Bucks up 15-10 on a good Magic team about halfway through the first quarter.
Giannis with 9-3-2 in the first 6 minutes.
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Magic now up 4 after a 21-7 run.
Giannis and Brook are 7 for 9 from the floor. The rest of the team is 1 for 9 on mostly wide open looks.
Magic up 31-28 after one.
Bucks have one FT in the quarter. Magic getting the benefit of the doubt on a lot of contact.
Bucks getting dominated right now. Down 9 after Isaac blocks two of Giannis' shots on the same possession.
Bucks look overmatched against them. Their size is given them big problems.
Bucks bench is 1 for 8. Other than Lillard and Lopez, the rest of the team is 0 for 9 from three.
Bucks pushed it to 15 in the third, but now down to 8 as some poor offensive possessions happen - including Giannis shooting a 3 early int he shot clock
Bucks up 91-82 going to the 4th. Dame is struggling with the Magic's size inside the arc where he is 1 for 7.
Giannis getting dominated by Isaac. Don't see that much. 3 blocks and a steal
Bucks up 9. Giannis has 30, but has missed 3 dunks and had 3 layups blocked by Isaac.
Bucks up 10 late, then a turnover and then a Giannis missed 3 early in the shot clock (just like a turnover). Just stupid basketball
Bucks win 118-114. Giannis didn't really play that well, but goes for 37-10-6 on 11 for 25 from the floor but 15 for 19 from the line. The FT shooting was great, but he is WAY WAY over 10 seconds on the attempts.
Was able to watch the 4th. Agreed with Giannis not playing real well even though he put up good numbers.
Funny you mention the FT’s - I had the TNF game on my phone and timed one of his FT’s - took 12 seconds according to what ran off the play clock on the football game.
Hope the refs don’t start enforcing the 10 second count in the playoffs.
@Cheezers posted:Was able to watch the 4th. Agreed with Giannis not playing real well even though he put up good numbers.
Funny you mention the FT’s - I had the TNF game on my phone and timed one of his FT’s - took 12 seconds according to what ran off the play clock on the football game.
Hope the refs don’t start enforcing the 10 second count in the playoffs.
The Magic are a really good defensive team. Similar in many respects to the Timberwolves - a lot of 7 footers in the paint and some good point-of-attack defenders.
I don't know why Giannis develops a routine that requires any more than 6-7 seconds to shoot. It makes no sense. Especially when he takes 3-4 seconds shooting a practice FT before he gets the ball (which doesn't count towards the 10 seconds, but makes it more likely he'll eventually get called for a violation).
Griffin seems to have stabilized things with some time over the long homestead to practice and Bobby Portis speaking up coincides with a lot better defensive intensity. I'm sure they'll be some bumps in the road over a long season, but if Khris, Giannis, and Dame (along with Brook) stay healthy, they are going to be very tough to beat in a 7 game series. Some interesting stats on the season to date.
1. First, the lineups with the big 3 are really good. The best way to defense them is to give Middleton open looks and that's not ideal for an opponent.
@TiWindisch
All Bucks lineups featuring Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and Khris Middleton have a plus 18.4 net rating on the season. Those groups' offensive rating of 125.9 would be first in the league, and their defensive rating of 107.5 would be too.
2. Dame's range obviously opens up the floor, but his ability to get to the line is almost as important. Dame has gotten to the line 7-9 times a game for the last decade. Jrue gets there about 2.5 times a game and Bledsoe was right around 3 times a game as a Buck. That's a lot of offense with the clock stopped. This is really important in the 4th quarter of playoff games. Also, it doesn't hurt that Dame is the 4th best FT in NBA history (Middleton is no slouch himself at 17th).
Lillard’s ability to get to the line and make FTs is a significant factor late in games. In addition, the ease of creating space and almost unlimited range makes him virtually impossible to defend when he gets going. The guy that’s most likely to benefit is Middleton. Post injury, he hasn’t had the same quickness to get open looks but with Dame on the court that’s changed everything. He isn’t forcing as much, and if 22 gets a clean look he’s still an elite shooter.
People talk about the downgrade in defense but the upside offensively with Lillard is hard to ignore. Dame is a bucket getter and unlike Holiday who was prone to disappearing it’s very unlikely that will happen if Lillard is in there. The other factor is Holiday had a tendency to slow things down and clog up the paint whereas Dame is always in motion forcing the defense to honor him at all times.
