Bucks up 46-43 Valanciunas has 6 threes in the first 18 minutes and 24 points as Lopez sits back in drop and leaves him to shoot with no one within 10 feet.
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Bucks up 14 in the 4th, but should be up more. Joe Ingles t to score is costing them some empty possessions.
Giannis hits 12 of his first 13 FTs and then starts to clank them when it gets close in the 4th.
Good response to the P run results in a win.
Giannis with 42 and 13 on 17 for 22 from the line. Lopez has 30.
No Middleton and Ingles goes 0-4 but Lopez and Giannis went crazy.
Really solid win against a decent team on the road.
I watched this game simultaneously with the Packers game. A few things stood out.
1. The Pelicans have literally no one to guard Giannis. They had no chance. I think he'd average 40 against them in a series. Valanciunas was comical trying to guard him. He blew by Zion. They were helpless.
2. Holiday guarded Zion about as good as I've seen anyone do it. You could see Zion become frustrated in real time.
3. Zion also appeared upset that Valanciunas was getting his points, but ZIon wasn't getting his.
4. The Bucks were up 15-18 at the junction of the third and fourth quarters and let the Pelicans get close in some part because they kept running plays for Ingles and he went 0 for 4 with some turnovers. SEveral were long threes that missed and resulted in transition points for the Pelicans.
I don’t recall if it was last year or the year before but Holiday got the assignment in one of the games v Dallas in the 4Q to guard Luka Doncic. He basically shut him down completely near the end of the game. Not sure I’ve seen any player do that.
@Tschmack posted:I don’t recall if it was last year or the year before but Holiday got the assignment in one of the games v Dallas in the 4Q to guard Luka Doncic. He basically shut him down completely near the end of the game. Not sure I’ve seen any player do that.
The fact that Holiday has only made one all-star game shows how little the process accounts for defensive ability. Holiday is a top 10 all-time defensive guard, and he might be top 5. It's not like he's a liability on offense either. He's not an offensive superstar, but he's basically been a 17/4/7 guy for the last 10 years and had shooting splits of 47/37/78.
The old player he reminds me of the most is Dennis Johnson. Dennis Johnson is a Hall of Famer, and Holiday should be too (but probably won't be).
Here are the guards that have made the all-star team the last couple of years in the Eastern conference: Harden, Trae Young, DeRozan, LaVine, Lamelo Ball, Darius Garland, Beal, Ben Simmons, and Kyrie Irving. Other than maybe Harden, would you trade Holiday even up for any of them? Some of those guys can't guard anyone, and Holiday does it at an all-time level and still gives you strong offensive contributions. But all-star teams and HOF voters would rather pick guys that average 28 that are defensive liabilities (Young, LaVine, Beal) than guys that average 18 and are defensive superstars.
The league prefers 150-145 scores in the ASG. No defense allowed.
@Cheezers posted:The league prefers 150-145 scores in the ASG. No defense allowed.
I get that in an All-Star game. The problem is that HOF voters then use All-Star games as a proxy for being one of the 30 best players in the league. In 10 years, they'll look at Holiday and say that they can't vote for a guy that was only "top 30" in the league once in his career.
It's also the Milwaukee effect (just like playing in most cities outside of the marquee 8-10 franchises which are mostly historically good NBA franchises or in places the media like to visit (NYC, LA, Miami).
Middleton has made 3 all-star teams, so he'll be looked at more carefully by the HOF voters. I don't think he get's in, but he's better than some guys that will. If Holiday and Middleton had done the same things in NYC or LA they'd be household names. Middleton had multiple 30+ point games in a playoff run and 40 in a FInals game and has made 3 all-star teams. He went basket for basket with Kevin Durant in that Nets series and had 35 and 38 in Games 3 and 5. He won't make the all-star team this year, but he made it 3 of the last 4 years. He missed the team two years ago even though he was averaging 20 and shooting 48/42/90 so they could name LaVine, Irving, Beal, and Simmons to the team.
Holiday has one of the iconic plays in NBA Finals history. The steal and alley oop to Giannis in Game 5 will be played in montages 40 years from now. If that happened to a Lakers, Celtics, or NYC player it might be considered top 3 all-time. He's been all-NBA defense 4 times (and should have been for the last 8-9 years straight but was stuck playing in New Orleans).
Dennis Johnson and Sidney Moncrief were similar players although El Sid was probably a more physical defender albeit all three guys were built about the same.
DJ comparison is a bit ironic though because he has been involved in some memorable playoff moments including against the Bucks in 1987 not to mention being the guy that sealed the ECF series win that year against Detroit on the famous Bird inbound steal and layup.
It’s a different NBA today but many of the current Bucks could have played 30 or 40 years years ago because most of their guys (Allen and Nwora notwithstanding) play good defense and rebound and hustle. The Bucks are actually built like a team from the 80s.