Round 3, Game 4 - Bucks/Heat - 9/6 - 2:30 CST, 10:30 PM Athens, 5:30 am Sydney - ABC

[steger_3434]

Excited to see giannis and middleton play 32 minutes in an elimination game.


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[FlagsFlyForever]

#1-139

[MissKhriddleton]

Excited to see giannis and middleton play 32 minutes in an elimination game.


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You've been saying this all season and everyone assumed Bud would increase minutes for the playoffs. And yet here we are.

[Perishable517]

I know it's very improbable. But imagine the story if Giannis comes back on a sprained ankle and leads us to 4 straight wins on the way to a title.

Talk about washing out the bad taste in our mouth from losing to the Raptors after being up 2-0. That would be epic.

Maybe they will win 4 in a row without him.

Not sure if serious/squinty eyes.

Ewing Theory?

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[trwi7]

If the NBA changed the rule today and said games would only be 3 quarters and 36 minutes would Bud

A. Play our starters all 36 minutes

B: Guy Fieri

C. Play them 27 minutes

D.

This is my Guernica and it only has 3 And 1s, You guys sure know how to treat a lady.

[jimmybones]

Must....lose...?

[trwi7]

Must....lose...?

Watch on YouTube

[stillgotgame]

As skones pointed out in the Game #3 thread I'd love to see Giannis get the ball at the high post more. This is a very difficult position to guard him, can drive, pass or shoot. Also, it takes him away from the 3 point line. Not only does he give Miami's defense a break by shooting from there, he's also been especially bad from 3 while injured. He was 0-7 in Game 3 as well as 0-7 on Xmas day when his back was hurting.

[SupremeHustle]

If Giannis plays and his first shot is a pull up 3, trade him immediately. That's a sign.

[Chuck Diesel]

If we get this one I think we get game five.

[Prez]

A sweep is the way, only chance Bud gets fired. Just let it end

[vlietinho]

In these crazy times why not be the 1st to come back from 0-3
Go Bucks!

[JayMKE]

I don’t see Bud getting fired regardless frustrating as he is, I really don’t know what I want to see from this team today. I think the writing is on the wall as far as this core is concerned and there needing to be a major roster adjustment, we have Giannis and a we have Bud so how do we make that work? I’m really not attached to anybody on the roster after Giannis and I’m ready to sell out whatever is needed to get a proper running mate. Middleton, Lopez, and Bledsoe need to play like their roster spot depends on it.

[Neuromancer56]

Spoiler:

On March 1st the Bucks grinded out a Sunday afternoon win 93-85 against the Charlotte Hornets (21-38) to improve their record to 52-8. A 71 win pace. Giannis put up 41, 20, and 6 on 17/28 shooting. Their historic streak of scoring 100 in consecutive regular season games ended. They would travel to Miami for a back to back the following night.

Read on Twitter

Black uniforms on a Sunday afternoon and yet they still won? Either the world is about to end or the Bucks are winning it all.

Feel like that might have been Giannis best game this year. Played it one on five.

Giannis having a more than respectable short to mid jumper rn is letting him work that pump fake up and under.

If he keeps developing his mid-post fades going either left or right it'll open up his game even more than simply adding a three-point shot (which is obviously important). No one can block his shot on his release point and it'll make his life way easier in a hotly contested playoff game when teams will park 2-3 defenders near the paint. It coincides nicely with his improvement and addition of low and mid post play. Bud's implementation of Gianni and Middleton using the entire court to work their game is a low-key excellent coaching decision.

After watching the highlights this was a clinic. His low-block footwork is getting better as is his decision making in reading the defense. Like having the timing to drive baseline or work toward the middle. His talent and ability are awe inspiring to be sure, but I'm noticing so many little nuances that he's added and improved in that is a joy to watch.

_______ are Milwaukee's biggest threat to a championship:

1. The Lakers
2. The Clippers
3. The Celtics
4. The Nuggets
5. Afternoon start times

Giannis with only 34 minutes in a close game with out other all star out. Meanwhile all the other top teams play their guys 40 minutes in close games. But we are the only team trying? Yup

Tomorrow we will probably have our worst game of the season or on par with the Christmas game.

...

The Bucks went on to lose to the Heat for the second time in 2 games this season 89-105. Giannis put up 13, 15, and 3 on 6 of 18 shooting (0-4 from 3). The Heat shot a blistering 18 of 37 from the three point line while the Bucks shot 7 of 34.

Read on Twitter

No this wasn’t a “playoff preview”.

The sky isn’t falling.

No reason to worry.

Stop being nervous.

No need to overreact.

We played poorly and lost. It happens. It happens a lot less to the Bucks than any other team but it happens.

On to the next game.

Middleton against defenders who can move their feet and are as strong as him is really rough. Hopefully we only have to go through one team filled with those dudes in the East.

losing twice to them though, not sure what this means....

Miami fans on their board celebrating like they won the title. And with the caveat of luring Gianni to Miami. Pretty LOL worthy.

Even if you’re saving adjustments for the Playoffs it wouldn’t hurt to practice making adjustments for once Bud. Then maybe you’ll have some practice.

We shot poorly. It took the Bucks shooting 21% and the Heat shooting 49% from 3 to lose. Even if we'd play at this level in a 7 game series we'd have no trouble beating the Heat.

So no way miami shoots like that all the time. But they can play defense like that every time. That was a mirror image to how Toronto played giannis. So what’s are game plan for that? Giannis outside game was suppose to be the counter, but it seams he shoots well when the pressure is none. When he has to shoot because he can’t drive his shot is awful. I’m not saying the sky is falling, but if your not a tad concerned then you shouldn’t ever be bitching at bud for not changing anything in game

The physicality of this game was like a playoff game. Some concern is warranted IMO. I think our starting back court may be the culprit if we get knocked out this year. We also aren't getting Ersan's scoring anymore.

Anyway Giannis really needs a counter for <checks notes> being grabbed by 5 hands at once.

If you don’t think that **** will happen in the playoffs your crazy. It’s exactly how Toronto played him. They aren’t fouling out entire teams all series long. It’s ****, but we will see it called this way and need an adjustment

We lucked out that they missed a lot of bunnies so as bad as it was, it could’ve been worse. Giannis has been shut down several times now against good defenders, not exactly true MVP form. I’m quite worried and we all should be.

Jae Crowder went from looking like Glen Rice to airballing threes in the second half. Many of their threes were contested they were just on fire. The Bucks probably missed at least 5-6 wide open threes that I can remember.

Yeh but i can see this happening in the playoffs. I just hope it's only for a game or 2.

Giannis can’t shoot to save his life. Every series outside of the first round will be tough for us. We have Middleton as the only consistent shooter in the starting lineup. If he’s off, we are very beatable.

Miami, Boston, Philly, Toronto...all of them are capable of taking us to 7 games. Home Court will be huge.

I don’t think we can beat Miami, hopefully someone else beats them. I don’t think we’re athletic enough

Lose one game on a b2b, half the board thinks the Bucks are suddenly very beatable. Huh

Miami 13-18 on the road. Should we really be nervous ? Oh please.

Miami is a fairly tough matchup.

I think there's very little chance they can beat the Bucks 4 out of 7.

52-9
52-9
52-9

Reading the rest of this thread, I think this bears repeating.

4-9. The Bucks record against Miami over the past four seasons. They're the only team in the East with a winning record against us. I'm not worried about Miami but it's understandable why some people don't like the matchup after seeing them come with great gameplans against Giannis for years.

Those that think the playoff games won’t be called like this have forgotten how playoff games are called. It’s just not against us. It’s why harden shrinks (not nearly as many foul shots). Refs will let a lot more go. We simply need to hit our shots. I just wish we were a better shooting team. With all that said I’d still put a ton of money on us at least reaching the finals


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yeah, blaming back to backs is hella weak, especially since this is the first back to back they've lost all year if I'm not mistaken. This was just a good effort from miami. Nothing to panic about but budenholzer must make adjustments come playoff time. They play the lakers friday, they should wallop the lakers as they don't have quality 3p shooting themselves but we will see.

Some of yall are too insecure about how good this team is. Would've thought we were past that stage by now.

The Toronto formula of nearly everyone in the rotation being able to shoot, walling off Giannis, and being more athletic than the Bucks overall is still a thing. Accusing people who make this observation of being emo is a bad look. You can lay it to rest when the Bucks do, but you can't lay it to rest with a response like this.

Another issue is that the depth doesn't necessarily translate to the playoffs. When so many of your best players are liabilities in certain match-ups (Khris's athleticism, the footspeed of Ersan and the twins, the shooting of Bledsoe against defenses quick enough to guard his drives), that can be exploited by the right team with the right coach. Their depth makes them a regular season juggernaut, but rotations shrink in the playoffs and that benefits the teams with only 7-8 good players a lot more than it benefits a team like the Bucks that has 10+ good players.

Lastly, it may be cliche but the Heat have a lot of backbone. Personality matters. We saw the Raptors lose game 1 and get destroyed in game 2, and then we saw what their mental toughness meant. There are stats that clearly show the Bucks have run up a gaudy record and differential against mediocre teams that tend to wilt against a team that can overwhelm them, but their numbers, while still good, are not historically good against good teams.

I would say the Bucks beat Miami 4-2 in a series. I would be a lot more comfortable with Hill, DDV, Giannis, and Marvin being the only ones assured of their usual role (or more) in the series though. Ditto for playing the Raptors.

Schedule loss, not putting much stock into it.

Also as for the discussion about bud not making adjustments I like the idea of not showing your hand against the other eastern conference contenders, save that for when it matters. I would like them to try making adjustments against a couple bottom feeders just to get some practice at it though.

Another interesting stat, of the top 8 SRS teams, Bucks are only team outside the top 8 in 3 point % allowed (and they are 18th).

1. MIL - 18th
2. LAL - 6th
3. LAC - 8th
4. BOS - 3rd
5. TOR - 1st
6. DAL - 4th
7. HOU - 7th
9. DEN - 5th

By just about every metric, defense is not this teams’ problem.

Every team that can shoot the 3 hopes coach Bud is this myopic about the issue.

I get that it's annoying to keep explaining away losses on 3PT disparity, but Bill Simmons actually made a good point a few weeks ago on his podcast. Basically boiled it down to teams feeling like jacking up 3's is the only way to beat the Bucks, as opposed to it being some sort of weakness or fatal flaw in the system.

That would explain the high number of attempts, but how does it explain the high efficiency?? If anything, this would imply that teams should be chucking up more "bad" 3-point attempts against the Bucks and hitting a lower percentage, but they're getting a lot of good looks and hitting a high percentage.

Attacking into 4 defenders is not smart at all. This is a supreme example of bad situational awareness given the game state. We talked earlier about how the game was in reach at that possession, it is absolutely paramount in those moments that the offense gets a good shot. GIannis as the best player is responsible for that if we are gonna put the ball in his hands. Aggressively attacking multiple defenders and hoping for a whistle is not a high IQ play and is a bad decision given the context of the game at the time. Hell, even if hypothetically Giannis wasn't fouled and hacked, and wasn't touched there, the fact that he'd not even consider the pass to a wide open teammate when swarmed is an issue. The bucks aren't winning a title with those decisions. They aren't gonna get that call in the playoffs, and the expected value of a wide open catch and shoot 3 is higher than a Giannis hook shot with multiple defenders on him from the mid post. People talk about Bud adjusting the offense to scheme against the wall that will be built to stop Giannis, but ultimately the adjustments that mainly need to be made are from Giannis making quicker decisions and recognizing what the defense is doing faster. That's what destroyed us last year. The MVP HAS TO BE BETTER. Simple as that.

...

The Bucks went 1-3 following the Miami game before the Corona Virus shutdown on March 11th. Since the victory in Charlotte the Bucks have won just 8 of their last 21 games.

This post is just f***king cruel. I can't handle the truth.

[Neuromancer56]

How many of you would trade Giannis straight up for Jimmy Butler?

[coolhandluke121]

The Bucks went 1-3 following the Miami game before the Corona Virus shutdown on March 11th. Since the victory in Charlotte the Bucks have won just 8 of their last 21 games.

This post is just f***king cruel. I can't handle the truth.

In fairness to the March record, it is pretty normal for a team to hit cruise control when they've all but locked up the #1 overall seed in spring. They rested a number of guys on that West Coast trip and didn't have much to play. for It's fine to take your foot off the gas at that stage of the season. I think there's a big issue with not playing harder after such a long layoff though. They needed to work harder to get their rhythm back. It's also possible that some people not playing hard undermined trust in each other and killed the synergy they had.

I would add that Hill was hurt in that Miami game. That's always a big loss for the Bucks. He's often the glue that holds the team together. It's not like he's some star or anything, but he's the only truly intelligent player in the top-8 of the rotation so he has outsize importance to the fabric of the team just by virtue of how starved they are for basketball brains. When he's been injured or disinterested, the team has not been nearly as good and the correlation is absolutely uncanny. This has been true for the last two years, including the pretty dramatic change in their performance when they first acquired him after slumping badly in fall 2018.

[coolhandluke121]

How many of you would trade Giannis straight up for Jimmy Butler?

Eh, I'm as pissed at him as anyone but I still consider this kind of selfishness a bump in the road (hopefully). There's no way I would do this trade. Much better off hoping they get their chemistry and mojo back and Giannis realizes what he's doing wrong - or a new coach explains it to him.

[MissKhriddleton]

I would add that Hill was hurt in that Miami game. That's always a big loss for the Bucks. He's often the glue that holds the team together. It's not like he's some star or anything, but he's the only truly intelligent player in the top-8 of the rotation so he has outsize importance to the fabric of the team just by virtue of how starved they are for basketball brains. When he's been injured or disinterested, the team has not been nearly as good and the correlation is absolutely uncanny. This has been true for the last two years, including the pretty dramatic change in their performance when they first acquired him after slumping badly in fall 2018.

I think Hill had 2 possessions in a row in the 4th of Game 3 where he was like, **** it, I'll do it myself and got to the hoop twice for a layup. Made me think he hasn't completely checked out and that something else is the main culprit to the way they're playing.

[coolhandluke121]

I would add that Hill was hurt in that Miami game. That's always a big loss for the Bucks. He's often the glue that holds the team together. It's not like he's some star or anything, but he's the only truly intelligent player in the top-8 of the rotation so he has outsize importance to the fabric of the team just by virtue of how starved they are for basketball brains. When he's been injured or disinterested, the team has not been nearly as good and the correlation is absolutely uncanny. This has been true for the last two years, including the pretty dramatic change in their performance when they first acquired him after slumping badly in fall 2018.

I think Hill had 2 possessions in a row in the 4th of Game 3 where he was like, **** it, I'll do it myself and got to the hoop twice for a layup. Made me think he hasn't completely checked out and that something else is the main culprit to the way they're playing.

He definitely woke up in the second half of game 2 and has been his ECF self ever since but his previous distractedness was a factor in failing to be prepared and in rhythm. A couple mistakes but nothing like the way the rest of the team is collapsing. DDV waking up a little too. Those two were honestly the biggest advantage the Bucks had besides Giannis in the regular season, as few teams can bring a backcourt like that off the bench.

[Antinomy]

There’s a higher chance of a brawl than us coming back in this series.