Round 1 Game 3: Bucks at Pacers - 4/26/24 - 4:30 - ESPN/BSWI - Middleton a Go

[Dick Tate]

“Seed didn’t matter!”
(Finish 2 games ahead of a play-in spot)

[DanoMac]

[CharityStripe34]

When he hurt his knee, it was an unpreventable injury.

This time the injury was highly preventable. That is the big difference. There were signs for 3 games in a row that he was having trouble with that leg as per the injury report. But the med team wrongly thought that he would be fine to play with that injury. And at least in one of those games, Doc wanted to pull him out but didn’t do it and verbally regretted his own decision.

Doc s record was poor in terms of win losses and he thought of that first.

This injury was just before the playoffs started which makes the blame directly on the med team and on Doc.

People can call it 20/20 hindsight...blah blah blah. But there were a bunch of us here posting saying give Giannis a bunch of games off. Even if it meant we ended up in the play-in, I did not care, his health was more important and still is. Losing this series actually might save his career in all honesty. He needs time off.

He’s probably going to play in the Olympics now. Time off. Lol

Not if the calf injury is more serious than they previously realized.

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

Cursed season. Gotta start having some discussions about Giannis being injury prone and it taking away from his legacy

Sounds fun. When I'm old and gray, sitting in the stands with my grandson, pointing to Giannis' jersey in the rafters, right next to at least one championship banner, reminiscing about his discovery of basketball, his journey to America, Milwaukee, the NBA, his family, the MVP's, all the accolades, and the 50-piece in Game 6, I'll be damned if I forget to impart on little bright-eyed Timmy that Giannis was, in fact, "occasionally injured" and had a "frustrating free throw routine."

thats how i describe my favorite player sideny moncrief... except i mention the accolades first then put the injuries more like in the middle and then come back to the accolades at the end. his career became defined by both so its hard not to think about that looking back

[GHOSTofSIKMA]

im not convinced load managing prevents injury as much as it causes it for some guys. definitely a case could be made that for injury prone players its simply irrelevent. theres probably some merit there to some degree but i think the whole discussion is overblown. what ive seen is the guys that load manage the most seem to also stay the most hurt everytime it matters anyway

[msiris]

If we would have beaten the likes of Wasington, Memphis and Toronto at home we could have rested people ( Um Giannis) and still had the 2nd seed.

[rilamann]

I love Giannis and I will forever be grateful for what Giannis has done for the Bucks 1000X over.

But has an all-time great ever self-sabotaged their own career/legacy more than Giannis?

Between never really giving himself an off-season and dictating personnel moves, not knowing when to pick his spots on the court. I feel like he could have accomplished so much more.

When I say pick his spots on the court I mean things like risking serious injury going for chase down blocks in the final 10 seconds of the 4th quarter when we're up by 10+ like he did against the Hornets last season. Or launching himself midair into a stiff like Kevin Love whose only chance to stop you is to undercut you. You're 1000X more athletic than him, why are you doing this?

Or how about last season when we thought Giannis might done for the season because he (again) risked serious injury going for a chase-down block in the 1st quarter of a February game against the horrible Bulls.

On one hand we love that Giannis is a guy who will dive on the floor for a loose ball in a preseason game and we get it, he goes hard all the time. But Jesus Christ man, learn how to pick your spots.

And how many personnel moves that would have improved the team did the Bucks not make because they didn't want to upset Giannis? Relying way too long on an oft injured Middleton, hiring AG ect.

And now Giannis will probably be playing for the Greece team this off-season coming off a potentially very serious injury. If I was the Bucks I would tell Giannis, like hell you are playing for the Greece team this summer. The Greece team are not the ones paying you 45 million a year.

Giannis will turn 30 turn this year and we have him locked up for awhile, it's time to start getting real with him and protect Giannis from Giannis.

[rilamann]

If we would have beaten the likes of Wasington, Memphis and Toronto at home we could have rested people ( Um Giannis) and still had the 2nd seed.

This was the first thing that popped in my head the moment Giannis fell to the floor.

Had we only beaten the the tanking lottery teams in the final weeks of the season, we would have had the #2 seed locked up and Giannis could have literally rested 2-3 weeks before game 1 of the playoffs.

[Neuromancer56]

Khris Middleton has missed playoff games in 1 single season in his NBA career.

1 season. That's it.

But it's the season we needed him the most. (Aside from Championship season)

[Neuromancer56]

We need at least 2 of our Big 3 healthy to make it out of the first round, and we don't have that. If we beat the Pacers today, I have hope. If we lose, it's over.

[msiris]

We need at least 2 of our Big 3 healthy to make it out of the first round, and we don't have that. If we beat the Pacers today, I have hope. If we lose, it's over.

I don't think we can count on Mids anymore. Its just the way it is Body is washed up.

[FrieAaron]

We need at least 2 of our Big 3 healthy to make it out of the first round, and we don't have that. If we beat the Pacers today, I have hope. If we lose, it's over.

I have hope if we win either of the next two. This is contingent on Giannis being able to come back and obviously you don't do that unless the medical team says there's minimal risk

[Neuromancer56]

We need at least 2 of our Big 3 healthy to make it out of the first round, and we don't have that. If we beat the Pacers today, I have hope. If we lose, it's over.

I have hope if we win either of the next two. This is contingent on Giannis being able to come back and obviously you don't do that unless the medical team says there's minimal risk

It doesn't look like Giannis will be available in the first round. Everything hinges on Khris' ankle at this point.

Read on Twitter

[humanrefutation]

We need at least 2 of our Big 3 healthy to make it out of the first round, and we don't have that. If we beat the Pacers today, I have hope. If we lose, it's over.

It definitely isn't over if we lose today. But we need to split these two road games, IMO.

[BigO]

We need at least 2 of our Big 3 healthy to make it out of the first round, and we don't have that. If we beat the Pacers today, I have hope. If we lose, it's over.

Disagree. Need all three healthy. The Bucks without Giannis are like Portland with Dame and Jerami Grant.

[MickeyDavis]

Read on Twitter

[rilamann]

Game 1 proved that the Bucks are still highly capable of winning this series without Giannis if they actually give a solid effort defensively.

But asking this Bucks team to give even just a solid effort defensively is a massive ask.

Especially when the guy who is supposed to lead us (Dame) is a guy who doesn't even try on defense. I get that Dame maybe doesn't have the skills to be a great defender, but the fact that he doesn't even give effort most of the time defensively is what infuriates me.

Dame is a classic example of one of those guys who is a great individual talent and can score the ball and can show out in all star situations.

But having watched Dame play basketball up close 2-3 times a week for almost 7 months now, I can say with great confidence that no team would ever come close to reaching an NBA Finals with Dame as one of their main guys, even if Giannis is your #1 guy.

Dame is a ball dominate volume shooter who has zero interest in playing defense.

The definition of overrated.

[soxperry]

Game 1 proved that the Bucks are still highly capable of winning this series without Giannis if they actually give a solid effort defensively.

But asking this Bucks team to give even just a solid effort defensively is a massive ask.

Especially when the guy who is supposed to lead us (Dame) is a guy who doesn't even try on defense. I get that Dame maybe doesn't have the skills to be a great defender, but the fact that he doesn't even give effort most of the time defensively is what infuriates me.

Dame is a classic example of one of those guys who is a great individual talent and can score the ball and can show out in all star situations.

But having watched Dame play basketball up close 2-3 times a week for almost 7 months now, I can say with great confidence that no team would ever come close to reaching an NBA Finals with Dame as one of their main guys, even if Giannis is your #1 guy.

Dame is a ball dominate volume shooter who has zero interest in playing defense.

The definition of overrated.

Im trying to find the words to reply to this statement without being disrespectful...

cant be done

[fan230]

As someone wrote: Giannis has played this season the most minutes game load wise since he was 23. I always thought about this high minutes through the whole this season; i didn’t like it at all & this was absolutely because we had the coaches we did, Griff and Doc!

[MickeyDavis]

Let's win this damn game