No surprise, but Bucks announce that Giannis is out for tonight’s game.
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Not a bad start. Let's see if they can keep it up.
Maybe Dame got sick of people (like me) complaining about his effort and focus.
It's one half, but holy shit
After that first half lead they better not blow this. Dame is on fire, ESPN Game cast says he had 35 points in the first half. The rest of the team not so much. Others need to pick up the slack as I'm sure the Pacers will double down focus on Dame for the 2nd half.
About the only thing similar I can remember is Ray Allen going crazy in Game 6 v Philly in the ECF but even that isn’t this game.
Bucks a bit less stong on offense this quarter, but McConnell is literally bear hugging Lillard on some of these possessions and the officials are letting him get away with it.
AJ Green is singlehandedly keeping the Pacers in this.
Pacers are leaving him wide open and he's missed 3 wide open shots in a row.
AJ Green single handedly allowing the Pacers back in.
Lead down to 12 to end the third.
9-0 run by the Pacers the last few minutes mainly because AJ Green was terrible.
Bucks only had 14 points in the third.
It's still 12, but this would be a collapse of epic proportions. Middleton needs to score here while Lillard gets some rest.
Back up by 20 as Doc brings in the veterans (Crowder and Beasley) and gets AJ Green off the floor.
@Pikes Peak posted:Dagger(s).
This is the 2023-24 NBA and the 2023-24 Bucks. Never call dagger early.
Down to 14 again with 3:22 left.
Lillard is getting mugged every possession.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:This is the 2023-24 NBA and the 2023-24 Bucks. Never call dagger early.
BK, those 2 corner 3’s (Crowder and Beasley) were the daggers…
Wasn’t thrilled to see a big lead get down to around 10 but the Bucks pretty much controlled this one from start to finish.
The Damian Lillard experience in a nutshell tonight.
A transcendant 35 point half followed by a scoreless second half. More than good enough to win, but you'd have liked to have seen something in the second half (although he was getting mugged most of the second half).
A good win without Giannis, and this buys Giannis at least five more days of rest as there is much less pressure to bring him back for Game 2 (if he is close to coming back at all) on Tuesday and Game 3 is not until Friday.
I was surprised how much the refs let Indiana hand check and body up on Lillard and Middleton. Something to watch for in game 2.
Guess the Bucks aren’t dead and buried just yet.
Nice to see Khris Middleton’s all-around game on display tonight. Playmaker in the first half, lead scorer in the second when the Pacers were denying Dame the ball. In a lot of ways he is key to how far Milwaukee can go.
@Pikes Peak posted:BK, those 2 corner 3’s (Crowder and Beasley) were the daggers…
I agree, but the Pacers can score in a hurry.
The corner 3s that Crowder and Beasley hit in the 4th were the same ones that AJ Green missed in the third that allowed the Pacers to maintain a long shot of winning.
I'm not sure you can play Green anymore in the playoffs. He looked like he was about to crap his pants when he was out there.
@Tschmack posted:I was surprised how much the refs let Indiana hand check and body up on Lillard and Middleton. Something to watch for in game 2.
Guess the Bucks aren’t dead and buried just yet.
As long as they allow the Bucks to treat Halliburton the same way, it's fine.
@Boris posted:Did they trade Dame yet??
Not yet. Those whispers will disappear until the Bucks fall behind in this series.
If not, they'll start up again when he faces Brunson in Round 2.
A couple of things that I think are encouraging for the Bucks in this series with or without Giannis.
First, as good as Dame played and shot the 3 the group of Lopez and Middleton and Portis were 2-10 from 3. Many of those misses were good looks. So while you may not expect Lillard to go 6-11 from 3, I doubt the key supporting cast shoots 20% from beyond the arc.
The other thing that seemed obvious was Indiana had a really tough time with Middleton and his size. If I’m Milwaukee, maybe I get the ball to him in the post and let him do his thing. That turnaround midrange is deadly and if you collapse on him someone will be wide open on the wing for a 3.
I would expect Indiana to come out and play a lot better in game 2 because if you are the Pacers it’s all about getting one of these first two in Milwaukee. That’s it.
If the Bucks lose game 2 this one doesn’t mean much. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2 points or 25. Just find a way to get #2 and then get one of 2 in Indiana and then they’ll be in business.
The last thing is Giannis got hurt on April 9. With the win they are guaranteed of at least 5 games which would basically be a full 3 weeks of recovery. All the reports I’ve read said 2-4 weeks so that places him right about there.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:Not yet. Those whispers will disappear until the Bucks fall behind in this series.
If not, they'll start up again when he faces Brunson in Round 2.
"I saw somebody say 'Dame is not happy in Milwaukee' or something like that," Lillard said. "I know the truth.
"I love the situation that I'm in. I also know what I have going on outside of basketball going on that kind of drains me at times. People are going to make comments. People are going to say things.
"And if it doesn't go the way they said it was going to go, nobody is ever (going to) come to them and say 'All right, you said this. Now what do you have to say about it?' They are never held accountable for what they say publicly."
https://www.jsonline.com/story...st-take/73387309007/
This was before game #1
It's the outside basketball stuff that affected him. Game 1 proved this Milwaukee team is as much his as it is Giannis. Just like Giannis said.
Only thing Milwaukee needs is health....and it's going to be fun.
It was Steven A Smith that made the comment.
I don’t know, for 80% of the season he surely didn’t look happy and despite being (mostly) healthy his numbers weren’t great. It was arguably one of his worst FG% and 3pt % seasons of his career.
You can say that’s due to the off the court stuff but in the end we will probably never know. We do know he and his agent went on the record stating he only wanted to be in Miami.
None of that really matters now if he can show up and show his out and the Bucks go on a long playoff run. But if they don’t get out of round 1 I absolutely guarantee all the noise will come right back around.
Pleasantly surprised to see this game out of Dame and the team as a whole. I found them unwatchable a lot of the year with high expectations and poor effort. We may lose Game 2, but if we can get Giannis back by Game 3, I'm not worried about needing to win on the road. I agree that Middleton is the real key to how far we go in the playoffs.
That’s why I think game 2 is pretty important. You win and go up 2-0 and then honestly you don’t need to think about playing him in game 3.
Game 4 isn’t until Sunday night so that’s almost an entire week to get him more rest. I think that’s the game they look at but if for some reason they are up 3-0 then I’d wait until game 5 to make that decision.
The only concern I have is defensively Giannis will cause trouble for Siakam because right now Middleton and Portis can’t really guard him.
So glad the regular season is over. Too long and too boring. Get another win at home without Giannis and then you can take the strategy of sitting him until you lose a game or win the series.
Game 2 tonight is blacked out in Milw on NBA TV, some weird rule I don't understand. Do not know about the rest of WI? If I understand correctly if you have NBA TV it will not be broadcast in the local market. Possibly could watch on Bally sports if you have that.