9:00 pm, CST, start. The game is on ESPN. The Bucks lost 2 of their last 5 and the Trailblazers have lost 3 of their last 5. This is a homecoming for Damian Lillard.
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
Tip off now scheduled for 9:12pm as the Florida- Kentucky game goes into OT.
Video of Dame with his kids before the game.
Dame shoots, and misses one, from the logo while his teammates are still coming down the floor.
Portland crowd counting to 10 on Giannis's FTs.
Bucks get up by 8. Portis, Crowder, and Connaughton come in and the Blazers cut it to 2 almost immediately.
Bucks up 1 after the first. Bucks bench was terrible again.
The simple fact is hardly anyone in the top 7 rotation can stay in front of whoever they are guarding.
Pinball turnovers on poor passing. Just like that the Bucks are down by 3.
Middleton keeping it close! He's been solid on his midrange jumpers.
Blazers up 10 on a Brogdan 3. Rivers calls a time out.
Chauncey wins the challenge for Portland but Milwaukee gets the ball.
Congrats Chauncey you "win" 🤣
Bucks with some tough D steals the ball and takes the lead. Blazers quickly retake the lead
(sigh).....another loss 🤬 FML
The Bucks were more worried about trying to make Dame the hero of his return to Portland than actually winning the game.
Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, and Portis were 31 for 60 from the floor last night. The Blazers have no one to guard Giannis or Portis inside. Middleton was cooking. But they kept having Dame jack up 30 footers and he ends up 3 for 13 from three.
Doc Rivers has a reputation for being one of the best coaches in calling after timeout plays. But he was kind of forced into making last night's final play "get the ball to Dame and let him hit a Dame Time shot so it can go viral." The Blazers blitzed him to get the ball out of his hands and Lopez ended up taking a 30 footer. Giannis had single coverage inside the arc and the Bucks were down 1. Lopez shouldn't have taken the shot, but they had not timeouts left and had nothing else called.
Last night was all about Dame and very little about the team. I guess it makes sense, but not good.
The interviews and comments from Dame all seemed to indicate he's a very nice guy who was great for the Portland community and that he probably regrets demanding a trade. His entire family (including cousins) moved to Portland and has lived there for a decade. His kids live there. He's got a mansion there.
His legacy could have been being the best player in Blazers history and a top 50 player all time. He could have played out his career in Portland, been a community icon, and had fun. Right now it just doesn't look like he enjoys playing basketball and the pressure (that he created for himself) is weighing him down. If he stays in Portland this year, averages 30, and helps drag a young team to even a play-in game, he's a hero. Now, if he loses in the Eastern conference second round, he's a failure. But all the talking heads discussing how he needed to get out and win a title or he was a failure got to him.
So, now his legacy is probably going to be a guy who went to a superteam and showed he wasn't good enough to help a team win a title.
He could have been Reggie Miller in Indiana. Now he's just a ring chasing mercenary. He's too nice a guy to not have that bother him (he's not a cold, calculated guy like Durant, Kyrie, Harden, etc.).
Then Dame needs to win a title in Milwaukee. Portland will feel like they've won too.
I feel like Dames defense is a little bit better under Doc too
@Boris posted:Then Dame needs to win a title in Milwaukee. Portland will feel like they've won too.
I feel like Dames defense is a little bit better under Doc too
He seems to be trying more. Beasley played good defense too last night, but the Blazers hit some tough shots.
What really kills their defense is that Connaughton has lost about two steps and Payne can't guard anybody. Lillard and Beasley are poor on-ball defenders, but the defense gets even worse when Connaughton and Payne come in and neither generates enough offense to offset that. The general theme of the last couple of weeks is that they build an 8-10 point lead by the 4 minute mark of the first quarter, they bring parts of the second unit in, and then the game is back to about even at the end of one because the opponent's bench outplays their bench. Their only offense in the second unit is to post up Portis and have him take a tough shot. He's very good, but it stagnates any flow they have. If he hits a few tough shots the Bucks only lose a little bit. If he has a bad night, the Bucks get blown off the court in those minutes.
I think the only solution they have is to package Portis as part of a deal to get a wing defender. I don't think he's going to be playable if they get to a playoff series with Boston anyway, and I don't think he's playable against the Pacers either. They can't afford to play Lopez 30 minutes against those teams either.
Right now, it's about 38 minutes of Giannis, 32 minutes of Lopez, and 24 minutes of Portis at the 4 and 5 spots. In the playoffs against a team like the Celtics or Pacers, they need 40 minutes of Giannis, 25 minutes of Lopez, and 30 minutes of someone else. Lopez plays the 5 in the first and third quarters and takes some of the pounding for the game. By the time you get to the 4th, Giannis shifts to the 5 and you need a 3 and D guy to play the 4. Portis just doesn't give you the defense you need, and he's not switchable. If Jackson/Livingston/Beauchamp had looked better, you could get by with some combination of their minutes with Portis and absorb those 30 minutes you need to find. But they aren't (and may never) be ready.
The Bucks aren't going to get a home run level acquisition without moving their core 4. Without moving Lopez, they need to try to buy low on someone and hope they can rehab them.
One high-risk/high-reward guy that fits this is Wiggins. He’s been terrible this year and the Warriors are rumored to be looking to dump his contract. But he’s 29 years old and two years removed from basically controlling Jayson Tatum in the Finals enough to allow the Warriors to win a title. Playing for the Warriors right now has to be a little like playing for the NY Jets in terms of dysfunction. Klay Thompson has regressed badly, but still wants to cash out with another contract. Draymond Green may punch you at any point and get away with it.
A trade of Portis, Connaughton, and a minimum salary (AJ Green or Robin Lopez) works to get Wiggins.
Wiggins is a 6’7” switchable defensive wing who is a decent enough offensive player to be a threat. The Warriors probably don’t want to pay him 24 million for the next 3 years.
The risk is that you bring him in and he continues to suck and you are stuck with a 24 million dollar contract for a guy that plays like a MLE player.