Bucks have to shake off a tough loss and take on the hottest team in the NBA who is 10-2 on their home floor. Bucks took an L from Utah earlier this year, losing 131-118 at Fiserv. At the time the Jazz were scuffling out of the gate, but have won 16/17.
Without Holiday, this will be a very tough game to win. Need to get hot and stay hot from 3.
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Bucks haven’t won in SLC since 2001...
Let Ingles drive... you can recover on his slow ass. Don’t... give... him... space... outside... the 3... FFS!!!
Jazz start 4 for 6 from 3 (all Ingles). Teams just target Lopez on switches over and over and over.
Stop turning the ball over...
Phantom foul on Craig...
How is Craig still alive after that??? OMG... that looked horrible. Thank God he’s ok... holy moly...
@Music City posted:How is Craig still alive after that??? OMG... that looked horrible. Thank God he’s ok... holy moly...
His left shoulder looked dislocated when he was lying on the ground.
Jazz start with 7 for 15 in the first from 3.
It sure did...
Jazz 7/15 from three, Bucjs have turned the ball over 4 times already, and the Jazz are fortunately only down 4.
Need something more from Forbes/Augustine. 1-6 so far...
Utah 8/17 from three... Bucks 5/15.
Gonna lose contact here real soon...
Bucks 0 for 6 from 3 this quarter.
Giannis is tentative now... he’s trying to be smart, they keep defending him smarter. Tries to back a guy down, pulls the chair out, he falls down. He’s just not prepared to counter their counters. His default is to barrel into the lane versus 3 guys, and then see what happens. Utah is smarter, better, more mentally prepared.
@Music City posted:Gonna lose contact here real soon...
It's the story very often this year against good teams. If DDV, Forbes, and Augustin hit from 3, they are the best offensive team in the league. If they don't, they are merely above average. That won't cut it against a team like the Jazz.
Tonight those 3 are 2 for 10 and most of the shots have been wide open looks after the defense collapses on Giannis.
Giannis has 2 points in the half.
This is approaching embarrassment territory
I think anyone who leaves Ingles alone in the fucking corner should be benched and fined.
Just a horrific defensive performance. Allow 12 for 24 on a lot of open looks.
Bucks 3 point shooting is also awful.
Giannis with 2 points at the half.
This may be a game where everybody sits in the 4th. This will likely be a loss by 20+ points.
It’s fucking unthinkable. You allow that slow motherfucker to do the one thing he’s going to do- 6 of 7 from 3, and that’s the only shots he’s taken in the game. Leads all scorers with 20 points. He’s a one trick pony... and they let him do what he’s on the fucking floor to do. Time after time they left him there anyway.
Officials making sure the Bucks don’t get a run...
Giannis playing his worst game in years. Spectated on a missed three, Goebert slips behind him, putback and one. Fundamental basketball. Getting embarrassed against a good team. Proving all the doubters right...
The defense has been bad, but that's what happens when you don't have Holiday. Forbes and Augustin are huge liabilities.
The bigger problem has been the offense from DDV, Augustin, and Forbes. They are 3 for 15 from the floor.
When your backcourt is terrible on defense and on offense it's hard to stay competitive.
Bucks playing like they knew they were going to lose before tipoff.
Giannis completely passive. Backcourt's been terrible.
Not remotely competitive.
As bad as this is, the Jazz aren't even shooting that well. They are going to put up 130 or so this evening, and outside of Joe Ingles they are 6 of 22 from 3.
Why did Giannis take only 2 shots in the first half?
Augustin was a very questionable signing. He's probably unplayable in the playoffs and they put 7 million into a 34 year old short guy
@MichiganPacker2 posted:The defense has been bad, but that's what happens when you don't have Holiday. Forbes and Augustin are huge liabilities.
The bigger problem has been the offense from DDV, Augustin, and Forbes. They are 3 for 15 from the floor.
When your backcourt is terrible on defense and on offense it's hard to stay competitive.
Those three are now 4 for 18.
Why is Giannis in during garbage time?
A pretty meaningless 29 point game when you score 10 in the last 4 minutes of a game you are down almost 20.
Never under double digits in the second half.
Without Holiday, the Bucks have 4 playoff caliber players: Giannis, MIddleton, Lopez, and Portis.
Augustin, Forbes, DDV, and Connaughton are just not good enough to beat good teams with.
Bucks Gs... 7/22, 3/12 from three, 24 points. It’s like a Kyrie Irving stat line when he was with the Celtics.
Tough to beat a decent team like Utah when you don’t have Holiday.
Need to get the OKC win and then .500 on the road trip.
By the way, fuck COVID19
One other thing - at some point the Bucks will have to consider trading Brook Lopez. Much like Eric Bledsoe, teams have figured out how to attack him. Make him defend the perimeter and he’s not athletic enough to recover if they pass up the shot and drive to the hoop.
@Tschmack posted:Tough to beat a decent team like Utah when you don’t have Holiday.
Need to get the OKC win and then .500 on the road trip.
By the way, fuck COVID19
If they beat OKC, they'll be 4-2 on the road trip. Had Holiday played, they still probably would have lost to Jazz, but definitely win in Phoenix.
They have 10 games left before the break. They need to go at least 7-3 in these games. If Holiday is out for an extended period of time covering several of these games, then I think something like 5-5 or 4-6 is in play.
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@Tschmack posted:One other thing - at some point the Bucks will have to consider trading Brook Lopez. Much like Eric Bledsoe, teams have figured out how to attack him. Make him defend the perimeter and he’s not athletic enough to recover if they pass up the shot and drive to the hoop.
If you knew you weren't going to face Philly in a playoff series, I think you do this. But if you think you have to get by Philly, Embiid would average 40 against the Bucks or Giannis would be playing 25 minutes a game because of foul trouble. If you still have Robin Lopez you'd consider it because at least you have someone that could at least provide some resistance for 15 minutes a game and give Giannis a break. However, I agree on Brook. Unless he's hitting 40%+ from 3 he's a net liability against good teams.
If they can get anything for DJ Wilson and Augustin in a package that's maybe what you do. They make about 11 million between the two of them. Wilson is either out of the league or a minimum salary guy next year and I don't think you can use Augustin in a playoff series as anything other than the Korver role last year. He's been decent as a spot up 3 point shooter (the 2019-20 Korver role), but Forbes is better in that role and at least offers some mild resistance on defense. The problem is why would anyone want them? And you have no picks left to sweeten any deal.
You need an 8 or 9 man rotation for the playoffs.
Last year, the rotation was 10 guys and Bud needs to shorten that and play his top 3 more. I've listed Hill and M. Williams as 6A and 6B because they were the first backcourt guy and first frontcourt guy off the bench and most NBA teams play 7 guys heavy minutes in the playoffs.
1. Giannis, 2. Middleton, 3. Bledsoe, 4. B. Lopez, 5. Matthews, 6A. Hill, 6B. M. Williams, 8. DDV, 9. Connaughton, 10. Korver
This year they are much better #1-#3 for a playoff series. Lopez is the same and DDV is at least no worse than Matthews at #5 (Matthews was by advanced stats one of the worst players in the NBA last year). Portis is an upgrade over Marvin Williams. If you slot Connaughton #9 and Forbes as a combination of the minutes going to #8/#10 last year, the Bucks are at least as good or better than last year across their entire rotation except for the slot George Hill had (first guard off the bench). The problem right now is that Augustin is getting George Hill's minutes and he's probably the worst defensive player the Bucks have had while Bud has been coach. Augustin has been a good catch and shoot 3-point shooter, but he's a liability on offense once he's chased off the 3 point line (just like Matthews last year). He's 14 for 49 from inside the arc. He's Matthews on offense and when he's on the court it's like you are playing 4 on 5 on defense. They need to get better at that position, but I'm not sure you can flip Wilson for anybody useful without a draft pick to sweeten the deal.
Their options are either to get something for DJ Wilson in a trade or just play Torrey Craig instead of Augustin and live with the lack of floor spacing on the offensive end.
I don’t see any moves. They rely too heavily on Lopez against opponents bigs to just trade him away. They would play Giannis at the 5 a lot more than they do if they were interested in that.
I think the coaching staff is still trying to coalesce this group. Augustine was supposed to be a very strong backup PG but he’s yet to find his groove. My guess is they’re going to keep plugging away and they have 46 more games to get it figured out. If they had draft assets to offer, maybe they’d have something. No assets? No interests...
