That 5th foul on Giannis might really be it if it's not overturned.
If any other roel player other than Connaugton could hit a shot, this would be a Bucks double digit lead.
Win or lose, his run by Giannis is unbelievable
24-13-12
28-9-7
42-12-8
34-18-5
40-11-3
40-17-5 (so far)
@Tschmack posted:Bucks hanging around
Need a couple of stops
Dagger. Down 11. Under 5.
Tatum won it for Boston in the 4th, but the Bucks lost control of the game at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd quarters.
Smart, Brown, and Tatum are 16 for 30 from three.
Holiday, Allen, Matthews, and Portis are 2 for 17 from three.
For everything else, that's the difference.
Bucks were within 2 possessions but Tatum took over.
Pat C came alive in the 4Q but the Bucks bench sucked. Allen and Hill were awful and Portis all of a sudden can’t shoot.
Connaughton, Holiday, and Giannis have 71 points on 52 shots.
The rest of the team has 18 points on 30 shots.
@Tschmack posted:Bucks were within 2 possessions but Tatum took over.
Agreed. I hate playing drop defense against elite teams in the playoffs because once you allow a guy like Tatum to get into a rhythm with open shots in the early minutes, it's hard to stop him.
Bud is faced with a situation where he really can't play Lopez or Grayson Allen.
At this point, what does Grayson Allen give you that Nwora wouldn't?
George Hill played almost 20 minutes and is 0-3 with 4 fouls and 0 points. And not like he did anything defensively.
@Tschmack posted:George Hill played almost 20 minutes and is 0-3 with 4 fouls and 0 points. And not like he did anything defensively.
Hill, Lopez, G. Allen, Portis, and Matthews were all terrible.
It's criminal to lose a game when Gianni's goes for 44-20-6 with 2 blocks and 14 for 15 from the line.
Boston clearly played with a greater sense of urgency in this one. Other than Giannis, no one played well on offense for Milwaukee.
While it isn’t impossible to get the next one, the Bucks failure to win this game very well may end their season.
@Tschmack posted:Boston clearly played with a greater sense of urgency in this one. Other than Giannis, no one played well on offense for Milwaukee.
While it isn’t impossible to get the next one, the Bucks failure to win this game very well may end their season.
Holiday wasn't terrible (7 for 17) and Connaughton was clutch (6 for 8). That's it. Lopez is probably unplayable against Boston - you can't play drop against that team.
Portis is 6 for 22 in the last two games.
Grayson Allen is a more highly paid version of Bryn Forbes. Great against mediocre or lousy teams. Useless against good teams.
DDV would have been really, really, really helpful in this series. I thought the trade for Ibaka was a good move at the time, but that turned out to be one of Horst's worst moves.
Matthews is still as good as PJ Tucker would have been, so you can't complain about not resigning Tucker.
Of course, missing one of the 25 best players in the league for the whole series is what may end their season.
Much like game 2, Boston shot extremely well in this one. You have to hope things flip in Milwaukee’s favor for game 7 but it’s a tall task.
Giannis played a good game and Holiday was OK but that won’t be good enough on Sunday.
Any chance Middleton can play on Sunday?
Giannis, Holiday, and Connaughton were 27 for 55 and 7 for 16 from three for 75 points.
The rest of the team was 9 for 33 from the floor and 0 for 13 from three. ZERO FOR THIRTEEN!!!!!
@Tschmack posted:Much like game 2, Boston shot extremely well in this one. You have to hope things flip in Milwaukee’s favor for game 7 but it’s a tall task.
Giannis played a good game and Holiday was OK but that won’t be good enough on Sunday.
I would bet Middleton will try to play Sunday.
Boston has really been the much better team since Game 1. The Bucks other two wins were games the Celtics gave away.
In many respects, the Bucks are lucky to get this to Game 7.
Clearly the Celtics have much more offensive balance than Milwaukee without Middleton.
Tatum may get all the publicity, but when Brown and Smart are giving you 20 or so points each while shooting 50% from 3 it’s going to be tough for the Bucks to beat them.
To win game 7, Giannis is going to have to be in that 40/15 range and someone else like Holiday or Lopez is going to have to have a monster game - like 25-30 while shooting the ball well. In addition, the bench has to give them 20-25 and again one of them probably has to have a big game.
On the flip side, the Bucks can allow one guy like Tatum to have a big game but they can’t have Marcus Smart go 5-9 from 3 or have Brown or Horford go crazy. What gets lost in the game last night is Milwaukee had a pretty decent rebounding edge but just couldn’t hit shots. It also didn’t help that Boston got to the line a bunch in the 2nd half.
This is basically what everyone wanted - a game 7 against arguably the 2 best teams in the playoffs. Without Middleton, I’m just not sure the Bucks can generate enough offense so you have to hope for something like game 1 where Milwaukee took control from start to finish and Boston missed a bunch of shots. I also don’t think you can allow another game 2 or game 5 where Boston got out early and often and the Bucks had to play catch up.
Keep it close toward the end, hope that Boston is tight and ideally the Bucks and their experience can carry them to a W. It’s not really like home court has meant much at all in this series. It’s which team can get the critical bucket or stop or hustle play in the key moment. Tatum was that guy midway through the 4Q. Bucks closed the gap a couple of times and he ripped their hearts out with big time baskets.
Giannis is shooting nearly 47% from the floor in the series (80 for 171, 46.7%).
Pat Connaughton, coming off the bench, is shooting a sparkling 27 of 46 (58.7%), including hitting half of his 28 3-pointers.
The rest of the Bucks team is shooting 37.3% from the floor.
Everywhere I seem to look, people are saying how close these two teams are.
No, they’re not. As MichiganPacker already said, Milwaukee should be handling this team. Save for Giannis and PC, Milwaukee is making slightly over a third of their shots. Most of the Bucks team couldn’t possibly play any worse, offensively, and we’re missing a three-time All Star that’s a top 25 player in the game. Yet, this is going to game 7.
If Boston is missing Smart or Brown, and Milwaukee is at full strength, this series is long over.
ESPN’s stupid little predictor gives Milwaukee almost no chance, stating that Boston has a 69.8% chance of taking the series. Haven’t we won two games in Boston?
But I suppose they’re right. The teams are pretty damned close. Missing a guy that put up 24 PPG in the NBA Finals last year…yeah, not really a big factor. 🙄
I recall back to last year when Milwaukee beat Brooklyn on the road in game 7 and the TNT crew called out that the pressure is all on the home team for game 7.
I believe that to be true in this series as well.
Tatum might be right in that some of those guys have that experience, but I’m not sure the stakes were as high as they are in this series. For all intents and purposes this is the conference finals. No one will expect Milwaukee to win. No one expected Milwaukee to win game 5 and honestly until late they didn’t play that well.
Boston has played almost 2 perfect games in this series. I’m not sure Milwaukee has - Giannis notwithstanding. If the Bucks show up and play like champs and winners there is absolutely no reason they can’t and won’t win. They are due for one of those hot shooting games. And I do think Boston will have pressure playing at home and knowing that Milwaukee is a decent road team.
Milwaukee is almost a 6pt dog which is shocking to me.
Milwaukee, relative to what they’re capable of-again, Giannis aside-have played pretty poorly. Their defense has been stellar at times, but their offense has seen really rough sledding. And that’s not shocking given Middleton’s absence. I think it’s more a factor of his being out, and the mismatches he creates from mid range and deeper, more than it is Boston’s defense. With Middleton healthy, Holiday isn’t being asked to carry as much on his shoulders. And that perimeter game opens things up for Giannis inside.
The media views Milwaukee as this little podunk franchise that’s lucky to be in the league, like the city is some little pimple. The lack of respect they get as world champions is unreal. Even that championship only came about “because Durant stepped on the line.” It’s as if they will do anything to diminish Milwaukee’s accomplishments, and I’m beyond sick of it.
I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Giannis stayed in Milwaukee. Had he pulled a LeBron or KD or Harden and chased the fame and big markets I doubt there would be this level of resentment toward Giannis and ultimately the Bucks.
The best way to overcome that crap and flip the narrative is you put your head down and get after it and win multiple titles much like the Spurs did.
Boston is a worthy opponent and yes Marcus Smart is really annoying but they are built and play a style a lot like Milwaukee. Focus on defense, and outplay and outwork and outmuscle their opponents. Obviously there’s no Giannis on Boston, but Jaylen Brown is similar to Middleton and Smart is similar to Holiday. Tatum is an elite scorer much like Giannis albeit a slightly different way.
It would be such a Bucks thing to do to lay an egg in game 6 and then come out and win game 7 on the road. While the national media isn’t giving them much of a chance, I’d say it’s at least 50/50 and even better if the refs don’t take over the game and call flops (charges) every time down the court. As I said before, despite not having Middleton, they are due for a hot shooting game. Portis and Allen and Lopez are much better than they are playing. If they can get a solid effort from Giannis and Holiday and their bench steps up I think there’s a path to victory tomorrow.
It's being reported Middleton is out for Game 7 (and probably out for the start of the Conference Finals if the Bucks make it that far).
In the Finals when the Bucks shrunk the rotation to 7 guys last year, it was
Giannis, Middleton, Holiday, Lopez, Connaughton, Portis, and Tucker
Now its
Giannis, Allen, Holiday, Lopez, Connaughton, Portis, and Matthews
Matthews is at least as good as Tucker. Obviously, the problem is that Grayson Allen is the Bryn Forbes guy from last year, and he's being asked to pick up Middleton's minutes.