[Highlight] Deni Avdija calls iso on Wemby. Drives to the middle, bumps him back, and shoots over him for the middy
This kinda possession is why I don’t think the series is doomed to be a sweep. If the Blazers just shot like… not abysmally awful, the game yesterday would’ve been close. Spurs shot incredibly well as well, ~46% from three (mainly cause of Wemby but we have seen his off nights from 3 can get ugly). Bit of shot variance one way or another and Blazers could steal a game, Deni seems to be a playoff riser and is strong enough to work on Wemby (and anyone else on the Spurs), gives them a consistent option to go to inside.
The thing is Blazers shooting IS abysmal awful. They are 27 in 3pt shooting and their main guy is pretty bad match up for Wemby defence
Though Deni dropping 30 without many FTs on a night where his spacing is horrendous is pretty reassuring
It’s like no one watched the game.
Wemby played out of the paint and took away the three. They let Deni drive against ghosts so he couldn’t foul bait, and instead had to put it in the bucket.
Scoot had decent shooting, but who else is getting in the paint and scoring?
That’s the whole game plan. Who is the third option?
What? No, that’s not what happened lol.
The first quarter was literally people daring guys like Clingan to shoot with Wemby sitting under the rim. He took 3 completely uncontested 3s in the first quarter alone. Toumani air balled an uncontested 3 from the corner
You guys weren’t taking away the 3. You were packing the paint lmao
He spent the entire first at the top of the key against clingan, what are you watching?
Typically Wemby plays unassigned in the paint and switches to drivers, not a man to man assignment.
You have no idea what you’re writing
Dude, that’s what he did the entire game. Just roaming the paint in a semi zone.
How do you think clingan kept being open?
He was man on clingan the entire first. I literally just rewatched it before commenting.
This is not the defensive setup they’ve used the entire year where he’s in a zone and everyone else is playing more man.
Right, and you dared him to shoot. And he couldn’t make shots, so we pulled him
Then the rest of the game you played your semi zone with him in the center. Go watch the rest of them game.
So, Wemby challenged out of the paint, and without an open man they pulled clingan.
That’s my point, thanks for agreeing.
Then late game he played man up, specially against scoot and camara
They’re not a good shooting team, but they shot nearly 20% worse. That’s not happening again.
Or it could happen again
It will happen again, just not every game
Ok, Kyrie
It absolutely could
You didn’t watch the game
Them shooting awful is normal
I would consider it a huge win for the Spurs if we beat this Portland team in 5 or less. Deni is playing incredible right now and they have defensive studs everywhere.
With that being said, we could play much better. Understandably had some nerves with it being the first playoff game for most of the team.
Also, Portland shot 67% from mid range outside the paint, so I wouldn’t say they were shooting abysmally awful. Deni hit some tough 3s, Rob Williams hit a 3 (10th of the year), Scoot was hitting tough shots.
I just don’t think any of this calls for victory lapping from Denver and OKC fans who seem to ready to throw cold water on an up and coming team who is clearly a threat right now.
Spurs looked like they might be fumbling during the Blazer run after half, but were able to stabilize with some great defense, shows maturity to bounce back and stop a teams momentum which is a good sign. Portland shot well from the midrange sure, but some good shooters like Jrue were just laying down a brick path straight to Cancun on open looks. That is just odd and not something you expect from a veteran rather than some of the younger players on the team. Deni shot well but was still just 2⁄5, which is good but not a big outlier to any degree. I think as a whole more players performed worse than expected for the Blazers than better, which makes sense, first playoff series for many of them just like the Spurs but without a red-hot alien to lean on lol.
Not really sure what you mean by the last sentence, saying that a series may not be a sweep because there were a few weaknesses in the Spurs play last night is not even close to “throwing cold water” on your team. Spurs and Wemby dominated the game but they’ll want to patch up the flaws going into round 2, or a veteran team like us will punish those mistakes and (hopefully, dunno considering OUR game 1) knock down open looks.
If Portland takes the Spurs to 6, you should be genuinely concerened.
I feel like that depends entirely on how the series actually goes. If the Spurs barely squeak by each game to eventually win in 6, they should be concerned. If they win 4 games comfortably and lose 2 on some crazy shooting variance, that’s not a big deal.
Yeah anyone who was watching could see the spurs genuinely gave plenty of opportunities for the blazers to go on runs, blazers just didn’t take them
But they weren’t invulnerable like this sub will have u think lol they lost more because of their own failures yesterday then because of the spurs dominance
When the Blazers got it within two shortly after half, that was the moment to make it a game again. Spurs gave them like 3 possessions to try and tie it and they turned it over twice and made a bad shot once, followed it up by letting the spurs score again and then Deni threw an awful full court pass that got intercepted. They never got the momentum back after that. Blazers are young too and will hopefully learn as well.
Correction: turned the ball over three times in a row
Correction - 3 turnovers AND a missed 3. We had 4 possessions to at least tie. Can’t win these games without capitalizing on those
My bad, worse than I remembered then lol
100%
There was a stretch in the third where the blazers had three straight possessions to tie or take the lead and they flubbed every single one. That was when the game switched. They looked panicked and jumpy in the second half but if they can settle and stop giving away opportunities they might have a shot to steal a couple games.
Sweeping someone is also way, way harder than people tend to think it is
Yeah. In the end, every team in the NBA especially who made it into the playoffs has enough talent to steal a game from a better opponent on a good night.
The 8 seeded Heat minus like six players even found a way to stretch it to 5 vs the championship Celtics a few years ago. Even won in Boston
Yeah, I kept thinking that. If the Blazers made just 5-6 more shots, this game is competitive. They took some bad shots in the first half.
But if they give grant minutes again, he will shoot them out of the game.
I don’t see it, they are afraid to attack the paint so how are they going to generate consistent open looks from 3 without forcing rotations and scrambled defense? Plus they just aren’t a good shooting team anyway.
Their only shot is Deni intentionally getting Wemby in foul trouble because his best skill is foul baiting lol
They weren’t terrible at generating open looks yesterday for Jrue at least, I don’t remember all of the game but I know he bricked at least 2 completely wide open ones and I’m sure the rest of the team followed the lead on that. Definitely a bad shooting team but not THIS bad, I think it’s just playoff jitters. I’m normally one for Deni slander but he was definitely doing a lot more than foulbaiting last game lol, he was getting in his bag as a shooter which I didn’t think he had in him to do.
You saw two open attempts and you assumed you can extrapolate that to the rest of the team and the rest of the game? I didn’t see that many open shots, certainly didn’t see a trend of the Blazers doing something strategic to generate open shots and just miss them.
I don’t see the solution to them playing better being afraid to attack the basket and somehow opening to generate open shots from 3, and then becoming a strong shooting team.
On one hand, I get the simple logic of looking at the team shooting summaries, assuming both teams will regress a bit to the mean and then assume it will be closer…but in reality the Spurs are creating better offense with their rim pressure and Wemby’s gravity and the Blazer’s offensive process didn’t really seem encouraging.
Mans averaged like 34/9/9 in his first two postseason games ever and you’re still spewing shit about him being a foul baiter lmao
I mean he is a foul baiter, that’s just a fact, but I didn’t say he wasn’t a great player overall.
I simply am saying that Wemby disrupts their whole offense so much that getting him out of the game is their best chance, and who better to do that than one of the top foul drawers/foul baiters in the league. He is great at just throwing his body into defenders to force the refs to blow the whistle so that might be there best hope if he can do it intentionally.
I actually disagree with that. He’s always driving hard and forcing defenses into uncomfortable spots with his aggressiveness. He’s really fucking good, I would not say he’s ‘forcing the refs to blow the whistle’ as much as he is forcing defenses to collapse and foul him in the process. High FTA =/= foul baiter. He’s usually looking to score a lot more than you’re implying.
He does plenty of that, but he also does plenty of throwing his body into defenders and flailing his arms up strictly to draw contact and draw fouls with zero intention of putting up a real shot.
He is looking to draw fouls as his primary goal a lot more than you’re implying.
Every player who plays his position does the exact same things. The fact you think Deni is unique in that way is embarrassing for you
Nope that’s a cop out, and it’s embarrassing you can’t just acknowledge it’s true. Hell, his own teammates can’t even avoid admitting there is truth to it.
I see a gentleman’s sweep incoming. Refs do not call Deni well at all; that alone could steal a game.
If the refs weren’t tripping it would have been a 20 pt blowout but I can see the blazers taking a game or two
Spurs are so young I think it’d be beneficial for them to get that first loss out of the way now with lower stakes.
Wow he scored in an iso in garbage time. We’re so scared!
I feel like you are completely missing his point lol.
The point I’m making is that the Spurs aren’t scared of Avdija. The series won’t be close.
Your point was not hard to understand nor is that relevant to my comment pointing out that you missed his point.
Everyone thinks it’s going to be Spurs. OP is just saying it may not be a sweep.
U ok?
Holy shit, Spurs fans are insufferable lol
Completely normal, non-Spurs ball washing comment and you fly off the handle.
That comment is pretty mild. That user didn’t insult anyone or say something rude. They aren’t afraid of their opponent because Deni got an ISO bucket, that’s basically the same as saying “bring it”.
It’s the playoffs now is the time for this sort of shit talk and a little bravado.
see comments like THIS are EXACTLY what I’m talking about like WHERE DO YOU GET OFF saying NOW is the time for ME to do ANYTHING????
How is that not an offensive foul? I get creating a little separation but he’s full force driving his shoulder into Wemby with a head of steam and a partial push off. Just don’t get why he’s allowed to bulldoze players consistently while simultaneously getting an incredibly soft whistle if someone so much as exists where Deni is throwing his body.
Literally every offensive player gets away with stuff like this these days. Shit, there’s been times Reaves will absolutely put a shoulder into a bigger player and shove them off their spot, then go up and get an easy bucket.
NBA just favors offense in all ways now.
Also…it’s the playoffs…so a tighter whistle. SGA, Brown/Tatum, Lebron, Luka, Harden, Mitchell all feast off of this nudge. You really need to extend a hand to get called as the offensive player. A chicken wing or shoulder to the body of the defender always gets ignored.
The whistle has absolutely not been tighter on Shai
It was a game where the Suns did nothing but hack him constantly lol, not exactly a good example to use of a loose whistle when they made it glaringly obvious
If you saw this game you would’ve seen Wemby getting constantly mugged, yet he doesn’t get the Shai whistle. There’s no consistency with the refs.
The clip was floating around of all the fouls yesterday, there were a few that were total bs mixed with the hacks
Which is dumb because this would have been an offensive foul in the past. Then refs allowed it and nba came out with the whole full extension thing. 2 steps back and 1 step forward for being allowed to play defence
that hasn’t been called an offensive foul in like 20 years
Dylan Harper got called for it in this very game
The Camara one? Wasn’t even close to the same, lol, put those videos side by side here.
No, he didn’t lmao
I’d say 7-8 years, but it absolutely should be
He’s not the only one who gets this call, unfortunately. Referees have pretty much decided that offensive players can initiate whatever contact they want as long as the defender’s feet aren’t set. That’s wrong, but it’s wrong for a lot of players.
Moving your feet is how you play defense, crazy the defender is penalized for it, if the offensive player goes through the chest it should be an offensive foul.
Yeah if that was a random 6’5” defender they’d go flying and it would be a clear offensive foul. NBA refs react to the result of contact more than the contact itself.
It’s crazy when you look at a lot of charges drawn right outside the restricted area, the defenders have a natural reaction to start to fall backwards, even slightly before the contact comes because if you don’t hit the ground on those, they usually won’t give you the call. It makes no sense.
So frustrating that the best defence is to sell the contact and go flying. Hope for a whistle but take yourself out of the play and maybe give up a wide open jumper
KJ didn’t budge when he tried to rhino through him earlier in the game. KJ actually got called for a foul.
2 reasons. The defender is much larger than the offender. And the Blazers really needed this bucket
The NBA just referees differently in height-mismatch situations. Alex Caruso is a great defender, but one of the reasons he’s such a great post defender (and Tony Allen and Marcus Smart before him) is that referees allow guards to foul the absolute fuck out of anyone five inches or more taller than they are.
If refs didn’t know the score games would be refereed differently cmv
“Down 14, Deni lowers his shoulder into Wemby with a boom. it’s whatever, count the basket”
My fav “ref induced momentum changers” are non calls on one end leading to a fast break and 1
thats such a dumb and conspiracy theory explanation. they didnt call this a foul because Deni didn’t extend his arm and didnt push off.
Because the amount of force has nothing to do with it. Basketball’s a contact sport, as long as the defender doesn’t beat the driving player to the spot he can initiate contact with the shoulder.
People consistently complain about inconsistent whistles night after night without really understanding what makes a foul play vs a legal play
You are correct that force has nothing to do with the rule, but this move by Deni can very easily be interpreted as charging into the defender with legal guarding position. It’s literally about the defender not falling down which makes this whole thing so idiotic.
Section II—By Dribbler A dribbler shall not (1) charge into an opponent who has established a legal guarding position, If a defender is able to establish a legal position in the straight line path of the dribbler, the dribbler must avoid contact by changing direction or ending his dribble. The dribbler must be in control of his body at all times. If illegal contact occurs, the responsibility is on the dribbler. PENALTY: The offender is assessed an offensive foul. There is no team foul. The ball is awarded to the offended team on the sideline nearest the spot where play was interrupted but no nearer to the baseline than the free throw line extended.
Section II—By Dribbler
A dribbler shall not (1) charge into an opponent who has established a legal guarding position, If a defender is able to establish a legal position in the straight line path of the dribbler, the dribbler must avoid contact by changing direction or ending his dribble.
The dribbler must be in control of his body at all times. If illegal contact occurs, the responsibility is on the dribbler.
PENALTY: The offender is assessed an offensive foul. There is no team foul. The ball is awarded to the offended team on the sideline nearest the spot where play was interrupted but no nearer to the baseline than the free throw line extended.
Here is an example where the defender goes flying while the offensive player exerted a fraction of the force that Deni did on that play:
https://videorulebook.nba.com/archive/charging-on-ball-defender-establishes-legal-position-before-upward/
I don’t see how this isn’t textbook defence from Wemby, perfect example of legal guarding position. Although I believe that’s a lame cop out way for refs to give foul calls to offensive players pushing off
It absolutely does matter
Wemby did beat him to the spot. He’s just standing there. Basketball is a contact sport but it’s not football. Most players aren’t allowed to just charge headlong into established defenders or use forearms to push off and create space.
There’s a difference between a little shoulder in the post and what Deni did here.
Wemby is actively moving when Deni makes contact, if he was standing still and Deni does this it’s much more likely to be a charge. Two players moving laterally making contact is almost never going to be called a charge
You can be actively moving and in legal guarding position. There’s literally a play in this same game where Camara draws a charge where he’s moving.
Straight line drive by Thanasis, not on an angle like Deni. Defender is also already established at the spot when contact is made, Wemby is actively shuffling when contact is made. Not really even remotely similar plays
Get some glasses my guy. They are not literally the same play but are extremely similar. Murray clearly shuffles his feet until right before the contact. Both take the offensive player in the chest. The only difference is Murray goes flying.
Your feet moving doesn’t matter when talking about establishing position, that’s a very common misconception by casuals. Also “exactly similar” is an oxymoron. And finally, a straight line drive to the basket and taking any angle to get to you spot at the top of a key are entirely different. Wemby never establishes position, Murray does. Thanasis drive directly into Murray, Deni doesn’t not take a straight line into Wemby. It’s the equivalent of comparing a Toyota to a Lexus. Yes they share a number of components, but the actual details set the wildly apart
Your feet moving doesn’t matter when talking about establishing position, that’s a very common misconception by casuals.
So why did you emphasize Wemby shuffling his feet? That’s literally my point. His feet shuffling have nothing to do with legal guarding position.
And finally, a straight line drive to the basket and taking any angle to get to you spot at the top of a key are entirely different.
This is just disingenuous as fuck. They are taking almost the exact same path.
It’s the equivalent of comparing a Toyota to a Lexus. Yes they share a number of components, but the actual details set the wildly apart
What a fucking terribly analogy.
Also “exactly similar” is an oxymoron.
Learn to read. I’m done with this shit.
It’s not two players moving laterally making incidental contact. Wemby is in position, fully squared up on Deni. Deni gets a running start and launches his shoulder into Wemby. He also extends with his arm. You can see it come up through the push. That’s an offensive foul. He’s just doesn’t get called for it. Like, ever.
Wemby is quite literally shuffling his feet as contact is made, he is in a legal guarding position, which is why it’s not a blocking foul. Deni also does not fully extend his arm, the elbow is bent, refs are looking for a full extension at the elbow and/or a palm on the defender, neither of those happen here.
Hard disagree, but whatever. We’ve both watched the video and drawn our conclusions. I see hard contact initiated by an offensive player using his shoulder and forearm to shove a larger defender backwards with force. You disagree? Great. You do you. There are plenty of folk that seem to be falling on both sides of the call here. I’m comfortable with my stance, and hope different refs don’t let Deni get away with this stuff next game.
This is textbook playoff basketball, I guess you’re not used to it as a hawks fan
Aannndddd this is why people hate Thunder fans. I tried to end things civilly and you go low. Congrats. Your team won a ring. I guess my decades of watching basketball are meaningless because the Hawks haven’t. Thanks for clearing that up for me. Enjoy the state of Oklahoma, seems to be a good fit for you.
I don’t live in Oklahoma, so your insults don’t work on me. But clearly you blew a gasket over a mild jab
Dude you suck, he made his case and you made yours. Why be a dick?
Because making lighthearted jokes is a normal part of life
My guy, slow the video down. Wemby is very clearly moving his feet laterally to try to close the angle. In no way does that qualify as “in position” and “fully squared up”.
I’ve seen Wemby is still moving. He’s also completely squared up to Deni to block the path to the basket. Deni drives a shoulder and forearm into Wemby with a head of steam. If that’s a smaller player or if Wemby flops, maybe an offensive foul is called. As it is, Deni is continually getting away with what I believe is excessive force and contact on his part. It’s miserable to watch when combined with his complaining, flailing, and charming soft whistle. That’s all.
If he’s moving, then by definition it’s not a legal guarding position. Ergo, that would be a blocking foul before even granting your assessment of the play by Avdija (which I don’t). There’s nothing excessive about that “force”, nor an arm extension that would be a push off.
Either way, that’s a good playoff no call.
That’s simply incorrect. You can be moving and in a legal guarding position.
Bibi made a call
What soft whistle? 6 FTA including a tech tonight.
Referring to his entire body of work, where he was near the top of the free throw rate charts. He’s a below league average shooter who gets a large percentage of his points off free throws. Some of it is aggression leading to calls he earns, I’ll give him that. Some of it is baby soft whistles and a double standard where he’s allowed to push off and smash into defenders with impunity.
It’s bad basketball.
If he’s a below average shooter and gets fouled a lot what does that tell you?
A. Refs like him for some reason.
B. He’s skilled and/or smart and catches players out of position
C. He knows he’s not a great scorer and abuses the way the game is reffed in a pro-offense manner to supplement his scoring with free throw merchanting.
Well, earlier you said “double standard” which means he gets preferential treatment (for what reason? Portland being a huge market? Jews/Israelis being popular with the public?) but now you’re saying he abuses the way the game is reffed (aka being skilled and smart).
So which is it?
The double standard is that he gets an incredibly soft whistle for his own fouls while being allowed to be as aggressive and physical as he wants offensively. Not sure why you’re bringing nationality/ethnicity into things; seems a bit weird.
Not buying into your false dichotomy. You call it skilled and smart. I call it cheap, ugly basketball.
Dylan Harper did this to Deni earlier in the game and was called for an offensive foul. 🤷♂️
Not only did he not get called for an offensive foul, but KJ got called for a foul while defending this same move all because KJ didn’t get budged when he got hit.
Because he didn’t fall and act like he got shot. “Best brand of basketball ever”
He had 30 points off 4 FT yesterday. You people are insufferable whining about the whistle
He’s had multiple games where free throws constituted well over half his points. And I’m not sure what that has to do with him being allowed free rein to commit offensive fouls. Dude is constantly allowed to push off, throw fore arms, and drive his shoulder into people. It’s absurd.
He’s had multiple games where free throws constituted well over half his points.
You mean like Jamal Murray yesterday?
Deni drives to the basket more than anyone else in the league and usually goes all the way and doesn’t settle for the pull up and he gets fouled.
The reason he only had 4 FT yesterday was because Wemby was there he settled for pull ups which means he got fouled less
I saw him running hard and going up against Fox in the 4th where his “line” was initially overlapped with Fox’s “line” and then he suddenly jerked to the right, and when Fox adjusted his angle and shuffled diagonally back to cover him, they collided. Unbelievably, this resulted in a foul. How is it fair to instantly change your direction of movement and then get rewarded with a foul when the defender tries to match that?
This game was undeniably reffed in favor of the Blazers. Things like this were happening over and over, especially when the lead ballooned to double digits. Tic tac calls were in favor of the Blazers. Fully extended push offs were not called all game. Wemby was hit 4 times in the face in the paint by multiple defenders, and then Deni had the embarrassing audacity to throw his hands up when he got the and-1. You are insufferable complaining about people whining.
Not every single call goes your way.
Wemby twice landed super awkwardly on both Sharpe and Deni and no call. Clingan on one play got hacked twice and no call. Shit happens
Great, not every single call goes their way, which wasn’t the point at all. Funny how “shit happens” is your only response to a reffing disparity visible to pretty much everyone in that post game thread. Everyone saw the rubber banding happening in real time, especially in the 4th. That Deni vs Fox play was a microcosm of the overall reffing this game.
You understand it’s not always directly relating to free throw attempts right?
They are whining about this particular whistle, that was a clear foul. Maybe he agrees with you that other uncalled ones should have been called, but we are just watching this video.
But it’s really not. Wemby was still moving - you see this all the time. If this was a foul there were about 50 non calls on similar plays throughout this first weekend
This wasn’t a drive, tho. Wemby was moving along, Advija decided to bump into him just to make space.
30 points because Castle and Carter Bryant were in foul trouble, and because the refs decided this game should be closer than it should be
It would be a defense foul if anything as wemby was moving.
Wemby has to beat him to that spot and body up and take that hit. Thats how you play defense, that’s why it’s really hard to guard smaller/faster/stronger guys in space. Makes a guy like Camara all that more impressive that he can cover guards full court while being 6’7 and like 220.
Thats why being quick is just as important as being long, when guarding a player out in space. Because when you get beat, you have to turn your hips and meet the player where they’re going to be, and then body the fuck up once you get there. It’s really hard, that’s why great defenders are valued so highly.
Thats why skinny guys usually get thrown around down there when they’re not getting blocks.
You sound like if you’ve ever played basketball before it was not at any kind of competitive level. Because that is very basic defensive knowledge to have.
Wemby did not like this. At all. The very next play is when he tried to dunk the ball into the shadow realm from damn near behind the backboard.
Ignoring the talk about the no-call here, this is so impressive physically and mentally, showing he will not back down from this alien, embrace the contact and nail the jumper.
I hope everyone stays healthy because this matchup is actually delivering so far, judging by game 1
Damn this guy is legit
Wemby does this they calling an offensive foul lmao
His nickname is literally Downhill Deni for a reason
That’s usually an offensive foul. Especially if Wemby sells it a little like he prob will if it becomes common. Whether or not it should be is a different story. But pretty sure you’re not allowed to go full speed into a guy’s chest on purpose to create space.
That’s literally never called an offensive foul lol. Wemby got caught between beating him to the spot, and being in position to take the charge. But he didn’t do either, and that’s why it’s a clear defensive foul.
You cant be serious
Let’s not forget Wemby said this is the guy that shoots all the fts. Deni balled last night. Loved he went straight at wemby and put it in his chest.
I mean if you watched the clip, it’s clear Wemby meant no disrespect; dude just recited the scouting report, and you can respectfully note that a huge portion of Avdija’s offensive game comes from initiating contact and daring defenses to match up or foul him.
That’s an offensive foul Wemby is just too big that officials won’t call it
GET BIG LITTLE MAN
Way to dominate when the game is already decided
fully extended his arm, textbook pushoff lol
I hate Deni, but he doesn’t fully extend his arm, his elbow is bent the entire time, and he never puts his hand on Wemby. Refs are looking for either a palm on the defender, or full extension at the elbow for a push off
Exactly, we should want physicality within reason. Offensive players should be able to bump to create space as long as the defense is allowed to match physicality. No foul called either way here - this is how we should want it called.
Shoulder charge to the chest and chicken wing to create space should still be an offensive foul
Israeli geno-assasin cannot be stopped
wembys got no base strength, no core
everyone pushes him around coz hes like a yellow whiffle ball bat
Reminds me of wemby the last 2 years. Really struggled when guys get physical instead of trying to score around him.
It’s a myth not backed up by a true analysis
No analysis here, just what I saw his first 2 years
The game is already out of reach, looks like he mainly doesn’t want to foul