I knew he couldn't make both.
Oh well pretty good game to open the season
Well, an appropriate ending... Giannis didn’t play well enough for 3 quarters and it cost them.
Well, I’m not sure Boston can play any better. They will not shoot like this during the season. Tatum with a fucking prayer. I’ll bet if he takes that shot 100 times he might make it 10? At best. Lol.
And Giannis deserves all the fucking criticism for choking on the FT. I mean, the second attempt wasn’t close. He wants to be the best he better step it up.
@Tschmack posted:Well, I’m not sure Boston can play any better. They will not shoot like this during the season. Tatum with a fucking prayer. I’ll bet if he takes that shot 100 times he might make it 10? At best. Lol.
And Giannis deserves all the fucking criticism for choking on the FT. I mean, the second attempt wasn’t close. He wants to be the best he better step it up.
Missing that FT short means the pressure got to you. It never had a chance.
Bucks starters 109, Bucks bench 12
Bucks turnovers 16, Boston 6
Bucks allowed 10 offensive rebounds even though overall they won the rebounding battle 52-37.
The Bucks have no bench whatsoever. They might have the best top 3 guys in the league, DDV is going to be solid, and Lopez is a good big. Then, nothing. Connaughton at crunch time? Guarding Tatum? Why not Portis?
Well, if there’s a sliver lining the Raptors got pounded at home and Miami lost to Orlando.
Boston can’t play any better offensively and they won on a luck shot.
If DDV plays like this they will be in great shape. I thought Holiday had an OK game and dude had 25.
Tatum and Brown went for almost 75 points. And Teague with 19 WTF
The the good things- Middleton played well overall. Divincenzo gives them that all season, they’re in great shape. Holiday- as advertised.
Budenholzer has some explaining to do with the matchups.
Torrey Craig might be their best wing and perimeter defender and he didn’t play. You think Brown goes for 30 if he does? Or Jeff Teague for almost 20? I doubt it. Yet DJ Wilson and Sam Merrill and Forbes play? Cmon Bud. You fucked up again. Craig has to be in the lineup every night as an option to slow down the other team if they get hot.
@Music City posted:The the good things- Middleton played well overall. Divincenzo gives them that all season, they’re in great shape. Holiday- as advertised.
Budenholzer has some explaining to do with the matchups.
The problem Bud has this year is that the bench appears to be terrible (based on watching the preseason games and tonight). Holiday is a huge upgrade over Bledsoe, but the bench is going to lose them a lot of games. Even in the playoffs you need 8 guys, and they have 5. I like Connaughton as an energy guy to give you 5-7 minutes throughout game, but he played 23 minutes tonight. Where was Portis in the 4th? Craig?
The bench guys played a accumulative 71 minutes and were a cumulative -32 points.
DJ Wilson played almost 15 minutes. That’s incredible. He gives them some offense but defensively (like Forbes) he’s a non factor. Yet Torrey Craig rides the pine? Arguably their best defender not named Giannis?
Coach Bud is really starting to get on my nerves.
@Tschmack posted:Torrey Craig might be their best wing and perimeter defender and he didn’t play. You think Brown goes for 30 if he does? Or Jeff Teague for almost 20? I doubt it. Yet DJ Wilson and Sam Merrill and Forbes play? Cmon Bud. You fucked up again. Craig has to be in the lineup every night as an option to slow down the other team if they get hot.
The big problem was playing Connaughton in the 4th quarter. The rest of the NBA was laughing at the fact we overpaid him to stay and sees him as an end of the bench guy and yet here he was guarding Jayson Tatum during parts of the 4th quarter. If you trust DJ Wilson at all, you play him instead of Connaughton. Or give Craig or Portis the minutes.
It was 1 game....in Boston....where they were down by 17 -- didn't play very well & still almost won.
It's just the first game. If we see 10 games in a row like this, then I'll be on board with sticking Budd in the guillotine.
You have to give them a few games to work together.
I think the Bench will be fine- they can’t be much worse- because they’re raw and they won’t play the Celtics every night. They have plenty once Augustine is out there.
Tristan Thompson was just what the doctor ordered for the Celtics. 12 and 8 and he neutralized the Bucks interior rebounding With 4 offensive boards leading to 8 second chance points. You look at the Bucks statistically, they won almost every category- except turnovers 16 (that lead to 19 points), and 3 point shooting. The Bucks were a respectable 14/35, but the Celtics connected on 18/40.
I wasn’t aware that DJ Augustine is out 3/4 weeks with a “bone irritation” which certainly f’s up the rotation.
It was a tough road loss to open the season. On to Fiserv on Christmas Day...
I think they’ll be fine. Boston is a good team and they played an almost perfect game and beat Milwaukee by one point.
I didn’t realize Giannis had 35 points but what was encouraging is he hit several step back shots during the game and didn’t just settle for drives and dunks. If he can continue to refine that aspect of his game there’s really not much that can stop him. Until he gets to the FT line with the game in the balance.....
As disappointing as the game ended, I’d recommend watching the end of the Nuggets and Kings in OT. Denver has a chance to win in the final possession and Sacramento knocks away the inbound pass and sprints down and Hield tips it in for the game winner as time expires. Talk about a punch in the gut if you are a Nuggets fan.
Zach Lowe and Jeff VG were talking about Giannis in their season preview- JVG made a great point: if Giannis hits a 3, it doesn’t make him more dangerous as a player because there’s nothing the opposition is going to do differently to defend it. You give a 35% 3 point shooter a step back or walk into shot every time. But if you have a post game where you can get in the paint and score. The defense suddenly is forced to make changes, which then allows you to add passing to your weapons as guys can cut or get open based on help defense. This is exactly what I have had in my mind the last 3 years- you need a reliable high % shot that the defense must react to. Hopefully what we saw in the 4th quarter is what’s to come.
The bench isn’t THAT bad. The choice of minutes allocation was puzzling.
@tsr86free posted:The bench isn’t THAT bad. The choice of minutes allocation was puzzling.
You have to play Craig or Portis against a team like the Celtics instead of Connaughton.
7 million of cap space for Connaughton and Thanassis could have been used for another wing, but that was part of the price of keeping Giannis.
@tsr86free posted:The bench isn’t THAT bad. The choice of minutes allocation was puzzling.
I think you’re probably right but it’s pretty clear the new guys are not yet comfortable in the Bucks’ system with the exception of Holiday who looked fantastic.
Portis has a nice looking jump shot for a power forward. I have to believe he’ll find his niche eventually.
Let the bad Giannis narratives begin!!!
Everything said in that article is 100% fair...