George Hill is the only guy they miss from last season.
Holiday is a huge upgrade over Bledsoe.
Portis and Tucker are upgrades over Ersan and Marvin Williams. Forbes is probably an upgrade over Korver.
DDV is a younger and similar version of Matthews.
Bottom line, the Bucks are simply better this year.
@Tschmack posted:George Hill is the only guy they miss from last season.
Holiday is a huge upgrade over Bledsoe.
Portis and Tucker are upgrades over Ersan and Marvin Williams. Forbes is probably an upgrade over Korver.
DDV is a younger and similar version of Matthews.
Bottom line, the Bucks are simply better this year.
But who would lose minutes if they had Hill? Connaughton, I guess.
Eric Bledsoe was the biggest problem.
I think the Bucks are a much better playoff team this year. We'll know after tonight if this series will be competitive. If the Heat come back and have some answers, Game 4 is obviously huge.
The problem is that even though the Bucks are much better, the Nets are loaded. Durant and Harden are 2 of the top 10 offensive talents in NBA history and Kyrie is probably in the top 50. It's true they don't have anyone to guard Giannis, but he may have to average 45 for the Bucks to win a series against them.
Need to prove that tonight... all the screaming and energy will be with Miami- rip their friggin hearts out.
Bucks defense in that 1Q was stifling
Get past Miami first, but I have to say, the Nets will be challenged big time how this team plays D.
Defensively setting the bar... getting sloppy offensively.
Defense has been very impressive. Something we're not used to. The offense needs to get it in gear, however.
Holiday is making such a huge difference for this team.
Championship defense.
Anybody think Bledsoe would've drawn 4 defenders under the bucket like Holiday did?
Yeah....I didn't think so.
Holiday is absolutely killing Dragic and Robinson.
Giannis and Tucker clamping down on J Buckets and Lopez has been fantastic against Bam.
The Bucks shot 25% from 3 and are up 13. It feels like they are up 33.
So, are the Bucks that improved over last year, or has miami degraded that much, or some combination of both?
@MNPackman posted:So, are the Bucks that improved over last year, or has miami degraded that much, or some combination of both?
It’s both, but more the Bucks. Holiday has completely changed the mentality, but then they also got better 3 point shooting to surround their star, too.
Well, right now the Bucks need to slow down and chew up clock. Chucking up shots with 21 seconds on the shot clock is going to let miami back in it.
Get Lopez out of there. He’s not able to take on the mismatch, get him the fuck out.
@MNPackman posted:Well, right now the Bucks need to slow down and chew up clock.
Neither team can score so that's working out. Finally Forbes scores
Giannis seems to be perfecting that Kevin Durant style baseline jumper. Nice soft touch!
He walked...
Middleton deadly tonight...
OOOOOOHH MYYYYY!!!
CONNAUGHTON!!!! and that one HURT folks!!
Blood in the water!!!
Where did this Forbes come from?
Holiday has been deadly at the end of third quarters...
Jeff Teague sighting!
Need to get the offense back on track- bad offense leads to bad defense. Bucks need to get back to movement and smarter play.
I love it... Miami crowd counting as Giannis hits the FT.
Well, we're pretty much in garbage time now. Goodnight guys.
All over but the cryin’ now...
Butt kicking!
Anyone hear how Dante is doing?
Contusion... might be out the rest of the series... no need to push him. This ones fuckin over
That sucks, but I agree with you. Don’t rush him back.
@MichiganPacker2 posted:Other than Middleton, the other 4 Bucks starters are 5 for 36 from the three point line in the series. If I'd have told you that would be the stat after two games, you would have figured it would have been two Miami blowout wins.
Reupping this after Game 3.
Other than Middleton, the other 4 Bucks starters are 7 for 45 from the three-point line in the 3 games.
Holiday and PJ Tucker are just tough men in the best way possible. They are physically and mentally tough players that are respected around the league (and that's important with officials during a game as well).
The Bucks were +41 in Holiday's 34 minutes.
@Music City posted:Contusion... might be out the rest of the series... no need to push him. This ones fuckin over
They'll need him to run after Kyrie Irving.
All season long, the team was just not showing us this level of focus and play. The lesson learned the last 2 years- it only matters now. We’ve been waiting all season for the team to be this locked in.
Would love this one to be over Saturday. Message sent.
@MNPackman posted:So, are the Bucks that improved over last year, or has miami degraded that much, or some combination of both?
Both. Holiday instead of “bubble” Bledsoe was an astoundingly big upgrade. Bledsoe came back after recovering from covid just a shell of what he had been. And even Bledsoe at his best was a level or 2 below what Holiday is now.
The Bucks just seemed like their minds were on things other than hoops in last year’s bubble. This year’s group clearly is much more motivated.
I thought coming into these playoffs that this would be Bud’s last year as Bucks’ coach. I was wrong. He’s had these guys play so hard in these first 3 games that he’s won me over and outside of a collapse this series or a terrible performance in the Nets’ series, I think he sticks around another year st least.
The rebounding edge is now 180-129 (55-42 tonight). 46-28 on the offensive boards. Complete domination on the boards.
@fightphoe93 posted:The Bucks just seemed like their minds were on things other than hoops in last year’s bubble. This year’s group clearly is much more motivated.
When the Bucks added Hill in the Bledsoe trade, I speculated this, too. The Bucks walking off the court was George Hill. The team backed him, but I get the feeling that prominent members of the team weren’t all the way supportive of the move. The Bucks became a distraction, and just never played at the level needed mentally to win. It wasn’t a switch they could flip. It got lots of positive press, and the team may have felt like it was the right message, but in the process they lost their edge. And that exactly how they played...
Interesting moment- 3rd quarter, Holiday drives into the lane and hits a streaking Bobby Portis and he dunks the ball. During the season, he would have posed on that play. We’ve seen it all season, and many times, got burned down the floor. And for a second, he stares them down. But just a second... then he turns and sprints the other way, gets back on D.
That’s the difference. Mentality. That’s on the coach. He has them locked in. The leaders on this team have them locked in.
The Bucks just absolutely destroyed the Heat inside. Layups, dunks, put backs and rebounding (overall).
The passing and ball rotation was some of the best I’ve seen from this team and we’ve already talked about how good the defense is.
If the Bucks continue to play at this level they have a real chance of advancing to the Finals. I know just about everyone is picking the Nets, but Milwaukee is one of a few teams that can actually defend and match up with the Big 3. And let’s be clear - the Nets have no one that can defend Giannis.
First things first they need to dispatch the Heat either Saturday or Tuesday. I hate the early Saturday games so would not be shocked if Miami stole one but if that happens then drop the hammer on them at Fiserv in game 5 if necessary.
