Game 80: Pelicans at Bucks - 4/10/25 - 7:00 - FDSWI

[Serge28]

Bucks 13.5 point favorite, down from 15.5 when I checked last night. Wonder why?

Giannis downgraded to questionable

Got it, thank you!

[rilamann]

It’d be good if we could have the luxury of keeping Giannis away from beef stew for those final 2 games.

That and Giannis would probably get ejected anyway if he glances at him for more than 0.3 of a second.

Yes, I am still annoyed by that.

[rilamann]

I would for sure rest Giannis tonight.

If you can't beat the Pelicans at home without Giannis, you don't deserve the #5 seed.

Good chance the Knicks win tonight in Detroit, I would assume. So rest Giannis tonight, hopefully lock up the #5 seed tonight and then if you do rest Giannis the final 2 games vs the Pistons.

I would have shut Giannis down about 2 weeks ago and just took the #6 seed. But apparently the Bucks want the #5 seed.

I am one of the few, but I would still rather play the Knicks than the Pacers in round 1. The Knicks are better than the Pacers on paper. But the Pacers are more of an overachieving and lucky type of team. The Knicks are more of an underachieving somewhat fraudulent team IMO.

If hypothetically the Bucks were a 60 win tier 1 contender that was the favorite to win the east, I would still be more nervous playing the Pacers in the 1st round than the Knicks. The Pacers are a really well coached, sneaky good, pesky team.

[rilamann]

Just sit Giannis all the remaining games, unless we really need a win in the final match of the season (doubt it).
WIthout him at as close to 100% as we can get him till the start of the playoffs, we are done in 4 against the Pacers.

At this point winning a playoff series is almost secondary to me.

I just want to see Giannis start and finish a playoff game healthy. It has been years since that has happened.

Playing Giannis 35+ minutes in these games down the stretch has been criminal.

Partly because Giannis has been a guy who can't stay healthy beyond April.

And partly because being the #5 seed or #6 doesn't really matter than much. It surely doesn't matter enough to put Giannis' health in the playoffs at risk.

Now if the Bucks had a legit shot at the #3 or #4 seed down the stretch here, then you have an argument as far playing Giannis 30+ minutes in these games down the stretch. But not when the difference is the #5 or #6 seed. That is pure lunacy given Giannis' injury history at this stage of the season.

[soxperry]

Yall are overthinking it. Just win this game. You mess around and lose and Detroit beats New York, now you gotta win two just to avoid the Knicks.

[soxperry]

Also, start kpj and play him 30+ min. Its time.

[fan230]

If we lose tonight and Detroit wins, it seems we have to beat Detroit twice to get 5th place. The latter is hard. So we should play Giannis tonight. Then we play Giannis in game 1; if we win, rest him in game 2 with the Pistons. It might mean having to play all 3 games with Giannis needing to play real hard the last 2 games.

If we rest him today and we win (but Pistons also win) we will have to play him in game 1 and so

Unless Giannis is injured, I thus think he should play today but perhaps less as a hard trying scorer and more as a less strenuous facilitator.

Pistons are favored to beat the Knicks today.

[Bernman]

We're 2 games up on Detroit and hold the tiebreaker. Even if we lose tonight & Detroit wins, we'd only have to split w/ them. Would finish 1 ahead. We'd need to get swept by them to drop to 6.

We absolutely shouldn't play Giannis tonight. We just beat them on the road on a 2nd of a back-to-back w/out him & they might be sitting even more guys. We should comfortably win this game regardless. Even if we don't we'd have 2 cracks head-to-head. Wouldn't deserve it anyway if we lost.

[emunney]

I think you have to trust the guys to beat the Pelicans, who might have to include a hologram in their starting lineup tonight. If there was ever a game you should feel comfortable resting Giannis, this would be it.

[fan230]

We're 2 games up on Detroit and hold the tiebreaker. Even if we lose tonight & Detroit wins, we'd only have to split w/ them. Would finish 1 ahead. We'd need to get swept by them to drop to 6.

We absolutely shouldn't play Giannis tonight. We just beat them on the road on a 2nd of a back-to-back w/out him & they might be sitting even more guys. We should comfortably win this game regardless. Even if we don't we'd have 2 cracks head-to-head. Wouldn't deserve it anyway if we lost.

If that is the case, we should probably rest Giannis tonight.

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

"I can't play with Dame"

or

"I can't play with another star cuz I need the ball in my hands all the time"

i think he can play with good players. i dont think he can play with other guys that run 30%+ usage like he does. he dominates the ball like almost no other star in the history of the league for the amount of time his heads down or eyes staring at the rim.

i think he needs stars that can help make guys better and pitch in defensively at a high level....and also understand its giannis ball if he wants it

healthy holiday and healthy midds really were kinda the ideal partners

i also think midds and holiday played like he was still their first option when they were trying to make plays. when dame plays into giannis it looks forced in a different way than those guys played off him or into him.

dame needs his own team honestly

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

let giannis get a few minutes and go thru the motions. id rather he play against bums than detroit fighting like no tomorrow

[mediocrityrules]

I'm in the camp of play him tonight so he doesn't have to play the last two games against bruising opposition.

Hopefully he only needs to play 25 or less minutes at most.

[GrandAdmiralDan]

Play Giannis tonight. Rest Giannis (and other players) against Pistons Friday & Sunday

[GoldenAntlers]

First time I've been bummed to have to miss a game all season. Feels good in a way.

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[MickeyDavis]

Lol at some of you thinking Doc would change it up in game 80

Read on Twitter

[blazza18]

What a loser

[Prez]

Lol at some of you thinking Doc would change it up in game 60

Read on Twitter

Mixing up 'would' with 'should' lol. Most of us who've been calling for the lineup change fully recognize that Doc is a pea brained clown who likely wouldn't change it.