Bucks at Wizards, April 2nd

Bucks behind the Wizards by one towards the end of the first.

Dame sitting out and now Giannis has 2 fouls and has to sit.

Doc plays an all-bench unit and Gallinari has proven he still sucks. A traffic cone offers more resistance on defense.

Bucks up 1 after one. Don't play around with this team. Bury them on Dame's vacation week.

Gallinari fails to box out on the first possession and then has two turnovers on the first two offensive possessions. What a joke.

Bucks down 3.

Bucks are completely shitting the bed right now.

Wizards probably have 8-9 layups.

Down 5 to a team that would get beat by some G league teams.

Pathetic half ends with Giannis missing 2 FTs and the Bucks giving up a layup in 5 seconds after the rebound.

Bucks down 4. One of the worst halves of the year.

This team is beating the Bucks right now.

Bucks down 8 in the third quarter.

More layups for the Wizards and Giannis clanking FTs.

Cannot take any team lightly.

Down 15. What a fukking joke.

@DurangoDoug posted:

Cannot take any team lightly.

Well, when Dame is allowed to take a week off it sends a message to the rest of team.

What makes this worse is the Wizards are terrible to start with and are missing arguably their best 3 players (Kuzma, Coulibaly, and Tyus Jones)

The Bucks are 5 for 27 from three.

Bucks with a nice run to end the third to get it to 6.

The biggest thing was getting Beasley out of the game. Another horrible performance on 2 for 11 from the floor - and he's being left wide open.

Now down 12. That's why guys like AJ Green end up playing in Europe. He screws up when it counts.

Lead down to 3. AJ Green inexplicably lets Butler wide open on defense for a 3. That could be the difference.

This is looking like a loss. To one of the worst teams of the last decade missing their 3 best players.

I hope Dame enjoyed his family birthday party and Easter egg hunt. I'm sure Giannis and Khris would have liked to be with their kids on Easter too.

Can Beasley play any worse?

It’s looking like a long shot to win this one with 21 seconds left.

Bucks miss their last two shots.  This is would have been a good game for Dame to be active as he tends to make those shots in crunch time.  

This has the potential to be a horrible loss given them hanging on to the 2 seed and this was arguably their easiest game left.  There’s little to no margin for error left now.  And they get a back to back plus travel home in horrible weather conditions.

Bucks fittingly lose when they fall behind by 4 when no one hustles for the rebound.

Fukk the Bucks other than Giannis and Middleton and I don't say that lightly. Fukk Dame Lillard sitting out a week - you are paid 55 million dollars. You need to be a professional and do your job and get your ass back to the team.

One of the most embarrassing losses of the Giannis era given who they were playing - the worst team in the league without their 3 best players.

The Bucks waste a 35-15-10 night on 15 for 21 from Giannis. Middleton was good too.

Beasley, Crowder, Portis, Beverly, and Lopez go 1 for 22 from three.

@Tschmack posted:

Bucks miss their last two shots.  This is would have been a good game for Dame to be active as he tends to make those shots in crunch time.  

This has the potential to be a horrible loss given them hanging on to the 2 seed and this was arguably their easiest game left.  There’s little to no margin for error left now.  And they get a back to back plus travel home in horrible weather conditions.

Dame went home to be with his kid and decided to stay a couple more days.

Now they have to play a back to back with Giannis playing 37 minutes tonight.

The Wizards only had 8 players active. None of them would play minutes on a playoff team.

Bucks probably need to go 4-3 down the stretch at worst to keep the 2 slot.  Won’t be easy given games against New York and Boston and at OKC and at Orlando to close things out.

As for Lillard, while I understand him taking the time off it’s still a really bad look.  You don’t think other guys on the team don’t have kids and families?  This is the same guy that travelled to watch a road game in Chicago recently to watch his buddy DeRozan play and spend time on his podcast.

I realize the regular season isn’t everything but it’s not like these guys have played together for years now.  Dame needs to get used to Middleton getting back in form.

He had better him lead this team to  at least the Conference Finals.  If not, trading him in the offseason is absolutely on the table.

Lose to the 14 win Wizards....Guess they don't care....Why should we?? 🤷‍♂️

@Tschmack posted:

Bucks probably need to go 4-3 down the stretch at worst to keep the 2 slot.  Won’t be easy given games against New York and Boston and at OKC and at Orlando to close things out.

As for Lillard, while I understand him taking the time off it’s still a really bad look.  You don’t think other guys on the team don’t have kids and families?  This is the same guy that travelled to watch a road game in Chicago recently to watch his buddy DeRozan play and spend time on his podcast.

I realize the regular season isn’t everything but it’s not like these guys have played together for years now.  Dame needs to get used to Middleton getting back in form.

He had better him lead this team to  at least the Conference Finals.  If not, trading him in the offseason is absolutely on the table.

The Bucks weren't going to win a title this year with Holiday, but Dame's vacation may not be going over well with the other players. The "groin" injury was probably just for them to not have to say he was missing a second game in a row for personal reasons.

Dame seems like a guy who would have really been better off just averaging 30 for a crappy Portland team and being a beloved player there.

The Bucks aren't out of the woods for even the 4 seed at this point. The Knicks and Magic are both within 3 games and the Bucks, as you say, have some really tough games left (Knicks, Magic, Magic, Thunder, Celtics). If they lose the three games to the Knicks and Magic, they could be looking at the 5 seed.

@Boris posted:

Lose to the 14 win Wizards....Guess they don't care....Why should we?? 🤷‍♂️

At least we watched. Dame didn't bother.

If I’m Giannis I can’t be happy about this BS with the Lillard trip home.  He’s busting his ass and this fucking guy is trying to play family man at the expense of him doing his regular job - a job that he hasn’t performed up to his own past standards yet is being paid to do so.  

If this team doesn’t make a deep run and he’s not vintage Dame in the postseason they need to think about dealing him.  There’s only so many years left of Giannis playing at this level and you could make a case this is his best year yet.  Even Middleton is stepping up after coming back.

The team and fans have treated him extremely well but I’m sorry the fucking honeymoon period is over.  Show up, show out, or hit the bricks pal.  

@Tschmack posted:

As for Lillard, while I understand him taking the time off it’s still a really bad look.  You don’t think other guys on the team don’t have kids and families? 

You don't know the situation....

His wife was fighting for full custody and he didn't want that to happen. It may be a condition of his joint custody. We don't know.

Probably best to stick to basketball

This game is mind boggling. The Bucks lost a game where

Giannis went for 35-15-10 on 15 for 21 from the floor

Middleton goes for 24-9-6 on 9 for 19 from the floor

Portis goes for 12-12-3 on 6 for 14 from the floor

The Wizards shoot 9 for 38 from three.

The Bucks out rebounded the Wizards 62-51.

With those things happening, this should have been a 20 point win.

He chose this life.  This profession.  They gave up a shit ton to get him including a guy in Jrue that was beloved in that city.

I honestly do not care about his personal situation at this point. There are plenty of people struggling to make ends meet.  He’s blessed to be in his situation.  By the way, who’s to say he’s not at least partially responsible for the divorce?

If he wants to be a real family man then quit your job and be a dad to your kids.   God knows he has more than enough money for his kids and their kids.  But I don’t want or need to hear about it anymore.

Come to work and do your job.  Seems to work fine for a lot of other people not making 50M a year.

@Boris posted:

You don't know the situation....

His wife was fighting for full custody and he didn't want that to happen. It may be a condition of his joint custody. We don't know.

Probably best to stick to basketball

Then he shouldn't have forced a trade out of Portland if that was what was most important. I get it if it is, these guys are human, but the guy can hire a private jet any time he wants. It's not like he's flying commercial and has to fly from Portland to DC while connecting in O'hare.

He wanted to go to Miami. As Tschmack says, he travels to do podcasts with other players.

Is he going to sit out a playoff game too?

@Tschmack posted:

He chose this life.  This profession.  They gave up a shit ton to get him including a guy in Jrue that was beloved in that city.

I honestly do not care about his personal situation at this point. There are plenty of people struggling to make ends meet.  He’s blessed to be in his situation.

If he wants to be a real family man then quit your job and be a dad to your kids.  

Especially since he forced his way out of Portland.

And don't tell me he was worried about this during the summer. He wanted to be shipped to Miami (probably so he could party). Miami is literally the farthest place he could play from Portland.

It's a 2700 mile flight from Portland to Miami and a 1700 mile flight from Portland to Milwaukee.

Dame isn't committed to the Bucks. I wonder how Giannis and Khris feel about this? If I'm them, I'm pissed.

@Tschmack posted:

I honestly do not care about his personal situation at this point.

...and that right there is a why you didn't get it.

The Bucks obviously care. That's the only thing that matters in this situation

Again, if the Bucks come up short this postseason and Dame doesn’t play close to or near his full potential the situation will take care of itself.  Giannis will either demand that Dame is dealt or he wants to be dealt.  We all know what the easy solution is there.

And if he still wants to go to Miami that’s OK too.  Give us Herro and 3 #1s and we can call it a day.

As for not getting it, if you don’t think that’s what will happen this offseason you haven’t been following the NBA closely enough.  They can trade Dame away as easily as they acquired him even if it is just one season.

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

Dame isn't committed to the Bucks. I wonder how Giannis and Khris feel about this? If I'm them, I'm pissed.

Interesting conclusion you've jumped to. I'll put that on the back burner until we have more info

@Boris posted:

Interesting conclusion you've jumped to. I'll put that on the back burner until we have more info

Admittedly, we are pissed after a terrible loss, but taking off on Thursday and not being with the team for 6 days is bad look for Dame. They had some off days which they could get some practice time in and they need that given they didn't have a training camp to put in Rivers' schemes. Go home for the birthday party and miss the one game, but this has the look that he just didn't feel like rushing back on his private jet and decided to sit out another one.

Easter was Sunday.  He could have easily caught a flight to DC on Monday with plenty of time to play this game tonight.  I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit.  

@Tschmack posted:

Easter was Sunday.  He could have easily caught a flight to DC on Monday with plenty of time to play this game tonight.  I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit.  

He doesn't need to catch a flight. He has a net worth in the hundreds of millions. He's arranged for private jets before.

https://clutchpoints.com/blaze...jet-girlfriend-labor

They better win against the Grizzlies tomorrow or they might be in some serious trouble. I expect them to, but who knows at this point.