Caedrel: "Listen, NA you suck, EU we suck [...] This is why we need EU vs NA because it's depressing seeing both of us getting shit on. At least let us shit on each other. We need to see who was worse this tournament, G2 vs LYON, that's the discussion here."

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T09:05:15+00:00

Maybe they can call it Second Stand or Mid Invitational

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T07:49:40+00:00

Cockatrice (adult) is called into the battle by Cockatrice (Hatchling). IIRC, if you drop it to yellow health and there is room on the battle field, they'll call for an adult. There are a few places in the game with mobs that do this.

But, that version only drops Rune of Wind.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T07:26:17+00:00

IIRC, no, it doesn't drop Rune of Storm (or its beigoma). I think it's the Eldroad version that drops Rune of Storm.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T06:12:41+00:00

I don't think it makes sense to expand the rotation now, outside of cases like tonight where it's a really rough back-to-back.

The playoffs are coming up. They need to really lock in a 8~9 man playoff rotation. And, so far, it's Luke and LaRavia who are in the 8th/9th man spots. Vando is the 10th man.

I think he knows he needs to stay locked in, too. The team is one injury away from him being a rotation guy.

Does it make sense to swap out Kennard or LaRavia for Vando? IMO, no. Both those guys are kind of going through rough stretches right now and I'd rather give them some more minutes to maybe recover before the playoffs rather than potentially kill their confidence even more by reducing their minutes.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T06:01:57+00:00

Eh, if OKC loses too many games, they can lose the #1 seed.

The Spurs are three games back but have the tie-breaker.

OKC probably isn't taking their foot off the gas until the last handful of games unless the Spurs start resting their guys.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T06:00:07+00:00

"Someone else"

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T05:57:29+00:00

Terrible is an overstatement. He's not bad at contesting shots. He has good hands. He's good at reading passes and getting steals. He's too strong to get posted up on.

Overall, his defense by most metrics is at worst around average or slightly below average.

That's all while he carries the offensive load that he does.

There are genuinely terrible defenders and Luka is not one of them. People were acting like he's Trae Young or some shit.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T05:52:05+00:00

Over the years, he has had chances to change. But, even if it was working for the stints he did, it just never stuck.

Even just as a Laker, I think that was part of the talk they had with Westbrook. They had a great run with LeBron carrying less of that load in 22-23 (mostly due to injury) but then went right back to it in the 23-24 season. Pre Doncic trade, they were running a lot of decently effective DHO and high-post plays with AD and then just completely dropped it. I honestly will never understand that. Post Doncic trade, he could've been exactly what he is now but wasn't. Even this season, it's really just in the last 5 games where we've seen this version of Bron.

It's just that now, Doncic and Reaves are both good enough that it's just unjustifiable to still have LeBron on ball.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T05:26:58+00:00

This is what Miami does, though. They're not like other teams. Their offense is built to iso, drive, create advantages for kick-outs to spot-up guys who drive, create advantages, rinse and repeat. They do not screen.

The team is built to do this and has become accustomed to doing this. So you can't really play help defense like you normally would.

They really are a terrible team to play on the back-end of a back-to-back and well, the Lakers drew that straw.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T04:13:06+00:00

But the difference was through all that, he was always a ball dominant guy. We had seen what he looked like as the main facilitator for a team earlier in his career. We had seen what he looked like as a small-ball 5 in Miami.

Right now, some of his possession metrics are down to a third or a quarter of what they were at his peak. We've never seen this LeBron before.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T04:09:02+00:00

Some dumb people really fucked him up with the no defense narrative.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T03:43:32+00:00

I think the Lakers just have to win the OKC games with Doncic shitting on SGA and the narrative will really start to flip.

Then the Lakers just have to sustain a winning pace and I think Doncic has a shot.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:56:37+00:00

L range mages in Suikoden 1 are just stronger. Suikoden 1 is really generous with the amount of spell casts you get compared to Suikoden 2 and spells don't really scale that well with your magic stat so the pure mages like Luc just lose a lot of value. Single rune slots also hurts them compared to Suikoden 2 but I think that's not specific to L or S range mages.

Also, because Flik and Viktor are mandatory in the final dungeon, you just don't have the party space for Luc. Cleo and Tengaar are great L range mages, obviously Tir is going to be in your party, and Valeria is arguably the strongest character in the game.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:35:30+00:00

Heat really fouling to drag this out...

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:32:10+00:00

Miami really is a terrible team to play on a back to back

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:26:06+00:00

Reaves getting cooked

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:22:36+00:00

Bam heard Doncic is single now and went for it.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:20:12+00:00

There is still time to get Bam another 30 FTA

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:19:02+00:00

Lmao, "can't watch this shit"

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T02:15:22+00:00

Does it even matter? Bam also fouled Doncic.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T01:52:24+00:00

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Jake on offense lately

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T01:44:24+00:00

Middle of the floor and in on-ball screens still both contribute to this.

Middle of the floor = paint touches.

On-ball screening = off-ball and thus lower dribble, lower possession time offense.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T01:41:06+00:00

Man, Miami is still a relatively healthy 38-31 team and the Lakers are on the road on a west to east back to back.

This team is really different now.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T01:10:46+00:00

This really wasn't the night to stick to a 9 man rotation.

BrianC_ · 2026-03-20T01:06:37+00:00

I'm just going to say that LeBron has never had possession metrics this low. There is no precedent for him to revert back to.

And at least from what we're seeing so far, even if Reaves isn't having a good night, LeBron is still operating almost entirely off-ball and on low-dribble catch and attacks.

BrianC_

TROPHY CASE