Um, not good so far. Heat are 13-24 from 3 in the first half. Bucks down 73-56.
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Miami is now fukking 18 for 34 from 3. Back up 6.
Connaughton with two awful turnovers -one set up a transition 3.
Bucks go up 4 and then the Heat hit another 3 and get two shots and are back up. Heat 20 for 40 from 3
@MNPackman posted:Just got home. Is anyone playing defense?
Defense isn't terrible. The Heat hit 20 of their first 40 3s. They had 16 3s in the first half. They've finally regressed to the mean a little bit and that's why the Bucks have gone ahead by 3.
Bucks starting to take control. Miami has made 20 3's. How does that happen?
@MichiganPacker2 posted:19 fo 36 from 3. I mean, come on
Heat go 1 for their last 9 from 3. That's the difference.
Wow what a turnaround since the 2nd Q.
Granted Miami didn't have Butler. But 36-11 run in last 10 minutes -- a lot of it with Giannis on bench. Impressive.
Magic Number = 0
#1 seed secured. In the 4th did the Bucks play the way they are capable of, it did Miami just give up, or a little of both?
@MNPackman posted:Bucks starting to take control. Miami has made 20 3's. How does that happen?
Bucks are best rim defenders in the association. Every team will jack up a shit load of 3's because it doesn't make sense to pound your head against a wall. You can beat the Bucks if you make enough 3's. You'll never beat them driving to the hoop.
It actually started in the 3rd. The Bucks defended so well & cut the lead down to 2. Pretty fast too.
A pretty incredible turnaround
Down almost 20 at half and they practically win by 20
That’s got to be deflating for a team like Miami but that’s the thing with the Bucks. They are going to seal off the paint and basically force you to take 3s all night. Assuming the Bucks make a fair amount of their own shots you might steal a game here or there but you like we saw in the Boston series good luck in doing that more than a game or two.
Toronto did it primarily because Van Vleet had a historic 2-3 game stretch and the Bucks were gawd awful.
They have better perimeter D this year so you have to shoot 40+% in 4 of 7 games against them?
@Tschmack posted:A pretty incredible turnaround
Down almost 20 at half and they practically win by 20
That’s got to be deflating for a team like Miami but that’s the thing with the Bucks. They are going to seal off the paint and basically force you to take 3s all night. Assuming the Bucks make a fair amount of their own shots you might steal a game here or there but you like we saw in the Boston series good luck in doing that more than a game or two.
Toronto did it primarily because Van Vleet had a historic 2-3 game stretch and the Bucks were gawd awful.
They have better perimeter D this year so you have to shoot 40+% in 4 of 7 games against them?
If it gets to that point, the Raptors also don't have Kawhi to force double teams to get the defensive rotations moving. Siakam is good, but he's not Kawhi in that sense and Bledsoe won't let Lowry score that easily if it's on-ball defense.
The additions of Wes Matthews and Marvin Williams along with emergence of DDV to go along with an above average defender in George Hill and an elite defender in Eric Bledsoe should mean good things in the postseason.
What was best about the game was the Bucks got aggressive and physical and played with an attitude in the second half and quite honestly the Heat had no answers. This is where I agree with Giannis 100%. It’s all about them and if they play like that in the postseason look out NBA.
If Middleton plays like he does yesterday (I don't mean the bank shot lucky 3s, just overall), they beat anyone.
As we've all said at various times, if someone shoots 50% on 3s in high volume against them they are going to lose. Heck, the 1996 Bulls would lose under that condition.
Giannis is right, if no team goes lights out at the 3 point line over a 7 game series they mainly have to worry about their performance. That means
1. Giannis stays out of foul trouble
2. Giannis doesn't turn into Shaq at the line. He needs to at 65% minimum. Obviously, if he gets up towards 75-80% they are going to be really tough for anyone to beat.
3. Middleton just needs to perform even at 80% of what he's been at in the regular season.
Other than Middleton and Giannis, the Bucks have much more redundancy built into the roster than they had last year. They lost Brogdon and Mirotic, but added about 5 guys in their place and Mirotic would have been addition by subtraction.
Need some post defense against Embiid, but worried about Brook's foul trouble? They literally have his clone and 12 fouls to give.
Need another quick point guard that can penetrate and play pesky on-ball defense. Now even if Bledsoe goes playoff Bledsoe on them at times, DDV can be a reasonable facsimile. Brogdon was not quick enough to guard guys like Kemba Walker.
If your life depended on someone coming off the bench to line up and make a open 3 point shot off of a Giannis drive, who better than Kyle Korver? He's up there with Ray Allen, Steph Curry, and Klay Thompson.
Need a guy who can come in and not get dominated guarding athletic guys at the 3 or 4 spot if Giannis has to sit? Marvin Williams is quite a bit better than Tony Snell or even Ilyasova against athletic wings.
There is also this point. If they get to the Raptors series, keep this in mind. The teams total points in regulation time of those 7 games were even at 624-624. It can't get any more even than that. That required the following:
1. Kyle Lowry to go 20-43 from 3 and Van Vliet to go 16 for 28 from 3. 51% (36 for 71) from 3 from 2 guys that are very good (37% and 40% respectively from 3 for their careers), but they both had to shoot like Steph Curry over the course of 7 games for them to win. If they shoot 40% from 3, the Bucks win going away.
2. Eric Bledsoe to go 5-29 from 3 and Mirotic to go 6 for 31. 11 for 60 for two high volume guys will get you beat more often than not. It's unlikely Bledsoe will shoot that poorly again, and if he does you bring in DDV (because he can guard a guy like Lowry where Brodgon would struggle). I think Kyle Korver could a higher percentage than Mirotic did in that series blindfolded. We all remember how poorly Bledsoe played, but Mirotic shit the bed and, unlike Bledsoe, was an atrocious defender. The Bucks were -37 points in the 101 minutes Mirotic played. Because of what he still offered on defense, the Bucks were basically the same with Bledsoe on the court as they were without him (-5 total points in almost 180 total minutes).
Toronto is now the new "it" team for the media after the restart, but if I'm the Bucks I'm pretty confident right now. The Bucks personnel are better than last year and the Raptors personnel are weaker.
Really good breakdown
I like Toronto but a motivated Kahwi is one of the best playoff performers of all time on both ends of the court. You can’t tell me the Raptors are at the same level without him especially on the defensive end. We all remember how unconscious the Raptors were from 3 but the series shifted when Nurse made the move to have Kahwi defend Giannis. The Freak didn’t respond well after that.
@Tschmack posted:Really good breakdown
I like Toronto but a motivated Kahwi is one of the best playoff performers of all time on both ends of the court. You can’t tell me the Raptors are at the same level without him especially on the defensive end. We all remember how unconscious the Raptors were from 3 but the series shifted when Nurse made the move to have Kahwi defend Giannis. The Freak didn’t respond well after that.
Yep. Kawhi slowed him down enough to give M. Gasol, Ibaka, and Siakam more time to get over for help defense.