Weak showing in Indy

Middleton/Lopez/Brogdon: 12-41, 29 points. And 52-38 rebounds...

Thats your game. 

Bucks clawing back in it though... 8 points with 4:00 to go.

Middleton really struggling from the field. 

Just like that- they blow a pick and pop and give up a wide open 3, and then a pick allows a wide open bank shot. Back to 13...

10-2 run pretty much will do it...

Worst loss and effort of the year 

Did anyone play well in this game?   

Middleton can officially hit the bricks 

He is either in a historic slump or in major pout mode 

Bucks are 11-9 since their 7-0 start. Almost every loss it was poor shooting, sloppy play, and poor rebounding that caused the loss. Getting frustrating when you need to play better than .500 ball to get where you need to go. Boston is not going to stay down much longer. Phillys already passed them. Indy’s now right there. They better get their shot together or they’ll be 5th in the conference in a week...

Giannis was 4-7 (and 1 for 2 from 3) tonight. If teams are going to take the ball out of his hands the other guys have to make them pay by hitting open shots. Bledsoe did - he was 11-16 (and 2 of 5 from 3). Lopez and Brogdon were below average (a combined 9 of 27 and 5 of 16). The big problem was Middleton. He was for 4 for 18 and 0 for 7 from deep. 

What was his personal problem he missed a game for recently? If this lingers, it makes them a 5 or 6 seed at best. 

13-22, 11-18, 11-19, 10-14, 14-16, 7-15, 10-17, 8-13, 4-7

Those are Giannis FG stats for each of the 9 losses. He has those stats despite shooting 2 of 16 from 3 in the 9 losses. 

88-141 from the field is 62.5%. 69% from inside the arc. 

Here are Giannis' Points-Rebounds-Assists line for the 9 losses. He is averaging 24.9/12.8/5.2

12 points, 10 rebounds, 7 assists

22, 15, 5

33, 19, 7

20, 13, 9

35, 10, 3

31, 9, 4

27, 18, 4

23, 9, 6

33, 11, 2

When you best player is averaging that stat line and shooting 62% from the floor that should translate into more than 0 for 9 in the win department in those games. 

So if Giannis is still playing at an MVP level what's the difference ? Middleton is taking roughly 7 3s a game in the wins and the losses. 

Middleton is 20 of 67 from 3 in the losses. 29.8%

He's 52 for 117 in the wins. 44.4%

So, he shoots slightly better than Steph Curry's lifetime % from 3 in their wins and he shoots slightly better than Giannis' lifetime % from 3 in their losses. 

Malcolm said Kris has been sick lately.. First I've heard that. 

Gotta give Indiana credit, their strategy to collapse 3 guys and deny Giannis worked well. His only game is within 10ft of the hoop, otherwise he is simply a poor shooter. Good job by them.

Give props to Bledsoe, he's the only one who showed up and played well. Everyone else was dogshit tonight.  

Packdog posted:

Malcolm said Kris has been sick lately.. First I've heard that. 

Gotta give Indiana credit, their strategy to collapse 3 guys and deny Giannis worked well. His only game is within 10ft of the hoop, otherwise he is simply a poor shooter. Good job by them.

Give props to Bledsoe, he's the only one who showed up and played well. Everyone else was dogshit tonight.  

If you commit to collapsing on Giannis like that, the other guys should have open 3s all night. 

Plenty of 3 point shots to be had( Bucks took 43). 

Clank 

It's a make it League. You get open looks you have to knock down those shots.

Bucks with 25% from 3-pt land & especially Khris "I play when I wanna play" Middleton with a scintillating 0-7 from deep.

Even the Warriors last night. After hitting 19, 18 & 19....3's in 3 straight games. Their best stretch in history....they go 23% vs. the Raptors. 

The offense moved the ball to get you open. Knock it down when nobody is in your face. 

Yup, the 3 point game is fun when your hitting em but looks really ugly when you're not. 

My son came over last night and we watched the game. At one point I said "Has Middleton even made a shot, he looks like shit lately". When the 3 pointers are going in,  fans are like "Man this team can score", when they're not your like "WTF, that's the offense" ???

Steph Curry is a 44% career 3pt shooter.  Surprisingly, Klay Thompson is a 41% career 3pt shooter.  Middleton comes in around 40%. 

You assume those guys actually hit more 3s than they do but even the really good ones miss a lot more than they make. 

Tschmack posted:

Steph Curry is a 44% career 3pt shooter.  Surprisingly, Klay Thompson is a 41% career 3pt shooter.  Middleton comes in around 40%. 

You assume those guys actually hit more 3s than they do but even the really good ones miss a lot more than they make. 

 

Someone should track contested 3s versus wide open 3s. Curry probably shoots more contested 3s and really deep 3s than anyone. His 44% rate has a lot tougher degree of difficulty that Thompson's - almost all of Klay's are catch and shoot. His 60 point game involved him touching the ball for 90 seconds and taken 11 dribbles. Sometimes Curry's 3s involve him dribbling his defender backwards, forwards, and sideways and as soon as he gets a sliver of daylight he launches.

The new NBA is built on having a dominant 1x1 player than can score at will to force the defense to double. Then you have guys that can knock down wide open 3s that result from the scrambling. The Warriors have Durant and Curry that almost have to be doubled every time they touch the ball. Whatever team LeBron is playing on feeds off the double teams. When the Warriors didn't do enough the force the ball out of his hands in Game 1 of the finals last year, he erupted for 51 and was one JR Smith boneheaded play away from stealing that game even with the rest of team going 7 for 30 from 3.

Giannis is the same way. James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis. There are just a handle full of those guys around. The Bucks have one. If you have one of those guys, more of the 3s are uncontested. You should shoot a much higher percentage. You surround those guys with guys that can hit wide open 3s and play good defense. Middleton fits the description perfectly - until the last month.

The point I was trying to make is Klay and Middleton have very similar numbers and I think Middleton is more like Curry than Klay in terms of shot selection.  

Lopez and Brogdon are different in that they seem to take more wide open shots.  Bledsoe is a mixed bag. 

Tschmack posted:

The point I was trying to make is Klay and Middleton have very similar numbers and I think Middleton is more like Curry than Klay in terms of shot selection.  

Lopez and Brogdon are different in that they seem to take more wide open shots.  Bledsoe is a mixed bag. 

I agree with the Middleton shot selection comment. If you slotted him into the Klay Thompson position with the Warriors and he can just catch and shoot he'd look like an All-Star.

Bledsoe is probably a better option than Middleton at this point in terms of getting off a decent shot at the end of a game. He's the other guy they have that can create his own offense. He's too good a shooter to leave him wide open from 15-20 feet he's not a turnover machine when he drives like Middleton is. It's tough to give Giannis the ball in those situations in isolation if they are just going to back 5 feet off him and let him shoot wide open 20 footers.

The key to Bledsoe’s play this year is shot selection and limiting turnovers. He’s their 2nd best player this year. But he’s not a true scorer- he should be the guy taking advantage of the attention the others are attracting. He gets guys a lot of open looks when he’s playing well, and he has been. 

The Bucks shooting issues are why they’re losing. It feeds everything else. Even when the Bucks were blowing teams out earlier in the season, it wasn’t like they were shooting a high %. They were mid 30s from 3. But they were effective making the 3, and it opened up everything. 

But Brook Lopez should not be hoisting 12 threes, or 16 shots of any kind. Indiana laid a trap and the Bucks fell right in it. Buds will have to adjust a few things to ensure that isn’t happening...