Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

[inkcil]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

So nobody going to mention the butler push off on that butler tieing basket?

Nope.

Besides, watching Allen euro-step his way into the summer is way too gratifying and much more fun to talk about.

I see you Caruso.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Do we agree Giannis chocked ?

I wouldn’t say that. He had 38 and 20, obviously it wasn’t enough to win and he missed too many FTs late, and could have had more impact overall late, but he was still a monster. They aren’t even in a position to win without him. I have a super hard time viewing games in a 3 minute window like that when there is 45 other minutes of action that matters.

Portis giving them nothing, Jrue shooting like ****, not much from the role players, and Middleton not being healthy enough like he was a couple years ago to close these games (on both ends) was a far bigger issue than Giannis. But no Giannis didn’t play his best game either.

Giannis being out/injured hurt too. We are two years removed from Giannis defending Jimmy on more possessions than anybody in that series and holding him to 19% from the field in those possessions. Leading to a sweep.

Him being out/not 100% hurt in that regard at least by a small percent. No idea if he would have stuck on him anyways. Two years ago was an outlier, idk if it’s on Giannis or Bud but rarely do we see him stick the other teams top perimeter threat like that year.

Obviously he was good enough to go, and play at a top level. So it’s not me making an excuse, but sometimes 2 or 3 little things can add up to a bigger issue. What ultimately matters is how it effects the whole team.

They’re a team that peaked at the wrong time this year. Think they had a 16 game win streak a couple months back. It was just bad timing for them. But even like I said a few days ago when I thought they were maybe a SG away from being a truly elite team, I’m not sure we were to expect to see it unfold this postseason with 80% Middleton out there. And if he can’t get back to what he was we might never see it unfold with this group.

But I feel like it’s also ok for a team to outplay another team without somebody having to choke. Miami did a better job of making plays when it mattered, Herro was out but a banged up Giannis probably impacts Milwaukee more, Spo won the coaching matchup, role players didn’t hit quite enough looks, and as a team they had too many defensive breakdowns. Miami made less mistakes. Jimmy got hot at the right time in back to back games in a situation where the two best matchups to throw at him weren’t really healthy enough to throw at him.

Part of the reason I hate the whole “rings” argument. Unless you’re just miles ahead of your opponent it takes lots of things to go right to win a ring. You need the better coach, win the adjustment battle, you need more mismatches and match-up problems on your end, you need your role players to get hot at the right time/the other teams to get cold at the right time, you need injury luck where you’re healthy and maybe the other team isn’t. You know if Wes Matthews was the guy who missed the whole year and worked his way back before the playoffs instead of Middleton, and Jae Crowder was the guy who took a fall and missed a couple games instead of Giannis this might be a completely different outcome. Also didn’t help Spo coached circles around Bud too.

But as a whole, Milwaukee definitely underperformed. Miami over-performed. But I don’t think I can just lay it all on Giannis like that.

[dubcity]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Felt bad watching him in the post game presser. He clearly was offended at the question about the season being a failure. That word annoyed him. But when you are the #1 seed and lose like that it's tough to call it anything else. It's not the end of the world or a negative mark on his rep, just extra bad because you at least gotta make it out the 1st, otherwise what is the point of winning nearly 60 games? And it looks bad because we all know the top competitors that we think of as all-time great would have probably just said yeah it was a failure.

[jeebs9]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Need Atlanta to complete the comeback so Boston can get these jokes too.

Na we need that to end tomorrow [emoji23]. It's the only game on. The East will be weak [emoji23].

[Vni]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Damn the end of the 4th quarter was wild in Milwaukee. Butler

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Better not hear anymore Dad and Oreo jokes for a min, I know that much.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Felt bad watching him in the post game presser. He clearly was offended at the question about the season being a failure. That word annoyed him. But when you are the #1 seed and lose like that it's tough to call it anything else. It's not the end of the world or a negative mark on his rep, just extra bad because you at least gotta make it out the 1st, otherwise what is the point of winning nearly 60 games? And it looks bad because we all know the top competitors that we think of as all-time great would have probably just said yeah it was a failure.

It was failure, not because they didn’t win a championship but because they couldn’t even make out of the first round against a average/not good Miami team in 5 games aka an 8 seed aka a play-in team, which they have been all year. This is probably as close as a 16 > 1 upset if you consider how the teams looked/played entering this series.

Does it stain his career going forward? Of course not, but it definitely is a negative mark on there.

But as a whole, Milwaukee definitely underperformed. Miami over-performed. But I don’t think I can just lay it all on Giannis like that.

Don’t need to lay it all on him…but we also don’t need to move the goalposts or take it easy on him just because he’s likeable in the Media and tells Dad Jokes.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Double post

[Jeffx]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Heat vs Knicks, Sunday at 1pm, in Madison Square Garden. Feels like the late 90s all over again.


I wish this game was on NBC, so I could hear that classic opening theme.

[jeebs9]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Heat vs Knicks, Sunday at 1pm, in Madison Square Garden. Feels like the late 90s all over again.


I wish this game was on NBC, so I could hear that classic opening theme.

Hopefully, Randle can give it a go.

[DieHardYankee26]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

1 seed got knocked out in 5 games by the 8 seed and now it’s “sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it’s not”. Man **** outta here.

[bigeastbumrush]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Nope.

Besides, watching Allen euro-step his way into the summer is way too gratifying and much more fun to talk about.

I see you Caruso.

I’m like man just throw something up there.
Meanwhile, Grayson hitting a euro with no time remaining.

[ProfessaPackMan]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

1 seed got knocked out in 5 games by the 8 seed and now it’s “sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it’s not”. Man **** outta here.

And he got people really eating that **** up like some suckers too.

[roadman]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Embarrassing, sucks, a downer, the Bucks are unclutch and perhaps wasting

Giannis short term prime years.

A couple thoughts on the game/s: Blowing 15 and 16 pt leads should not be tolerated

and where was the timeouts? And Bud using up challenges early to protect Giannis.

I doubt we will have the same older team next year, at least I hope not.

I don't think Bud will be around, either.

As far as the interview after the ending of a series beatdown on a series you

were supposed to win, Giannis could have answered the question differently as noted

in here and the reporter could have asked the question differently vs asking

the same repeated question he did before the year earlier.

It appears people are focusing in on the clickbait 1:30 second q & a, but later a question

was asked and Giannis said he had to make himself better so he could make his

teammates better.

The easy answer, we failed, we own it and we move on.

[ojandpizza]

Re: Eastern Conference 1st Round Games Discussion Thread

Don’t need to lay it all on him…but we also don’t need to move the goalposts or take it easy on him just because he’s likeable in the Media and tells Dad Jokes.

Definitely not, but for me that isn't moving the goal posts. That's how I have viewed every player for pretty much forever. Said the same for Joker against GS last year, for the "lets pin finals losses all on Bron" arguments, **** even go all the way back to my posts about chalking up David Robinson's entire career to that series against Hakeem. Or the reverse, acting like players did better than they did just because their team ended dup winning. (insert Kawhi with Toronto, and some years from Steph).

Now if you're someone who's take on these situations varies from player to player and you're only shifting because Giannis is likeable, then yeah I have issues with that too. Just like I have issues with those who claim they can't vote Joker for MVP because he hasn't made a finals but are fine voting Embiid who doesn't even have a conference finals.

Just me in general, I don't feel like I've ever really been easy on Giannis. I was pretty critical of him and his shortcomings from the line, decision making, late in game situations, and just game to game consistency even the year they won it all. Had some back and forth with JPosse in that run. But for him to go 32/15/8 over the two games he was available in this series (likely not at 100%) and claim that is "choking" from him individually is just a massive stretch to me. As far as keeping all these equal for all players, what other 38 & 20 game have we labeled as choking in the past?

1 seed got knocked out in 5 games by the 8 seed and now it’s “sometimes it’s your day, sometimes it’s not”. Man **** outta here.

If this is about my post, this isn't even remotely close to what I was saying lol.

Regardless you still can't just ignore every drop of context. Giannis played 10 minutes in game 1, missed all of game 2 and 3. Rhetorical question, but does Miami win this with Jimmy missing basically 3 games? Obviously not. Obviously injury luck and the timing of that does matter. I'm not saying the Bucks still shouldn't have been better, but sometimes **** does happen outside of just "1 seed loses in 5" from a full context perspective.

If it was about Giannis, I think the full interview is a bit "better" than the clips circulating. With that said he could have owned that they underperformed a bit more from the start of the question for sure.