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Post by jrmzt on Apr 28, 2022 3:53:45 GMT -5
If the regular season is any indication..
1. Home court helps. We split the series 2-2 and both times we won at home and lost on the road (vice versa for Bucks) 2. In the regular season, we lost without Tatum and they lost without Giannis
Not tanking and gaining home court in this series makes me feel more confident about our chances. But...the Bucks bench have been gaining confidence, so lets stymie that early on.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 28, 2022 12:19:49 GMT -5
The bench needs to contribute more than ever before.
The Bucks have guys like Connaughton (who I don't like cause my Orioles drafted him as a pitcher, but he chose to return to Notre Dame instead), Portis, and Grayson who seem to have good games.
It's time for DW, Pritch, GWill and Theis to shine collectively.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 28, 2022 12:31:03 GMT -5
If the regular season is any indication.. 1. Home court helps. We split the series 2-2 and both times we won at home and lost on the road (vice versa for Bucks) 2. In the regular season, we lost without Tatum and they lost without Giannis Not tanking and gaining home court in this series makes me feel more confident about our chances. But...the Bucks bench have been gaining confidence, so lets stymie that early on. If we win this series, Udoka will look like a genius. Everyone thought we should tank the final couple of games of the regular season, to avoid BRK and play the Bulls. But Udoka said we're not running away from any team. Then we swept the Nets and have home court advantage as well.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 28, 2022 12:35:54 GMT -5
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Post by jrmzt on Apr 28, 2022 14:38:51 GMT -5
I was thinking the same thing. Middleton is like that Dragic type. For whatever reason our defenses don't deal with his type very well. To avoid a Game 6 or 7 comeback for Middleton, I think we'll need to win this in 5 games. Take both games at home, win 1 on the road, the close it out at home.
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Post by jmost on Apr 28, 2022 15:49:19 GMT -5
I was surprised to see that Holiday plays the most minutes for MIL, and that he was their second leading scorer. He's also their [HASH]2 assist guy, just behind Middleton. Smart vs Holiday may be a key matchup. If Smart can minimize Holiday's impact on offense we have a great shot at this. www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mil/milwaukee-bucks
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 28, 2022 15:58:50 GMT -5
I was surprised to see that Holiday plays the most minutes for MIL, and that he was their second leading scorer. He's also their [HASH]2 assist guy, just behind Middleton. Smart vs Holiday may be a key matchup. If Smart can minimize Holiday's impact on offense we have a great shot at this. www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/mil/milwaukee-bucksThe way we switch, Holiday is going to see everyone from Smart, JT, JB, Horford, Rob, GWill, DW to Theis all hounding him. Our defense is really impressive. The only way they'll defeat our defense is if they make quick, accurate passes around the court and take and make quick jumpers before our defense can close out. If they shoot well, this is going to be very tight.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 28, 2022 16:04:34 GMT -5
It was once Ojeleye, but the new Giannis stopper could be GWill.
Grant might be even more stout on impact than Semi, and he may even shuffle and slide his feet better than him too.
GWill could be the perfect antidote for Giannis's power drives, as he won't get nudged out of the way when Giannis leans in with his shoulder, and he's nimble enough on his feet to stay in front of the Greek Freak.
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Post by jrmzt on Apr 29, 2022 20:09:59 GMT -5
Well in all fairness, Giannis will still probably score or average 30/12/5 the entire series. As good as GWill is, historically Giannis has never really been held back by us. Noone has really held him down either. But let Giannis plow through for his 2pt dunks as long as we prevent the Bucks 3 pt shooters. This is the exact opposite of the Nets where we'd rather slow down KD and leave his team open to try make up the difference...in this case, lets flip the script for the win.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 30, 2022 15:09:37 GMT -5
If we can keep Giannis to his season average or lower, that's a win for this defense.
The trick will be to cover the perimeter once Giannis kicks the ball out. Rob is going to provide weakside side shot blocking, so if Giannis sucks Rob into the paint, leaving Rob's man open, the defense will have to scramble to shift over to cover.
Will he interesting to see how Ime and his staff have prepared the team defensively.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Apr 30, 2022 19:38:32 GMT -5
I'm hoping Game 1 is a statement game, both for the team's morale as well as for my final lingering doubts about our team.
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Post by jrmzt on May 1, 2022 22:10:28 GMT -5
If we can keep Giannis to his season average or lower, that's a win for this defense. The trick will be to cover the perimeter once Giannis kicks the ball out. Rob is going to provide weakside side shot blocking, so if Giannis sucks Rob into the paint, leaving Rob's man open, the defense will have to scramble to shift over to cover. Will he interesting to see how Ime and his staff have prepared the team defensively. Exactly as predicted. We kept Giannis below his averages and he kicked out the ball for a bunch of assists. Now comes the tough part. Rotating quickly enough to close out on the corner 3s.
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Post by jmost on May 2, 2022 6:44:26 GMT -5
IMO our defense was not the problem. Giving up 101 is pretty good in this era. Scoring 89 while shooting in the low 30s won't cut it though. I don't know if the problem was lack of ball movement, poor spacing, or just bad shooting, but we have to do better.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on May 2, 2022 10:43:42 GMT -5
IMO our defense was not the problem. Giving up 101 is pretty good in this era. Scoring 89 while shooting in the low 30s won't cut it though. I don't know if the problem was lack of ball movement, poor spacing, or just bad shooting, but we have to do better. From what I've read, MIL forced us to take deep shots by taking away the paint -- and we just couldn't hit as many of them as we needed. It could he that their aggressiveness and physicality bothered us overall.
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Post by jmost on May 2, 2022 10:59:19 GMT -5
It's really amazing how much more physicality the refs are allowing this year. It really rewards teams that have rugged players, and seems ideally suited for MIL. Lopez, Giannis, Portis, Holiday especially.
We're not bad in that respect though and should be able to play through it.
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