PG Boston Game 3 - Future MVP Dominates

[raferfenix]

Question guys: has Thon Maker ever played that well before? Jesus.

Nope.

Expectations were set stupid unrealistically high for Thon after a solid series against the Raptors last year. And then he basically went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Despite that, the Bucks went so far as to trade Monroe and not replace him with another back up center until the deadline, and even then we only got Tyler freaking Zeller.

That and charmin-soft John Henson had no business being a starting center in the first place.

Long story short it'd be incredible if last night was the beginning of a coming out party for Thon Maker.

More conservatively, it was a flash of untapped potential for him to eventually become a reliable rotation player at least -- which he certainly has not been for any extended period of time to date.

[JustinCredible]

Question guys: has Thon Maker ever played that well before? Jesus.

Nope.

Expectations were set stupid unrealistically high for Thon after a solid series against the Raptors last year. And then he basically went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum.

Despite that, the Bucks went so far as to trade Monroe and not replace him with another back up center until the deadline, and even then we only got Tyler freaking Zeller.

That and charmin-soft John Henson had no business being a starting center in the first place.

Long story short it'd be incredible if last night was the beginning of a coming out party for Thon Maker.

More conservatively, it was a flash of untapped potential for him to eventually become a reliable rotation player at least -- which he certainly has not been for any extended period of time to date.

Never. He had a great series against Toronto last year but never had a complete game like this before. He always hustles like that though (sprinting up and down on every possession and all over on defense). However, all season we've asked him to try and hedge on P&Rs and recover. He would always be in the wrong position. Whatever defense we were running with Kidd Thon just couldn't execute. Last night it was simple: Just switch everything. That allowed Thon to just go full tilt and not hesitate. It is possible that this scheme could unlock Thon.

Thon didn't have one decent game all year this season. At least not that I can remember. If he has figured out how to play though it completely changes our team. His skillset is the perfect fit at the 5 next to Giannis. He will space the offense and he can switch onto any position on defense. Also, he has such a great mindset and is all hustle. He is incredibly fun to watch.

If Thon can play basketball the Bucks are for real.

[bizarro]

Question guys: has Thon Maker ever played that well before? Jesus.

Anyway I kinda expected a game where you guys go bonkers, just not this bad...I mean wow, games like this have me questioning why the Bucks aren't better. They looked better than the Warriors last night.

Game 4 is pivotal, one thing I noticed is that the Bucks didn't pressure as much as they normally did last night and the lack of pressure actually forced a lot of turnovers...Celtics will try to counter, most likely by quicker passes and ball movement. They held the ball way too much last night and let your defense get set too often. Also the Celtics settled too much last night, they'll probably drive more.

Still, that was an impressive outing from you guys. Everyone played well not named Brogdon. Hopefully my team can bounce back next game but this series is real now.

Dead serious:

Until last night's miraculous and completely unexpected performance, Thon Maker's highlight of the season was literally "...that one rebound on a West Coast trip..." Seriously. I mean, who knows. Obviously, as Bucks fans we hope this playoff Thon thing is a real thing - he showed a lot of potential in last year's playoffs vs. the Raptors. BUT, this Bucks team is known for consistent regressions and an utter lack of any continuity or consistency. As a Celtics fan, you should be fully prepared for completely different rotations, Tony Snell back in the starting line-up, Jabari regressing, and John Henson raining his patented 20 foot wide open bricks as soon as the next game. None of us understand this team. They're as erratic and boneheaded as they are capable of having brilliant and entertaining performances.

[kid idioteque]

If we force Stevens to have to game plan around Thon we win.

Amazing post.

[JustinCredible]

Question guys: has Thon Maker ever played that well before? Jesus.

Anyway I kinda expected a game where you guys go bonkers, just not this bad...I mean wow, games like this have me questioning why the Bucks aren't better. They looked better than the Warriors last night.

Game 4 is pivotal, one thing I noticed is that the Bucks didn't pressure as much as they normally did last night and the lack of pressure actually forced a lot of turnovers...Celtics will try to counter, most likely by quicker passes and ball movement. They held the ball way too much last night and let your defense get set too often. Also the Celtics settled too much last night, they'll probably drive more.

Still, that was an impressive outing from you guys. Everyone played well not named Brogdon. Hopefully my team can bounce back next game but this series is real now.

Dead serious:

Until last night's miraculous and completely unexpected performance, Thon Maker's highlight of the season was literally "...that one rebound on a West Coast trip..." Seriously. I mean, who knows. Obviously, as Bucks fans we hope this playoff Thon thing is a real thing - he showed a lot of potential in last year's playoffs vs. the Raptors. BUT, this Bucks team is known for consistent regressions and an utter lack of any continuity or consistency. As a Celtics fan, you should be fully prepared for completely different rotations, Tony Snell back in the starting line-up, Jabari regressing, and John Henson raining his patented 20 foot wide open bricks as soon as the next game. None of us understand this team. They're as erratic and boneheaded as they are capable of having brilliant and entertaining performances.

Yup. Unfortunately it isn't an exaggeration that Thon's season highlight was 1 rebound. He looked like he wouldn't even belong in a GLeague rotation all season. Every Bucks fan watching last night was shocked and I can promise you was brought to pure laughter watching Thon play. It was jaw dropping fun.

[bizarro]

What the hyelllll. Draft picks for everyone!!!!

Watch on YouTube

[raferfenix]

In all seriousness it shouldn't take so much for Thon to thoroughly outplay Henson this series.

Just like Jabari has a wide open opportunity to make a name for himself if the Bucks turn it around against a very beatable Celtics team.

We've been burned so bad for so many years that there is little reason to give too much benefit of the doubt.

However it is also true that Jason Kidd, Hammond and Horst have been such dumpster fires for the franchise that it is hard to gauge exactly what we have talent-wise.

[engelmartin]

Really need to start guarding Baynes on the 3 point line.

[emunney]

Is last night repeatable tomorrow? For three of the next four?

I think it is because I don't think Boston has the healthy personnel to make the kind of moves Toronto made last year, but it will require sustaining this intensity.

[Fresh_Prince12]

Don’t know if you’ve been to the Celtics board but they have their game 4 thread up and some one posted a Dennis miller type rant about all of our players. It’s pretty cringey, and just like Miller’s work, to many references for the sake of references to actually be witty or funny.

[Frank Nova]

what are they talking about on espn? 8 game playoff losing streak? they won games against toronto

ESPN definitely flubbed that one!

Maybe this was answered but I'm pretty sure they were talking about us being 0-8 since 2001 in the 8 times we've made the playoffs since then we haven't won a series... maybe I'm wrong tho and they're dumb.

[theFireBlanket]

what are they talking about on espn? 8 game playoff losing streak? they won games against toronto

ESPN definitely flubbed that one!

Maybe this was answered but I'm pretty sure they were talking about us being 0-8 since 2001 in the 8 times we've made the playoffs since then we haven't won a series... maybe I'm wrong tho and they're dumb.

Exactly what they meant. Checks out.

[randy84]

If we force Stevens to have to game plan around Thon we win.

Amazing post.

Stevens is probably saying if we make the Bucks game plan around Terry Rozier we win.

[Badgerlander]

Is last night repeatable tomorrow? For three of the next four?

I think it is because I don't think Boston has the healthy personnel to make the kind of moves Toronto made last year, but it will require sustaining this intensity.

So much was so damn weird last night though. Bledsoe came out angry and the bad calls early fueled the fire and then Delly came in and fanned the flames, but then I wonder how bad we would have blown them out if the calls had gone our way early. Stevens lost his mind with his rotations, if he contiues to go with two bigs and three guards then yeah maybe we dominance, but we also made 16 3pters last night, is that repeatable? Giannis 3-4 from downtown and not one free throw? They had 17 offensive rebounds and 16 turnovers. The entire game was one big wtf, we made plenty of bad decisions yet still made some difficult shots. At this point I just hope we don’t come out feeling entitled and just put our foot on their throats.

[theFireBlanket]

So much was so damn weird last night though. Bledsoe came out angry and the bad calls early fueled the fire and then Delly came in and fanned the flames, but then I wonder how bad we would have blown them out if the calls had gone our way early. Stevens lost his mind with his rotations, if he contiues to go with two bigs and three guards then yeah maybe we dominance, but we also made 16 3pters last night, is that repeatable? Giannis 3-4 from downtown and not one free throw? They had 17 offensive rebounds and 16 turnovers. The entire game was one big wtf, we made plenty of bad decisions yet still made some difficult shots. At this point I just hope we don’t come out feeling entitled and just put our foot on their throats.

The weirdness was Prunty doing the right things rotation wise. Brogdon starts, the ball moves & players are in better position to make shots. The 3 pointers should be executable as long as that's the case & full effort remains. Jabari needs to keep playing like last night. Dellavedova, Thon & Sterling stay in the rotation. Let Zeller & Henson's play decide which of the two gets time.

Giannis hitting 3s is not an anomaly, neither for Parker & definitely not Middleton, Thon, Brogdon, Snell or Delly. This team should be setup for 3s but they've been following the "high percentage shot" mentality for too long.

[M-C-G]

Really need to start guarding Baynes on the 3 point line.

I think if I could just turn Henson and Maker into Baynes and Harrell next season, we just added 5 wins to this team.

[theFireBlanket]

Really need to start guarding Baynes on the 3 point line.

I think if I could just turn Henson and Maker into Baynes and Harrell next season, we just added 5 wins to this team.

Can we just get a new coach, front office & crack the code for playoff-Thon turning into 98-110 game-Thon?

[M-C-G]

Is last night repeatable tomorrow? For three of the next four?

I think it is because I don't think Boston has the healthy personnel to make the kind of moves Toronto made last year, but it will require sustaining this intensity.

3 years ago we lost by almost 60 points to the Bulls at home in game 6.

Last year we dominated the Raptors in game 3 and then laid a giant egg in game 4 at home.

It is cool that in spite of all the **** surrounding this team, we were a basket away from being up 2-1 in this series. But I sure don't trust the Bucks and I say that as someone that is going to the game tomorrow, I hope they prove me wrong.

[dedned]

Jesus the Jabari fanboys are annoying.

He played great. He's still not a good player.

Thon played great too. He still sucks.

the only thing that would have made last night even more perfectly unsustainably bogus was if jennings had gotten in brogdons place and done his 17/9/9 thing with like 3-4 shimmys in front of the boston bench.

And then Andrew Bogut comes down from the rafters and plays 5 whole minutes of injury free basketball.

[thomchatt3rton]

Just watched first half- the defensive rotations were almost perfect the whole half. Very few mistakes, and only really minor ones.

Got to give it up for E&E?


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