Can we play a complete 48 minute game? Because I haven’t seen it happen in over 2 weeks (outside of maybe the HOU game). Yeah, we’ve won some games but some were against teams tanking & resting and very few were what I would call “impressive”. I thought we would come out and blow MIN outta the water early but we ended up in an Apollo Creed vs Rocky Balboa (1st movie…lol) battle for our lives that we were lucky to walk away from. Can’t continue that mindset as the competition ramps up.
How does MEM respond to the injury losses and the off-court mess created by Ja? Do they fold up 1st chance they get or do they fight like a cornered, wounded animal? I thought MIN was on the verge of doing the former but they circled the wagons and emerged with the 8th seed…frankly, it was admirable and unexpected. Gotta see what MEM is made of.
Do we really hold the “experience” advantage? Lebron & AD have the bubble tournament award but that was awhile ago and now we have a large segment of our rotation with only a coupla months under their belts, a 1st time head coach, and 1 mediocre play-in performance. MEM made a deep run last year with basically the same group. Feels like they’re more battle-tested to me…but we’ll see.
MEM backcourt advantage vs LAL frontcourt advantage…which one is bigger? The injuries give us a huge edge down low but Ja, Bane, Tyus Jones (best backup PG in the league), and Kenard (deadeye 3pt sniper) are gonna be hard to contain.
Which team can make the switch to playoff style basketball the quickest? The pace slows down, the refs swallow their whistles, each possession has importance, guys close out on open shots just a lil bit quicker, rotations are tighter, emotions are higher, no easy layups….I love playoff basketball because it’s so different from the regular season. It’s why I tend to discount much of what happened before April…this is just different.
Finally, which team will make the correct adjustments? You can’t keep showing your opponent the same look when you’re playing each other 4,5,6,7 games in a row. The coach who does the best job in this area probably wins the series. Gotta have that 2nd & 3rd gear to go to.
I feel like this is gonna be tight throughout…can’t wait.
I will say containing Kenard and neutralizing Tillman should be of paramount importance. They should not be overlooked. Also, we must avoid turnovers which have been our biggest problem.