PG Sixers: Trust the Process ends the streak

[Pachinko_]

I’d like to see the data on this.

You'll have to ask him. He is the one who said "he is a moron", he didn't say "he was temporarily being a moron".

Could be the bipolar moron syndrome.

Moron during PG losses and genius in PG W threads.

Ι think the smartest thing I've heard on this board is "what happens in game thread stays in game thread"
It really looks embarrassing the day after.

[AussieBuck]

My most annoying play of the game was Pat going for the Doctor J reverse instead of shovelling to a wide open Giannis dunk that went straight into a Sixers three.

[Lippo]

Mids is a 40mil dollar turd

[HKPackFan]

Where's that khris Middleton graphic? Really need that one after a day like today.

[El Pooch Grande]

Definitely was a pube game for Midds

[TroyD92]

Khris does not look good. That’s very worrying at this point

[Daver]

We know bud has his reasons but the blame game is in full force with giannes n midds as the main characters but can anyone explain to me why pat is still in that starting lineup 17 minutes 1 point this board is quick to throw Grayson under a bus for a bad game but pat has absolutely been unplayable now going over half this season.
We lose by 3 n fet zero nada zilch from him

[BigO]

Lots of bad takes here and a few good ones. My thoughts:

1) I was at the game and mentioned to my buddy that Khris was limping before the start of the second half.There's something chronic going on. I won't criticize Bud for playing him, but he is NOT the same .

2) I went thru this thread quickly, but I didn't see anything mentioned on how they were guarding Harden in the second half. Crowder came in and was playing Harden on his right shoulder, the opposite of what we'd expect. He did that play after play and my friend and I were yelling at him.

But then Jrue came in and did the same thing, as did Khris. We finally figured out that Bud wanted them to do that. All we could think of is he wanted them to force Harden into Brook.

But it failed miserably. You should always force Harden to his right. Always. Big mistake on Bud. Sometimes coaching can lose you games and this game was lost on defense.

3) The criticism of Giannis is somewhat justified, but barely. Bud runs no plays for him. No post ups. All Giannis does is take the ball from the top and create all on his own. But Bud WANTS him to do that. That's part of Bud's offensive plan, so it's not all on Giannis.

4) Graysons best game. How many other 20 point games has he had this year? Not many. I thought they really ran some nice stuff for him in the second half and once he got his confidence, it was fun to watch.

But he only got one shot off in the first half. He needs to get his shots or he is almost useless on the floor. Yes, his defense isn't bad, but he's a shooting guard and he needs to shoot and the only way he can shoot consistently is if they run some action for him.

5) Maxey may be one of the most underrated players in the league. He's shooting almost 40% on threes and is one of the best finishers in the league. Not sure he is a great defender, but he put on full court pressure the entire game and played over 40 minutes.

Still not worried about Philly, but Bud has to figure out how to handle Harden better than he did in the second half.

[thomchatt3rton]

Khris does not look good. That’s very worrying at this point

It is, but remember Khris has only played 450 minutes total all year—fewer minutes than Hill, Nwora, and Beauchamp.

That’s about 14 games worth of low starting minutes. And those minutes have been spread out too. So of course he looks bad.

It’s running out, but for now I think there’s still time to be patient.


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[Turk Nowitzki]

The hot takes are always hottest when the loss comes after a long winning streak. The posters that thrive on negativity have had to keep it bottled up for over a month.

[jute2003]

That was a disappointing finish after that 3rd quarter. Khris is in the Khrash part of his cycle, Bad Giannis made an appearance in the 4th after passive Giannis was hanging out in the 2nd and 3rd. If he only made half his fts like he usually does it would have been even worse. They followed up Grayson's freakish 3rd by not even looking at him in the 4th. The ball stopped moving and the little things caught up to them. In general, their intensity wavered a little and Harden became rockets harden for a quarter.

That game should be a nut punch and I would hope it'd piss them off a little. Gotta finish stronger.

Onto the the next one

[SirChurros]

Lots of bad takes here and a few good ones. My thoughts:

1) I was at the game and mentioned to my buddy that Khris was limping before the start of the second half.There's something chronic going on. I won't criticize Bud for playing him, but he is NOT the same .

2) I went thru this thread quickly, but I didn't see anything mentioned on how they were guarding Harden in the second half. Crowder came in and was playing Harden on his right shoulder, the opposite of what we'd expect. He did that play after play and my friend and I were yelling at him.

But then Jrue came in and did the same thing, as did Khris. We finally figured out that Bud wanted them to do that. All we could think of is he wanted them to force Harden into Brook.

But it failed miserably. You should always force Harden to his right. Always. Big mistake on Bud. Sometimes coaching can lose you games and this game was lost on defense.

3) The criticism of Giannis is somewhat justified, but barely. Bud runs no plays for him. No post ups. All Giannis does is take the ball from the top and create all on his own. But Bud WANTS him to do that. That's part of Bud's offensive plan, so it's not all on Giannis.

4) Graysons best game. How many other 20 point games has he had this year? Not many. I thought they really ran some nice stuff for him in the second half and once he got his confidence, it was fun to watch.

But he only got one shot off in the first half. He needs to get his shots or he is almost useless on the floor. Yes, his defense isn't bad, but he's a shooting guard and he needs to shoot and the only way he can shoot consistently is if they run some action for him.

5) Maxey may be one of the most underrated players in the league. He's shooting almost 40% on threes and is one of the best finishers in the league. Not sure he is a great defender, but he put on full court pressure the entire game and played over 40 minutes.

Still not worried about Philly, but Bud has to figure out how to handle Harden better than he did in the second half.

They all were playing Harden on his right shoulder. To me it seemed like an intentional team defense strategy. They were funneling him left.

[sidney lanier]

That game should be a nut punch and I would hope it'd piss them off a little.

The thing about a nut punch is you only see stars for a little while. Probably better to get that shot now than cadillac-ing into playoff time with a feeling of invincibility.

And now a word from Vince Lombardi.



The thing the Bucks have over the Sixers, and that Giannis has over in-and-outers like Harden and Embiid, is the willingness to put it out there every night. Time to resume the journey.

[SirChurros]

Yeah, I’m just not convinced the Sixers have what it takes over the course of a series to beat us or Boston. Embiid gets so gassed and they have no one outside of Maxey.

[JBucks]

Get Crowder in the starting lineup. Pat is completely useless of late. Bud, just because you have 10 guys at your disposal now doesn’t mean you have to get them in at the expense of taking out someone hot (e.g., Bobby last night). How does someone not stick to Niang like glue with his history against us?

[nagawicka]

I know, I'm so weird
Whereas the normal thing is to call a guy who just had 34/13 fresh off a 16 win streak a bonehead and a moron. I need to get with the program

Just out of curiosity, would you say this to his face?

What does 34/13 mean when he made crucial errors in a loss after we led by 20 points?

He himself would know he wasn't good enough so he doesn't need you holding him up.

Yeah sure, next time we win remember that you're cheering a boneheaded moron. Because being a moron is not something that comes and goes, you either are or you arent.

You know it's ok to admit you just saying stuff you don't mean because it made you feel better for 3 seconds after a loss. It's ok, it happens to everybody.

All Giannis had to do is involve his teammates and play basketball, in order to win the game, when he realized that trying to physically outmatch defenders only brought his layups to 8' feet in elevation, and would never work, and would cost us the game. That's all. Basketball. Repeating the same mistake over and over again, along with the reckless fouls and careless turnovers, is boneheaded as hell. Lotta college coaches coddle their best players but Giannis wouldn't have made it through the US system without learning the team game, and that it saves him all that effort and wins more games.
Take the recent OT game. Jevon Carter's contributions secured the win: he misses even one of his 3 threes, we lose. But all Giannis had to do to win outright with NO overtime, is make one free throw. ONE. He missed around 8 free throws and shot under 50% from the line. His eight turnovers in the first half alone--opponent scored 20pts off TOs (in Qtrs 1 & 2). One teensy incremental improvement, and Bucks win, no OT. This hero ball garbage doesn't work. It loses games and titles. When Giannis is in the flow and has a step on the defender, sure, do it. But half-court barreling into a defender and falling down for a foul when G knows full well he can't physically beat the guy to the cup and his layups are only reaching 8 feet in elevation? Just no. How is that even fun to watch. Sure: defenders gotta cope. So what. Basketball requires passing the ball. And not that very-last-second desperation outlet pass to from w/in 2feet of the bucket all the way back to the 3 point line. WTF

[nagawicka]

Lots of extreme reactions. If we somehow won this thread would be "Not his best game but Giannis took the game by the horns and led us to victory". Now instead of saying he did not play well or forced things we hear he is dump and moron. This board is full of ungrateful basketball geniuses

Agreed, who are we to talk smack like every other fan &etc. Yet had we won, you'd still hear valid indictments of the level of play. Because only a fool or someone new to basketball would actually think 'We won, it must be okay' instead of 'Winning doesn't validate bullsh|t and sooner or later we'll be losing games and titles because of this and by then it'll be too late.' Making just one of Giannis' eight missed free throws in the OT game would've sealed the win and avoided OT. Barreling into defenders when you're physically incapable of driving around them or leaping over them successfully for the foul is just stupid. Esp when you can't make free throws. If he passed the ball he'd have the energy to outplay opponents and play defense, but NOOoo. It's no fun to watch and Point Giannis is dead to me.

[nagawicka]

3) The criticism of Giannis is somewhat justified, but barely. Bud runs no plays for him. No post ups. All Giannis does is take the ball from the top and create all on his own. But Bud WANTS him to do that. That's part of Bud's offensive plan, so it's not all on Giannis.

That doesn't make it not a problem. That doesn't get Giannis off the hook for repeating mistakes, barreling into defenders, trying to do it all, and refusing to pass or run a play himself. It's not point giannis if he's not running plays the same as any other point guard. Shirking accountability is the worst bad take of the day

[SirChurros]

Calling Giannis a moron is harsh and unnecessary, but I do think the criticism is fair game, even if he had 34.

He had 16 points after three quarters and things were flowing nicely. The 4th was pretty brutal. He started dominating the ball and got tunnel vision.

Sometimes in games where we have big leads and he’s got a mediocre stat line, I swear it feels like a “ok, we’ve got a nice lead, now I need to get mine” mentality. I’m sure that’s just me reading into it, but I have had that thought on numerous occasions. And it seems to happen when he’s playing against other stars.

[JBucks]

Does anyone remember — I think Bucks were up four or six midway through fourth — Giannis took some ridiculous turn around fadeaway from FT extended. I was so pissed.