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WhatTheBuck wrote:If Lebron played we would have been on back to back 35 point losses.

LeBron is lazy. If he plays we win.

Lost in this is Pat had a really good shooting night.

We got outcoached by Darvin Ham. Let that sink in.

fan230 wrote:This season: Jrue 48% fg, 44% 3 pts
Dame 42% and 35%

Of course Jrue is a far far superior defender than Dame.

Maybe we made a mistake with this trade.

This isn't exactly apples to apples. Dame gets the attention of a #1 or #2 scorer. Jrue is ignored because he's the Celtics 4th option. I'm guessing he only takes shots when he's open now.

Plossum wrote:

RW23 wrote:Jesus Christ, 80% of the posters on this board have the emotional stability of a 5-year old and only see this team through the lens of extreme recency bias.

I mean, when have we been good recently though? We’ve had some good wins vs Clips and Wolves but we’ve been the same up and down Jekyll and Hyde team all year. Hardly a team you can see putting it together for four playoff rounds.

Is this a serious question? Before the road trip we literally won 5-straight out of the ASB, and in the last several weeks beat the Clippers, Wolves, and Nuggets. You know, like, 3 of the best 4-teams in the West….

south beach flue.imo

Why Pat Bev wasn't on DLO at the end of the game, wtf was that lineup defensively?

We completely ignored Giannis at the end when he was so clutch with Fts and block and the Lakers had no answers for him yet we went for the stupid hero ball Dame time.....

Come on man, we need to be smarter than this.

Once again I am reminding you that the season is long and things change fast.

Magic Giannison wrote:Why Pat Bev wasn't on DLO at the end of the game, wtf was that lineup defensively?

We completely ignored Giannis at the end when he was so clutch with Fts and block and the Lakers had no answers for him yet we went for the stupid hero ball Dame time.....

Come on man, we need to be smarter than this.

It's more and more evident that when you're a slower/older, veteran team you need to get by not solely on talent but on study and execution. The team, despite its peaks, is prone to some pretty baffling stretches at times. Which is why we all pull out our hair when that happens, because when they're in that zone (i.e. 3rd quarter vs. Warriors and mid-4th quarter last night) they can beat the piss out of any team.

Strangely enough, some of the positives since the ASB, and especially last night, were that the "Freak Time" pick and roll looked positively lethal for good stretches in comparison to even just weeks earlier. Even though Dame's shooting has been mediocre, teams still prefer to blitz him or hedge, leaving Freak a nice "zone" of space in the midrange area to have less distance to score or find open shooters and cutters. His passing has been awesome. Last night would've been an interesting experiment to try the "Freak Time" pick-and-roll but inverted with Dame screening for Gianni to get a switch and mismatch.

Khris coming back and looking healthy and productive is the missing player to unlock the small-ball units. Crowder's been solid on defense, but with Khris in those lineups it adds shooting and playmaking (and veteran leadership). We could've sorely used those lineups against GS and LA.

Bucks need more Giannis at center lineups. The whole point of Crowder is to give us a small ball 4, and he's getting 0 minutes in this role.

Dame got cooked on the final play because it was a pick and roll, and Brook offered nothing. He shouldn't have been on the floor in that situation, we knew what was coming.

The remaining regular season is disproportionately important for us. If we are 4th, chances of making the ecf are low. 2nd or 3rd: we should be in the ecf. That is why a 1 point loss yesterday hurts so much more than it would otherwise.

Really do not understand when DLo was hurting us consistently, why in the closing stages did Doc not try a different player for defense. Jae or Green.

RW23 wrote:Jesus Christ, 80% of the posters on this board have the emotional stability of a 5-year old and only see this team through the lens of extreme recency bias.

You'll get used to it after five or ten years. If you're keeping score, file "Dame sucks as a closer" under RealGM Gems of 2024.

The team construction for the Celticss has been superb. Already had two young excellent players in Brown and Tatum. But the getting of Porzingis has been a breakthrough. Jrue and White can score but they are also very good defenders. Brad Stevens was a very good coach; now it seems he is turning out to be a very good gm.

For us, the most crucial thing now is to get Khris back as the great player that he was. So resting him so much, I believe, is the best thing that the Bucks have done.

fan230 wrote:The team construction for the Celticss has been superb. Already had two young excellent players in Brown and Tatum. But the getting of Porzingis has been a breakthrough. Jrue and White can score but they are also very good defenders. Brad Stevens was a very good coach; now it seems he is turning out to be a very good gm.

Maybe the seventh time will be a charm for Tatum, but he and his mates have come up short year after year so far. Tatum and Brown are not complementary players. They are too similar to each other. Porzingis was an interesting add for them, but what he brings is mostly the ability because of his size to shoot an unblockable three, and they don't lack for three-point shooters. He doesn't work and play well against real centers inside.

It's certainly possible for this band of misfit bombers to stay hot for four series and get a ring, but I would fade it and expect them to continue to stare at an empty trophy case. Jump-shooting teams can sometimes win championships, but their own ancient history shows that doing things another way is more efficacious.

Can't stand Aaron Rodgers. But on one thing he was right. RELAX!

Griff was majorly incompetent but the roster construction is simply bad, I've never once thought this was a championship team this year which is a change from every year that we had Budenholzer even year 1 with Bledsoe. Whatever this team gains offensively its gives up just as much by being a bad defensive team with multiple starters who can/actually can't be played off the floor defensively, this would be more shocking than GS winning it a few years ago. I believe in Giannis but we're depending on Dame + Khris playing above their normal level offensively then some major look with seeding/attrition, I guess we're better off with Doc since this looked like a team who was going to get 1st round swept whereas now I expect 2nd round loss to be the most likely ceiling.

Disappointing loss, but reminder that we're still missing a max player. Nothing will matter to this team more than being healthy for the playoffs and being able to ramp up Middleton's minutes in time.

We played poorly overall last night as a team. Blaming 1 guy or 1 play seems lazy to me. Lakers played tough and DLo was lights out, **** happens. It’s still Bucks vs Nuggets in the finals. The last 2 games haven’t changed my opinion on that.

This has already been asked - but why were Crowder and Beverly on the bench for the last defensive possession?

So 2 seed is likely right? This is Cleveland's schedule.
BKN
PHX
NOP
HOU
IND
MIA
MIN
MIA
CHA
CHA
PHI
DEN
UTA (April 2)
PHX
LAL
LAC
MEM
IND
CHA

The Bucks schedule eases up in April so if ground is lost, it can be made up.
LAC
SAC
PHI
PHX
BOS
BKN
OKC
LAL
NOP
ATL
WSH (April 2)
MEM
TOR
NYK
BOS
ORL
OKC
ORL