Pacers at Bucks, January 1st

Pacers all the way back to within one. Bucks playing terrible right now.

Is Joe Barry in the building? 

Pacers are now up 4. Just dominating in the last 6 minutes.

Pacers are mocking the Bucks right now

Bucks now go 8-0.

Bucks getting killed on the offensive glass.  Getting chippy now.

In danger of losing contact. Down 6 with under 4 minutes.

The Pacers have come in, and after weathering the initial 19-4 start, have kicked their ass .

Bad loss.

Bucks bench was horrifically bad.

Dame is 3 for 15 from the floor. The bench is 6 for 19.

Haliburton is killing them, but he's getting EVERY call.

@MichiganPacker posted:

Dame is 3 for 15 from the floor. The bench is 6 for 19.

Beasley, Giannis, Middleton, and Lopez were 33 for 60.

Dame hit his first two shots in the first 55 seconds of the game and then went 1 for his last 14.

"70-16 bench points

How is that even fucking possible??"

- Quote from my friend 🤯

The O/U was 261.5

Made a small bet on the Pacers M/L +260

Had a 2-team parlay Pacers +7.5 and the UNDER

Now I'm having a steak dinner at Bavettes 😁

Happy New Year boys & girls. Go get em on Wednesday.

The Bucks gave up 38 points in the 4th.

Mathurin and McConnell just smoked them.  Nearly 40 points between those two guys on very efficient shooting and scoring.

The Bucks played OK otherwise, but on a night where your bench is giving you nothing you can’t have Dame only giving you 13 on piss poor shooting.   I mean, after the 1Q he was horrible.  

Indiana is a deep team and in the playoffs the bench will shorten but I still think Milwaukee needs one more guy.  Maybe when Crowder returns he’s that person but right now if either Giannis or Dame are off they are going to struggle a bit.  

To win as many regular season games as possible, the Bucks need one more guy off the bench that can generate their own offense for regular season games. Crowder doesn't do that. Griffin appears to be running some set plays to see if Connaughton can create with penetration, but those plays do not consistently work.

Last night was a bizarre game in many ways. 4 of the 5 starters - Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, and Beasley shot well (a combined 32 for 58 from the floor and 8 for 22 from three). The Pacers shot 5 for 35 from three. The Bucks turned it over only 11 times. If you saw those numbers, you'd have assumed they won by double digits.

Indiana does give them problems because they are the type of team that can play Lopez off the floor. That's where they need Crowder.

The Bucks really lost because Dame and their only offensive guy off the bench (Portis) were awful. They were 7 for 28 and 1 for 13 from three.

Dame is not going to have those types of games very often, and likely not more than once in a 7 game playoff series.

Andre Jackson Jr., Beauchamp (who didn't play last night), and Cam Payne just aren't playable in playoff games. Crowder will help, but he's just a catch and shoot guy.

I think the solution is not going to be to add anyone else. It's going to be to cut the rotation down to 7-8 guys in the playoffs. The year they won the title, they basically played 7 guys. For example, in Game 6 of the Finals they played 7 guys big minutes (plus Teague played 2 minutes and Cam Payne is basically the same player).

I think they win a title in 2022 if Middleton doesn't get hurt. I think every GM in the league would swap Holiday and Grayson Allen for Dame and Beasley (which would be the key swap from 2022 to 2024). The question is whether Dame, Beasley, and Crowder are better than Holiday, Tucker, and Teague from the 2021 title team. I would say yes.

You try to manage the minutes during the regular season, get a top 4 seed, and then shorten the rotation to 7 in the playoffs when it matters. They might "only" win 52-54 games in the regular season, but the only thing that matters is the playoffs for a team like this.

The playoff rotations (over the years are the following (9 man rotations)

2019 - Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, Connaughton, Bledsoe, Brogdon, Hill, Ilyasova, Mirotic

2020 - Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, Connaughton, Bledsoe, Brogdon, Hill, DDV, Matthews

2021 - Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, Connaughton, Portis, Holiday, Tucker, Teague

2022 - Giannis, Middleton (hurt), Lopez, Connaughton, Portis, Holiday, G. Allen, Matthews, Hill

2023 - Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, Connaughton, Portis, Holiday, G. Allen, Matthews

2023 - Giannis, Middleton, Lopez, Connaughton, Portis, Dame, Beasley, Crowder

@MichiganPacker posted:

I think the solution is not going to be to add anyone else. It's going to be to cut the rotation down to 7-8 guys in the playoffs.

What if they add a guy like PJ Tucker?

@Boris posted:

What if they add a guy like PJ Tucker?

I'm not sure he gives you that much more than a healthy Crowder this year or Wes Matthews last year. He might be the worst offensive player in the league at this point.