X's T'wolves (NBA 2K11)

[Valor]

Bravo X, fantastic series victory
Now for the title!!

[Lamrock]

I admire the audacity of the pro-rated playoffs. Sounds like something I'd consider. (once I considered a super pro-rated season with 6 minute quarters for play and sim where I just multiply the game scores and player stats by 2)

[The X]

Bravo X, fantastic series victory
Now for the title!!

Would be good to win my first title since with Nuggets in Live '04 but will be tough road ahead. Bench is finally stepping up big time now. Afflalo has been HUGE off the bench & also handy contributions from rookies Sharpe & Buford in key moments.

I admire the audacity of the pro-rated playoffs. Sounds like something I'd consider. (once I considered a super pro-rated season with 6 minute quarters for play and sim where I just multiply the game scores and player stats by 2)

It just didn't feel right to say, 2-1 series victory. At least how I'm doing it illustrates how epic (or not) the series were.

I'm finding my scores are too high on 12 minute quarters with my hi octane team (scores between 110-120 in most games), but wouldn't change length this late in the season.

[Cruzerr]

X what the fuck did you just do? How did you pull that off? Great job. I understand that you are putting your main offense on Beasley for sure?

[yeahnah]

Wow. Congrats on beating the Lakers!

The Wolves are my favourite team so I take extra joy in seeing them get up again. It'll be a very fair dinkum effort if you can win the title, so good bloody luck

[Axel The Great]

Congrats on the upset, X. Of all people, I probably get the most joy out of seeing the Lakers get upset like that. That Hungarian point guard sounds like a Rajon Rondo (because of the sagging off), and Trevor Ariza (because of the low shooting percentage).

[Fresh8]

Kobe was a monster!

[The X]

X what the fuck did you just do? How did you pull that off? Great job. I understand that you are putting your main offense on Beasley for sure?

I adapted, as any good teams should do in the playoffs. Maximise my strengths & exploits their weaknesses. They blew me out in opener & gave me a scare when series went back to Minny, but I held on & team got hot in that 3rd quarter & rest is history.

Beasley was my option in the Lakers' series since he could take guys like Gasol out to the perimeter. Whereas in my current Nuggets series he's been woeful since Nuggets are more mobile & he wastes all his energy running around screens & after Melo. I need to make adjustments in that series & I will.

That's the thing with my team, different guys will step up on different nights or alternatively none will step up. I've got a pretty good team, I just don't have a seasoned starter at centre or point guard. Atm, Love is more of a focal point against a team like Nuggets but no point him trying to going singlehandedly against Gasol & Bynum. I learnt that pretty quickly in game 1. I'm finding Afflalo & Buford have become bigger assets in Nuggets series, whereas Rubio is a huge liability.

Wow. Congrats on beating the Lakers!

The Wolves are my favourite team so I take extra joy in seeing them get up again. It'll be a very fair dinkum effort if you can win the title, so good bloody luck

Cheers, glad to see a Timberwolves fan since there aren't many of you around.

I'm trying my hardest to win the title, but feel I'll need to play to my peak & also have a bit of lady luck on my side to do it.

Congrats on the upset, X. Of all people, I probably get the most joy out of seeing the Lakers get upset like that. That Hungarian point guard sounds like a Rajon Rondo (because of the sagging off), and Trevor Ariza (because of the low shooting percentage).

Cheers, I thought you'd be happy to see the Lakers ousted Kaffka was one of my keys to victory. Sadly I can't employ same tactics against Nuggets as Lawson (starter) & Billups (6th man) are giving me fits.

Kobe was a monster!

He was. Shame they didn't have Derek Fisher anymore. At least Renaldo Balkman played solidly

[Martti.]

Really nice seeing Turner putting up similar numbers to what he did in Ohio State.

[kibaxx7]

Superb upset on the Lakers! Sharpe just earned his contract.

[The X]

Really nice seeing Turner putting up similar numbers to what he did in Ohio State.

Agreed, I'm a big fan of Turner from his Buckeyes' days.

Superb upset on the Lakers! Sharpe just earned his contract.

Yep, was good to beat the Lala's. Interested to see how far I can advance.

[Lamrock]

Looking forward to seeing how you did against Denver, though I just can't see an X team winning the title

[The X]

Looking forward to seeing how you did against Denver, though I just can't see an X team winning the title

Series is still going on. It's down to the decider. I got a huge break in game 1 with Nene going down with injury for the series. Believe it or not I had a chance to close out Denver at home but Nuggets were on fire. Melo was at his best, scoring 40. I was throwing everything to slow him down, which opened it up for Earl Smith to light me up for 31 points. Should be a tight deciding game in the Mile High City.

The Minnesota dream continues....

[Fresh8]

Looking forward to seeing how you did against Denver, though I just can't see an X team winning the title

Series is still going on. It's down to the decider. I got a huge break in game 1 with Nene going down with injury for the series. Believe it or not I had a chance to close out Denver at home but Nuggets were on fire. Melo was at his best, scoring 40. I was throwing everything to slow him down, which opened it up for Earl Smith to light me up for 31 points. Should be a tight deciding game in the Mile High City.

The Minnesota dream continues....

Kinda hard to beat the Nugs if you let Melo and Earl combine for 70+

[The X]

Looking forward to seeing how you did against Denver, though I just can't see an X team winning the title

Series is still going on. It's down to the decider. I got a huge break in game 1 with Nene going down with injury for the series. Believe it or not I had a chance to close out Denver at home but Nuggets were on fire. Melo was at his best, scoring 40. I was throwing everything to slow him down, which opened it up for Earl Smith to light me up for 31 points. Should be a tight deciding game in the Mile High City.

The Minnesota dream continues....

Kinda hard to beat the Nugs if you let Melo and Earl combine for 70+

I never said my team's defense was good. We are historically bad.

I did hold them to about 35 combined in game 1 (Melo to like 20).

My starting lineup is being changed for decider. I need defence on court, so Afflalo is replacing Rubio & Buford is going to start at SF & Svensson go to bench. Afflalo has been huge, averaging like 23ppg over series off the bench

[The X]

2013 NBA PLAYOFFS - CONFERENCE SEMI FINALS


EASTERN CONFERENCE

RESULTS

(1)Miami 1
(4)Chicago 4

Pivotal Moment: Chicago superstar point guard Derrick Rose had a monster game (43pts, 20/25 FG, 5rebs, 7asts, 5stls) as the Bulls closed out the Heat in five.


(2)Atlanta 3
(3)Philadelphia 4

Pivotal Moment: Philly's Dirk Nowitzki (20.0ppg, 9.3rpg for series) moves one step closer to that elusive title ring as he once again teamed with Evan Turner (17.3ppg, 8.0rpg, 6.7apg for series) as the Sixers outlasted the Hawks, who once again let a strong regular season and legitimate shot at winning the title slip away.



WESTERN CONFERENCE

RESULTS

(5)Denver 3
(8)Minnesota 4

Pivotal Moments: The fairytale continues for Minnesota as they reach only their second conference finals appearance in franchise history. Once again, a decisive run in the third quarter of the deciding seventh game was the key, with rookie swingman Richard Sharpe once again stepping up, going off for the final eight points of the quarter, including a buzzer beating three to close the quarter. The Timberwolves never relinquished the lead for the remainder of the game.

The Wolves got another huge game seven from Michael Beasley (33pts, 9rebs, 3stls, 2blks) as he put aside his struggles through the first six games of the series. Rookie Jaime Buford got his first start of the season as he was put in to make life more difficult for Carmelo Anthony (29.0ppg, 8.0rpg for series, including one 40 point game) and J.R. Smith (22.7ppg, 7.0rpg, 5.0apg for series) and responded with the best game (21pts, 8rebs) of his career.

The other key moments in the series was the Nuggets starting centre Nene going down with injury (back strain) in game one and never playing again in the series. The Wolves also got strong guard play from Eric Gordon (20.0ppg for series) and sixth man Aaron Afflalo (20.3ppg, 4.0 3pt made/gm for series) throughout the series.


(2)Houston 1
(6)Oklahoma City 4

Pivotal Moment: OKC freak Kevin Durant (29.0ppg, 9.0rpg, 1.5spg, 2.0bpg for series) was his usual self, but this series was a lot closer than the 4-1 result indicates. The telling stat: the average margin of victory was only 1.0ppg.

[The X]

The dream continues

Boy it was a tough series, at least as tough as Lakers. I expect Thunder to be a monumental task as I've always had major issues trying to stop Durant. I think I'll continue to start Buford & play a smaller lineup like I did in game 7 (Love in the middle & Beasley at the other forward). I'm going to go back with Rubio as starting PG as he had a better game 7 than he was throughout rest of series against Denver. Plus I think I prefer Afflalo's impact off the bench (26.5ppg during Denver series) than having him starting at PG (8.0ppg during Denver series).

Nice to see a Bulls-Philly conference final out in the East, which means there'll be a new champion crowned this year (in this Association, not all-time unless Minny or OKC win).


EDIT: On a side note, if this season has taught me anything, it's that this team is more Michael Beasley's team than it is Kevin Love's. I think Beasley is more untradeable in my eyes since I can make up for some of what Love does between Svensson & Humphries.

Interestingly enough, playoff scoring averages look something like this: Gordon 19, Beasley 18.5, Love 18, Afflalo 16.5, Buford 11.0, Sharpe 10.0. Gordon gets his points quietly throughout the game.

[Lamrock]

With Beasley playing like an all-star, you actually have a decent roster this year. Good luck against OKC. They're a tough match-up, but I'm not sure if they've made any big acquisitions in this one.

I think you'll need some big games from the Sharpe Shooter to keep this run going.

[The X]

Good luck against OKC. They're a tough match-up, but I'm not sure if they've made any big acquisitions in this one.

Not really. Standard roster except Cole Aldrich starts, Ibaka doesn't get any burn for some reason & has fallen out of favour. Only other roster adjustment of note is the team's 6th man, Allen Iverson.

I think the key to this series is containing (since you can't stop him) Kevin Durant. I will probably do what I did with Melo, which is play Buford (great defender, I knew that when I drafted him, good athlete, great defender, solid offensive player) on him & defend him tight with single coverage. He'll still get his 30 per game without any trouble but as long as nobody else like Westbrook or Harden hurt me, I should be fine.

As I'm at conference finals time, I move from 3 to 5 game format, which should hopefully improve my chances to win the series. I see this series going the whole distance also. No easy outs, that's for sure.

As for my team, Beasley playing well is key. Love & Gordon will get their solid numbers each game, but I need Beasley to be a difference maker & he has been this season. In Lakers series he played exclusively at SF since they were so big, but now against Nuggs & OKC against likes of Al Harrington & Jeff Green, he'll play more at PF, which I think is better for him.

Aside from Beasley, the fact I'm getting big time bench production out of Afflalo & at times from rookies Sharpe & Brown, it's turned me from an average team to a good one.

Finally, I think I'm just playing tougher in games. I found in regular season games, I'd slack off & take possessions off or try to take unnecessary risks. In playoffs I've been a lot more focused & played every possession at both ends & the results have come. My team has some weaknesses, but it's versatility & ability to put points on board in a short spurt has made a huge difference.

The team's fortunes have also benefited from my copy of 2K12 still having not arrived (maybe lost in post, who knows?).

[shadowgrin]

Needs moar Sixers coverage.

[Fresh8]

Great work getting out of Mile High City with a series win!

I hope you guys make the NBA Finals.

Re: Love, I feel the same in real life. I don't think he's a franchise player but a really really good complimentary piece. I actually think Michael Beasley has potential to be lead player for current Wolves but he's not the superstar-caliber player that they need. Now that they have so many pieces though - they can make a deal for a legit superstar to play with Love and Rubio.

[kibaxx7]

It was a nice game from Beasley, but my MVP goes to Afflalo, what a series for him

[Justine.]

I guess Lamrock and you both needs a good luck. Durant will dominate you. But here's hoping you can win that title

[The X]

Bad news. Kevin Love had 17 points through first 11 minutes of the game and looking like he will be the key to this series. Then a thug named Cole Aldrich smashes him across the wrists.

Broken wrist, he's out for 4 to 6 weeks (rest of playoffs). So much for luck

[Fresh8]

We must have jynxed him by praising Beasley.