PG: Bucks on the Brink

[Plossum]

As frustrating as some plays were I thought Giannis was mostly good tonight. He really battled and tried hard when others were going to water. He’s just a bit westbrookian in for all the good he does, he’ll do something horrific.

Midds has been super reliable. Jrue better today.

Absolutely criminal that Bud isn’t using Giannis on Durant.

Still I’m optimistic about game six. That would have taken a lot out of Durant and Jeff Green had a random explosion. I’m worried that Harris is due a hot game though.

[DingleJerry]

Have to plan and build the team with Giannis not as a wing but as a big and that someone else needs to be the lead go to PG type (Paul, etc) and GIannis as to go to AD type role. That's if you actually want to win the title, you can continue to be very good but will likely come up short every time until someone else handles the O and Giannis just has to finish dunks. Plus of course we need a coach that will run this offense, teach Giannis how to play that role, etc

It's gonna be very tough to find that guy though, they went all in on the wrong guy in Jrue. He's good but wasn't the skill we needed.

[James1980]

fire bud and horst together

CP3 was the guy we needed, not jrue

Owners haven't shown they are willing to pay the luxury tax so doubt CP3 was an option.

[TD75]

The Bucks just lost to a team that practically had 4 players on the floor for most of the game. Let that sink in.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Charles is on point again.

tnt naiIing it

[ABucksFan]

You know why CP3 was the solution? Paul can see when the coach is a fn moron and just take over the team himself on the court. Paul wouldve put everyone in the right spots during the right moments. Elite mentality. He has the balls
To tell Bud to f off and is smart enough to control the game himself.

[Unique]

Same old story.

Instead of finishing the game by expanding the 20 points difference up to 35, Bud decided to slow down the offence by putting a rookie in to "protect" Jrue from fouls. WTF???

As a result some Green kept them alive and brought them back into the game. Even **** Thanasis could stop this guy.

Bud made things worse by swapping PJ for Middleton on KD. That was the end of it. KD went from 27 points to 50 in 12 minutes.

Bud needs to go. Seriously.

[jimmybones]

Absolutely mind boggling we can go almost entire stretch of incoherent offense. Durant could have done exactly what he did and if we did anything remotely resembling an NBA offense we still win by 8+

[Jollay]

I can honestly say that was the worst coaches big game I’ve ever seen.

There was a guy on the court who literally couldn’t move, and we did nothing to exploit that. Nothing.

There was a 7 foot offensive marvel destroying us. We have a 7 foot defensive marvel. We had him guarding Landry **** Shamet off ball 45 feet away.

You're not wrong but these guys have given no indication they can figure out any of this for themselves.

Any guy can choose to post, or try and exploit any of this at any time and they never do. Plus, end of game they just show time and time again they are mentally weaker/inferior to...really anyone when it matters most.

I'm just somewhat relieved I can't be as mad at Middleton as I have been lately.

[ReasonablySober]

Read on Twitter

Fangraphs even clowning on the Bucks tonight. Just brutal.

[DrWood]

I’m 100% on this being the Bucks (mostly Bud’s) fault, but the reffing can make the NBA unwatchable at times. It wasn’t good, no matter what narrative you want to spin.

It's mostly Durant putting in one of the top 50 playoff games of all time.
Everything else matters, but not nearly as important.

[HurricaneKid]

That was quite possibly the best game the Bucks have played since before the break last year.

It's soul crushing that they lost. Kudos to KD. That was some amazing ****.

But tonight the officiating jumped the shark for me. In a game that they had given the Nets a good 12+ points if not more they called a game deciding call with 1:00 to go in a playoff game 5. The worst player on the floor by a sizable margin falls over after hooking a defender in legal guarding position. And the officials go to center court and say that it's a foul. If it is I can no longer abide this game. I've given up football and baseball and held on to basketball but that call and the dozens before it have me asking why I should be spending what time and money I have for this when it's not even reasonable equitably decided.

Sent from my SM-G986U using RealGM mobile app

[bucksfansince88]

This whole “need a coach to hold Giannis accountable” is a strawman. A coaching change is needed and will help overall. I’m all for it. But Giannis basketball instincts suck and coaching doesn’t change that. You can coach Giannis perfectly and his bad instincts will always take over. He is a great player but he’ll never be a smart player.

I had some issues with us somehow unwilling to hardly ever double or deny Durant, but agree and this is an issue that will likely never go away.

Bottom line our core is mentally weak and rarely plays smart when it matters most. We'll change out Bud but I doubt this team ever wins it all.

I mean, this team had a worthless Harden (and Joe Harris!) and no Irving. We simply aren't a title team and never will be.

blew my mind that they didnt event attempt to trap him high and force him to pass

[RiotPunch]

Charles is on point again.

tnt naiIing it

Cliff notes? I'm 5 cigarettes and 3 whiskeys removed from having the TV on.

[xTitan]

Read on Twitter

?s=21

[DrWood]

Same old story.

Instead of finishing the game by expanding the 20 points difference up to 35, Bud decided to slow down the offence by putting a rookie in to "protect" Jrue from fouls. WTF???

As a result some Green kept them alive and brought them back into the game. Even **** Thanasis could stop this guy.

Bud made things worse by swapping PJ for Middleton on KD. That was the end of it. KD went from 27 points to 50 in 12 minutes.

Bud needs to go. Seriously.

Middleton played KD pretty well. PJ had 5 fouls.

[MickeyDavis]

I would have given Portis at least a few minutes.

[HKPackFan]

This is hall of fame posting.

[TroyD92]

I understand that Giannis played well this year, but man I said it at the beginning of the season his lack of development over the last two or three years has been frightening. obsessed with adding a three point shot and seemingly ignoring the fundamental skills that are needed for a 7ft 250lbs freak athlete. Terrible screener, bad decision maker, and just an overall bad halfcourt player. Him being a low iq player or just a choker I can live with, but man his development is the real issue.

[StickeeFingaz]

I actually thought this was probably the the best we've played all series so I'm encouraged by that, it's just that Durant was unreal (yes, part of it was because we were terrible defending him in the third quarter) and Jeff Green went 7/8 from three. Green especially made us pay for being off on our rotations/loading on Durant.

I've seen complaints online that we didn't attack Harden enough, so then we attack Harden and get criticized for an iso possession. I've seen complaints that we move the ball a bit, miss a shot, and then we get criticized for not attacking Harden.

It was a very, very tough loss but I think it's more likely we can duplicate the good from that performance two more times as opposed to the Nets, especially KD and Green, duplicating their performance two more times.