Kings open up 6-0 by hitting two three pointers with no Bucks defenders within 6 feet.
Now 10-7 and Giannis taking about 12 seconds on his FTs again.
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Bucks have come storming back, down 1, 15-16.
Now up by 1.
Kings are not a very good defensive team, but they are so good on offense they'll be in almost every game.
Bucks by 5 after 1. Giannis with 12 and 4 boards, Jrue with 9.
Giannis picks up his second foul early in the second quarter on a poor pass from Middleton. Middleton has not looked good so far. It's going to take a few weeks to get him going.
Bucks up 8 with 4 minutes left in the second. Holiday with 17 and Giannis with 16. Absolutely no interior defense on the Kings.
Bucks up 7 at the half.
Giannis at 18-5-4 in 16 minutes.
The issue with Giannis at the line just has to be more mental that mechanical, and all the free throw shots in practice wonât change that.
If heâs taking 12 seconds between shots, itâs pretty clear that heâs having to put a lot more thought into someone that should be automatic at this point in his career.
He doesnât take 12 seconds before taking a three pointer, and thatâs a much longer shot.
MP, I canât see the game down here in Texas. Howâs Khris looking out there?
I expect it will take him a while to truly get in game shape, but how does his stroke look?
Khris is looking a little smoother tonight.
Bucks were up 12 and then give up a 8-0 run.
Giannis picks up his 4th. Not a single one was an obvious foul. A game that was on the verge of being well in control for the Bucks is now a 3 point game with Giannis out for a while
Bucks give up a 10-2 run to end the third. Some poor defense by the Bucks coupled with some crappy officiating on some calls made it close.
Bucks only up 1.
Bucks up 2 with over 8 minutes left.
Bucks push lead back to 10 as Giannis is now over 30 points again. 31-5-7.
Holiday also at 31-3-5.
Middleton has looked more in rhythm and is at 12-4-6 and had a nice corner step-back 3 earlier (2 for 4 from three tonight).
Bucks pull away and pull Giannis with 90 seconds left. He ends with 35-6-7
How do they match up against the current Celtics team, assuming both teams are healthy?
Iâd like another crack, this time with KM on the floor.
The Kings are an interesting team having lost their first 4 games of the season theyâve gone 13-6 since including last nights loss to the Bucks. Not sure if they have a lot of staying power but they have a lot of guys that can score. Keegan Murray looks like a decent rookie and Kevin Huerter is having his best season so far shooting almost 45% from 3.
As a team, they are second best in the league averaging 120 per game and 4th in overall FG% so they are a pesky team to slow down and defend.
At least at this point in the season you can say thatâs another quality W.
The Celtics look really good IMO. Tatum has really become a much more rounded player and they already rebound and defend pretty well.
To me, Milwaukee and Boston are clearly the two best teams in the NBA because neither team (when healthy) has any obvious flaws. They score and shoot and rebound and defend. If Ingles can get right, I would give a slight nod to Milwaukee in terms of depth but the Celtics are deep as well.
The real shame of it all is one of these teams will not make it out of the East.
I think if it comes down to a Celtics-Bucks series, the outcome will be determined by which of the secondary offensive (after the top 2 on each team) players hits open threes. Tatum and Giannis will likely cancel each other out on offense. Smart and Holiday, as much as I hate to admit it, are similar offensive players. Middleton and Brown are close to a wash as well in terms of half court offense. I think the Bucks win last year's series with Middleton, but the Celtics are better this year.
In last year's 7-game series, Connaughton was the only guy who shot well from deep (14 for 33). Matthews was 8 for 24, not great but passable. Holiday was 15 for 50, which is bad but not as bad as the rest of the guys that got minutes. Giannis was 7 for 28, but that's expected. Portis was 5 for 22, Lopez was 1 for 13, Grayson Allen was 5 for 24. It's amazing that with those three going 12 for 59 on mostly good looks that the series went 7. Of course, having Giannis average 34-15-7 covers up a lot of other problems (and he should have averaged a triple double based on the open looks he created for the other guys).
The Celtics shot 38% from three. The Bucks shot 28%. That was the series.
The Bucks have the same guys this year plus Middleton.
The Celtics added Brogdon without having to give up anything. Brogdon was massively overrated in Indiana in the role he played there which was a the main scorer and offensive initiator. Brogdon as a catch and shoot 3 point guy in Boston (and in Milwaukee with Giannis) is as good as it gets. He shot 41% from three as a Buck, 35% in Indiana when he had to create his own offense, and 49% in Boston this year as the 4th or so option. He's also a very good defender. He's basically a poor man's Middleton, but he's their 4th option.
Importantly, the Celtics have at least two guys (Horford and R. Williams) that can somewhat bother Giannis (although bother him is a relative term when Giannis had a historic series, but he had to work to get his points - he had 44, 42, 40, 34, 28, 25, 24 - LOL).
I think the Celtics would win a series with everyone healthy just because I think Brogdon taking those open 3s under playoff pressure and being a very good defender is a lot better than Grayson Allen taking those open 3s while simutaneously being abused on defense on switches.
The key might be a guy like Brook Lopez. Yes, having Middleton changes a lot but when Brook is hitting outside shots the opposing defense canât crowd the lane and ignore him like they basically did in the series last year. Heâs been a difference maker this year.
Itâs also pretty obvious George Hill wasnât healthy and Wes Matthews was playing way too many minutes. Those two guys are important to be able to harass opposing guards and both guys can hit the occasional big shot. But you canât have a guy like Matthews playing 30 minutes a game like he didnât against Boston in that series.
Ideally, you donât have Holiday taking so many outside shots and you replace them with Middleton and Ingles and Pat C. All three of those guys shoot 40%+ from 3 and two of them didnât even play against Boston.
