As First Round Series End, Let’s Play The Blame Game
Apr 25, 2015; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis (23) and head coach Monty Williams walk off the court after they were eliminated from the playoffs by the Golden State Warriors following game four of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at the Smoothie King Center. The Warriors defeated the Pelicans 109-98. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports
Three playoff series ended over this weekend, all of them with a sweep. As we all like to point fingers, I thought I could help play The Blame Game by quickly summarizing the shooting efficiency of the involved players. I will only show players that averaged at least four shot attempts per game, with the number of shots shown next to the players name. So you won’t see the 2 of 10 performance from Omer Asik (all shots closer than 6 feet from the basket). Of course, these plots are a broad simplification of what went on, so please don’t use it for too much finger wagging. The sweeps are ranked from least to most embarrassing.
Golden State versus New Orleans: Good job, good effort
I guess this is as high as you can hold your heads after you lose four games in a row. Anthony Davis is a beast and it is good to see Eric Gordon back in shape, who scored 5.7 points per 100 possessions more than during the regular season. Even Ryan Anderson looked more like 26 than 36 for stretches (By the way: How is Ryan Anderson only 26 years old? That is almost as baffling to me as Kendrick Perkins being younger than me…). But then you have Tyreke Evans, Norris Cole, Quincy Pondexter and a not 100% recovered Jrue Holiday on the one side and the Splash Brothers on the other side. You start to understand the inevitability of the whole thing.
Cleveland versus Boston: Well that escalated quickly
What a useless last game. Ignoring all of the unnecessary things that went on yesterday and focusing on the shot info it becomes clear: If two of your three players with the most shot attempts (Isaiah Thomas and Evan Turner) shoot more than 10% eFG below league average and the third one is also at least 5% below average, you have some problems. Even holding LeBron to a paltry 53 TS% doesn’t help you then.
Toronto versus Washington: Insert an image of a dumpster fire here
It is the year 2014: Paul Pierce has a playoff true-shooting percentage of 81%. DeMar DeRozan (46% TS, 76 shot attempts), Kyle Lowry (40% TS, 56 shot attempts) and Lou Williams (43% TS, 47 shot attempts) are your go-to-guys. But my favorite tidbit is: Drew Gooden, who played for 11 different teams, plays more than 20 minutes per game and scores 22 points per 100 possessions. Randy Wittman is a genius.