No Holiday, No Middleton. And the Bucks get off to another shitty f start. Down 14-7 with Allen and Carter missing open shots and the Bulls hitting 3s. It's like a broken record recently with these first quarter starts.
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Grayson Allen sucks as soon as he has to dribble.
Bucks role players other than Portis are really bad.
For everyone that wanted Beauchamp to play more, so far DeRozan is just roasting him. Matthews played him well. Beauchamp is not ready for playoff minutes yet either.
It's Giannis, Holiday, hopefully MIddleton, Portis, and Lopez. Right now, that's it for guys that you can count on in the playoffs. Connaughton has not been good this year at all.
Giannis shooting 16 of 31. 43 points, 20 rebounds, 5 assists
Everybody else is 22 of 65. Thatâs 33.8%.
Weâre shooting a putrid 20% from behind the arc.
Lovely.
Grayson Allen with another brick. 3 for 14 from 3. As far as Iâm concerned, he doesnât need to touch the ball the rest of overtime.
Great. Bulls up by 1. Nobody but Giannis can hit a freaking shot.
Canât we throw Grayson into the Bulls fans? Useless fucking player.
Portis with a HUGE 3 ti tie at 113, 29 seconds left.
Pathetic.
Giannis misses his last 5 shots in overtime. Clearly gassed, and the rest of the team outside of Portis is utterly useless.
119-113 final.
Allen can walk home from Chicago.
Giannis getting roasted on social media after a 45-22-7 game. A lot of people love to hate him.
Anybody roasting him over that stat line simply wants him on their favorite team.
Just get to the playoffs healthy.
Iâm good with them trading Allen at any point now.
The street would throw him back.
The biggest thing now is whether Middleton will ever look like the 2021 playoff Middleton again, or whether this knee issue is worse than they are letting on. If Middleton returns healthy, this Bucks team is probably the second-best team in the league after Boston.
If Middleton becomes more like a Brook Lopez thing from last year, the Bucks aren't getting by the second round.
A lot of other thoughts for the board.
1. I hope they hung onto Grayson Allen this long only because they will package him in a trade with some other guys that couldn't be traded before now (Jordan Nwora). He showed last year against the Celtics that he was a liability and his shot fell off when he experienced pressure situations. He's had a couple of good games in the clutch, but he's useless against the Celtics and is turnover machine as soon as he dribbles the ball. The Bucks may get beat by someone else in the playoffs, but it's almost certain they will have to beat the Celtics at some point as they advance. Allen at 8.5 million may be able to get you something decent when packaged with some other piece - Nwora, Matthews, Hill, and Ibaka are all possibilities (together they add up to about another 8 million).
2. If they do move Allen, I hope it's not for Crowder. Crowder is just another version of Matthews and Hill. They are assignment-sure and good defenders that will make Tatum or Jaylen Brown (or DeRozan, etc.) work for points but provide almost nothing on offense. That's what Crowder is too. Might as well just give those minutes to Matthews. PJ Tucker did the same thing, but he wasn't the reason they won a title. The Bucks won a title because of Giannis, Holiday being a defensive superstar, and Middleton becoming a pretty good facsimile of KD in the 2021 playoffs. Tucker/Matthews/Crowder are all basically the same guy.
3. JeVon Carter has regressed to the mean on offense. Even when his shot goes in, it just doesn't look smooth. He's basically Eric Bledsoe on a minimum contract. That's actually a good thing if you want someone to soak up 8-10 minutes in a playoff game to guard Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, or James Harden. He just can't shoot well enough to make a real difference to be able to play in crunch time.
4. Is Connaughton done as a rotation player in crunch time? He's been terrible this year - his shooting splits are 35/31/65 and the Celtics went after him with Tatum and Brown. Of course, he was injured but he's played 18 games so far and he's looked like a guy that will soon be out of the league.
5. I am not sold on Joe Ingles at all. He's 4 for 21 from three as a Buck. I know he's coming off an ACL injury, but his defensive liabilities were clear as a member of the Jazz even before the knee injury. He has to produce on offense like Kyle Korver (who couldn't guard anyone on this board his last couple of years) to justify minutes and it's not convincing he'll ever get to close to that.
6. I know everyone is clamoring for Beauchamp, but he's just not ready. He reminds me of Sterling Brown.
So, their playoff rotation now is Giannis, Holiday, Lopez, Portis, and hopefully Middleton. You can't trust any of their wings. I think Carter will get some minutes in the playoffs and he's good in the Jeff Teague 8th/9th guy 2021 role. Obviously, Nwora, Ibaka, Thanasis, Mamu, and AJ Green have zero chance of contributing. Will they try to get by with some combination of Matthews, Hill, Ingles, Allen, Beauchamp, and Connaughton? It's very possible that at least 2 members of their 8 man playoff rotation aren't on the roster yet.
Some thoughts out there on Jordan Clarkson or Kelly Oubre Jr and either guy would be a nice add. Both guys can score and defend. Bucks do have some second rounders and the Hornets in particular are a mess.
Middleton (knee) and Holiday (non-COVID illness) are both OUT for tomorrow's game against Minnesota.
Another game of Giannis having to score 40+ for the Bucks to even have a chance?
