I guess that would a cringe tonight :S. On the bright side, 20 of 31 people on Google Drive had Harden, so I wasn't alone in my pain.

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  6. So what happened? The Spurs and the Rockets win their games convincingly and battle to the death in g5. In the end it was a block by Manu that sealed it. Well, that and Danny Green going nuts in OT. With or without Kawhi I think the Spurs will advance. Of course it´s Harden in g6 (just like everybody else, so basically it doesn´t matter what he puts up). If necessary it will be another Rocket in g7.

    Boston won its two home games (one in OT), Washington won its two home games, then it was 36 minutes of garbage time in g5. No contest. I don´t even believe the Wizards will make it back to Boston. The next home game for the Celtics will be against LeBron. Where they will lose, probably. For g6 it´s a coin flip for me between Otto Porter Jr. and Markieff Morris. Right now I picked Otto, saving Markieff for g7, but that might change yet.

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  7. I still think the Rockets will win the series especially with Kawhi's injury. With Kawhi questionable today I'm going with Mills as he was their go-to player after Kawhi went out.

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  8. After 1 quarter Harden has 2 points and NO field goal ATTEMPTS!

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    1. All 3 guards in the small ball lineup struggled.

      No surprise Pop has seen this before in all 300 years of his NBA coaching career... then will just dismiss it later with a poker face gaze.

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    2. 5 points and THREE FOULS in the 1st half, not only invisible at doing good things but remembers how to get himself on pace to foul out! #FAKEMVP

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  9. EFU HARDEN and EFU Rockets that was the most despicable performance I have seen in history! Yes teams have lost by 40+ but they weren't at full strength getting blown out by a shorthanded team on the road much less at home! Harden 20 PAR in GD and not used in FP!

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  10. Maccabi de LevantarMay 12, 2017 at 9:23 AM

    I really didn't expect that poor performance by the Rockets. I guess it was too late to pick Harden in a team with a 7 players rotation. I hope Wall doesn't repeat the same kind of performance tonight. People who picked them before elimination games would benefit too much to recover later

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    1. Harden has always performed bad in elimination games. I got PAR of (9,16 and 23) the past few years feeling under the weather except last year when I pick him earlier.

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    2. Now you tell me, should have taken him in Game 5 where he had his best performance in the series (53 PAR) or otherwise in Games 3 (50) or 4 (45). Game 6 was not only his worst showing of the playoffs but he wasn't even best or 2nd best on his own team with Trever Ariza (26 and Clint Capela (27) beating him and went under HALF his average PAR. That being said, he got a 9 one year? Talk about total disapearance, and he calls himself MVP. Guess what he did upon elimination or may I rephrase it HUMILINATION (humiliation and elimination combined).... The CLUB!!!!! https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/james-harden-hits-club-houstons-season-ending-39-point-loss-173218527.html Yes people were still chanting MVP after that garbage performance and they must have been drunk doing so!!!!! Having an apparent suck history in elimination games proves he's a #FakeMVP !!!!!

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    3. Yup, that is what I will do next season if his team does not advance to the next round. I been burned by Harden the 4th time I picked him. Indicating he is under the flu or hidden injury, this ta the most unacceptable performance I've seen in a game.

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  11. Felt bad for Harden pickers, but I think it's just a very isolated case. Stars should still be performing better in elim games. Just unlucky.

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  12. So the Wiz finally won an elimination game at home to force G7. What a great game swapping baskets in the closing moment. Have Sat off b4 the WCF starts on Sun.

    Pick plan:

    Sun: Aldridge
    Mon: Horford/Morris I just think picking Horford is better this round then next round.

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