ECF | P1: (1) Milwaukee Bucks vs (2) Toronto Raptors | MIL 1-0

[mcfromage]

Most importantly, unless you've watched 90+ Bucks games this year it's very hard to explain how bad they looked today, and they still won. But if you've watched them you'd know straight away.

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

And as someone who watched 90+ Raptors games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Toronto Raptors. Every single player (except Lowry) shot well below their season averages, missing tons of open looks and making silly, unforced turnovers.

This narrative that only the Bucks played poorly is absurd.

Bucks fans keep pointing out they were a top-5 offensive and defensive team this year. Guess what? So were the Raptors. The Bucks weren't the only good team during the regular season.

Were they better than the Raptors this year? Sure. But the gap wasn't as large as you think, and this game was proof of that. It went down to the wire, with both teams playing poorly.

As someone who has watched 90+ Bucks games this year, I agree. Both teams will be better moving forward.

[RRyder823]

Most importantly, unless you've watched 90+ Bucks games this year it's very hard to explain how bad they looked today, and they still won. But if you've watched them you'd know straight away.

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

Or maybe Raps outplayed them until the fourth. Because god forbid someone outplayed the almighty bucks this year.

What you described is exactly how the Bucks rolled over teams all year. Close game... Close game.... Close game.... 5-7 minutes to by..... Bucks up 15

Only difference is they were behind most of the game until then

Take it from Bucks fans. This team looked like strait trash most of tonight. Whether that be due to rust or the Raptors defense we can debate

Personally it looked alot like game one against Boston to me with the only difference being Toronto didnt capitalize when they had the chance and let the Bucks hang around long enough to get their feet under them

Both teams should be better moving forward. Itll come down to who steps up

Sent from my SM-G892A using RealGM mobile app

[itsme23]

15.9 pts
6.7 reb
2.4 blks

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/l/lopezbr01.html#all_playoffs_totals

Except a very different play style this year compared to 2013-2015.

I guess 15 and 6 is with including tonight’s game right?

Actually I think it's before tonight's game...only shows 9 playoff games this year and tonight was the 10th.

Not sure on your numbers just calculated his stats for the last 9 gams. He is averaging 8.3 points a game.

I think he had 29-31 points tonight.

So yes I stand by my point and state that the raps lost tonight in the semi finals due to a scrub.

Good for him and hope the Bucks pay
Him from 2mill a year to 15 mill.

[Bucksmaniac]

I guess 15 and 6 is with including tonight’s game right?

Actually I think it's before tonight's game...only shows 9 playoff games this year and tonight was the 10th.

Not sure on your numbers just calculated his stats for the last 9 gams. He is averaging 8.3 points a game.

I think he had 29-31 points tonight.

So yes I stand by my point and state that the raps lost tonight in the semi finals due to a scrub.

Good for him and hope the Bucks pay
Him from 2mill a year to 15 mill.

So dense, he gave averages for his career in the Playoffs, just like you asked His last 9 games reflect a bit of a shooting slump vs his regular season, combined with a bad matchup for him going against Al Horford.

[MelbourneBuck]

Bucks weren't trash we just shot poorly. We won in the paint, on the break, on the boards and got the type of looks we want but just couldn't hit from 3. Raptors are exhausted already so I'm not sure this series will be very long without contributions from the bench. Best Lowry game I think Ive seen. He was incredible. Lopez was great too obviously.

[freethedevil]

Most importantly, unless you've watched 90+ Bucks games this year it's very hard to explain how bad they looked today, and they still won. But if you've watched them you'd know straight away.

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

And as someone who watched 90+ Raptors games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Toronto Raptors. Every single player (except Lowry) shot well below their season averages, missing tons of open looks and making silly, unforced turnovers.

This narrative that only the Bucks played poorly is absurd.

Bucks fans keep pointing out they were a top-5 offensive and defensive team this year. Guess what? So were the Raptors. The Bucks weren't the only good team during the regular season.

Were they better than the Raptors this year? Sure. But the gap wasn't as large as you think, and this game was proof of that. It went down to the wire, with both teams playing poorly.

the bucks shot 25% from 3, lopes shot below 40%. The bucks had a far worse game by their syandards than the raptors did by theirs and they still lost. There's really no way to spin that.

[itsme23]

Gasol has shut down Embid and Vucicek.

Is Lopez the better player? No

I like Milwakee, I think their a solid solid team. I like Middleton, Bledsoe and Brogdon even Mirotic.

Is Brook Lopez having an amazing year yes. Did Lakers decide to give him away because they thought he wasn’t very good? Yes. Did he take the Veteran minimum ? Yes. Did he average 8 points up to now in the playoffs? Yes

For me to call him a below average player that is the starting Center for what appears to be the eastern conference champions most likely is not in my opinion inaccurate.

He will most likely in a few years play in China. Great for Brook,great for Milwakee and sucks for Toronto. You let a inferior Bucks player beat you, plain and simple.

[Greek]

Bucks will never shoot that bad again, it was the best chance of Raptors, bench and youth will play huge role, so i cant see the series past the 6 games...

[itsme23]

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

And as someone who watched 90+ Raptors games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Toronto Raptors. Every single player (except Lowry) shot well below their season averages, missing tons of open looks and making silly, unforced turnovers.

This narrative that only the Bucks played poorly is absurd.

Bucks fans keep pointing out they were a top-5 offensive and defensive team this year. Guess what? So were the Raptors. The Bucks weren't the only good team during the regular season.

Were they better than the Raptors this year? Sure. But the gap wasn't as large as you think, and this game was proof of that. It went down to the wire, with both teams playing poorly.

the bucks shot 25% from 3, lopes shot below 40%. The bucks had a far worse game by their syandards than the raptors did by theirs and they still lost. There's really no way to spin that.

By this definition than the Bucks should sweep the raps very easily 4-0.

Is that what you think will happen?

[ifrit]

Most importantly, unless you've watched 90+ Bucks games this year it's very hard to explain how bad they looked today, and they still won. But if you've watched them you'd know straight away.

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

Man we always play bad after 3+days off rest

[TheProfessor]

Yep, no surprise. Milwaukee is clearly a cut above, they have 5 guys playing well every game of the playoffs. I don't think there has been a game where 5 raptors have played well objectively since the first round. Today, Ibaka/Marc and Green did not show up. Siakam was decent, Kawhi was good but still needs to be better, Lowry was bananas. They need 2 more guys to show up if they want to win. That needs to be Green and/or Marc/Ibaka. Whatever you get from VV is gravy. Also start putting Leonard on Giannis

[Ayt]

All year people have asked what the Bucks will do when the threes aren't falling. They'll win, silly. They'll win.

[drat456]

I'll be shocked if bucks win the series

[Raps in 4]

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

Or maybe Raps outplayed them until the fourth. Because god forbid someone outplayed the almighty bucks this year.

What you described is exactly how the Bucks rolled over teams all year. Close game... Close game.... Close game.... 5-7 minutes to by..... Bucks up 15

The Bucks took the lead with less than 2 minutes remaining today. It was 100-99 for Toronto when Green turned the ball over.

[KillMonger]

I'll be shocked if bucks win the series

the flip the bucks with the raptors and i feel the same way

[Raps in 4]

Yep, no surprise. Milwaukee is clearly a cut above, they have 5 guys playing well every game of the playoffs. I don't think there has been a game where 5 raptors have played well objectively since the first round. Today, Ibaka/Marc and Green did not show up. Siakam was decent, Kawhi was good but still needs to be better, Lowry was bananas. They need 2 more guys to show up if they want to win. That needs to be Green and/or Marc/Ibaka. Whatever you get from VV is gravy. Also start putting Leonard on Giannis

Siakam and Kawhi weren't even close to good.

Siakam needed 20 shots, to score 15 points. That's abysmal efficiency and one of his worst games of the playoffs.

Kawhi was likewise bad, needing 26 shots to score 31 points. He also made a ton of costly turnovers (albeit most were forced).

[Raps in 4]

As someone who has also watched 90+ Bucks games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks really only played like the Bucks in the 4th quarter.

And as someone who watched 90+ Raptors games this season, I can vouch that tonight was absolutely an off night for the Toronto Raptors. Every single player (except Lowry) shot well below their season averages, missing tons of open looks and making silly, unforced turnovers.

This narrative that only the Bucks played poorly is absurd.

Bucks fans keep pointing out they were a top-5 offensive and defensive team this year. Guess what? So were the Raptors. The Bucks weren't the only good team during the regular season.

Were they better than the Raptors this year? Sure. But the gap wasn't as large as you think, and this game was proof of that. It went down to the wire, with both teams playing poorly.

the bucks shot 25% from 3, lopes shot below 40%. The bucks had a far worse game by their syandards than the raptors did by theirs and they still lost. There's really no way to spin that.

The Raptors had a terrible game by their own standards.

They shot 35% from 3 (which is just league average, so not an outlier performance) thanks to Lowry's hot night (everyone else was cold from range).

Our two top scorers were also wildly inefficient. As a team that relies on the production of their top-2 scorers a lot more than Milwaukee, having them play like that is a huge hit. Pascal had 15 points on 20 shots. Kawhi had 31 on 26. These were off-nights for both of them (whether you are looking at season, playoff, or vs. the Bucks averages).

[ejn1214]

Gasol has shut down Embid and Vucicek.

Is Lopez the better player? No

I like Milwakee, I think their a solid solid team. I like Middleton, Bledsoe and Brogdon even Mirotic.

Is Brook Lopez having an amazing year yes. Did Lakers decide to give him away because they thought he wasn’t very good? Yes. Did he take the Veteran minimum ? Yes. Did he average 8 points up to now in the playoffs? Yes

For me to call him a below average player that is the starting Center for what appears to be the eastern conference champions most likely is not in my opinion inaccurate.

He will most likely in a few years play in China. Great for Brook,great for Milwakee and sucks for Toronto. You let a inferior Bucks player beat you, plain and simple.

Gasol was the perfect matchup for those two. He did great shutting down two high usage low post centers. Lopez has the opposite play style of those two and one of the worst match ups for Gasol. He defense is neutered to some degree. Keep playing him 40+ minutes and I'm pretty sure he isn't even gonna try to challenge 3's by Lopez. A side note, Brook Lopez has to be one of the most unselfish players in the league and Bledsoe to a lesser degree. These guys just bought into the system and have fell in line with what the Bucks wanted to do.

[Raps in 4]

Bucks will never shoot that bad again, it was the best chance of Raptors, bench and youth will play huge role, so i cant see the series past the 6 games...

And Kawhi and Pascal will never shoot that poorly again either. We can play this game all day.

[HBK_Kliq_33]

I thought about playoff minutes when they acquired Lin, apparently the Raptors didn’t. Van Fleet gives you nothing consistently. Lin has his warts for sure but has always been one of the best PGs in the league at forcing his way to the line (.383 FT rate), vital in the postseason.

Kawhi is a beast but I feel his mediocre playmaking hurts him over the long run. A usage of 34% committing as many turnovers as assists isn’t ideal in the playoffs. A lot of that is Kyle being Kyle but what you gonna do.

I didn’t see the game but of course they lose after Lowry posts 30 and 8 rebounds. He just had to have 2 assists to 4 turnovers to kill his stat line while President Brogdon finished with a +18. There is no bad matchup for that dude. Big guard, quick guard. Starter, 6th man. 2nd quarter, crunch time, he’s always ready.

A usage of 34% averaging 31 ppg on 65% TS with a 30 PER is not ideal in the playoffs? That was his numbers going into tonight's game.

“Playmaking.” Anything less than 2:1 is not, most coaches will say so about a ball dominant player. I said he was a whole beast otherwise, no player is without flaw. He usually only passes when faced with an impenetrable wall, in direct contrast to the style he was groomed under in SA. He should know better going against Budenholzer, a master at disguising coverages and weak side actions. Doubly so with now with all the length at his disposal.

Well if assists is what you're looking for than tune in jokic's game, oh yeah he's eliminated. Playmaking can be overrated, best player on a title team's main strength is never playmaking ability besides magic Johnson and he had Kareem #1 all time in points.