Bucks at Wizards

Bucks down 5 to a lousy team missing their best player. Still early, but they are sleepwalking through this first half.

Down 11. UNBELIEVABLY embarrassing.

Holiday is 2 for 11.

Bucks open the second quarter 1 for 10 from the floor.

Down 9. Giannis with 2 shot attempts and 5 points.

Bucks get it back to 1 at the half.

Wizards go 10 for 19 from 3 in the first half.

Bucks had separated and gone up 7 but Wizards are now up 1.

Lopez is getting dominated by Alex Len in the second half

Bucks down 3 in the third.

Middleton and Holiday are 5 for 25 from the floor.

Rui Hauchimora has 27 points in 26 minutes.

Bucks down 1 going into the 4th. A good team will put an undermanned WIzards team away here in the 4th quickly.

Bryn Forbes is Mr. Blowout.

He's 2 for 8 from 3 in a close game tonight after 7 for 7 in a blowout on Thursday

Bucks go up 8. Wizards timeout. Next two possessions are two Lopez switches onto Westbrook. 5-0 immediate Wizards run. Just stupid coaching.

Tie game. Embarrassing right now. A Wizards team on a back to back without Beal.

Bucks just can't put them away. Had multiple chances to go up 8, including a Holiday 5 footer and they let the Wizards cut it back to 3.

Not sure why Giannis is taking 19 foot jumpers with 8 seconds left on the shot clock either.

Fukking embarrassing.

Tied at 119.

Bucks up 3 with a minute left. Call timeout and set up LOPEZ? for a 3. Why? Put Portis in and give him that shot.

Bucks get the win as Middleton and Holiday close it out from the line.

They didn’t defend very well. But when Westbrook is burying pull up 3s, maybe it’s their night.

I wouldn’t sleep on the Wizards

Yes, their record isn’t very good, but if you look at their schedule they’ve got some good wins against the best teams in the league.  2 wins against Denver.  2 wins against the Nets.  They’ve beaten the Clippers and Lakers and Phoenix.  

Westbrook and Beal can give you a lot of problems.  That team can put up points and their surrounding cast isn’t too shabby either.

The good news is the Bucks won. It wasn’t pretty, but I think you are starting to see the top teams in the conference start to separate themselves.  Miami has snapped back as I thought they would after an awful start to the season.  Sixers, Nets, and Bucks in the top 3 but close in the standings.  Boston and Toronto?  Who the hell knows.  

Sixers got a big scare Friday- Embiid looked like he blew his knee, but the dodged a huge bullet. Just a knee bruise.

Paschke and Marques were talking about the Bucks having one of the easiest schedules remaining. Thought that was curious. Maybe they do. But they’ll need to defend better than last night tomorrow to have a shot.

Embiid is probably one of the top 5 big men in the league.   That being said, he’s has a number of injury related issues in his career.  I also don’t think he’s much of a leader and he acts a bit immature.  

Still, I agree the Sixers, like the Lakers, dodged a major bullet with Embiid and AD injuries.  There is no way either team can be a legit championship contender without each of them.

Philly will be interesting to follow down the stretch.  Simmons and Tobias Harris have been playing pretty well, but that’s not the same team (obviously) without Embiid.  

Part 2 tonight- would like to see Diakite get some run.

@Music City posted:

Part 2 tonight- would like to see Diakite get some run.

Bucks up 14 at the half. Had it to 17, but took and missed a 28 foot 3 pointer to try to get a 2 for 1 and the Wizards hit at 3 in response.

I hope I don’t jinx it... but the Bucks look much better tonight than they did Saturday.  Just dominant so far.

Aaand I jinxed it... Lead below 20 now.

@fightphoe93 posted:

Aaand I jinxed it... Lead below 20 now.

Down to 12 now.

The Wizards might be the best (offensive) and worst (defensive) team of all time

They are shooting 46% from 3 and still down a dozen

Yeah that 26 point lead has been disappearing way too quickly for comfort.  Bradley Beal looks like he might have another 20 points in him tonight, he is starting to get hot.

Down to 11 as Westbrook flops on a Giannis drive that would have been a 3 point make.

Bucks give up a 23-8 run so far. You can't fall asleep in the middle of the third quarter.

Bucks get it back to 16 going to the 4th. The difference? Holiday came back in and his defense is a real difference maker.

Bucks get it back to 19 and the Wizards get it back to 12 quickly before Bud takes a timeout

Down to 7. 12-0 Wizards run in two minutes.

Bryn Forbes' defense makes him unplayable.

The Bucks were up 26 in the third an up 19 in the fourth.

A 5 point lead.

I am just glad that the Wizards don’t get the ball to Beal on every possession.  I think he’s only missed once this quarter.  It feels like we can’t stop him.

Looks like the Bucks will pull this out.  

It’s too bad there’s not some loopholes in the rules that they could somehow get Bradley Beal on this team.  The Bucks might never lose a game if he was the shooting guard.  😀

Good win tonight when it looked rough a bit during the 4th.  The Wizards are going to score a lot of points against everyone, but they can't stop anybody either.

Giannis with a third consecutive triple double with 31/15/10 on 12 of 19 from the floor, 1 of 2 from 3, and a perfect 6 of 6 from the line.

I think the Wizards do that to everyone. Bucks got the W. BTB on the road, Giannis playing back at MVP level, defense got stops when they needed to. Some of the bullshit Westbrook’s been hitting the last 2 games is comical. Can’t be surprised Beal goes off- he always does against the Bucks.

I complained a lot about the Bucks not throwing lobs up for Giannis. They have fixed this. He’s getting 2-3 a night now. He has the size advantage, and with the length... do it more.

@fightphoe93 posted:

Looks like the Bucks will pull this out.  

It’s too bad there’s not some loopholes in the rules that they could somehow get Bradley Beal on this team.  The Bucks might never lose a game if he was the shooting guard.  😀

I think there’s some merit to the question that he may be a guy that can score 1000 points a night for a bad team, how would he fare on a good/great one? But there’s no question that when he gets going it’s like “uh oh...”

@Music City posted:

I think there’s some merit to the question that he may be a guy that can score 1000 points a night for a bad team, how would he fare on a good/great one? But there’s no question that when he gets going it’s like “uh oh...”

He's also probably the worst all-star level player in terms of defense in the NBA. He's up there with Trae Young. By some defensive metrics, he was by far the worst defensive shooting guard in the NBA last year.

I'm not saying Bryn Forbes is anywhere near the level that Beal is at, but I bet Forbes would easily average 20+ a night on a lousy team where he didn't have to bother to try to play defense. Jerami Grant, Collin Sexton, and Zach LaVine are all this type of player.

Giannis in the 3 games since the all-star break has back-to-back-to-back triple-doubles.

He's averaged 29.3/12.0/10.3 with 1.7 blocks and 1.0 steals.

He's 32 for 50 from the floor, 4 for 7 from 3, and 20 for 21 from the line.

That's a 64/56/95 shooting split. The Bucks are +73 in his 102 minutes.

I realize these were the Knicks and Wizards, but this might be the best statistical 3-game stretch of any Bucks' player in history.

Let's see what he can do in Philly on Wednesday.

As I said the night before, the Wizards can be a scary team offensively and if they get hot they can (and have) beaten the best teams in the league.  

Their problem is they can’t stop or defend anyone.  Not unlike the Hawks or a few other teams in the league.

Milwaukee hit a little bit of a speed bump with Holiday out, but they are back and rolling with him.  20-9 when he’s in the lineup.   That’s as good as just about any team in the league including the LAL and Nets and Jazz.

Maybe, just maybe, Giannis is starting to put it all together.  He just seems more comfortable and confident.  It’s like the game is coming to him and he’s making things look easy.   That’s a really good sign for the Bucks, and a really bad sign for the Eastern Conference.  

I also think Augustin is coming around and guys are starting to settle into their roles a lot better.   While he’s a problem defensively, DJA just knows how to play PG and rarely seems to make bad decisions like we are used to seeing with Bledsoe.  

I realize right now the Nets are the only team the national media seems to be focused on but until they can show they can play D I think they could be in real trouble if they end up playing a team like Milwaukee or Miami.  The Bucks and Heat have guys that can challenge the Big 3 defensively and they will apply their own pressure offensively as the Nets have no one that can defend Giannis or Bam.  

Notice I’m not talking about Philly because I still don’t trust them.