Tuesday Night Esoterics (4/11)

[blogguy]

MIAMI 106, TORONTO 97
Synergy: Toronto 113, Miami 114
Tempo: 89 (slow)
Notes: Wade missed the game with flu symptons. It was a very slow game for something in the low 200's on the scoreboard. But, you can see the high synergy numbers. Both kind of played a matador defense even though they were running clock. Toronto can't guard anyone anyway. Game would have landed in the 220's with any kind of tempo.

MEMPHIS 92, MINNESOTA 76
Synergy: Minnesota 106, Memphis 95
Tempo: 86 (very slow)
Notes: I know...in the headline we talked about tempo. We're getting to it! This was very likely to be an Under once the news broke that two Minnesota starters would miss the game. Memphis was going to slow things down and play decent defense. Memphis jumped to a double digit lead in the opening minutes and both teams kind of coasted after that.

SAN ANTONIO 104, SEATTLE 95
Synergy: Seattle 83, San Antonio 110
Tempo: 98 (very fast)
Notes: There were 7 points scored in the last 25 seconds or so I think. If you had the Under that would have annoyed you. Or, if you laid the big number with SA. Some people in the crowd did. You could hear an audible groan when Seattle hit late buckets in the last 30 seconds.

CHICAGO 104, NEW JERSEY 101
Synergy: New Jersey 90, Chicago 98
Tempo: 94 (fast for this kind of game)
Notes: Have we been saying fast for New Jersey games lately? I'd better go back and check. Chicago played slow games with Philly, so this one blowing up was kind of odd. But...there was a crazy fourth quarter that had close to 70 points being scored. Must have been a lot of late FT's and end-game hijinx.

The late games will be posted on Wednesday.

Once the playoffs get here I'm planning on doing boxscore "previews" of each game...kind of like the one I put up in the MESS HALL for championship night of the Big Dance. It will be a good way to outline expectations at the beginning of a series...then we can tweak the projections once the actual stats start coming in. Most of the time the tempo's are very stable in a playoff series because the teams and coaches settle into something that they'll both accept. That makes it a bit easier to be more exact with the numbers the later you get.

Until then, we'll look for general themes in the last days of the regular season. So many teams are going through the motions that it's hard to get a fix on anything that really matters. Let's remember that Boston is playing after a loss on Wednesday. Orlando has been doing great for readers here, and they''ll be hosting a tired Toronto team. Utah matched up well with Denver in a recent road win...but they're on the verge of getting eliminated now because the 7-8th seeds have been winning.

Oh...Fanatic's note about Igoudala last week is important to remember. He did have a big scoring game right after the near-miss on the prop. So...the team IS trying to emphasize him more on offense as Fanatic suggested. With New Jersey in a back-to-back tomorrow night in a Philly/New Jersey game, it might be worth think about that kind of prop again. Especially if Webber is out. Not sure what his status is as I write this.

Based on what I've seen lately...Seattle New Orleans will land on 210 with a tempo of 88, lol...only a stathead could lol at something like that!

[ovrund]

as usual, appreciate your body of work

[Juice]

I cant wait for the playoffs.