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


beekay414

Who represents the East in the NBA Finals  

44 members have voted

  1. 1. Who represents the East in the NBA Finals

    • (1) Milwaukee Bucks
    • (3) Philadelphia 76ers
    • (2) Toronto Raptors


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3 minutes ago, areksoo said:

What about game 4?  Or did you completely block that out of your memory?

Well, you clearly didn't read what you quoted earlier. Go back and reread the original post of mine.

P.S. I'm not a Bucks fan. I don't care about either of these teams.

Edited by jrry32
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3 minutes ago, champ11 said:

Lmao I know you miss 2015 like we all do. Milwaukee is a great team. But they might not have the clutch time chops. That’s an issue when you blow everyone out all year. 

We got some 2015 and 2016 feels right now lol. 

Yeah, the Bucks go to guy in the clutch is Middleton. Not bad, but you would always like your star to be that guy or at least a factor down the stretch. Pretty sure Giannis had solid clutch stats in the regular season but they weren't even looking for him at all today or either in game 3. 

But game 6, let's  go!!! Going to be pretty damn intense. 

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6 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

To be fair, Siakam wasn't even close to 100 percent after getting a bad calf contusion in PHI game 4, he was literally one-legged.  He's just starting to get healthy now.  He's still got a pretty shaky outside game, but he's improved so much.  I can see why he gets Most Improved Player consideration, I remember he was sushi raw last year.

Yeah, but it seemed like something more than that. He seemed afraid to have the ball in his hands.

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I don't know if ppl covered this, but Giannis turned his ankle pretty good with about a min to go.  If it's a LAS, he *should* be good to go next game.

But if he's not close to 95+ percent, man, that's a tough go for MIL.   Bears watching early on Saturday.

P.S.  Before anyone misunderstands, by this time the game was lost IMO.   So not suggesting any impact tonight, but for game 6 going forward.

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1 minute ago, Broncofan said:

I don't know if ppl covered this, but Giannis turned his ankle pretty good with about a min to go.  If it's a LAS, he *should* be good to go next game.

But if he's not close to 95+ percent, man, that's a tough go for MIL.   Bears watching early on Saturday.

P.S.  Before anyone misunderstands, by this time the game was lost IMO.   So not suggesting any impact tonight, but for game 6 going forward.

I doubt that's anything serious.

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10 minutes ago, jrry32 said:

Yeah, but it seemed like something more than that. He seemed afraid to have the ball in his hands.

Siakam's not a pure shooter, he's just so improved from last year, you give him an open look, he's actually decent.  But he's not a guy who you want to be playing the perimeter game.  He's got to be an attacker.  PHI posed real problems when Embild was in there, and now the MIL length poses real issues, too.   You take away even 5 percent of Siakam's athletic explosion, it really limits his ability to create - we saw that tonight.   His stroke was off - but he played great D and he cleaned up with big inside points when they needed it. The guy who has been a complete ghost until Game 4 the entire playoffs was VanVleet.  To say he's been clutch the last 2 games is an understatement.    The confidence he's showing is literally 180 degrees from the entire PHI series and games 1-3 this series.

The other part that's probably not getting enough press - how good Siakam & Gasol's D was today.  MIL was killing TOR inside, and early in the 1H, they were dominant inside.   Gasol and Siakam really stepped up inside in the 2H.   It's crazy that Siakam couldn't hit anything outside, and Gasol/Ibaka were complete non-factors on O - but the TOR D really clamped down in the 2H.

And for all the bad press Lowry has for his past playoff failures (and TBH a lot of it is earned), he's playing really well right now - but he's clearly hurting, that left wrist makes him so 1-handed right now (it's crazy he was on fire game 4 TBH).  To have VanVleet give those minutes AND be the assassin from outside...well, if TOR gets a similar effort on D for Game 6 and gets those 1-2 bench guys and 2 of Lowry/Siakam/Gasol to show up, man, it looks like a GS-TOR final.   Still, TOR's been in this situation before and come up short.  The bigger Q is how MIL responds...first time all year they've lost 3 games in a row, let alone to the same team.   

Edited by Broncofan
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Bucks should do something like the Cavs did with Kyrie setting a back screen for Love at the elbow and the ball at the other elbow. With Giannis as Love and whoever Lowry or FVV is guarding as the screener so they either have to switch a PG onto Giannis or get a pretty open three waiting for the help getting back into position. 

Just use the PGs as screeners for Giannis ala the Cavs whole strategy in the playoffs.

Edited by 11sanchez11
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1 minute ago, 11sanchez11 said:

Bucks should do something like the Cavs did with Kyrie setting a back screen for Love at the elbow and the ball at the other elbow. With Giannis as Love and whoever Lowry or FVV is guarding as the screener so they either have to switch a PG onto Giannis or get a pretty open three waiting for the help getting back into position. 

Just use the PGs as screeners for Giannis ala the Cavs whole strategy in the playoffs.

Or they have Giannis' defender go under the screen and dare him to shoot treys. 

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46 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.

It just took a few more games for the series to be over.  The Bucks with everything on the line couldn't hold home court so I doubt they'll go to Toronto and force a game 7.

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18 minutes ago, 11sanchez11 said:

I'm talking about setting backscreens or cross screens for Giannis to go into the post. Not him as a ballhandler in the pnr.

To be fair, though, Giannis with his back to the basket IMO plays into TOR's hands.   I don't follow hoops nearly as much as all of you, but Giannis' postup game isn't anywhere near his transition game.   If you're talking about freeing up so he can get into the paint facing the basket, I hear you, but Siakam's length and Gasol & Leonard's anticipation are so good, it's easier said than done.   They sniff out the back / cross screens and back cuts really well.  It's only when Giannis is screaming at them in transition or open court that their rotation breaks down.  

I do think TOR's D goes unrecognized.   The guards are the mismatch posted up - but that's where MIL doesn't have as much game.   When Anunoby is in the rotation, that's a sick D, such quickness on the perimeter and great footwork/rotation inside.   Gasol had an awful night on O - but he, Siakam and Leonard were dialed in on D tonight (Ibaka too).   It's the main reason why they hung around in the 3Q, honestly when MIL was up 12, I thought the blowout was coming.   But the D buckled down.  REALLY impressed there.

Edited by Broncofan
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I got so used to LeBron dominating the East that seeing this year's playoffs has been so fun. The Raptors were so close to going down 3-1 to the Sixers. They were so close to going into OT in game 7 and who knows what would've happened there. They were down 2-0 in this series. What this playoffs are showing me is how close the Bucks, Raptors, and Sixers were to each other and how the East is in for fun times post-LeBron. 

I just hope whoever wins this series *at least* makes the Finals a fun series vs GSW, if they don't just straight up win. 

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13 minutes ago, Broncofan said:

To be fair, though, Giannis with his back to the basket IMO plays into TOR's hands.   I don't follow hoops nearly as much as all of you, but Giannis' postup game isn't anywhere near his transition game.   If you're talking about freeing up so he can get into the paint facing the basket, I hear you, but Siakam's length and Gasol & Leonard's anticipation are so good, it's easier said than done.   They sniff out the back / cross screens and back cuts really well.  It's only when Giannis is screaming at them in transition or open court that their rotation breaks down.  

I do think TOR's D goes unrecognized.   The guards are the mismatch posted up - but that's where MIL doesn't have as much game.   When Anunoby is in the rotation, that's a sick D, such quickness on the perimeter and great footwork/rotation inside.   Gasol had an awful night on O - but he, Siakam and Leonard were dialed in on D tonight (Ibaka too).   It's the main reason why they hung around in the 3Q, honestly when MIL was up 12, I thought the blowout was coming.   But the D buckled down.  REALLY impressed there.

it's not really for postups, unless they switch Lowry or FVV onto him. It's more to get open layups/dunks from Giannis' defender being out of position for a split second. Or open threes because the PG defender has to hold Giannis until his man gets back into position. Stuff like this:

 

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