Bucks give up 40 to a bunch of bench players.
100 points given up after 3 quarters.
231 over the last 7 quarters.
Nuggets had 7 points after 5 minutes in the game.
93 in the last 31 minutes. 3 points/minute.
The Bucks finally went small and there was more energy. But they need to do it with Bledsoe on the floor. Lopez sagging is just leaving them alone on the perimeter, so you gotta go small and switch to pressure the perimeter. They’ll cool off with pressure... meanwhile, Giannis needs to start putting the ball in the basket.
Down 10.
This looks like a loss right now. Might be what they need. Not rest on your laurells.
Not having DDV and George Hill really hurts in terms of spacing the floor on offense.
Kyle Korver being on the floor certainly isn’t helping the defensive effort
Defense often leads to offense, but for this team the offense often leads to defense. They spiral defensively when they’re struggling offensively.
Avalanche on the defensive end. They cannot get a single stop. Need to take Lopez off the floor tonight... -10 for him, -18 for Connaughton. They’re going to need to put the starting 5 on the floor... that includes Thanasis.
Every Denver player who has seen the court has made a 3 and has at least 10 points.
Reminds me a little of the Mavericks game only much worse. George Hill and Donte D were badly missed tonight. Denver didn't miss their 4 guys at all.
Music City posted:Avalanche on the defensive end. They cannot get a single stop. Need to take Lopez off the floor tonight... -10 for him, -18 for Connaughton. They’re going to need to put the starting 5 on the floor... that includes Thanasis.
Connaughton and Sterling Brown won't get minutes in the playoffs. Matthews defense is good.
ANOTHER FUcking 3 and back down 10
Game over.
Nuggets just got hot, but still really disappointing.
Season high for 3s for the Nuggets.
It’s unbelievable... 22 made threes by 9 different Denver players.
They have some real soul searching about their effort on the defensive end the last few games. Real tough to blame this on pace... this is just bad defense.
Oh great... now Giannis gets hurt. Left leg gave out on him. Said it was a cramp- I think he pulled something.
This game shows why Connaughton and Brown are not going to get minutes in the playoffs.
Connaughton was -20 in 26 minutes. The Bucks were +8 in the 22 minutes without him.
To be fair, Brook Lopez was god awful tonight and perhaps the biggest reason for this dud.
Bucks have given up 258 points the last 2 games. A lot to work on.
Music City posted:Oh great... now Giannis gets hurt. Left leg gave out on him. Said it was a cramp- I think he pulled something.
He probably sits out Sunday at the very least.
The Nuggets brought their A+ game tonight, Bucks brought their F game. Burn the film from this one and let's get the athletic trainers working overtime on getting Hill and DiVincenzo back, their offensive jolts off the bench were missed greatly.
I think Bud needs to be more ready to go small and put Giannis at the 5 sooner. You don’t wait until they get going to try to take them off their rhythm. Disrupt them, make them work harder. Too damn easy tonight.
The Bucks are 39-5 in the last 44 games. In the 5 losses, opposing teams are 93 for 202 (46%). Over the course of the year, teams shoot 36% from 3 against the Bucks.
Nuggets 22 for 46 from 3 tonight
Loss to Spurs: Spurs 19 for 35 from 3
Loss to Sixers: Sixers 21 for 44 from 3
Loss to Mavs: Mavs 16 for 41 from 3
Loss to Jazz: Jazz 15 for 36 from 3
Basically, the Bucks only lose if someone goes Fred Van Vliet against them.
Music City posted:I think Bud needs to be more ready to go small and put Giannis at the 5 sooner. You don’t wait until they get going to try to take them off their rhythm. Disrupt them, make them work harder. Too damn easy tonight.
I agree with you on that. One thing that did them no favors in that respect was having 2 smaller guys out injured. That certainly didn't help, and they basically stopped playing Ilyasova altogether which really limited them.
fightphoe93 posted:Music City posted:I think Bud needs to be more ready to go small and put Giannis at the 5 sooner. You don’t wait until they get going to try to take them off their rhythm. Disrupt them, make them work harder. Too damn easy tonight.
I agree with you on that. One thing that did them no favors in that respect was having 2 smaller guys out injured. That certainly didn't help, and they basically stopped playing Ilyasova altogether which really limited them.
Ilyasova and the Lopez twins (not to mention Bender) were unplayable against the Nuggets shooters. Having those 4 and Thanasis makes it 5 guys Bud couldn't play.
If DDV and George Hill this is a comfortable win. If either one of them plays, it's probably a win.
Nuggets played 9 players and all 9 hit double figures. Balanced team play.
Surprised at how open Denver was on so many of their record setting number of 3 point shots. Seemed like simple screen offense and the Bucks never adjusted. Gotta give them some credit the way they moved the ball and played scrappy defense.
Brook Lopez was awful tonight.
Bit of a difference between George Hill and Dante vs Sterling Brown and Patty C. Ooph
That’s exactly right Michigan
I didn’t watch the game but when I saw they lost I simply assumed the Nuggets shot the lights out from 3 which they did. 22 of 46 sounds about right.
Then I also saw no George Hill and no DDV. Another explanation.
This doesn’t really concern me because come playoff time it’s not typical for an opponent to shoot almost 50% from 3 especially the way this team plays D. You might get them once or twice in a series but not 4 or more games.
The other thing that happens in the losses is that Giannis gets forced to take 5-10 shots instead of lay-ups and struggles. He's also awful from deep.
After they opened the season 6-3, they are now 35-4. In other words, historically good. Here's Giannis' stats in those games.
Loss to Nuggets: 11 for 27, 1 for 5 from 3.
Loss to Spurs : 10 for 22, 0 for 5
Loss to Mavs: 18 for 31, 1 for 6 (went 3 for 3 in the last 10 seconds of the game)
Loss to Sixers: 8 for 27, 0 for 7
47 for 107 and 2 for 23. That's 4 games out of 39. That's not an issue at all.
To lose, Giannis has to have an inefficient night and the opposing team has to shoot lights out.
The Sixers have the defense but don't have the shooters to hit threes like that 4 out of 7.
The Celtics have the shooters, but don't have the interior defense.
The Raptors and Heat are not as good on defense as the Sixers and not as good of shooters as the Celtics, but are decent at both.
Can any of those teams do that 4 out of 7 to the Bucks? That's the question.
MichiganPacker2 posted:The Bucks are 39-5 in the last 44 games. In the 5 losses, opposing teams are 93 for 202 (46%). Over the course of the year, teams shoot 36% from 3 against the Bucks.
Nuggets 22 for 46 from 3 tonight
Loss to Spurs: Spurs 19 for 35 from 3
Loss to Sixers: Sixers 21 for 44 from 3
Loss to Mavs: Mavs 16 for 41 from 3
Loss to Jazz: Jazz 15 for 36 from 3
Basically, the Bucks only lose if someone goes Fred Van Vliet against them.
That's exactly what it looked like, one of those nights.
When even their 7 foot center drained one in the 4th, you knew it was over. They were red hot and not going to lose.
Good for the Nuggets it would probably happen once or twice out of 10 games against them.
Keep in mind these are all pretty good teams. Denver will likely be a top 4 seed in the west when it’s all said and done.
This was Boston game 1 last year. Shot the lights out and then Milwaukee steamrolled them. Toronto did much better (obviously) but had a motivated Kahwi and Van Vleet was unconscious. Had this years team played last years Raptors I’m pretty certain the Bucks advance.
I think Boston still remains the biggest threat due to their ability to shoot and score and Stevens seems to dial up good schemes against Milwaukee. But as it’s been mentioned they gave up a lot of size in the offseason so not sure how they would match up against the Bucks in the paint especially if Milwaukee goes with their big lineup.
Just like the Sixers on Xmas Day the Nuggets had one of those games they couldn’t miss. If these two teams played 10 times in Milwaukee I’ll bet the Bucks win 7 or 8 of them and that might be too generous. With their full lineup (including Hill and DDV) I’m not sure they lose more than 1 out of 10 or may not lose any of them.
It just goes to show how good you have to play to beat this team. Basically shoot and make a historic percentage of 3s and hope the Bucks are off or don’t have their complete lineup.
We definitely missed Hill and Dante, but the Nuggets were without Harris, Millsap, and Murray...all starters I believe. And then they have 9 guys hit double figures!!??? Some nice team depth on that squad!!! Props to them.
Hard to see the Bucks try to keep up in games like this. Some of Brook and Giannis 3 point attempts were embarrassingly off.
Look at opponent 3pt% from the Bucks last 3 losses:
Philly 21-44 - 48%
San Antonio 19-35 - 54%
Denver 22-46- 48%
They shot a combined 62-125 !!! Wow, but good luck repeating that lotto draw.
The Recipe to beat them is out there...as said, kinda hard to pull off consistently.
I’m pretty sure no team can or will shoot nearly 50% from 3 consistently. If they could they would.
That’s why I am bullish on this team come the postseason. The Bucks have added more firepower and have gotten better defensively and it’s likely they will have home court advantage. You think a team in the East will beat them 4 out of 7 including at least 2 of 7 in Milwaukee? That’s a tall task.
I do think the Lakers and Clippers can give them trouble but again if Milwaukee can secure HCA I still feel pretty good about their chances.