PG Indy Game 2: Series Tied 1-1

[Sigra]

I can't believe eveybody thinks Giannis is some kind of superhuman ..

He is anything but. Lets compare him with white chubby guy Nikola Jokić (same age-29)

Jokić--447 regular season games last 6 seasons-didnt miss a single playoff game in his life
Giannis--399 regular season games last 6 seasons-injured in 4 of this 6 seasons in playoffs

Giannis will get statue in front of Fiserv at the end of day. As he should.

But he is injury prone.

Thats because of his style of play. Joker plays under control and can score from anywhere on the floor. Giannis can't.

Sure. But it really doesn't matter why. The result is same. Regular season is too long for our best player and he is tired/injured in playoffs year after year. Even with Bud's load management that tried to rest him.

But now that NBA has that minimum games requirement for awards it will be worse. I am sure Giannis would rest more this year if there is not that minimum games requirement. He played 73 games this year before injury and if there was no injury he would probable end up with 75 games.
Games that he played in regular season since we are contenders:
2018/19--72
2019/20--63
2020/21--61
2021/22--67
2022/23--63
2023/24--73

When I saw that new NBA rule for minimum games I was like "oh oh we are in trouble". OfCourse we could have rest him after he played his game #65 this year but then he would be cold for playoffs. We now cant rest him the way how Bud did because if we do there is a risk he would miss 65 games requirement.

Whatever. Thank you God for that 1 ring I guess.

[GoldenAntlers]

We actually defended Indiana pretty well in the regular season in that game where we played ajax and marjon more than usual. At this point, until GA gets back, just throw Ajax out there and see what happens.

This is why many of us were saying to play Dre as much as possible during the season, despite his shortcomings, because we knew we needed his energy in the playoffs.

[Brewhoopfan]

The Pacers have consistently created better shots. using much less effort.

Dame has been incredible, but he's working incredibly hard just to get the ball. It's no surprise he's slowing down in the 2nd half. Middleton has been really god especially given how hard he's had to work just to get off tough shots. Contrast that with how easy Siakam is getting the ball where he wants it.

Indy is putting the Bucks into a simple action (usually PnR or PnP), then just picking them apart once they scramble to recover. The Pacers didn't settle for jumpshots like game 1, and then the 3s started falling. Giannis isn't fixing this defense as there's just too many broken parts. But, I do think he can help the Bucks outscore the Pacers.

[sidney lanier]

He is anything but. Lets compare him with white chubby guy Nikola Jokić (same age-29)

Jokić--447 regular season games last 6 seasons-didnt miss a single playoff game in his life
Giannis--399 regular season games last 6 seasons-injured in 4 of this 6 seasons in playoffs

Giannis will get statue in front of Fiserv at the end of day. As he should.

But he is injury prone.

Thats because of his style of play. Joker plays under control and can score from anywhere on the floor. Giannis can't.

Sure. But it really doesn't matter why. The result is same. Regular season is too long for our best player and he is tired/injured in playoffs year after year. Even with Bud's load management that tried to rest him.

But now that NBA has that minimum games requirement for awards it will be worse. I am sure Giannis would rest more this year if there is not that minimum games requirement. He played 73 games this year before injury and if there was no injury he would probable end up with 75 games.
Games that he played in regular season since we are contenders:
2018/19--72
2019/20--63
2020/21--61
2021/22--67
2022/23--63
2023/24--73

When I saw that new NBA rule for minimum games I was like "oh oh we are in trouble". OfCourse we could have rest him after he played his game #65 this year but then he would be cold for playoffs. We now cant rest him the way how Bud did because if we do there is a risk he would miss 65 games requirement.

Whatever. Thank you God for that 1 ring I guess.

I don't fully buy into the correlation between regular season games played and playoff fitness. There are too many other confounding variables. I do agree that style of play favors an earthbound Jokic over a flying Giannis in terms of career longevity and availability, but what we're stuck with this year is just bad luck and not necessarily a trend and no more predictable than our old friend Andrew Bogut getting thrown off balance in midair and landing with a shattered career.

And if it's got to be just one ring, which I don't think it will, yes, thank God.

[RogerMurdock]

Some of you need to take a step back from basketball for a couple days if you're clamoring for Jackson, Marjon, and Livingston to get any sort of meaningful minutes right now.

EDIT: I can KIND OF buy MAYBE getting AJJ in there for a few minutes and hope you get one of those high energy, disruptive stretches from him, but it's a massive risk because if you don't get that, you get garbage, zero value on either end of the floor.

[KidA24]

Some of you need to take a step back from basketball for a couple days if you're clamoring for Jackson, Marjon, and Livingston to get any sort of meaningful minutes right now.

Lets not forget Thanasis.

[DingleJerry]

I wouldn't say I'm clamoring for them, but the stark or clear difference out there is speed and athleticism. They have tons of it, Bucks have none. Generally that's the difference of having had 1sts and hitting on them the last several years while the Bucks haven't. But, with how just awful Crowder has been I don't see the harm in throwing AJJ out there for him to get some athleticism on the floor. He also has the distributing point forward type stuff in his background that could be useful when Dame is being guarded how he is. But yea, he basically hasn't played in months so its tough to do at this point and its not like I'm gonna call anyone a moron for not doing it.

[Ron Swanson]

The Pacers have consistently created better shots. using much less effort.

Dame has been incredible, but he's working incredibly hard just to get the ball. It's no surprise he's slowing down in the 2nd half. Middleton has been really god especially given how hard he's had to work just to get off tough shots. Contrast that with how easy Siakam is getting the ball where he wants it.

Indy is putting the Bucks into a simple action (usually PnR or PnP), then just picking them apart once they scramble to recover. The Pacers didn't settle for jumpshots like game 1, and then the 3s started falling. Giannis isn't fixing this defense as there's just too many broken parts. But, I do think he can help the Bucks outscore the Pacers.

I mean, last night they absolutely did, but that certainly wasn't the case in Game 1. Siakam doing his best KD impression opens up everything for their offense. I mean, this is a guy who's a low-40's mid-range scorer and 27% 3PT shooter for his career in the playoffs, and he's on an incredible heater right now. The overall strategy of baiting him and Turner into launching threes is a sound one, but without Giannis to matchup against one of those two, you're left with Brook trying to cover too much ground while Bobby just gets erased from any play with a simple high screen. Said after last game that these non-Giannis games were still gonna come down to how the Bobby/Brook front court minutes hold up defensively, and nothing has changed my mind. Giannis coming back and putting him on Siakam changes everything.

[MickeyDavis]

Today will be a light shootaround and film work. Tomorrow they'll practice before flying to Indy. We'll see if Giannis practices tomorrow. If not, he's not playing Friday.

[Brewhoopfan]

Take 1 in Indy and we're fine assuming Giannis comes back. More Pat/Green and less Crowder when Giannis comes back

They need someone who can atleast stick with Siakim. Doc had Brook on him at the start of the 2nd. I'd play Livingston, AJJ, even Thanasis.

Allah have mercy upon me but Thanasis at least has size and athleticism. Pat C is a gamer but he is not a power forward. Thought Pat on the frontline would have disappeared along with Coach Yeah-No but no.

Organizational failure: GM and Coaches. Relying on Giannis as the only athlete on the team: huge mistake. They didn't develop any younger players (at least Griff tried). They didn't add anyone resembling a solution. Gallinari? What was the point of adding him? To top if off, they ran an already injured Giannis into the ground to end the season. Morons.

Also, how many teams have to bench a 30 min/game player in the playoffs? Was it not obvious this was inevitable? Now, those minutes need to be replaced by either inexperience or way over the hill.

[James1980]

Thanasis couldn't be worse than Jae Crowder last night.

[German Athens]

The Pacers have consistently created better shots. using much less effort.

Dame has been incredible, but he's working incredibly hard just to get the ball. It's no surprise he's slowing down in the 2nd half. Middleton has been really god especially given how hard he's had to work just to get off tough shots. Contrast that with how easy Siakam is getting the ball where he wants it.

Indy is putting the Bucks into a simple action (usually PnR or PnP), then just picking them apart once they scramble to recover. The Pacers didn't settle for jumpshots like game 1, and then the 3s started falling. Giannis isn't fixing this defense as there's just too many broken parts. But, I do think he can help the Bucks outscore the Pacers.

Offensively, we can’t beat our man off the bounce outside Dame, this allows Indy to throw two at him without the worry of giving up the rim on the backend. They can then scramble and recover to the shooters who won’t be able to do much else.

Defensively, it’s much of the double edged sword of brook still. Just like in 2022 against Boston. Run a simple PNR, and create an open look on the pop. Brook still has value, particularly because Bobby doesn’t really provide much defensive value in any look, but it just further illuminates how lacking our versatility is with our front court. Our best stuff is still Giannis at the 5, but what really has me worried if we get him back is that I don’t think we have a great small-ball 5, either.

I think due to his lack of mobility, Khris pretty much has to be the small-ball 4, but he’s still been a half step slow, or incapable of making himself felt against their bigs. That may be fine, if we had another guy who could switch things up with him and play big, but I don’t trust it. Crowder should be that guy, but he’s also struggling to make himself felt defensively. Our best lineup would probably be Dame, Bev, Pat, Khris, Giannis, and that would further put a lot of stress on Khris defensively.

We’ve gone through another season without coming up with our best playoff lineup (versatile small-ball), and that’s really frustrating.

Giannis is a freak, though, and can paper over so many of our issues. Hopefully he’ll be back fully healthy for game 3. We need him.

[German Athens]

Bobby hesitating on so many of his corner three looks has been really hard to watch. I get he needs to play with what he’s comfortable doing, but that’s the look the offense created even if it’s a small window.

Him hesitating and then trying to back down his guy from 20 feet completely resets the offense.

[jschligs]

I need a break from this board. We're 1-1 without Giannis. Some of you are just insufferable and I feel like you almost like when we lose so you can come in here and bitch and moan, but when we win you're silent. You are the opposite of Haliburton.

[Wooderson]

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[fan230]

Thanasis couldn't be worse than Jae Crowder last night.

I strongly agree. It is time to try and see if Thanasis can be of help to the Bucks.

At this point we have a myriad of weaknesses in the team and in coaching. Nothing we put out yesterday could stop the Pacers, and will not stop them in future games.

So try Thanasis and try Livingstone.

[Ron Swanson]

You guys advocating for Thanasis and Livingston have **** lost it. Crowder may kinda suck now but please just stop.

[James1980]

Thanasis couldn't be worse than Jae Crowder last night.

I strongly agree. It is time to try and see if Thanasis can be of help to the Bucks.

At this point we have a myriad of weaknesses in the team and in coaching. Nothing we put out yesterday could stop the Pacers, and will not stop them in future games.

So try Thanasis and try Livingstone.

Yes, not 30 mins or anything, but out him out there for 5 mins and see if he can play defense on Siakam.

[fan230]

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It looks like Giannis is not ready and will not be ready at least for 2 or more games.

All this reminds me of what Doc said in a presser. The med team said Giannis was ok to play but I could see he was struggling physically. I have eyes. I should have taken him out but I didn’t.

I commend Doc for his honesty but criticize him for his decision making.

A player who cannot run or cut now is in a prime position to get his Achilles blown out if he plays. That would ruin Giannis as a player and ruin any hopes of the Bucks having a great team next year and beyond.

We have suffered from terrible decision making right from before our season started to the end of the regular season. It is time to take the mature decision. Sit Giannis. There is close to zero chance of beating the Pacers even if they push a completely gimpy Giannis to play. Let’s be realistic and prevent a further Giannis injury disaster, play hard with our non injured players, do the best we can, and regroup for next year.

By the way, there is a path where we fire Doc, get another coach and Not pay 4 coaches next year; perhaps the Bucks management could consider that path seriously for next year.

[JimmyTheKid]

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It looks like Giannis is not ready and will not be ready at least for 2 or more games.

All this reminds me of what Doc said in a presser. The med team said Giannis was ok to play but I could see he was struggling physically. I have eyes. I should have taken him out but I didn’t.

I commend Doc for his honesty but criticize him for his decision making.

A player who cannot run or cut now is in a prime position to get his Achilles blown out if he plays. That would ruin Giannis as a player and ruin any hopes of the Bucks having a great team next year and beyond.

We have suffered from terrible decision making right from before our season started to the end of the regular season. It is time to take the mature decision. Sit Giannis. There is close to zero chance of beating the Pacers even if they push a completely gimpy Giannis to play. Let’s be realistic and prevent a further Giannis injury disaster, play hard with our non injured players, do the best we can, and regroup for next year.

By the way, there is a path where we fire Doc, get another coach and Not pay 4 coaches next year; perhaps the Bucks management could consider that path seriously for next year.

Why our decision makers thought that seeding mattered this season is beyond any and all comprehension.