Bucks vs Nets

Watching it now…….thanks for telling me it was on.  

According to ESPN Portis is out with a hamstring

Did I just hear the announcer say that Lopez is the Nets all time leading scorer?

Yes. That's true of Lopez.

Some things haven't changed. Giannis probably got fouled 3 times already tonight and didn't get a call until Harden shoved him in the back.

Lopez gets called for 2 fouls on the other end.

Giannis - unbelievable blocked shots, 3 pointers, offensive rebounds. Giannis already bleeding from the hacks. 2 of 3 from the line.

My heavens, Giannis looking better on both ends

He’s a unicorn

Giannis in 7:36 of playing time.

13 points, 8 rebounds.

Nets get their first three from Patty Mills when they isolate Lopez on a pick and roll and he drops 10 feet back.

Bucks are really only 8 deep tonight with Portis, Ojeleye, Hood, and DDV all sitting out. Thanasis already getting minutes and Nwora and maybe even one other new guys is going to have to play.

I kind of expected the Bucks to come out flat after the pre game festivities. Glad to see they didn't.

Hood to see Nwora contributing early.

Mamu getting roasted. Hard to debut guarding Harden.

Glad Harden didn't get the BS flop call he got for years.

Bucks fall apart here near the end of the 2nd. Give up a 10-0 run.

Bucks only up 7, but the Nets did shoot 65% in the 2nd.

So Holiday's injured, and out for the rest of the game. What is a "right heel contusion"?

So, down Holiday, Portis, Ojeleye, DDV, and Hood. That's 5 of their top 10.

A heel contusion is a bruise.   That’s better than a stress fracture or bone bruise.  

In my course of running over the years I’ve had all three of those injuries.   The heel bruise can be painful, but I was basically back to normal within a couple of weeks.  Stress fracture not so much.  Was about a month before I could jog and about 6 weeks before I could run comfortably.  

Bucks are going to have trouble holding the Nets off tonight with almost no depth left. Going to have sit Giannis and Middleton at some point

Middleton gets hacked on one end. No call.

Aldridge gets completely stripped clean. Middleton gets the foul.

Lopez, Thanasis, Connaughton, Hill, and Nwora is not a unit I thought I'd ever see

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

Lopez, Thanasis, Connaughton, Hill, and Nwora is not a unit I thought I'd ever see

And that unit survives for an extended time period. Up 12 after 3.

The Bucks are somehow up 13 with the Nets going 16 for 27 from three.

Patty Mills is 7 for fricking 7.

Good to see Nwora playing well in probably the first meaningful minutes of his career.

What the hell? Nwora denies Durant at the rim? Are you kidding ?

Couldn't have asked for a better opening night.

I realize it’s one game, but the Bucks throttled the so called best team in the East with basically half of their team intact.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it “experts”

Wow.

Kicked the holy shit out ‘em and didn’t break a sweat.

@Tschmack posted:

I realize it’s one game, but the Bucks throttled the so called best team in the East with basically half of their team intact.

So put that in your pipe and smoke it “experts”

The Nets were without Irving, but the Bucks were without Holiday, Portis, Ojeleye, Hood, and DDV.

Giannis and Middleton played well but weren't out of this world. And yes, I know it seems silly to say 32-14-7 and 20-9-3 is expected, but it is.

Nwora looked like a guy that can hold his own too. That's huge.

It’s possible they win with Irving in the lineup, but does Mills go 7 for 7 from 3 and the Nets shoot almost 60% from 3 if Kyrie is taking a bunch of shots?  Probably not.

Not to be a total dick…but the banner says “World Champions “

When did we beat Serbia?

The reality is, the day is fast approaching when a European team could well be the best hoops team in the world.

God Bless America and our sports ego.

Well hello Mr. Buzz Kill

@Blair Kiel posted:

Not to be a total dick…but the banner says “World Champions “

When did we beat Serbia?

The reality is, the day is fast approaching when a European team could well be the best hoops team in the world.

God Bless America and our sports ego.

I’m pretty sure I know what the outcome of the game would be if the Bucks played the best team in Serbia. Wet Blanket m’fer…

The Bucks are scary deep. And they know they can beat anyone.

The Bucks also have a new banner hanging at Fiserv…

That was a statement game to the rest of the league that the Bucks aren’t going to fade into the sunset.  

Brooklyn hits almost 60% of their 3s and still get worked.  By a team missing basically half its roster.

The 3pt shot is a great weapon but if you can’t defend or rebound it’s going to be tough to beat this team.  Bully ball indeed.

The Bucks had the look of a very confident team last night. It's going to be difficult for any team to unseat them as champs.

They were +10 in rebounding differential and generated 19 more shot attempts by turning over the Nets or simply limiting looks and second chances.  

That’s the thing with this team.  They are built like an 80s or 90s team and play really hard and physical.  The Nets can’t and won’t match that style of play.  Griffin thinks he’s that guy but he’s not.   Kyrie won’t help them there either.

The fact that Milwaukee dominated the Nets without Portis, Semi, Hood, DDV and Holliday (half the game) indicates how good and deep they are.  Not to mention if guys like Nwora can contribute it will allow the Bucks to not have to play Giannis and Middleton a bunch of minutes.

@Blair Kiel posted:

Not to be a total dick…but the banner says “World Champions “

When did we beat Serbia?

The reality is, the day is fast approaching when a European team could well be the best hoops team in the world.

God Bless America and our sports ego.

Your statement would have had more merit 30-40 years ago than it does now. For example, back then, Arvydas Sabonis would have probably been a perennial NBA MVP candidate, but he was stuck in Russia until he was 31 and his knees were shot. Even at probably 50% of what he was, he was a good NBA center.  The European players really didn't start coming over until the early 90s. Petrovic, Divac, and Sabonis were the pioneers. If Petrovic played now, he'd probably be a Hall of Famer. Heck, he is actually a Hall of Famer. He was Steph Curry without the green light. He was a 44% career 3 point shooter in the NBA at a time when the 3 was still considered a novelty. Get him 10 shots a game and he'd have been a max player.

The player with the best rating in the EUro League last year was Mike James, who signed with the Nets for the playoff run and got played off the floor against the Bucks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_James_(basketball,_born_1990)

Or course, ironically (and maybe why you mentioned it), the NBA MVP last year was Serbian (Jokic).

If the players are good enough, they end up in the NBA anyway. The money is too much here to keep them in Europe. Arguably 3 of the top 6 NBA players right now are Giannis, Jokic, and Doncic.

I do agree the day is coming when the NBA expands to Europe or they somehow form an alliance with the Euro League for an end-of-season playoff series.

Technically, guys like Kyrie and Simmons are from Australia and you combine them with Joe Ingles and Patty Mills and Donte Exum and Aron Baynes and Josh Green and Matisse Thybulle and that’s a group that could win some games.   But against an All Star (American) team of guys like KD and Harden and Kahwi and AD and LeBron they’d get worked.

Now, if you put together an international All Star roster?   Like Giannis and Doncic and Gobert and Jokic (among others)?  That team would be really good.

@Tschmack posted:

Technically, guys like Kyrie and Simmons are from Australia and you combine them with Joe Ingles and Patty Mills and Donte Exum and Aron Baynes and Josh Green and Matisse Thybulle and that’s a group that could win some games.   But against an All Star (American) team of guys like KD and Harden and Kahwi and AD and LeBron they’d get worked.

Now, if you put together an international All Star roster?   Like Giannis and Doncic and Gobert and Jokic (among others)?  That team would be really good.

I think KD, Harden, Kawhi, AD, and LeBron still beat Giannis, Doncic, Gobert, Jokic, Simmons, and Kyrie.

But all you have to do is flip KD to the international team and that would be enough to tip the scales.

Of the top 75 players in NBA history list, how many are international despite really only being a serious part of NBA rosters for a third of the 75 years?

Locks: Dirk, Giannis, Duncan, Nash, Olajuwon,

In Consideration: Kyrie, Tony Parker, Ginobili, Doncic

This is an informative graphic.

@Blair Kiel posted:

Not to be a total dick…but the banner says “World Champions “

When did we beat Serbia?

The reality is, the day is fast approaching when a European team could well be the best hoops team in the world.

God Bless America and our sports ego.

To my knowledge, of the 5(!) top tier professional leagues in the US only MLS has restrictions on the nationality of players. Any of the others COULD suit up a full roster of Serbian nationals if they thought that the best way to go. All foreign sports leagues I know of also have similar, mostly more restrictive rules.

The Stanley Cup winner is not proclaimed "World Champion" by anyone associated with the league. The other 3 sports champs do make that brag and it's not unreasonable, given A) the number of top level players coming from overseas (notably baseball but more and more  basketball) and B) the almost unique nature of the NFL.

So I was busy last night, didn't get to see the game. Did the rule change for instigating contact on offense have a big impact on Harden's game?

Harden shot well from 3 (4-8) but was 2-8 on other shots.  Had 8 boards and 8 assists.  He only got to the line 4 times.

The Bucks went right at him defensively and held him to 20 points.   You do that, and it’s going to be hard for Brooklyn to win unless KD goes for like 50 and a couple of their role players go berserk.

@Tschmack posted:

Harden shot well from 3 (4-8) but was 2-8 on other shots.  Had 8 boards and 8 assists.  He only got to the line 4 times.

The Bucks went right at him defensively and held him to 20 points.   You do that, and it’s going to be hard for Brooklyn to win unless KD goes for like 50 and a couple of their role players go berserk.

Harden did his thing multiple times last night where he flops on 3 point shots and purposely lands on his side completely stretched out with both legs parallel to the floor. He didn't get one of those calls last night.

In terms of role players going berserk, how much more berserk can you get than Patty Mills going 7 for 7 from three?

So he's still trying to do it? That's awesome. I hope the refs don't revert back to falling for the flops later in the season.

The fact he only got 4 FT attempts backs up the idea that the refs aren’t going to take the bait.  Trae Young is next on the list.  

A big reason Harden is the scorer he is due to 85-90% FT shooting and he is used to drawing bullshit fouls to get easy points that way.

KD was pretty pedestrian, if 30+ points can be such a thing.  The issue is against a good defensive team like Milwaukee someone other than KD has to chip in.  Patty Mills was one of those guys giving them 21 but James Johnson played 21 minutes and had 1 point.  Griffin played 23 minutes and had 6 points.   Aldridge played 16 minutes and had 1 point.  Joe Harris played 31 minutes and had 9 points.  Jevon Carter played 19 minutes and didn’t score a single point.

Unless Harden and KD are giving them 80 points a night (and someone like Mills and Harris go crazy) how are they going to beat teams like Milwaukee?   Nwora would have been Brooklyn’s 3rd or 4th best player last night.  

Think what the score would have been if Holiday and Portis played their normal minutes.  Holiday was on his way to having a big night before getting hurt.