GT: Bucks @ Nets Playoffs 2ND Round Game 1

[Stone]

For all the chips.....

Nets Board Roll Call....We don't care if you haven't posted in 10 years or if your brand new check in and show support

Lets Go Nets !!!!

[Prokorov]

This one will be much tougher. but if we get even halfway decent coaching we could win in as little as 5.

Nash needs to defer to his staff and not be stubborn.

[TheNetsFan]

We are going to get take a punch to the face. Can we match their tenacity & athleticism? That's the million dollar question. We can no longer coast for 75% of the game & expect to dominate for 12 of 48 minutes & win. If we don't play D & stay even on the boards, we can fall too far behind quickly.

[MrDollarBills]

For all the chips.....

Nets Board Roll Call....We don't care if you haven't posted in 10 years or if your brand new check in and show support

Lets Go Nets !!!!

My man shooter Stone with the blazing hot hand!!! Roll that 7 or 11 and take us one step closer to Valhalla.

4 wins down. 12 more to GO.

[Paradise]

Theme Song: Rick Ross ft. Andre 3000 “When Sixteen Ain’t Enough”

Watch on YouTube

[MrDollarBills]

We are going to get take a punch to the face. Can we match their tenacity & athleticism? That's the million dollar question. We can no longer coast for 75% of the game & expect to dominate for 12 of 48 minutes & win. If we don't play D & stay even on the boards, we can fall too far behind quickly.

I'm really thinking that the trick here may be to take Middleton and Holiday away as options as opposed to taking the ball out of Giannis' hands and forcing them to beat us. I think the opposite is in play here. Giannis isn't a threat to dominate from the perimeter like Tatum was. I'm not saying that we need to dare Giannis to hit wide open threes but I think we need to stay at home on Holiday and Middleton and keep them from hurting us. If they can maintain good efficiency knocking down contested shots, then so be it, but I'm looking at the splits and they worry me more than Giannis scoring 40 points.

[Whiskey Slick]

Watch on YouTube

[sashaturiaf]

This one will be the toughest test on the way to the championship, Nash will need to earn his money here.

Bucks will come out and try and assert their size and physicality on us without a shadow of a doubt, it's on us to match it for 48 minutes as a team. If we can do that, I'm confident we'll be moving on

Go Nets

[Hello Brooklyn]

I agree this will be a tough series. Jrue will make life tough for Kyrie. And the rebounding issue is serious.

I think we basically have to play Jordan. Only Nash can cost us this series. We are simply more talented. Middleton is not the 2nd option on a Championship team. Giannis still has major flaws in his game.

Nets in 5.

I'm less worried about Philly tbh. This will be a dog fight. Could see us losing Game 1.

[3pt_chucker]

One early thing to look for is what happens when the Nets go small. Do they force the Bucks to go small as well or does Mil size dominate and force Nash to play Claxton more mins, which I know he doesn't want too.

Hopefully Jeff Green can be back by Game 2/3.

[MaxZaslofskyJr]

For all the chips.....

Nets Board Roll Call....We don't care if you haven't posted in 10 years or if your brand new check in and show support

Lets Go Nets !!!!

OK. Breaking radio silence just this once (for reasons not worth getting into).

LET'S GO NETS!!!

Haven't followed the team as passionately as you guys or I had in past years. But I've been rooting for this franchise since Connie Hawkins (of Brooklyn, no less) drew half the fans in attendance at the Teaneck Armory and defeated the, uh, Americans in Game Numero Uno.

[Tha King]

We are going to get take a punch to the face. Can we match their tenacity & athleticism? That's the million dollar question. We can no longer coast for 75% of the game & expect to dominate for 12 of 48 minutes & win. If we don't play D & stay even on the boards, we can fall too far behind quickly.

I'm really thinking that the trick here may be to take Middleton and Holiday away as options as opposed to taking the ball out of Giannis' hands and forcing them to beat us. I think the opposite is in play here. Giannis isn't a threat to dominate from the perimeter like Tatum was. I'm not saying that we need to dare Giannis to hit wide open threes but I think we need to stay at home on Holiday and Middleton and keep them from hurting us. If they can maintain good efficiency knocking down contested shots, then so be it, but I'm looking at the splits and they worry me more than Giannis scoring 40 points.

I agree that limiting those two will be the key.

I think you have solid options to throw at Middleton with Durant as the primary defender. Tatum is elite elite as a scorer and even he struggled when Durant was defending him - pretty much every Celtics perimeter player struggled with Durant defending actually. Middleton is good but he's not as dynamic a scorer as Tatum and is much less athletic. Harden is another option on him. He's done well defending players like Leonard and George in the past and Middleton is a similar profile wing.

Not sure on Holiday. I think you could see Kyrie, Brown, Harden, and Durant take turns defending him. Bruce Brown I think is the best defensive matchup for him from a size/quickness standpoint.

And for Giannis, there really doesn't look to be an adequate matchup. I wouldn't be surprised if Harden spent some time defending him. He's relatively quick and strong with surprisingly good low post defense so he might actually be the best option.

[MGrand15]

Our defense wasn't super consistent in the Boston series but I feel like for 3 or 4 of the games, we stepped up our physicality to a level we hadn't seen in the regular season. Boston fans were complaining about how we were fouling them and punking them. That's the level of intensity we need for this matchup.

Milwaukee is the 2nd best offensive team in the league for a reason. They have a ton of shooting, they have 2 mid-range killers, and Giannis gets to the rim constantly. We need to take SOMETHING away. Honestly, don't know what it's gonna be. I just know our offense needs to bring it.

[Prokorov]

I'm not really worried about our defense. For one, we all know the numbers are skewed due to lack of regular season effort, always missing at least 1 star, claxton gone most of the year, and not caring about stops during blowouts/big leads.

Claxton/Blake did fine on Giannis. im good with the same game plan. dare him to take 8+ threes and long twos. If he scores 35 or less, great. if he is going for 50, adjust. That was really the issue game 2 of the RS. He was hitting them and we never adjusted. This is still a concern, as Nash hasnt shown anything vs Boston to give me confidence we will make solid in-game adjustments.

We played them once with Harden and won. This is no coincidence. 2 of our issues in the losses were rebounding (Harden lead us in rebounding) and Live ball turnovers (harden turns it over, but with a much higher ratio to assists and efficient scoring). He makes a world of a difference.

The whole "Giannis/Middleton/Jrue is 3 legit defenders for our stars" Narrative doesnt work. Everyone switches everything. We will see alot of KD on Tucket, KD on brook, Kyrie on Forbes, Harden on Brook, etc... I mean Boston didnt want to guard harden with Fournier or KD with Kemba but it took at most 2 screens to make that happen. And even then KD kind of dominated middleton/Giannis and Harden abused Jrue... which should scare bucks fans because Jrue played maybe the toughest D ive ever seen on Harden Game 1 of the RS and Harden still got his.

This will be the 1st matchup where the big 3 play. so no lineups where mike james/shamet are running the backup unit with no stars.

My concerns, in order:

1) Nash's in-game adjustments or lack of
2) KD live ball turnovers
3) Foul trouble; Giannis draws a ton
4) Harris/Shamet bricking from 3 in tense moments while wide open

Not concerned much about defense or rebounding.

[Sharcm1]

This series will determine who comes out of the East especially now that embid is hurt. I hope Nash stays away from the bull s that he didn’t in the last two games vs the bucks. No DJ guarding Giannis. That didn’t work.

[TheNetsFan]

Lopez's role will be interesting. I think we'll avoid playing Jordan. Lopez can't really defend Griffin/KD/Green on the perimeter. It'll be an interesting game of chess. Bucks won't want to post him up all game, but that's their biggest offensive advantage. They surely don't want him guarding the 3 pt line. If we can force them to go small with us, we win.

[andrewww]

Lopez's role will be interesting. I think we'll avoid playing Jordan. Lopez can't really defend Griffin/KD/Green on the perimeter. It'll be an interesting game of chess. Bucks won't want to post him up all game, but that's their biggest offensive advantage. They surely don't want him guarding the 3 pt line. If we can force them to go small with us, we win.

Bucks will try to stay as big as possible, small ball plays into the Nets’ advantage.

Lopez-Giannis-Tucker-Middleton-Jrue

Luckily for the Nets, the presumed closing 5 for the Bucks will always be one elite defender short who can realistically slow down one of Harden or Kyrie. If they put Jrue on Kyrie, then Harden is gona cook Middleton or Tucker. However, if Jrue is on Harden then it’ll be Kyrie cookin whoever checks him.

[andrewww]

Our defense wasn't super consistent in the Boston series but I feel like for 3 or 4 of the games, we stepped up our physicality to a level we hadn't seen in the regular season. Boston fans were complaining about how we were fouling them and punking them. That's the level of intensity we need for this matchup.

Milwaukee is the 2nd best offensive team in the league for a reason. They have a ton of shooting, they have 2 mid-range killers, and Giannis gets to the rim constantly. We need to take SOMETHING away. Honestly, don't know what it's gonna be. I just know our offense needs to bring it.

Nets best bet on defense is to slow this game down to a half court game. The Bucks lack elite shot creators in the half court. Make it an isolation game where Giannis/Middleton/Jrue have to put it on the floor.

We did not see the big 3 all suit up at the same time in the 3 reg season matchups, and the last 2 were without Harden.

[andrewww]

I'm not really worried about our defense. For one, we all know the numbers are skewed due to lack of regular season effort, always missing at least 1 star, claxton gone most of the year, and not caring about stops during blowouts/big leads.

Claxton/Blake did fine on Giannis. im good with the same game plan. dare him to take 8+ threes and long twos. If he scores 35 or less, great. if he is going for 50, adjust. That was really the issue game 2 of the RS. He was hitting them and we never adjusted. This is still a concern, as Nash hasnt shown anything vs Boston to give me confidence we will make solid in-game adjustments.

We played them once with Harden and won. This is no coincidence. 2 of our issues in the losses were rebounding (Harden lead us in rebounding) and Live ball turnovers (harden turns it over, but with a much higher ratio to assists and efficient scoring). He makes a world of a difference.

The whole "Giannis/Middleton/Jrue is 3 legit defenders for our stars" Narrative doesnt work. Everyone switches everything. We will see alot of KD on Tucket, KD on brook, Kyrie on Forbes, Harden on Brook, etc... I mean Boston didnt want to guard harden with Fournier or KD with Kemba but it took at most 2 screens to make that happen. And even then KD kind of dominated middleton/Giannis and Harden abused Jrue... which should scare bucks fans because Jrue played maybe the toughest D ive ever seen on Harden Game 1 of the RS and Harden still got his.

This will be the 1st matchup where the big 3 play. so no lineups where mike james/shamet are running the backup unit with no stars.

My concerns, in order:

1) Nash's in-game adjustments or lack of
2) KD live ball turnovers
3) Foul trouble; Giannis draws a ton
4) Harris/Shamet bricking from 3 in tense moments while wide open

Not concerned much about defense or rebounding.

Nash and Shamet for me.

[MrDollarBills]

We are going to get take a punch to the face. Can we match their tenacity & athleticism? That's the million dollar question. We can no longer coast for 75% of the game & expect to dominate for 12 of 48 minutes & win. If we don't play D & stay even on the boards, we can fall too far behind quickly.

I'm really thinking that the trick here may be to take Middleton and Holiday away as options as opposed to taking the ball out of Giannis' hands and forcing them to beat us. I think the opposite is in play here. Giannis isn't a threat to dominate from the perimeter like Tatum was. I'm not saying that we need to dare Giannis to hit wide open threes but I think we need to stay at home on Holiday and Middleton and keep them from hurting us. If they can maintain good efficiency knocking down contested shots, then so be it, but I'm looking at the splits and they worry me more than Giannis scoring 40 points.

I agree that limiting those two will be the key.

I think you have solid options to throw at Middleton with Durant as the primary defender. Tatum is elite elite as a scorer and even he struggled when Durant was defending him - pretty much every Celtics perimeter player struggled with Durant defending actually. Middleton is good but he's not as dynamic a scorer as Tatum and is much less athletic. Harden is another option on him. He's done well defending players like Leonard and George in the past and Middleton is a similar profile wing.

Not sure on Holiday. I think you could see Kyrie, Brown, Harden, and Durant take turns defending him. Bruce Brown I think is the best defensive matchup for him from a size/quickness standpoint.

And for Giannis, there really doesn't look to be an adequate matchup. I wouldn't be surprised if Harden spent some time defending him. He's relatively quick and strong with surprisingly good low post defense so he might actually be the best option.

it wouldn't shock me at all to see Harden taking reps on Giannis, he's basically the strongest guy on the roster.