PG Miami - We have a pulse

[Pachinko_]

But this is what we highlight. We defend Giannis by saying that in the Best League of the World, teams shouldn't be "allowed" to triple team a player... We probably have the worst backcourt roster in the NBA and one of the worst in game coaches and the opponents get away with it.

It's not the best league in the world, it is the league with the best players in the world, it's not the same thing.
These are the rules the game is played in the NBA and they are the same for everybody, not gonna change for Giannis.
And the backcourt is far from the worst in the NBA.

Got my doubts about the coach right now, I'll give you that...

You're not one of the, "Giannis got exposed by Fiba" dudes, are you? The General Board has been entertaining with their hot Giannis takes and that's a popular on.

You wouldn't catch me dead using the word exposed but yes I did find it kind of unacceptable not being able to shoot over the corpse of Varejao. And it wasn't for lack of trying or caring about the tournament, he just couldn't.

[coolhandluke121]

I think it is on Giannis. I think his MVP award messed his head. He didn't shoot this many 3 pointers before. He didn't force this much before. He played more team basketball before. But after he got MVP award its like he feel he need to play like Lebron or Kobe.

I saw him being upset if he doesn't get ball early. I saw him making stupid decisions trying to be hero when he does things he shouldn't do. No way any coach wants that. I do not think that he is selfish by nature. But MVP award and "team Giannis" stuff destroyed his attitude. He should be role player at offense because he cant shoot and refs don't forgive off fouls anymore (like they did to Shaq). But there is no coach who could force him to be role player now. Not with MVP award and "team Giannis" stuff. And not in Milwaukee where everybody are so afraid that he could leave if he is not 100% happy.

people, no need to create strawmen. Nobody is trying to say Giannis is a burden or needs to stand in the corner.
All he needs to do is go back to not trying to be something that he's not. Shooter and creator off triple teams he is not.

Exactly. Nobody wants him gone. We just want him to stop playing brain-dead basketball. We want him to know who he is and stop trying to be something he's not. He doesn't have to add the things to his skill-set that he's trying to add in order to justify his MVP status and the team doesn't need him to do those things.

I've been trying to explain what Sigra said as well. It's a balancing act for Bud because he has to be very careful not to alienate Giannis. People act like every coach should just be able to get the superstar to play differently, but unfortunately the reality of the NBA is that coaches have to ingratiate themselves to star players in order to keep their jobs. I'm not trying to absolve Bud of responsibility though. He should be coaching Giannis to play smarter, even at the risk of offending him. I'm just pointing out that that can be a delicate balance. On some level all coaches have to cross their fingers and hope their players make good choices in real time because you can't micromanage everything.

[Pachinko_]

I've been trying to explain what Sigra said as well. It's a balancing act for Bud because he has to be very careful not to alienate Giannis. People act like every coach should just be able to get the superstar to play differently, but unfortunately the reality of the NBA is that coaches have to ingratiate themselves to star players in order to keep their jobs. I'm not trying to absolve Bud of responsibility though. He should be coaching Giannis to play smarter, even at the risk of offending him. I'm just pointing out that that can be a delicate balance. On some level all coaches have to cross their fingers and hope their players make good choices in real time because you can't micromanage everything.

Yes, and I tell you I wouldn't want to be Bud. Giannis is the nicest guy but he did have the nice dig at Bud when he said "i want to play 48 minutes but i always do what coach says". Hang him out to dry in the nicest way.

[WRau1]

It's going to be interesting to see how the Heat address Middleton if Giannis can't go.

[coolhandluke121]

On another note, Hill had more turnovers than he had in the entire ECF and still managed to be a positive contributor, which just speaks to how important he is to the team. They were all really bad turnovers too, not excusable ones with a good risk/reward ratio. It's really good to see him playing hard again but he'll have to be sharper in game 5.

[SKG]

Its a blowout next game if Giannis isnt ready to play, its just like butler said, when Giannis got injured they thought this is gonna be easy now and stoped playing.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Its a blowout next game if Giannis isnt ready to play, its just like butler said, when Giannis got injured they thought this is gonna be easy now and stoped playing.

thats crap. they stiII shot the Iights out with the exception of dragic. and they were down at haIf.... came back took the Iead... Iost it again....and then came out and just got beat in an OT. if they didnt figure out it wasnt easy untiI after the game then i Iike our odds for tomorrow. what idiot gets beat and then says if i try hard next time it wiII be easy. thats stupid stuff.

[Sigra]

Its a blowout next game if Giannis isnt ready to play, its just like butler said, when Giannis got injured they thought this is gonna be easy now and stoped playing.

I dont know what they thought but they did play very well actually. How did they stoped playing? I didn't see that. Middleton was hitting though shots over hands. Not easy layups. They did play defense very hard. At offense Robinson had his best shooting night. Same with Crowder. If anything they played without pressure and had great shooting night. 3s were going in from everywhere. Bam also had best shooting performance from mid range. They had great shooting night. They also had a lot of off rebounds Bam especially.

They can say whatever they want. They played hard and they played great actually. I doubt they repeat that shooting again.

[Daver]

I know hindsight is 20 20 but knowing that the bucks might be facing off against miami in round 2 think looking back at it would if been better playing as #2 seed facing the winner of boston/philly series instead and letting the raps face the winner of the heat/pacers series lol

[Daver]

Its a blowout next game if Giannis isnt ready to play, its just like butler said, when Giannis got injured they thought this is gonna be easy now and stoped playing.

thats crap. they stiII shot the Iights out with the exception of dragic. and they were down at haIf.... came back took the Iead... Iost it again....and then came out and just got beat in an OT. if they didnt figure out it wasnt easy untiI after the game then i Iike our odds for tomorrow. what idiot gets beat and then says if i try hard next time it wiII be easy. thats stupid stuff.

Thats showing zero respect for the bucks is what hes saying

[Daver]

Its a blowout next game if Giannis isnt ready to play, its just like butler said, when Giannis got injured they thought this is gonna be easy now and stoped playing.

I dont know what they thought but they did play very well actually. How did they stoped playing? I didn't see that. Middleton was hitting though shots over hands. Not easy layups. They did play defense very hard. At offense Robinson had his best shooting night. Same with Crowder. If anything they played without pressure and had great shooting night. 3s were going in from everywhere. Bam also had best shooting performance from mid range. They had great shooting night. They also had a lot of off rebounds Bam especially.

They can say whatever they want. They played hard and they played great actually. I doubt they repeat that shooting again.

Well as this series dictates you kerp leaving crowder open he will probably keep making 6-12 3s dont get it he sucked shooting 3s in Memphis.
Will say the bucks have done a good job on robinson keeping him contained but its been 3 games and your still giving crowder wide open 3s we cant hit them as our 3 pt shooting absolutely sucks but miami isnt the #1 3 ot shooting team in the NBA for nothing

[MickeyDavis]

It's a convenient excuse for Baby Butler. You can't tell me they were "relaxing" and they "stopped playing" down the stretch and in overtime with the game and series on the line. Jimmy Buckets can Jimmy Suckit.

I can't imagine not enjoying a nice win yesterday because "the next game will be a blowout anyway". Yes it's highly unlikely we take the next 3. So what, I still enjoyed the hell out of game 4.

[Bucksfan28]

Yea it didnt look like Bam stopped trying when he was diving on the floor or posterizing Marvin. Just hold the L Jimmy, youre gonna take the series.

[sidney lanier]

Yea it didnt look like Bam stopped trying when he was diving on the floor or posterizing Marvin. Just hold the L Jimmy, youre gonna take the series.

You can tell how hard Bam is trying by how far apart his feet are on every illegal screen he sets. Bucks players need to start tripping over his outstretched legs to force a call or two.

[jschligs]

Was watching highlights on twitter and found something I thought was funny.

Read on Twitter

At the :36 mark, Khris hits a 3 and Jae places his hand on Midds side. The exact same thing Giannis did and was called for at end of game 2.

[coolhandluke121]

Its a blowout next game if Giannis isnt ready to play, its just like butler said, when Giannis got injured they thought this is gonna be easy now and stoped playing.

I dont know what they thought but they did play very well actually. How did they stoped playing? I didn't see that. Middleton was hitting though shots over hands. Not easy layups. They did play defense very hard. At offense Robinson had his best shooting night. Same with Crowder. If anything they played without pressure and had great shooting night. 3s were going in from everywhere. Bam also had best shooting performance from mid range. They had great shooting night. They also had a lot of off rebounds Bam especially.

They can say whatever they want. They played hard and they played great actually. I doubt they repeat that shooting again.

I don't get what Butler is saying at all either. The Heat clearly have some limitations that the Bucks were exploiting and can continue to exploit. It had nothing to do with the Heat relaxing.

The real issue has been the Bucks not playing smart on offense and not being able to integrate Giannis while keeping everyone involved. I guess that would be a weird thing for Butler to point out because it's none of his business, but it's definitely not an issue with the Heat not playing up to their capability. The Bucks just stopped giving away the games and that's why the Heat didn't look so good.

[Profound23]

Yea it didnt look like Bam stopped trying when he was diving on the floor or posterizing Marvin. Just hold the L Jimmy, youre gonna take the series.

You can tell how hard Bam is trying by how far apart his feet are on every illegal screen he sets. Bucks players need to start tripping over his outstretched legs to force a call or two.

If he isn't holding his leg or hip out, he extends his arms. I agree, time to start flopping like a fish.

As for Butler's quote, I have no issue with it. He is basically saying "We can't make excuses." The reporter was trying to trick him into whining about a missed call (and it was a missed call). After 2-3 questions of them trying to get him in trouble he basically states no excuses, we didn't play hard enough. Butler has always given his all on the court. He had some swarming defense on Middleton during crunch time yesterday.

[coolhandluke121]

Now that I think about it, I'm fine with what Jimmy said. How is he supposed to say the real reason they lost, which is that the Bucks were having so much trouble finding a balance between letting Giannis attack and keeping everyone else involved? That would be like coaching the Bucks to keep doing that. Better off hoping that the Bucks revert to more stagnant iso offense even if Giannis is out.

He should have just said "hats off to the Bucks, they played well" but he had to make up some b.s. on the spot and he did his team a solid by saying something other than "the Bucks played better team offense without Giannis; I hope they don't learn anything from it hint hint."

[Bucksfan28]

I have an issue in that it undermines the team's effort to not fold when Giannis went down, including Khris who started cold. Might be something that motivates em tmrw.

[TD75]

If Giannis took into account what some people are saying today (hilariously expected by the way) the Bucks would be down by 20+ in the first quarter and by the half they would have packed their bags for Cancun.