More load balancing tonight. Middleton is out with "wrist soreness".
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This is a game where Giannis may go for 50+. They have no one to guard him and Middleton is out.
I guess as long as they don't slip below the 6 seed, it's fine to load balance. It would be nice to at least stay top 4 to get the home court advantage in the first round though.
The game must be on FSWI, which we don't get here, in western Wisconsin. Go figure!
Giannis with 10-5-1 (with 4 turnovers after one). Even with 7 Bucks turnovers, Bucks up 33-20.
Bucks up 16 even though they completely screwup the last 2 minutes and give up a 10-0 run to let the Bulls back in this. Great basketball for 22 minutes and then bad mistakes by Giannis (two missed FTs and an unforced turnover) and Holiday (who clearly lost track of how many seconds were left in the half on the last possession).
Down to a 13 point lead as Giannis has another bad turnover.
And now Giannis misses a dunk. He's not played well.
Lead down to 10. It was 26 six minutes of game time ago
Giannis hits a 3 to get it up to 21.
This lineup with Giannis, Ibaka, and Portis together has been really good tonight.
Lopez has been great.
That's a lot of rim protection having Lopez and Ibaka compared to only having Giannis and Portis to provide it.
DeRozan is 4 for 16 tonight. He was 11 for 30 the previous Bucks game.
The Jrue Holiday effect.
Holiday hits a shot from behind the backboard to end the 3rd. Bucks up 22.
This despite Giannis having 9 turnovers. By far his worst passing game of the year. Many of those turnovers have just been awful decisions. Otherwise, he's at 23-14-4 after three (8 for 10 from the field).
Giannis abuses Tristan Thompson for this dunk.
Jrue Holiday is just dominating the Bulls guards. He has 27 points. He's 12 for 17 from the floor. He is getting to the rim at will
Bucks pouring it on, now up 29. The Bulls defense is awful. No wonder they can't beat good teams.
Giannis is likely done for the night. He'll end up with 25-17-5.
Holiday with 27 and 7 assists.
Chicago just doesn’t have the horses inside to compete. Good to see Thompson get rag dolled in the process.
Anyone thinking the Bulls will actually win a playoff series are nuts.
@GBFanForLife posted:The Chicago media?
They are more interested in talking up the whole "let's get even with Grayson Allen" than they are the actual games.
The Bulls are really a player away from challenging for a deep run in the playoffs. They need a PJ Tucker/Wes Matthews type - a guy that will do the dirty work on defense and add some real toughness. LaVine, DeRozan, and Vucevic are all great scorers, but don't put in a lot of defensive effort. They are missing Lonzo Ball, but he's also an offense first player.
They tried to add Tristan Thompson as their inside presence, but that hasn't worked. It's comical what Giannis has done to him whenever he's on the court. Thompson is the anti-Giannis off the court (Kardashian girlfriend, knocks up models while he's dating Kardashians, gets extra money in his contract by sucking up to LeBron, constant strip club visits). He's one of those guys that Giannis seems to hit even another level of intensity against.
If you are an NBA GM you really need to go back in history to see how well mediocre to below average defensive teams do in the playoffs. Hint - not very well.
Chicago, like Brooklyn, is way too tilted offensively and to make matters worse they don’t particularly rebound the ball well either.
Think about this for a second. The Bucks turned the ball over like crazy but still blew out the Bulls even without Middleton. Yes, Caruso is a solid defender but he’s one guy. The Bucks have several elite defenders on their roster and even guys like Hill and Pat C and Ibaka are solid either defending and/or rebounding and it’s not like they can’t shoot or score.
Allen and Nwora are the only liabilities in that regard but honestly I don’t see either of them getting many minutes in the postseason.
I also want to personally thank Brooklyn for basically giving us another elite level defender in Javon Carter. Not like he could have helped them lol.
@Tschmack posted:If you are an NBA GM you really need to go back in history to see how well mediocre to below average defensive teams do in the playoffs. Hint - not very well.
Chicago, like Brooklyn, is way too tilted offensively and to make matters worse they don’t particularly rebound the ball well either.
Think about this for a second. The Bucks turned the ball over like crazy but still blew out the Bulls even without Middleton. Yes, Caruso is a solid defender but he’s one guy. The Bucks have several elite defenders on their roster and even guys like Hill and Pat C and Ibaka are solid either defending and/or rebounding and it’s not like they can’t shoot or score.
Allen and Nwora are the only liabilities in that regard but honestly I don’t see either of them getting many minutes in the postseason.
I also want to personally thank Brooklyn for basically giving us another elite level defender in Javon Carter. Not like he could have helped them lol.
Jevon Carter plays defense at a first-team All-NBA level. Having to face Carter, Holiday, and Matthews as a backcourt player is about as difficult as it gets. And, if you somehow get by them, you have Giannis, Ibaka, and Lopez lurking near the rim.
Caruso is above average, but Holiday abused him going to the rim last night, too. Caruso's defensive ability is similar to Connaughton - good, but not elite.
The fact that the Nets took on Simmons looks like one of the biggest potential trade blunders in NBA history. They owe him 113 million over the next 3 years and he's been diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back after not playing for 8 months? Don't the Nets have team doctors to evaluate this stuff? They got rid of Carter, but kept a fossilized Blake Griffin who doesn't even play any more?
Pat C’s niche is he rebounds well and shoots pretty well from 3. He’s a capable defender, but on a team like Chicago he would look a lot better defensively because the Bucks are surrounded by lock down defenders and the Bulls basically have Caruso and not much else.
So many playoff games come down to the final few minutes and who can hit a shot and more importantly who can get stops. No team in the NBA can throw as many stoppers at you than the Bucks, and certainly guys like Holiday and Middleton and Giannis can cash it in when the money is on the line.
As for the Nets, Simmons basically looks like a total quitter. He fits in perfectly with that idiot flake Kyrie. If I’m Durant, I would be asking for a trade in the offseason.
Speaking of the Nets, Durant and Kyrie go for 78 points tonight along with Drummond and Bruce Brown going 13 for 18 from the floor.
And they still lose to the Grizzles WITHOUT Ja Morant 132-120.
The Heat lose at home to the Warriors without Curry, Klay, or Draymond.
The Celtics may end up as the biggest obstacle to get out of the East.
More Heat stuff tonight. Jimmy Butler and Spoelstra get into a heated argument and Udonis Haslem goes after Butler. Not your typical garden-variety argument. Butler calls Haslem a glorified cheerleader. Spoelstra asks Butler if he "fucking wants to fight him" and Haslem steps in and tells Butler he'll "beat his ass."
Butler has exceeded his honeymoon period with another team. It seems to eventually happen everywhere he goes. We'll see if the Heat can recover from this.