2019 East Finals | (1) Milwaukee Bucks vs (2) Toronto Raptors (TOR leads 3-2)

[dtait93]

Disappointed the Bucks always seemed to let Toronto get an offensive board every time they couldn’t afford to.

[titans0021]

You surround Giannis with shooters so that teams can’t put four players in the paint whenever he drives. There’s not a ton that can be done when those shooters proceed to brick 1000 open threes and enable an entire roster to collapse on one player.

The Bucks best 3-pt shooter tonight was Giannis. The Bucks second all-star took a dump all over the floor on both ends and just stood there and flinched at the basketball on the most important rebound of the game.

[J-ALL-DAY]

Really excited to see Giannis with his back against the wall though. First time he's having legit expectations with his squad being true title contenders. He's going to win the MVP so let's see what he can do in games 6 and 7. 

[jrry32]

Wow. I thought this series was over after the Bucks dominated the first two games and the Raptors needed every bounce to eke out game 3. This is a shocker.

[jrry32]

8 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

But really man he doesn't have a game built for that. Most of these clutch shots when the game slows down will come from the perimeter. He's not going to hit you up with a step back or pull up from the perimeter. He's straight trying to take it to the rack regardless of how many defenders are at the rim. 

That's why I wasn't buying Giannis as the best player in basketball right now. That's KD. When it comes down to it, give me the guy who is almost impossible to defend.

[J-ALL-DAY]

2 minutes ago, champ11 said:

Yeah I mean this is what we been worried about w Giannis. He needs to become a post player. They didn’t even try to feed him. Not a fan of how that went down for MKE

He will have to develop some type of perimeter game really just hit the block. Dude is super young, and has been getting better every single season. But the moment of truth was always going to be in these close games in the playoffs when the Bucks were unable to blow the opponent out. You seem a bit surprised, but not like in game 1 or game 3 when the games were coming down to the wire, Giannis was making any plays down the stretch. Lopez won them game 1 and Middleton was the one making big shots in game 3. 

7 minutes ago, 11sanchez11 said:

he had 9 points in the first 5 minutes, so I guess that's why it didn't feel like it lol

Yeah, I didn't even watch the first half so this makes sense because dude wasn't doing anything when I was watching lol.

 

[Blackstar12]

 

[J-ALL-DAY]

2 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

That's why I wasn't buying Giannis as the best player in basketball right now. That's KD. When it comes down to it, give me the guy who is almost impossible to defend.

Giannis was phenomenal this season no doubt, but yeah going with a guy like KD who is good enough all around and has a far superior one on one game. But dude has time to change it around, so let's see what he will do.

6 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

Wow. I thought this series was over after the Bucks dominated the first two games and the Raptors needed every bounce to eke out game 3. This is a shocker.

I thought the Raptors still had a shot. Slight chance, but they were in control of most of the game in games 1 and 3. They kind of blew it in game 1 and then the Bucks just destroyed them in game 2. But the Bucks were looking like a juggernaut, 2012 Spurs-esque. It looked even MORE impossible for that Thunder team to come back and they won four straight games. This is a far less surprise to me. 

[resilient part 2]

OK I have said it for a few years already, KD = top player.

This year Giannis is "best to build around"

But Kawhi knocking on both doors now.

[Broncofan]

After the PHI series there was no way that TOR was winning this series unless the bench actually showed up, and it couldn't be just the Kawhi show from the starting 5.   After Game 2, it wasn't looking good at all.  Then, the improbable happened - both elements TOR needed showed up.

Game 3 - Powell's 19 pts were clutch, and Gasol/Siakam showed up (and other than the missed FT's that could have prevented OT, the breaks went TOR's way).

Game 4 - Powell again with 18, and Ibaka/Van Vleet combined for 30+ pts, and this time Lowry joined Gasol with a huge game.   

Tonight - VanVleet was unbelievably clutch with 21 on 7 3-pointers...and Siakam's double-double was also clutch (although his outside game is ice-cold).   A game where Ibaka, Gasol & Green did nothing.   But the D was suffocating inside.

After Game 1, I didn't know if TOR had it in them to get a road W, they ran out of gas in a really winnable game.   Tonight, they didn't fold when MIL tried to run them off the court in the 1Q and 3Q.   It's tough to see them beat GS for more than 1-2 games...but man, you can't deny that they're doing a great job of exorcising their playoff choke artist labels.   Kawhi is just out of this world right now.   Hard to argue that he's not the toughest guy to defend in a playoff game format (KD being the obvious other guy).  

If TOR pulls out a home W, it really pays off the go-for-it move to get Kawhi, and you have to think he'll be tempted to return.    On the flip side, man I feel bad if the MIL team starts to break up - they're truly just a secondary piece away and their length poses such a problem for most teams, including GS.   But it's hard to knock what TOR has done.   Amazing.

Edited May 24, 2019 by Broncofan

[BillsGuy82]

12 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

Wow. I thought this series was over after the Bucks dominated the first two games and the Raptors needed every bounce to eke out game 3. This is a shocker.

They had one of the highest scoring benches during the season than ranked dead last heading into this series and contributed nothing first couple games

Something was gonna change

[El Ramster]

Raps should have won game 1.. Series should have been over.. 

[El Ramster]

5 minutes ago, BillsGuy82 said:

They had one of the highest scoring benches during the season than ranked dead last heading into this series and contributed nothing first couple games

Something was gonna change

Bench play is less important IMO come playoffs.. Starters play super heavy mins anyways.. 

Ehhh except that it was the death of the pacers in the vogel era.. Our starters would kill the opposing team.. But there were

3-4 min runs where the bench squad couldn't buy a bucket.. 

Edited May 24, 2019 by El ramster

[Broncofan]

1 minute ago, BillsGuy82 said:

They had one of the highest scoring benches during the season than ranked dead last heading into this series and contributed nothing first couple games

Something was gonna change

Since OG Abunoby went down, it really screwed with their rotation - the bench was pretty nonexistent for almost the entire PHI series (weren't really needed for ORL).    If Powell doesn't show up Game 3, TOR's probably already out.   But ever since they got Powell going, suddenly VanVleet has found his stroke.  And Ibaka/Gasol weren't great tonight, but they've done a good job of clogging up the middle and forcing MIL's shooters to beat them, while the perimeter D for TOR has been much better.   

[areksoo]

14 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

Wow. I thought this series was over after the Bucks dominated the first two games and the Raptors needed every bounce to eke out game 3. This is a shocker.

Yeah except that's not what happened.

 

Bucks stole game 1.  Raptors stole game 5.

Bucks blew out game 2.  Raptors blew out game 4.

Game 3 was a double OT where Raptors got the better of it.

 

This series is really very much right down the middle.