NBA Finals: Milwaukee Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns, Part 3 | Bucks lead 3-2

[Hello Brooklyn]

Chris Paul looks either injured or mentally shot.

Suns will not win unless he plays like a Superstar. How much does he have left?

[whatisacenter]

All of Monty Williams’s corny bull **** makes me feel so much better about the Bucks winning this series.

-1

[LUKE23]

Still pretty tough to believe that Jrue was 4/20 from the field and the Bucks were 7/29 from 3, and had one of the worst no calls in playoff history go against them, and Booker had 42 on 28 shots, and still won.

I think Jrue has completely crushed CP3's spirit with his defense though. He looks tentative, passive, and he can't get to his spots against Holiday. I think that has been the main turning point in the series.

I expect better energy from the Suns in game 5. That said, I feel like if the Bucks just get a decent scoring game from Holiday (he missed like 6 layups in game 4) they win. The Bucks D has really tightened up on Phoenix. Booker just hit some crazy difficult shots last night.

[OmniStrife]

Read on Twitter

Talk about a great post game speech to keep the team's fighting spirit. They did a ton of things wrong and still only lost by 6 on the road.

That's an awful post game speech.

If I were a HC I would've been honest and challenged my kids.

"You just let both Greek Freak and Middleton destroy you and your childhood dreams of winning an NBA Championship are fading and fading fast and this Milwaukee team doesn't fear you one bit. And they're not destroyed by INJURY like everyone else you beat".

That's what I would've said as a longtime suffering Knicks fan in order to light a FIRE into my kids while facing NBA reality.

Worst speech I've ever heard. He keeps preaching "3 games to win two" when he should be stressing one possession @ a time because two more loses and his kids DONT EVEN SEE A 3RD GAME!

He's setting his kids up for failure with that rah rah cheerleading mentality.

I'm a Jets fan. I've despised Bill Belichick. But coming off of two road loses? In his locker room? He would've MUMBLED and wouldn't have set his own kids up for failure like that.

F-.

Watched too many sports films, coach.

[DB23]

I'll admit I was wrong about the Bucks. I thought the Suns were the better team.

I never thought the Suns were that good. But I don't think the Bucks are a great team either.

The difference is Giannis. Hes gone up to a level I did not think he could.

I can see why, the first few games of the nets series were the worst I’ve seen him play. Think he just wanted it too bad and thought it was his moment to dominate.

But he’s been amazing since then. Playing in control and dominating both sides. Have to give him massive props for turning it around.

The bucks are hard to figure out. They seem to get better as the series goes on, reminds me a lot of the 15-16 warriors, get in a hole before basically working out the opposition. Certainly defensively they look a lot more comfortable than game 1/2.

If holiday ever figured out how to consistently shoot in the playoffs and they got some depth, they would be really really scary.

[OmniStrife]

CP3 needs to simply take care of the ball better. His hand's hurt sure, but does it being hurt justify him dribbling that between the legs on a drive, or behind the back pass to no one. It was more mental than anything.
Game 5 will show who's who.

[HMFFL]

Chris Paul looks either injured or mentally shot.

Suns will not win unless he plays like a Superstar. How much does he have left?

I believe his tank is getting closer to empty. He's having to play nearly 40 minutes per game and during the regular season that wasn't the case. After every couple of games he would play roughly 20mins and thst can't be the case in the postseason. I expect him have note energy and perform better in game five.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[Ambrose]

Thought it was super cool seeing Kareem and Big O in the house last night. I can't imagine that happens all that often.

[pj0tr]

Chris Paul looks either injured or mentally shot.

Suns will not win unless he plays like a Superstar. How much does he have left?

I believe his tank is getting closer to empty. He's having to play nearly 40 minutes per game and during the regular season that wasn't the case. After every couple of games he would play roughly 20mins and thst can't be the case in the postseason. I expect him have note energy and perform better in game five.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

I think his role for the rest of the series will to be to not turn it over, and manage the offense. The Suns have enough players to score with how they move the ball, and cut to open spaces to create shots.

Holiday has worn him down considerably. Seems like Bud just told Holiday this series to literally go beat the **** out of CP3 and not worry about his offense.

And to Bud's credit, its worked to perfection.

One thing people don't want to admit: Bud has outcoached Monty by a mile. Hes coached circles around him in these Finals.

Credit to Bud.

[LightTheBeam]

I just don't see how Milwaukee playing at home could change the series.

That's what I thought when I you said Bucks in 7.

Id, just like to clear my throat and tell the poster who said both of these things to kiss my ass.

What happened to that guy you were arguing with? I cant remember the poster. I just remember him saying he would be here

[phanman]

Chris Paul looks either injured or mentally shot.

Suns will not win unless he plays like a Superstar. How much does he have left?

I believe his tank is getting closer to empty. He's having to play nearly 40 minutes per game and during the regular season that wasn't the case. After every couple of games he would play roughly 20mins and thst can't be the case in the postseason. I expect him have note energy and perform better in game five.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

I think his role for the rest of the series will to be to not turn it over, and manage the offense. The Suns have enough players to score with how they move the ball, and cut to open spaces to create shots.

Holiday has worn him down considerably. Seems like Bud just told Holiday this series to literally go beat the **** out of CP3 and not worry about his offense.

And to Bud's credit, its worked to perfection.

One thing people don't want to admit: Bud has outcoached Monty by a mile. Hes coached circles around him in these Finals.

Credit to Bud.

He took 20 shots dude, they just didn't fall. The Bucks were fortunate enough that Middleton was on fire that it helped offset his struggles offensively. That along with CP, Ayton and Crowder all having off nights scoring. Credit to the Bucks defense though, they were swarming you guys all game and even Book was hitting some unreal shots.

Bud was rightfully criticized after G1, but since then he's made countless adjustments to put his team in the best positions to win.

[Frank Lee]

Spoiler:

Chris Paul looks either injured or mentally shot.

Suns will not win unless he plays like a Superstar. How much does he have left?

I believe his tank is getting closer to empty. He's having to play nearly 40 minutes per game and during the regular season that wasn't the case. After every couple of games he would play roughly 20mins and thst can't be the case in the postseason. I expect him have note energy and perform better in game five.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

I think his role for the rest of the series will to be to not turn it over, and manage the offense. The Suns have enough players to score with how they move the ball, and cut to open spaces to create shots.

Holiday has worn him down considerably. Seems like Bud just told Holiday this series to literally go beat the **** out of CP3 and not worry about his offense.

And to Bud's credit, its worked to perfection.

One thing people don't want to admit: Bud has outcoached Monty by a mile. Hes coached circles around him in these Finals.

Credit to Bud.

Some coaches are good motivators, some good tacticians... the great ones are a blend. Having watched Pretty much every ‘Monty’ game, I don’t see him as as the latter. His usage of timeouts and challenges leave a lot to be desired. 40 seconds left, two time outs, a must bucket possession... I mean... wtf? Is there any better of a time to regroup, settle down, and call a good play ? What has turned out to be the most pivotal Turn Over could have been avoided. If you score within 10 seconds, Phnx would still likely have one more possession to tie or win, and a time out to advance the ball. Perhaps he got caught up in the moment... but the deer in his headlights won that match.

I suppose every fan can hindsight themselves to genius level, but my litmus test is ‘What would Pops do?’

[NYK-Mentality85]

Someone said in the other thread that the one thing the Suns did tonight was "figure out how to slow down the Greek Freak"

And I tried to quote him but thread was already locked.

That poster (whoever you are) was and is 100% wrong.

He actually and absolutely destroyed Phoenix tonight.

He damn near messed around and dropped a triple double.

Greek Freak: 26 points, 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals with only 1 turnover. He was an efficient Greek Freak of nature and off of 11/19 (.579%) from the field too.

Good God oh mighty.

The only thing the Suns figured out was to focus too much on Giannis while blatantly letting Khris Middleton (a career A+ role player) drop 40 points with 6 rebounds and another 4 dimes.

Phoenix is done.
Series is over.
Milwaukee in 6.
Bucks celebrate @ Milwaukee.
Greek Freak + Middleton = Co-MVPs (not fair any other way).

Surely you hammered Bucks +400 after game 2, and will put even more on Bucks +125 now? Next year you will be posting from your vacation homes in Tahiti and Hawaii?

Nope but I laid down $777 @ +1400 odds for my Knicks to just make the playoffs this year and returned $11,655 in return; and plan on making the same bet this year but for my Knicks to make it out of the 1st round for another + payout.

[soxperry]

Spoiler:

I believe his tank is getting closer to empty. He's having to play nearly 40 minutes per game and during the regular season that wasn't the case. After every couple of games he would play roughly 20mins and thst can't be the case in the postseason. I expect him have note energy and perform better in game five.

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

I think his role for the rest of the series will to be to not turn it over, and manage the offense. The Suns have enough players to score with how they move the ball, and cut to open spaces to create shots.

Holiday has worn him down considerably. Seems like Bud just told Holiday this series to literally go beat the **** out of CP3 and not worry about his offense.

And to Bud's credit, its worked to perfection.

One thing people don't want to admit: Bud has outcoached Monty by a mile. Hes coached circles around him in these Finals.

Credit to Bud.

Some coaches are good motivators, some good tacticians... the great ones are a blend. Having watched Pretty much every ‘Monty’ game, I don’t see him as as the latter. His usage of timeouts and challenges leave a lot to be desired. 40 seconds left, two time outs, a must bucket possession... I mean... wtf? Is there any better of a time to regroup, settle down, and call a good play ? What has turned out to be the most pivotal Turn Over could have been avoided. If you score within 10 seconds, Phnx would still likely have one more possession to tie or win, and a time out to advance the ball. Perhaps he got caught up in the moment... but the deer in his headlights won that match.

I suppose every fan can hindsight themselves to genius level, but my litmus test is ‘What would Pops do?’

[soxperry]

Just read theough the suns board to see where they are at... Im posting this here out of respect.

You guys keep saying: we got slaughtered on turnovers and offensive boards and still almost won! And that sounds great if you are trying to go glass half full. But the flip side to that is that you lost a game where the bucks shot 40% overall and 25% from 3. In fact, the non-Giannis Bucks shot 36% overall.

At this point, it should be clear that Giannis is going to be efficient in at least 2 of a potential 3 games, if not all 3. Do you really expect the rest of the team to shoot that poorly again? Granted, the suns played some great interior D in the second half, swatting multiple layup attempts. But many of those other bucks misses were Jrue missing layups, Khris missing makeable mid rangers, everyone but Pat missing open 3s, etc. If anything, the Bucks problems in this game are the most forgivable and most correctable: just hit more makeable shots.

The Suns have a much bigger hill to climb. Compose yourself and stop making unforced turnovers. Rebound better against a team that is really good at rebounding. Booker needs to continue to shoot at near KD levels. Chris Paul needs to recover physically and hope he can win the Jrue battle.

The Bucks just need to shoot better.

This series is far from over but if Khris is just good and Jrue is just average on offense, it does not look good for Phoenix.

[MoneyInDaBank07]

Just read theough the suns board to see where they are at... Im posting this here out of respect.

You guys keep saying: we got slaughtered on turnovers and offensive boards and still almost won! And that sounds great if you are trying to go glass half full. But the flip side to that is that you lost a game where the bucks shot 40% overall and 25% from 3. In fact, the non-Giannis Bucks shot 36% overall.

At this point, it should be clear that Giannis is going to be efficient in at least 2 of a potential 3 games, if not all 3. Do you really expect the rest of the team to shoot that poorly again? Granted, the suns played some great interior D in the second half, swatting multiple layup attempts. But many of those other bucks misses were Jrue missing layups, Khris missing makeable mid rangers, everyone but Pat missing open 3s, etc. If anything, the Bucks problems in this game are the most forgivable and most correctable: just hit more makeable shots.

The Suns have a much bigger hill to climb. Compose yourself and stop making unforced turnovers. Rebound better against a team that is really good at rebounding. Booker needs to continue to shoot at near KD levels. Chris Paul needs to recover physically and hope he can win the Jrue battle.

The Bucks just need to shoot better.

This series is far from over but if Khris is just good and Jrue is just average on offense, it does not look good for Phoenix.

Exactly - Bucks are due for a good shooting game you'd think. So many missed open 3s and layups.

I expect the Suns to try to clean up the turnovers, but I'd be surprised if they can make a dent in the rebounding department. Bucks should continue to feast in that area. Zero fast break point for the Suns in game 4. Anticipating them to try to speed up the pace in game 5.

No idea what will happen in game 5 after seeing the first four - could see a blow out either way. Bucks need to ride the momentum from an emotional win.

[MoneyInDaBank07]

I'll admit I was wrong about the Bucks. I thought the Suns were the better team.

I never thought the Suns were that good. But I don't think the Bucks are a great team either.

The difference is Giannis. Hes gone up to a level I did not think he could.

Kind of a back handed compliment ... but I'm glad that you're finally coming around.

[bwgood77]

Read on Twitter

Talk about a great post game speech to keep the team's fighting spirit. They did a ton of things wrong and still only lost by 6 on the road.

I like Saric's reactions from the 40 second mark on...better if enlarged.

[bwgood77]

Chris Paul looks either injured or mentally shot.

Suns will not win unless he plays like a Superstar. How much does he have left?

It was one bad game. It happens.

[Raps in 4]

CP3 is shook. I can't see Phoenix winning another game with him playing like this.