How Can You Stop This?

with the nba regular season coming to an end it's time we talk about the postseason and what we might expect to see over the next several weeks just a few days ago championship odds were updated and the brooklyn nets came out on top as the heavy favorites to win it all the lakers are the defending champs but plagued by injuries and lack of depth they have yet to show anything more than flashing signs of their championship pedigree the clippers have the third best odds but after doing their best impression of the 2016 warriors last season the doubt surrounding this team's postseason success remains after a blazing hot start to the season the jazz were looking great but with donovan mitchell missing a month of action and still sidelined they'll need to find another gear if they want to make a deep playoff run the 76ers have great momentum going into the playoffs but they have yet to prove their system works in the playoffs and the bucks are still having nightmares of that whooping that he gave them last year of course it would be just as easy to pick apart the nets and their weaknesses going into the postseason their subpar chemistry the constantly changing rotation and lack of identity and the glaring fact that their stars seem to be using some sort of tag team strategy refusing to all suit up together on the same night taking turns playing every other game but there is a reason why oddsmakers see brooklyn as the favorites going into this postseason this team is way better than their play numbers or even wins reflect we will soon see the full potential of the durant harden and kyrie big three and it may just be some of the greatest basketball we've ever seen so far this season this trio has played eight games together a shockingly low number that resulted in six wins and two losses and in those eight games here are the stats of their big three now at face value these numbers look well underwhelming durant averaging less than 24 points per game hardin putting up great rebound and assist numbers but averaging nearly half as many points as he did last season and kyrie clocking in a very kyrie stat line but when i see these numbers i see three of the game's most elite playmakers not even playing to their full potential and still winning 75 percent of their games when they play together these are the numbers of three players who are still learning how to play with each other still learning each other's strengths and weaknesses and in the process making quick work of most teams they play and possibly even more revealing is that when at least two of the big three play together in any combination the nets have a 35 and 13 record or about a 73 win percentage which over the course of an 82 game regular season is about 60 wins so we are talking about a team with hardly any chemistry and a roster rotation changing every other game that is still good enough to win 60 games in a regular season with just two of their three stars playing on any given night there has never been a team like this one when facing the best teams in the nba the nets have a record of 16-6 a 73 win percentage which means the nets have a better record against the top nine teams in the nba than the most winningest team in the nba has against the entire league this team was built for big moments against good teams aka the playoffs but when i say that durant hardin and kyrie have hardly played any time together i mean that if you caught the nets on any given night you would swear someone was lying about this big three even existing 72 games and they only managed to lace up together in just eight either kevin durant is hurt and the other two are playing or hardens hurts and kyrie and durant are cooking up or kyrie is on a trip of spiritual awakening and durant and hardin are torching some poor team watching these three guys play together is kind of like spotting a ufo it virtually never happens but when it does it's unbelievable this season this trio has played just 202 minutes together on the court equivalent to just over four games worth of minutes together for perspective when lebron and anthony davis paired up last season they played 1455 minutes together before the playoffs when kevin durant joined the warriors back in the 2016-17 nba season the trio of him stephen curry and klay thompson played 1127 minutes together before the playoffs and when the trio of lebron james dwayne wade and chris bosh joined forces in 2010 they played 1916 minutes together before the playoffs began in fact over the last decade compared to trios that won the championship the nets big three has by far the least amount of minutes played together it is staggering that the favorites to win the nba championship this season have played such few minutes together on the court but if there was a big three that could pull this incredible feat off it's this one but as valuable as each of these players are to the net's success this postseason the key to their historic offense is james harden the engine to this entire system one aspect of harden's game that is criminally underrated is his playmaking ability when he isn't forced to score 35 points a game to keep his team afloat the beard is a master at setting up his teammates and creating an effortlessly flowing offense this season with the nets when hardin plays whether he's playing with his fellow superstars or not the nets have a 29 and 7 record an unbelievable 81 winning percentage and the more you watch him work his magic with this offense it's pretty obvious why check out this play here jeff green passes the ball to harden for a high pick and roll now pause it here because hardin can hit any shot on the court he demands the attention of three defenders two of them completely committing to the ball which allows hardin to make this easy pass to green for the bucket there's not much you can do about this if marketing doesn't close out on james he's got an open lane or an open jumper which then forces valentine to step up which opens up shaman in the corner on this play hardin comes off the screen and look at this look at this four different defenders have completely committed to guarding harden this is what happens when you have an all-world bucket getter running your offense the defense is forced to pick their poison and this is what happens when that all-world bucket getter is also one of the best playmakers in the game and here's the catch kyrie and durant aren't even on the court here's another play from that same game hardin brings the ball down the defense scrambles knowing he can pull up from anywhere gotcha open cut inside for an easy bucket and even if hardin doesn't make this pass the open cut by brown forces the defender to pick him up leaving kevin durant open outside all of this because the guy playing the point demands multiple defenders the minute he crosses half court this was happening all night long hardin controlling the game inside and out while scoring just 5 points 5. the nets can break you down in more ways than you can think of and this is just one of them while making this video i read something interesting someone said that before hardin arrived in brooklyn the nets were the clippers of the east with two great iso scores bad losses underwhelming chemistry and constant load management and i'd have to agree with that but with hardin's ultra elite playmaking ability kyrie and kd get to exclusively do what they do best get buckets add in the most accurate three-point shooter in the nba and joe harris and you've got the most lethal offense ever assembled sure the chemistry between these guys is still a work in progress but let's be honest hard and durant and kyrie have all been to the finals in fact between the three of them they have eight finals appearances and some of the biggest shots in finals history realistically if you had to choose two players in the entire nba to have the ball in their hands with a championship on the line who would you pick personally i'm going with those boys out in brooklyn two of the most lethal crunch time players the nba has ever seen see some teams are built for the regular season you see this every year they pile up win after win and look like contenders going into the postseason then come the playoffs and they fall apart and you question the value of those regular season victories well this nets team is on the other end of that spectrum a team that isn't going to amass a crazy regular season win total but when it matters most they're gonna run you out of the building and to show just how different this big three is here's a graph of the best crunch time scores in the nba with points per game in the fourth quarter on the y-axis and true shooting percentage on the x-axis this is every single player in the nba that has played considerable minutes in the fourth quarter but most of these guys aren't making a huge impact in late game situations near the top you'll find the best players in the nba kawaii julius randle jimmy butler the presumable league mvp nicole yokic go even further and you'll find the league's best crunch time scores damien lillard jason tatum giannis embiid curry here's kyrie here's hardin and here's kd yeah good luck to the other guys [Music] you

Channel: JxmyHighroller

Views: 1,730,964

Keywords: LeBron James, LA Lakers, House of Highlights, ESPN, NBA highlights, Jimmy Highroller, Kobe Bryant, NBA trash talk, Michael Jordan highlights, Buzzer Beaters, Kobe Bryant's best game, LA Clippers, Miami Heat, Shannon Sharpe, James Harden Nets, Liangelo Ball, Detriot Pistons, NBA Trades, Ball Brothers, Lamelo Ball Practice, Kevin Durant, Brooklyn Nets, Kyrie Irving, Harden Trade, James Harden, Nets Big 3, Ankle Breakers, Lamelo Ball, Sports Cards, Trash Talk

Id: zHytqDhPVgE

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Tue May 25 2021