Pistons are surprisingly 3-0 in the NBA cup games, partly because Spoelstra lost track of how many timeouts he had left and called when at the end of the game when he didn't have one.
Bucks have a pretty clean injury report with the exception of Middleton being out again.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Game starts at 6 pm CT, and is on something called FanDuel Sports WI. Radio is AM620 WTMJ, as well as on the Bucks radio network. Should also be on Sirius XM radio.
Not the biggest NBA fan but I am curious about something. What is the NBA Cup?
It's the in season tournament they started last year. It was dumb. The Lakers won it and hung a banner. Now they try to fool us by changing the name to The NBA Cup.
It was something the NBA added for some extra pizzazz for early season games to generate more interest from the fans and players alike. A little added spice to get more eyes on the TV screen early on and player interest as well.
Bucks trail 12-10 early.
Lopez is getting killed in this matchup. Getting beat for offensive rebounds and blow-byes
Lopez comes out and the Bucks go on a nice run and lead by 6. AJax hitting 3s.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:Lopez comes out and the Bucks go on a nice run and lead by 6. AJax hitting 3s.
Lopez comes back in and the Pistons go at him immediately for a 3.
Bucks with a pathetic effort at the end of the first. Jackson Jr. fails to box out on a FT miss with 0.4 seconds left and gives up a free layup.
Bucks lead by 19 at the half. Probably not sustainable to go 14 for 21 from three, but it covered up some questionable defense for the first part of the half.
Bucks 78-59 at the half
Edit: Dang MP2 beat me by 8 seconds 
Edit #2: Now lets pound these pistons into the junkyard!
That might be the first time I've ever seen Giannis get fouled while taking a 3.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:That might be the first time I've ever seen Giannis get fouled while taking a 3.
And hits all 3 FTs.
Bucks 97- 76 midway through the 3rd, now 102 - 76 as Pistons call a time out to re-group.
Giannis has hit about 6 jump shots from 15-18 feet tonight and hasn't missed.
If he hits that shot like that, he could literally average 40 a game.
The Bucks were 2-8 and left for dead after losing to the leprechauns.
They’re about to move to 11-9, or 9-1 in their last ten.
And they still haven’t seen Khris Middleton.
Sports can be funny sometimes. Now maybe Giannis starts getting some deserved (albeit early) MVP talk.
Bucks lead by 22 going to the 4th. Giannis finally missed a shot. He's 10 for 11. He's at 27-7-8. Lillard has 25 on 5 for 10 from deep.
Prince and Trent shooting the 3 well tonight.
Bucks on fire from 3
What a block by Lopez!
That sure looked like all ball to me on that block by Johnson.
Final......
128-107 Good guys! Celtics
Pretty stress-free win against an improved Pistons team. Giannis got to sit the entire 4th quarter - which is key because they have a back-to-back tomorrow against the Hawks.
So if read this right the Bucks are +50 point difference, and with 8 minutes and change the Knicks are up 28 for the game and +43, going to be a weird 8 minutes left. Hawks are the 3 seed. If Orlando loses by 34 or less they are the 4th seed. If lose by 35 Celtics are the 4th seed
So the Magic dont lose by 35, and Boston is gone, east semi finals set, Magic at Bucks, Hawks at Knicks
Bucks vs. Knicks in the final.
Calling it now
Giannis current team vs. his future team
😈
Nice easy win, keep it rolling Bucks.
The 2-8 start was associated with terrible basketball in some cases, but it was also a bit of a mirage since 4 of the losses were to the Celtics and Cavs who are a combined 36-7 (with two of the losses to each other).
That terrible start forced Doc Rivers (or maybe game him some cover) to make some changes. The most significant change was to sit Connaughton and give his 20 minutes a game to Ajax and AJ Green. That has completely changed the whole outlook of this team. AJ Green's value shows up on the counting stats. He's shooting almost 50% from three and his defense at 25 years of age is much better than Connaughton's at 32 years old. He's a better shooting version of a young Connaughton, but a weaker primary ballhandler.
Playing Ajax has been even more revelatory. If you just watch him in isolation on offense, he looks like a complete liability. His shot is awkward, he's prone to airballing even 10 footers, and he makes some dumb plays that young players often make (like the turnover up 4 against Miami last week in the last 20 seconds). His counting stats continue to look terrible. His shooting splits are 39/36/50. His averages per 36 minutes are 7 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.
But it is almost unbelievable how much better they are when he's on the court. We can all see he can play great defense on wing guys, but the effect is even more than that. On court/off court stats have some flaws and sometimes can be misinterpreted, but these are the differences in Offensive and Defensive rating for the Bucks when these specific guys are on the court vs. off the court. AJax is one of the best on the team. He's just one of those guys that does a lot of things that make the team better that don't often show up in box scores. He gets back on defense and prevents easy transition scores. He gets a lot of hockey-type assists. His on-ball defense doesn't allow blow-byes that get other opponents guys wide open 3s. His help defense is outstanding.
If the Bucks had started something like 5-5 instead of 2-8, I would bet Connaughton would still be playing 20 minutes a game. These changes really increase their ceiling. And Connaughton as your 10th or 11th guy on the bench is a lot better than most teams have at that point on their depth charts. He just can't be your 6th or 7th guy anymore.
