Bucks will be without Middleton, Allen, and Carter.
Wizards are eliminated and decide to sit Beal, Kuzma, Morris, and Porzingis. That's about 75 points per game.
Bucks just need to make Johnny Davis doesn't have a coming out party tonight. LOL.
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Game is even at 18 right now.
Bucks already have 6 turnovers in the first 7 minutes.
Johnny Davis just posterized Jrue.
Bucks lead by as much as 8, but then blow the last 30 seconds of the quarter and only lead by 3.
Still should eventually be a blowout. but 6 turnovers and 4 missed FTS (and the Wizards going 4 for 7 from three) keeping it close.
Bucks may have to sweat this out more than they thought. The are about out of wing players.
Middleton, G. Allen, and Carter were all sitting out to start. Connaughton ruled out with an ankle sprain.
Holiday with two fouls in the first quarter.
Bucks got it up to 12 in the second quarter, but then took Giannis out and the Wizards went on a 7-0 run. Only up 5 to a Wizards team sitting their 5 best players.
Bucks up 13 at the half. 75-62.
Giannis at 17-9-4.
Is this game being aired? Yahoo app says it's on NBC but the local NBC affiliate only has local programming being aired.
I'm watching on NBA League Pass.
Bucks up 17 going to the 4th.
Kendrick Nunn hit 3 threes in the last 90 seconds or it would be well over 20.
Giannis at 21-11-9 going to the 4th.
Bucks have a back-to-back tomorrow
Wizards cut it 12 on a 7-0 run with about 10 minutes left.
Too much screwing around right now. Might not make a difference tonight, but now may have to play Giannis and Jrue big minutes which could trigger some problems against the Bulls tomorrow.
W
The Celtics LOST to this team.
Let that sink in
Sixers beat the Celtics although nearly blowing it in the end.
Bucks have a 3 game lead with three games left, and are all but certain to have the first seed.
Embiid went off tonight with 52 points. That’s all the media needs to give him the MVP.
The good news.
The Sixers hold off the Celtics (without Jaylen Brown and Rob Williams) to win by 2.
The bad news (not really that bad).
Embiid goes for 52 points. He probably clinched the MVP (which I think Embiid wants more than a title).
Bucks magic number is 1.
Embiid is probably due (for MVP). Not sure Giannis cares if it means Bucks get another ring instead.
Watched a fair amount of the game and without him playing at an absurd level the Sixers probably lose by 25 against Boston.
@Tschmack posted:Embiid is probably due (for MVP). Not sure Giannis cares if it means Bucks get another ring instead.
Watched a fair amount of the game and without him playing at an absurd level the Sixers probably lose by 25 against Boston.
I watched part of the second half. He was basically shooting a lot of lightly contested 15 foot jumpers. It's essentially what they allow Giannis to shoot and he can't hit them, so credit to Embiid for making them.
@MichiganPacker posted:Game is even at 18 right now.
Bucks already have 6 turnovers in the first 7 minutes.
Johnny Davis just posterized Jrue.
Johnny Davis’ last 3 games. 20, 20 and 16 points. Too bad he decided to learn how to play NBA basketball in the G League rather than sticking with whatever the hell Greg Gard thinks he is coaching in Wisconsin.
He hasn't learned yet. If he was NBA ready he wouldn't have been in the G league. He started getting minutes 8 games ago. 44% from the floor, 29% on 3s, 50% on FTs (8-16). I'd say the jury is still out on that decision. He would have had the ball a lot more at the UW than he did in the G league. If Davis had stayed at the UW Gard would have been coaching a 28 win team.
Good for JD…hope he keeps it up.
@PackerRick posted:He hasn't learned yet. If he was NBA ready he wouldn't have been in the G league. He started getting minutes 8 games ago. 44% from the floor, 29% on 3s, 50% on FTs (8-16). I'd say the jury is still out on that decision. He would have had the ball a lot more at the UW than he did in the G league. If Davis had stayed at the UW Gard would have been coaching a 28 win team.
Yeah, they had to unteach him all the crappy basketball Greg Gard taught him.
I actually think Gard is a solid coach. He's always going to have a tough time recruiting at the UW because of academic standards. We saw what happened to Gary Anderson's recruiting classes.
Johnny Davis' biggest challenge is to learn how to be an off-ball scorer at the NBA level. He wasn't going to get any better at that playing at Wisconsin. He needs to develop skills so that he can contribute when he's not the best offensive player on the team (or even the 4th best).
The Badgers offense last year was to basically give Davis the ball and tell him to score 1 on 5 at times. His strength was the ability to get into the lane and hit contested shots. It's a lot different doing that against the Tyler Wahl types you see in the Big 10 relative to doing that against Giannis, Jrue Holiday, Wes Matthews, Marcus Smart, Jevon Carter, Jimmy Butler, etc. He was a terrible 3 point shooter at Wisconsin (31%) and that's what he needs to improve on to be at least an end-of-the rotation guy in the NBA. He's showing some signs there. Overall, he's at an atrocious 25.5% in the NBA from three. But after starting his NBA career hitting 1 of his first 13, he's "improved" so that he's hit 11 of his last 34. 32% isn't going to cut it either, but there's probably some room to improve that to the 35-36% level that wouldn't make him a complete liability.
If he can't shoot from 3, he'll be in Europe in a couple of years. Watching Jrue Holiday just punish him inside last night shows why his lack of strength makes him a liability on defense.
Even if he gets better at shooting threes, his ceiling for NBA success is pretty low.
What I don't get is Davis at 50% on FTs. You better be Shaq if you plan on getting playing time in the NBA if that doesn't improve.
Davis could have been the victim of bad advice. His father appears to have a lot of control over his sons and likely pushed him into taking the money after grinding for over a decade overseas. He even made the comment after the first year, where Davis didn't show NBA skills, that his son would be going to the NBA the next season.
We'll see when that 2nd contract comes around but his $20 mil over 4 years is really $12 mil after taxes and his agent. If he had stayed and worked his way up to 5th in the draft it was $33 mil. That's closer to $20 mil after deductions. I hope his decisions works out for him but it will be awhile before we know.
As a 6'4 player Davis needs to improve his outside shooting more than anything. If he doesn't improve that he won't even see the ball to be an off the ball scorer.
@PackerRick posted:Davis could have been the victim of bad advice. His father appears to have a lot of control over his sons and likely pushed him into taking the money after grinding for over a decade overseas. He even made the comment after the first year, where Davis didn't show NBA skills, that his son would be going to the NBA the next season.
Maybe his father had realistic expectations of what Johnny was going to be and realized that his draft stock was never going to get any higher.
The 2022 draft was also really weak relative to the 2023 draft. Banchero is going to be the ROY, but only because he's scoring a lot of points on inefficient volume shooting for a shitty team. The best contributing player out the draft might end up being Walker Kessler - basically a better FT shooting version of Clint Cappela.
The 2023 draft is stacked at the top. Even if Davis improved, he wasn't going higher than he did in 2022. And if his 3 point shot didn't improve, he may have gone lower even with an otherwise good year.
We'll never really know for sure. Or even if his shot would have improved. He had 3 years of eligibility left and that's why I think he should have stayed. I understand the grab the money approach but I think his father had far more impact on his decision that any advisor did. I'm sure Jordan is transferring at his father's direction as well.
And you need to subtract any NIL money that he would have gotten at Badgers from his NBA money. But who knows how much that may have been. Pretty substantial or a drop in the bucket?
Davis absolutely would have helped the Badgers. The issue is much like Henry Ellensen from years back you don’t turn down 1st round draft status. Ellensen had plenty of holes in his game also but was taken 18th overall. Davis went 10th overall.
In the NBA, you have to be elite at something to get minutes. Either defense or rebounding or shooting or scoring. But shooting is most important. Stretch bigs that can shoot or 3 and D guys are always in demand. If you are tenacious defensively you can have a role as well but you still need to at least make a third of your 3s or you won’t see the floor.
@PackerRick posted:I actually think Gard is a solid coach. He's always going to have a tough time recruiting at the UW because of academic standards. We saw what happened to Gary Anderson's recruiting classes.
No Ryan had no such issues.
Ryan is a HOF coach. When judging Gard consider what replacements are available. It won't be a Bo Ryan.
I want the Badgers to be better and they need better recruits. I see that as more of a problem than the coaching. There were very few games last season where I thought the Badgers had the more talented team.
