PG Lakers: Bucks Implode

[FrieAaron]

Fun fact. We have the highest assist rate in clutch minutes (63.7%) this year unless you wanna count the Spurs (-13.5 net-rating in the clutch). Way too many people defaulting to comfortable agendas no matter what actually happens in these losses. This team has pretty much flipped the script from previous years (we used to suck offensively in the half court and clutch situations and now we're awesome), but we've always been a good passing team.

We've definitely been a good passing team, especially lately. But we've also seen this before where the team just kind of...stops doing what was working. It's hard to argue with the stat that was posted earlier about the fourth quarter last night. 18 of 26 possessions with one pass or fewer, and that definitely matches the eye test. And it doesn't really feel like it was necessarily due to the Lakers defense.

[yannisk]

I have not watched Dame the previous years but just looking at his stats I was expecting a scoring first pg who was a great volume shooter from 3.

This year, what I have seen, underwhelming play making, bad defender, I am sure he is a great shooter but he has too many games that he cannot hit anything. I suppose the last issue has something to do with his divorce/missing family etc but the result is that in many games we try to win in spite of him.

We are reaching the playoffs he is going to get hunted on defense along with his backcourt mate Beasley, if the balance between him and Reaves level players is negative we are not going to do anything.

I have reached a point that i switch channels every time Giannis is shooting FTs. This stupid 30 seconds routine, and inconsistent shooting motion. For a guy that is supposingly a great worker it seems he has not done enough reps to at least get a consistent shooting form.

This team has some very low lows. I get optimistic one game to get completely despaired the next one. Most probably we are getting knocked out early in the playoffs unless Dame goes super nova in a few games per series

[Profound23]

There are three teams I really hate losing to: Lakers, Celtics, and Cowboys.

To lose two games to the Lakers without Lebron is pathetic. I understand the refs sucked in both games and basically allowed Davis to continue to push Giannis on alley oops last night........but that doesn't matter. You're up 19 with 9+ minutes left, you don't pull Giannis/Khris yet because as we have seen this year 19pts in 9 minutes with any team means nothing. Trying to get Giannis a few minutes rest lead to us playing him in both of the OTs to a point he was winded and probably sore as hell today, again thanks to being shoved 3-4 times while in midair with no call.

I don't even care about the regular season anymore. Let's just get to the playoffs and see if this works, if not trade Dame, Khris, and Brook for young players and picks.

[JayMKE]

Not sure Lakers will even take Dame in a trade at this point ooof

[BUCKnation]

The sicko in me took a look at the last 5 min. Dame only had 1 shot, which he maybe was contacted on the head, no replay but he was complaining about it (I might tend to believe him after Reaves did a similar play later, but got called for it). Khris took 4 and at least 2 of them were shots he almost always makes. Giannis had a hook shot rattle out and then got taken out on the potential game winner with no call.

Meanwhile, Reaves had an easy run for a layup which looked like a miscommunication, Davis hit a 3, Reaves hit an early shot clock deep 3, where Dame was at the 3 pt line and not even close to contesting, and then Prince got to the line. There are a few misses sprinkled in there as well.

In general, I feel like this is more flukey than anything. The OT's seemed to come down to who had slightly more energy and who could make just 1 big shot, so I'm just writing those off. In 2OT, Reaves hit another deep 3 after a possession where bobby and giannis missed like 5 tap ins with a min left.

We probably didn't move the ball as much as we should have but the looks were mostly fine, idk.

[jute2003]

There is an arrogance to this team and has been for years and years. They can coast with the best of them when they think they're better than the other team. The problem is they don't have the personalities to drag them kicking and screaming back when their arrogance bites them in the ass. They panic and **** themselves.

[AussieBuck]

Giannis not being able to get that sweet Austin Reaves whistle at home is peak NBA

[MartyConlonOnTheRun]

I have not watched Dame the previous years but just looking at his stats I was expecting a scoring first pg who was a great volume shooter from 3.

This year, what I have seen, underwhelming play making, bad defender, I am sure he is a great shooter but he has too many games that he cannot hit anything. I suppose the last issue has something to do with his divorce/missing family etc but the result is that in many games we try to win in spite of him.

We are reaching the playoffs he is going to get hunted on defense along with his backcourt mate Beasley, if the balance between him and Reaves level players is negative we are not going to do anything.

I have reached a point that i switch channels every time Giannis is shooting FTs. This stupid 30 seconds routine, and inconsistent shooting motion. For a guy that is supposingly a great worker it seems he has not done enough reps to at least get a consistent shooting form.

This team has some very low lows. I get optimistic one game to get completely despaired the next one. Most probably we are getting knocked out early in the playoffs unless Dame goes super nova in a few games per series

I think I glossed over that there is a difference between an off the dribble 3pt threat and a catch and shoot threat. Dame doesn't seem comfortable popping and catching from Giannis....which is kind of what we need.

[DingleJerry]

After any loss Dame is a POS bum, then nothing on the good games. Have to chill on the game by game freakouts. Dame sucked in Jan leading up to the firing and has been good since. I know we're spoiled with Giannis consistency and haven't had a G like this or really ever. But Gs who shoot like this are just naturally gonna have more fluctuation and bad games, in a way it epitomizes todays nba.

He's somewhere in the 44/39/95 shooting splits and around 8 asts area the last two months with good TS% numbers. He's a team player who almost always makes the right pass and not playing selfishly, while of course no one is perfect though. His gravity and attention the D gives is a huge reason Giannis is tearing it up, he's never had it this easy with this much space. And a reason on why Dames lineups kill even while he's only been good not great. The PnRs with Giannis are working while still being clunky, they are getting better though as time goes. I haven't seen it mentioned in a bit but didn't he have the highest +/- or rating on the team too? Even his D and effort/care on D seems clearly up since the firing.

Considering where things were two months ago I'm not sure they could've asked for much better at this point heading into the playoffs, barring having pulled off a trade for a good player who covers the wing/G athleticism weakness on D. That's not to say things are perfect, as I had the caveat considering how they looked two months ago. Dame generally looks like himself again, Giannis is crushing it. They're back to at least having a chance and to the #2 favorite in the East, right where they should be.

[rilamann]

It's not about match-ups so much as it is about coming to play for 48 minutes.

Co-Signed:
Jason Kidd
Adrian Griffin

You know I am not just simply talking about effort.

If the Bucks had just done the same things in the final 8 minutes that they had done in the first 40 minutes there is a 100% chance they would have won the game by 10+.

It's just really odd to talk about the mediocre Lakers being a tough match-up for the Bucks after a game in which the Bucks maintained a double digit lead over the Lakers for the first 45 minutes of the game. We were up 19 with 8 minutes to go, but we were also still up by 10 with 3 minutes to go.

Instead of doing match-up gymnastics just call it what it is, the Bucks were unable to put together a full 48 minutes and finish the game.

[GoldenAntlers]

Do you guys really think that the crunch time stuff is a problem though?

The crunch time defense is the problem. We are old and slow. And it means we have problems getting back on D, recovering from screens and chasing down loose balls.

The single biggest reason we aren’t cruising to a title is the inability of the GM to find/acquire one or two very athletic guys who can actually play (versus say Ajax who is athletic, but really can’t play the game (now or maybe ever)). We need a front court and a backcourt athletic guy.

If Bev played Bucks win.

[rilamann]

The officiating was a joke in the 4th quarter and both overtimes.

Everything was 110% on brand for the NBA, the Lakers & Tony **** Brothers.

That said, it's hard for to me to be too upset about it when the Bucks blew the game. All the Bucks did was open the door for the officials. Had it been a competitive back and fourth kind of game and not a game where the Bucks had a double digit lead for 90% of the game, I would be irate at the officiating. I'm just kind of meh about it.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Fun fact. We have the highest assist rate in clutch minutes (63.7%) this year unless you wanna count the Spurs (-13.5 net-rating in the clutch). Way too many people defaulting to comfortable agendas no matter what actually happens in these losses. This team has pretty much flipped the script from previous years (we used to suck offensively in the half court and clutch situations and now we're awesome), but we've always been a good passing team.

fun fact. our regular season stats the last 5 years dont mean **** in the playoffs once we hit teams that have figured out our really simple recipe for those numbers

personally im done looking at numbers as anything to predict success. in fact thats about all ive learned with this squad the past 5 years. even the one we won made no sense other than what... pj tucker made us dogs?

[MissKhriddleton]

Talk to me in April.

[Profound23]

The officiating was a joke in the 4th quarter and both overtimes.

Everything was 110% on brand for the NBA, the Lakers & Tony **** Brothers.

That said, it's hard for to me to be too upset about it when the Bucks blew the game. All the Bucks did was open the door for the officials. Had it been a competitive back and fourth kind of game and not a game where the Bucks had a double digit lead for 90% of the game, I would be irate at the officiating. I'm just kind of meh about it.

I watched the Bucks at Lakers game with a Lakers fan. He admitted in that game they were getting a great home whistle. I said it doesn't matter where they play, Lakers will always get the whistle over Milwaukee. Last night proved that to be true.

[JonHeist]

People think Dame is a superstar, but he's really just Mo Williams with a green light.

Not enough shoulder hair.

Haha never forget Mo's shoulder hair.

I am honestly not even being hyperbolic or sarcastic when I say that Dame is basically Mo Williams with a green light. They're about the same defensively and Mo probably would have put up similar offensive numbers if he played in this era and if he had the green light to shoot 30+ shots anytime he wanted.

if you really think that, you might as well just stop watching basketball

[emunney]

The officiating was a joke in the 4th quarter and both overtimes.

Everything was 110% on brand for the NBA, the Lakers & Tony **** Brothers.

That said, it's hard for to me to be too upset about it when the Bucks blew the game. All the Bucks did was open the door for the officials. Had it been a competitive back and fourth kind of game and not a game where the Bucks had a double digit lead for 90% of the game, I would be irate at the officiating. I'm just kind of meh about it.

Agree with this. Very frustrating game but mostly not officiating. Tons of stuff went wrong. Giannis leads the league in +1s but just could not put the ball in the hoop.

[Ron Swanson]

Fun fact. We have the highest assist rate in clutch minutes (63.7%) this year unless you wanna count the Spurs (-13.5 net-rating in the clutch). Way too many people defaulting to comfortable agendas no matter what actually happens in these losses. This team has pretty much flipped the script from previous years (we used to suck offensively in the half court and clutch situations and now we're awesome), but we've always been a good passing team.

fun fact. our regular season stats the last 5 years dont mean **** in the playoffs once we hit teams that have figured out our really simple recipe for those numbers

personally im done looking at numbers as anything to predict success. in fact thats about all ive learned with this squad the past 5 years. even the one we won made no sense other than what... pj tucker made us dogs?

If you actually believed this then why you out here literally comparing this to last year's playoff losses? Or is regular season "failure" somehow more predictive than success?

[rilamann]

Not enough shoulder hair.

Haha never forget Mo's shoulder hair.

I am honestly not even being hyperbolic or sarcastic when I say that Dame is basically Mo Williams with a green light. They're about the same defensively and Mo probably would have put up similar offensive numbers if he played in this era and if he had the green light to shoot 30+ shots anytime he wanted.

if you really think that, you might as well just stop watching basketball

Give prime Mo Williams the green light to shoot as much as he wants and put him in this current era where guys are launching 10+ 3's a game and the gap between Mo & Dame wouldn't be as large as you think. I never said Mo would be better than Dame, but I am saying the gap between the two of them wouldn't be that great.

Dame shot 14 threes last game, put the 2008 version of Mo Williams in an NBA game today and let him launch 14 threes and shoot the ball 29 times and see what would happen.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Fun fact. We have the highest assist rate in clutch minutes (63.7%) this year unless you wanna count the Spurs (-13.5 net-rating in the clutch). Way too many people defaulting to comfortable agendas no matter what actually happens in these losses. This team has pretty much flipped the script from previous years (we used to suck offensively in the half court and clutch situations and now we're awesome), but we've always been a good passing team.

fun fact. our regular season stats the last 5 years dont mean **** in the playoffs once we hit teams that have figured out our really simple recipe for those numbers

personally im done looking at numbers as anything to predict success. in fact thats about all ive learned with this squad the past 5 years. even the one we won made no sense other than what... pj tucker made us dogs?

If you actually believed this then why you out here literally comparing this to last year's playoff losses? Or is regular season "failure" somehow more predictive than success?

our epic even historic regular season success hasnt translated to playoff success. there are many factors for this and some have been out of our control like injuries of course.... i was simply making a point that our loss to the lakers was very similar to the way weve lost in the playoffs. being up big and choking. both in series and in games we havent closed when it mattered and in some cases its been epic failures like last year.

the year we won of course it was the opposite. we played better under the gun. i guess we were dogs that year or something like has been proposed.

were still durants big toe from being one of the worst playoff teams in history tho. theres no doubt about that. glad we won that sucker but it doesnt change our teams historic identity. my point is that it would be cool considering we have giannis that he was the dog... he was the closer. finals mvp giannis was playoffs giannis. he did so much more that year.

i get he does great in the regular season. after all these years thats meaningless to me tho. like others its all about the playoffs at this point and the lakers game seemed to show that some things never change. there was alot of deja vu for me on HOW we lost.

this is an old battle hardened team of vets......winning and closing needs to be a habit at this point. not something we beat our chests about when it happens vs games like the other night. 19 points in 6 minutes at home is insane. it cant be covered up with regular season stats...like at all.