2019 NBA Catch-All - It’s Fantastic

Nah. The problem is he's a bully who punches down and, surprise surprise, can't handle emotions when stuff doesn't go his way.

I'm all for him crying and showing emotions. He should embrace some of that in having empathy for others and not be a bully.

And, for the record, I feel like his brand of trash talk is just mean spirited and comes from his own insecurities, contrasted with guys like Gary Payton that could dish and take it, too.

Pretty sure he punches all over and not just down but ok.

TheGameguru wrote:
Prederick wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:

So when you win its ok to be a jerk? but not when you lose? Got it.

no, just take it on the chin. Russ did, Joell didn't.

What?? You seriously are upset he showed emotion after a 7 game series that came down to the final shot?? All because he is outspoken and talks trash. Wtf....

I don't think "laughing at Embiid" qualifies as "upset".

Again, he's a troll. He loves trolling. He gets to be a troll. If you're going to be a troll, don't dissolve into a puddle when it goes against you. Gary Payton wouldn't, and that is the trolling, trash-talking King.

EDIT: Also, I should make clear, if it's Embiid hitting that shot, and a Raptor is crying afterwards, Embiid would've been meme-ing it on Instagram for weeks.

Ah yes, because men shouldn't ever show emotion when sh*t happens.

Not the point I'm making, but I think we've beaten this subject into the dirt by now.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, Joel Embiid's new avatar on Twitter:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1128806373725286400/oIC74g0a_400x400.jpg)

I take it back, Embiid is good again. He is a true master of this.

Not expecting much out of the Raptors tonight, or in this series. Anunoby's still out so the bench is weak, Lopez or Giannis on Siakam should be able to do what Embiid did last series defensively. Going to need the non-Kawhi starters to step up.

Prederick wrote:

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, Joel Embiid's new avatar on Twitter:

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1128806373725286400/oIC74g0a_400x400.jpg)

I take it back, Embiid is good again. He is a true master of this.

That's fun to see. I didn't think Embiid's on top of his conditioning at the best of times and the injury/illnesses obviously hampered him but the dude still managed to have a big positive influence on the last series even if he didn't have it going offensively. If Philly had had one decent backup centre they'd be playing the Bucks tonight.

The loss could be good for Embiid long-term, assuming his knees hold up, if it gets him to get on top of his nutrition and conditioning.

Raptors are going to regret losing that one, it was there for them to win and I'd expect Giannis to be more productive and the Bucks to shoot better going forward. Immense games from Brook Lopez and Lowry.

Thought Gasol looked gassed in the 4th quarter after starting the game well. Played 45 minutes 2 3 days ago so 40 minutes tonight was probably too much. Ibaka only played 17.

I’m going to say fatigue played a role. Kawhi was a husk in the 4th. Bucks just play their game and wear teams down or blow them out. Been watching this all year.

BROOK LOPEZ, DINOSAUR KILLER

Lopez was only 4-11 from 3 also. Lowry was fantastic. The knock on the Bucks by the talking heads, most of whom watched a handful of Bucks games all year, was "what will they do when the 3s don't fall?" and that they are too reliant on 3s. They do what they have all year. Destroy teams at both ends in the restricted area. Sure if they shoot 25% from 3, they have a chance of losing, but when they hit their 3s at even an average rate, they tend to blow teams out.

I have no clue why Nurse only played Ibaka 17 minutes. Four Raptors played >40 minutes again, with Green at 35. The bench totals 40 minutes across 3 players. Bucks basically played their regular rotation of 9 (and rested Giannis in the 4th), low to mid 30s for 4 players and mid 20s for 3 players. Connaughton even got 11 minutes with Brogdon back (and got 6 boards). In all, their bench played 79 minutes. Toronto just looks tired. I wonder if Friday will get ugly. Toronto is really good and plays with pride, but it would not shock me.

This recap did a good job summing things up:

Spoiler:

What makes this particularly deflating for the Raptors isn’t that they had the game in hand and frittered it away. It’s that Lowry’s heroics nearly allowed them to steal a game they might not have had much business winning. After a first quarter in which Toronto played about as well as it could, the Bucks locked into their game and started controlling the proceedings, outscoring the Raptors 85-66 after the opening 12 minutes despite shooting just 42.4 percent from the field. (If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because you tuned into the Celtics series.)

Even with Toronto packing the paint to prevent Giannis Antetokounmpo from penetrating, the Raptors allowed the Bucks to go 20-for-34 inside the restricted area Wednesday. The Raptors, on the other hand, took just 17 shots at the rim and made only nine, as Milwaukee’s swarming defense locked down the lane. The Bucks shot just 11-for-44 from long range, but a ton of those looks were clean; on 34 of the 44, the shooter was wide-open, with at least 6 feet of space to fire, according to NBA.com/Stats. Milwaukee created higher-quality looks all night, dominating both in transition and on the offensive glass. Toronto started strong, but over the full 48 minutes, the sheer force of Antetokounmpo’s play—24 points on 7-for-16 shooting, 14 rebounds, six assists, three blocks, and two steals in 37 minutes—broke down the Raptors.

It's weird how "easy" teams are finding it to shut down Giannis in the first games of these series. What adjustments are the Bucks making that allows them to eventually counter this? I've followed their series', but not as closely.

DSGamer wrote:

It's weird how "easy" teams are finding it to shut down Giannis in the first games of these series. What adjustments are the Bucks making that allows them to eventually counter this? I've followed their series', but not as closely.

I don't think he has been, outside of Boston Game 1. Last night, he went 24/14/6 on 16 shot attempts with 2 steals and 3 blocks. Giannis plays team ball not hero ball. His "gravity" helped create wide open shots for everyone else. From the article I quoted above:

"The Bucks shot just 11-for-44 from long range, but a ton of those looks were clean; on 34 of the 44, the shooter was wide-open, with at least 6 feet of space to fire, according to NBA.com/Stats."

34 of 44 wide open shots. If Toronto's game plan is to continue to collapse on Giannis and hope Milwaukee continues to shoot in the mid to low 20s for a chance to win, Giannis will keep kicking to wide open shooters, pushing the pace off rebounds in transition, and be happy with being shut down with 24/15/6 stat lines and Defensive MVP level defense.

Vs Detroit in game 1, he went 24/17/4 and a +30 in only 23 minutes in a nearly 40 point blow out.

Boston did a great job. Absolutely. Horford Is probably the best defender Giannis faces. Bucks went to more pick actions to get mismatches in later games and varied where he started on offence (more wing that on ball center) which made it more difficult to "set up the wall" against him. More importantly, Bucks changed their defensive approach, forced more missed, and ran more aggressively in transition before the defense could set up. But he also is very good and figuring someone out. Keep running the same thing against him and he finds a weakness. He did vs. Boston and Horford. Best thing is to keep changing it up.

The pace last night was blistering. The best way to slow Milwaukee's offense is to make shots so they can't transition.

Oh, I know they don't really "stop" him overall. I just mean that I didn't see the first half of these first games, so I literally don't know what they're doing differently that allows them to slow him down in terms of scoring. Is it literally just dropping guys back?

DSGamer wrote:

Oh, I know they don't really "stop" him overall. I just mean that I didn't see the first half of these first games, so I literally don't know what they're doing differently that allows them to slow him down in terms of scoring. Is it literally just dropping guys back?

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6tOnh6W4AAnNjT.jpg)
Pretty much. They try to keep a minimum of 2 and up to 4 defenders within help defense range. When done well, it is as if there is a string connecting all of the defenders. Last night, Giannis actually scored the first 6 and had 9 of the first 13. The Bucks just missed a shed load of open shots. It feels like they have gotten off to slow 1st quarter starts all year, though I am not sure the actually numbers would back that up. They have been a fantastic halftime adjustment team, though. Toronto won the first quarter by 11, Bucks the next two (by one in each) then stomped them in the 4th.

The long layoff before both the Boston and Toronto series may have impacted their shooting. The difference from Boston to Toronto was this time, they did not let it affect the rest of their game.

Wrong thread.

Well that strategy is a sure fire way to make sure that 3 other players will have completely open looks. And it is also a major factor into why you whole team will be gassed in the 4th. (collapsing in and out of the key puts a lot more wear and tear when your opponent is just spotting up)

Near the end of the 2nd quarter I decided I needed something uplifting instead of watching the rest of the blowout so I continued my re-read of Game of Thrones.

Bucks are something to watch with the shots falling, their defence getting all sorts of stops, and running in transition off those stops. I should have made an effort to watch more of them this season.

Roke wrote:

Near the end of the 2nd quarter I decided I needed something uplifting instead of watching the rest of the blowout so I continued my re-read of Game of Thrones.

Bucks are something to watch with the shots falling, their defence getting all sorts of stops, and running in transition off those stops. I should have made an effort to watch more of them this season.

The have been fabulous all year. Very unselfish. And they shot under 31% from 3 in the game. The games they hit 40%+?

bhchrist wrote:
Roke wrote:

Near the end of the 2nd quarter I decided I needed something uplifting instead of watching the rest of the blowout so I continued my re-read of Game of Thrones.

Bucks are something to watch with the shots falling, their defence getting all sorts of stops, and running in transition off those stops. I should have made an effort to watch more of them this season.

The have been fabulous all year. Very unselfish. And they shot under 31% from 3 in the game. The games they hit 40%+?

Bucks hitting 40%+ in a game this series will be an extinction-level event.

Roke wrote:

Near the end of the 2nd quarter I decided I needed something uplifting instead of watching the rest of the blowout so I continued my re-read of Game of Thrones.

*Spits coffee*

3rd quarter Warriors doing their thing. 29-13. Wow.

I think it's great Dame's showing off the exact pair of sneakers you'd want to be wearing if you're trapped in a blizzard.

2OT but Raptors pulled it out. Wow.

That was a game in which Giannis had trouble scoring.

R.I.P. The Eastern Conference for years to come.

Also, I don’t know whether Bud is this much of a genius or LeBron this terrible of a teammate, but the revival of George Hill is pretty amazing.

Good game to the Raptors, though. I’m just stunned that the Bucks took them to 2OT with that game.

DSGamer wrote:

That was a game in which Giannis had trouble scoring.

He's amazing to watch. You see several drives each game where there's literally no way of stopping him from getting to the hoop. God help the NBA if he figures out how to reliably shoot 35%+ from 3.

Total scoring struggle for GA. Defensive MVP effort at least. Still dished for 7 assists that could have probably been double with halfway decent shooting. The turnovers by he and Bledsoe were crushers along with a lot of missed FTs. Credit Toronto for the TOs. Toronto worked harder than Milwaukee for the first time this series, it felt.

Pretty crappy game, other than it went to double OT. I felt Toronto would get one of these games but still feel pretty good about Bucks in 5.

Of course Seth Curry's the best defender on Steph; he's had a lifetime of practice.

Yeah, Bucks/Raptors, take your time with that.