I thought they fortified some holes in the back of their rotation, but didn’t get much from Ingles and Crowder. The Bucks fired on all cylinders in their win, but got blown out twice, and gave up big leads in the other two wins. Milwaukee They didn’t show the mental and physical toughness they showed in the playoffs last season.
Yeah he gave Connaughton a good stiff arm, but:
Free throws were 45-17 Bucs. It was more than even.
I didn't see it, but the announcers mentioned the Bucks used it in the 1st quarter in an attempt to keep giannis out of foul trouble. Even if they had it, wouldn't have done them any good on that play (coaches can't challenge no-calls).
Home court not meaning much in playoffs. See Milwaukee v Miami this year, golden state v Sacramento tonight, Celtics last night v Hawks, etc.
Among those still playing, Curry, Lebron, Jokic, Durant, possibly Morant, possibly Harden and possibly Fox
That was me. I'm the Coach Bud of prognosticators. (I didn't exactly predict they would win by 50, but I asked if anyone would be surprised by such a result).
Speaking of Simmons, he was flogging the point for months about how the Cavs screwed up by giving up Kevin Love for nothing, that Love could have helped them, and could be a useful playoff piece for Miami. Well, he was right about that one, sick as I got of hearing about it.
Miami shot 47.6% (!!) from 3 through the first 4 games. (In game 5, 37..8%, so they probably graded out around 44% for the series) That, plus Butler and coaching can beat anyone. Doesn't seem sustainable though.They've gone from being one of the worst regular season offenses to the best offense in the playoffs. There's gotta be some regression around the corner.
it was a huge push-off by Butler but refs are never going to call that in that situation— too many things they are trying to track— and credit Jimmy for taking advantage.
I don't know. He was clearly shook in the 4th and OT here— besides the missed FTs, he was throwing the ball all over the place. One can speculate that it was the injury getting his head, but how would anyone know? Also: small sample size, but it matters a tiny bit to me that the Heat were already cooking and up by 10 in G1 when Giannis got hurt. Had the Bucks been cruising early, it would be easier to string together a narrative that Mil was the better team but got thrown out of rhythm when their star got hurt.
It was asked in the excitement of watching the game (had to record it), but I would easily take Jimmy over Morant, and current Harden isn’t even close
Most likely they run back the same core with a new coach and see what happens.
I'm old enough to remember when the Bucks had added two real difference makers at the deadline, in him and Ingles. Great depth for an already dominant 1 seed; get ready for a playoff run!
Butler should get his due, but the Spoelstra vs Bud coaching mismatch was on full display.
The Coach Thibs redemption storyline is strong as well, if not the same level tactician as Spo he presents a fairly close coaching matchup to the Heat (without the in-game blind spots that Coach Bud has).Whew, I finally caught up, both the late games were crazy!
NY does not match up well with MIL (Mitchell Robinson has trouble with stretch fives and Holiday is tough on Brunson), and of course Giannis, so I’m thrilled they’re out.
I think if both NY and MIA were healthy, they’re about even, but Herro being out and Randle being unknown makes it hard to predict. I do know someone could have made a lot of money in November betting that NY would have home court in the second round.
It's amazing that we have access to as much as we do, but these videos don't capture the vibe of big comebacks because they leave out all the misses.If you’re just waking up like me wondering what happened, the 4th quarter starts 5:50 into this.
View: https://youtu.be/imR3k4jog4U
There was .5 sec left on the clock after Butler threw in the game tying shot. Bud still should have called a TO, advanced the ball, and run an oob lob to Giannis. Inexcusable mistake if he actually did have a timeout remaining, and the graphic was correct.
I apppreicate your use of quotation marks around "champ." Because games like the last two Bucks losses always make me question sports on a philosophical (possibly not the right word, best I can come up with on 4 hours of angry post bruins sleep) level. So bear with me...but so much success in sports is just straight up chance/luck/whatever you want to call it. Giannis has a title, Tatum does not. So you can't take that away from him...but at the same time, Giannis won that title because Harden & Irving got injured. If they don't, Giannis' post season track record would be viewed the same way as Embiid's, failure. On the flipside, if the Celts go on to win this year it will be in large part because they got to face a banged up Embiid and either the Knicks or Heat in the ECF. Now, Giannis was able to take advantage of his situation a couple years ago, Tatum & co. have a long way to go. Ultimately I just thing we give too much credit to these guys when the win, and too much blame when they lose...when unless your name is Curry or Lebron so so much of winning & losing is chance. (I realize a therapist might tell me Im just trying to convince myself of all that on the off chance the celtics and bruins blow 3-1 leads in the opening rounds. But isn't that what this place is for? De facto sports therapy).
Quin Snyder has to be kicking himself for taking that Atlanta job right about now.
If KD was a sneaker a half size smaller in Game 7 versus the Bucks, he would have vanquished them singlehandedly. In the Finals, the Suns clearly were not ready for prime time.
As to your bolded, I completely agree. I think another, simpler way of what I was trying to say in my earlier rant is that there are a lot of if's that could lead to them not winning banner 18 that wouldn't be because of making the same mistakes we all discuss here. And that, to me anyway, wouldn't be as disappointing.
Bud was making this substitution as if there were :06 or more on the clock where Miami could run a shooter away from the less mobile Lopez. That is logical. What isn’t logical is making this substitution with :02 on the clock when the defense only has one pass to defend after the initial inbound. You can have the long Lopez defending the inbound play while still being able to remain attached to the inbounder for a return pass.
Right. I was confusing the :02 with the Bucks inbounding. All the more reason. Freakin crazy this occurs at the NBA level in 2023.
Considering the amount of assistant coaches, that should never happen. Every staff should have one coach devoted to final possession matters.
Reminded me of Alexander Belov for the Soviets in 1972 on the third (or was it fourth) inbounds.
That was so awful for Bucks fans, I noticed myself feeling nauseated on their behalf even though I wasn’t rooting for them. It got me wondering where this would rank within the context of awful Boston losses. It’s not up there with Buckner/Grady Little, since the franchise recently won a ring. The closest I could think of is games 4 and 5 of the 2004 ALCS from a Yankee fan’s perspective, since it involves the same quality of horrible script repeating itself two games in a row.
It's nice that I now know exactly how that would have felt, but with the Celtics still having made the Finals.
