2023 NBA Playoffs

Cellar-Door

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Aug 1, 2006
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Willing to give Giannis a pass given he's hurt... but they are gonna have to can Bud.
1. Left a TO in his pocket in regulation
2. Left TWO timeouts in his pocket in OT
3. Not only has Grayson Allen on the floor for the final play... somehow he ends up with it instead of one of the 3 stars?
4. Wes Matthews was the only guy defending Butler well... Bud goes back to Jure (great defender, not the matchup for him) and he got torched over and over.
5. Their halfcourt offense makes the Celtics look like the Warriors, super stale and static.
 

lars10

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Not to sound like whiny Bucks fans, but let's not forget Giannis missed two+ games in that series - it's weird people are acting like it was a straight up match. And no, Tyler Herro is not equivalent to Giannis. Heat also lucked out in this scenario.
Yeah.. but I also wonder how well Giannis would have done full strength.. looked like he had no idea how to get to the hoop in the games he did play.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
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Giannis’ ability to draw fouls at will is neutralized when he shoots free throws as poorly as he did tonight.
 

TripleOT

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No doubt. I think Allen's mistake was not knowing how much time was on the clock. He got the ball with maybe two seconds on the clock. He had to shoot that right away.
I don’t think Miami is all that scary. They were a better team last season, and a Celtics squad that was not as good as this year’s team outplayed them.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Three weeks from now, when the Nuggets cruise to the finals, everyone is going to be like, oh, yeah, they were in the playoffs too, weren’t they? They are pretty good.
 

lars10

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I don’t think Miami is all that scary. They were a better team last season, and a Celtics squad that was not as good as this year’s team outplayed them.
I kinda feel like Milwaukee without Giannis is a deeply flawed team.. if he's not 100% that team is probably a four or five seed at best? And if Middleton is toast then they're even worse. If you think about it.. who do you fear on that team other than Giannis?
 

lars10

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Three weeks from now, when the Nuggets cruise to the finals, everyone is going to be like, oh, yeah, they were in the playoffs too, weren’t they? They are pretty good.
I definitely think they're the team to beat in the West.. Jokic is scary good and they play a great team game.
 

timelysarcasm

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Yeah.. but I also wonder how well Giannis would have done full strength.. looked like he had no idea how to get to the hoop in the games he did play.
He looked tentative to me. And then when he started missing free throws he got in his head about taking control.

Middleton and Holiday are the GOATs in my opinion. Butler cooked Holiday so many times, and neither of those two were willing or able to step up when the Bucks needed buckets or help get Giannis going downhill (he was awful in the post up).

The Celtics need to take care of business tomorrow.
 

HomeRunBaker

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People complain about CJM as Budenholzer forgot he had a TO at the end of regulation to advance the ball w 2.1 sec on the clock.
 

Euclis20

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Not to sound like whiny Bucks fans, but let's not forget Giannis missed two+ games in that series - it's weird people are acting like it was a straight up match. And no, Tyler Herro is not equivalent to Giannis. Heat also lucked out in this scenario.

It was surprising to see Jrue Holiday look like a deer in headlights and it seemed no one on the Bucks wanted any part of winning the game at the end. Someone needed to step up and they didn't. It was a stark contrast to Butler shouldering his team with Lowry, Adebayo, and the corpse of Kevin Love all fouled out.
They were down 1-2 when he came back, and were reasonably solid favorites entering game 4 (-198). Then they a 14 point 4th quarter lead in game 4, followed by blowing a 16 point 4th quarter lead in game 5. The Heat capitalized with Giannis out, but the Bucks still had their shot, and absolutely choked it away.


That’s what ball movement and non-iso basketball looks like in the final seconds against NBA playoff defenders. Bye bye Bucks.
+1. If the Bucks weren't going to call timeout, Giannis needed to keep running and bull his way to the rim, but he was terrified of getting fouled. Middleton needed to take a jump shot (and a 2nd OT would have been more than fine for them with Miami missing multiple players), and for some reason, didn't. He's big enough to get his shot over just about any wing, but he felt the pressure as much as any of the Bucks.
 

ehaz

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If anyone didn’t think Spoelstra was the best coach in the NBA, well…

Besides Jimmy the Heat are the definition of plumbers and firemen.
 

lars10

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He has? They don;t have 5 better? Then just my Duke hate talking. Apologies.
His college game has moved to the NBA.. it's not particularly impressive and he's still.. petulant. But if you really think about it.. the Bucks aren't all that deep.
 

lars10

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He looked tentative to me. And then when he started missing free throws he got in his head about taking control.

Middleton and Holiday are the GOATs in my opinion. Butler cooked Holiday so many times, and neither of those two were willing or able to step up when the Bucks needed buckets or help get Giannis going downhill (he was awful in the post up).

The Celtics need to take care of business tomorrow.
I personally think Middleton is cooked. He's not the same shooter he was.. and without that he's pretty average.
 

TripleOT

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I kinda feel like Milwaukee without Giannis is a deeply flawed team.. if he's not 100% that team is probably a four or five seed at best? And if Middleton is toast then they're even worse. If you think about it.. who do you fear on that team other than Giannis?
I felt that the Celtics matched up very well with Milwaukee, and I thought they could handle them in five or six games. Assuming Boston gets past the Hawks, they might catch a break with Embiid and his annual playoff injury and have an easier path to the Finals than the WC victor. To me, the Knick’s are the biggest conference threat to Boston.
 

Mystic Merlin

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Not sure where Milwaukee goes from here. Assuming Middleton picks up his 40M player option and Lopez re-signs, they’ll have the same core back with little in the way of draft capital and no clear path to adding talent in FA/trade.
 

lars10

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If anyone didn’t think Spoelstra was the best coach in the NBA, well…

Besides Jimmy the Heat are the definition of plumbers and firemen.
Ok.. explain to me what he did tonite that was so special. Other than the fact that his team won.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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I definitely think they're the team to beat in the West.. Jokic is scary good and they play a great team game.
Everyone seems to have the Suns as an obvious favorite to beat the Nuggets, but they must see something I don’t. I don’t think the Suns have the depth.

Maybe it goes like people are expecting, but I have a feeling the Nuggets are going to announce their presence in a serious way in the next week or two.
 

timelysarcasm

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They were down 1-2 when he came back, and were reasonably solid favorites entering game 4 (-198). Then they a 14 point 4th quarter lead in game 4, followed by blowing a 16 point 4th quarter lead in game 5. The Heat capitalized with Giannis out, but the Bucks still had their shot, and absolutely choked it away.
He missed two full games and most of the first, and I don't think he was quite the same after the injury. The Heat got some breaks in that series. That being said, I never saw the Bucks as some big, scary juggernaut. The Celtics beat the brakes off of them last month.

Everyone seems to have the Suns as an obvious favorite to beat them, but they must see something I don’t. I don’t think the Suns have the depth.

Maybe it goes like people are expecting, but I have a feeling the Nuggets are going to announce their presence in a serious way in the next week or two.
Hard agree. The Suns defense is sus, their bench stinks and GSW is not a finals team. I think it will be the Nuggets.
 

Ale Xander

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Suns need 40-40-20 from Durant Booker CP imho

they’re not that deep and Denver’s going to score 120 every game
 

lars10

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I felt that the Celtics matched up very well with Milwaukee, and I thought they could handle them in five or six games. Assuming Boston gets past the Hawks, they might catch a break with Embiid and his annual playoff injury and have an easier path to the Finals than the WC victor. To me, the Knick’s are the biggest conference threat to Boston.
What's nice is that Miami have to play NY.. I do think that Philly shouldn't be able to stay with the Celtics.. no team should really. Hopefully Joe makes the right tweaks and the C's shoot well for the next few weeks. If they lose two more to Atlanta it will be the most shocking upset in recent sports history.
 

radsoxfan

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Not to sound like whiny Bucks fans, but let's not forget Giannis missed two+ games in that series - it's weird people are acting like it was a straight up match. And no, Tyler Herro is not equivalent to Giannis. Heat also lucked out in this scenario.
I hate to get on guys for not playing through injuries since we often don't know the whole story from the outside.

But if Giannis missed 2.5 playoff games with a bruised butt... let's call a spade a spade. That's weird. I am shocked he didn't get back out there until game 4.

I don't think they treated the series with enough urgency and once they got down they couldn't turn it around.
 

jmcc5400

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What's nice is that Miami have to play NY.. I do think that Philly shouldn't be able to stay with the Celtics.. no team should really. Hopefully Joe makes the right tweaks and the C's shoot well for the next few weeks. If they lose two more to Atlanta it will be the most shocking upset in recent sports history.
Since tonight.
 

lars10

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Everyone seems to have the Suns as an obvious favorite to beat the Nuggets, but they must see something I don’t. I don’t think the Suns have the depth.

Maybe it goes like people are expecting, but I have a feeling the Nuggets are going to announce their presence in a serious way in the next week or two.
Yeah.. the Suns are the darlings right now because of their three stars.. but the honey badger Nuggets dgaf
 

Cellar-Door

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Yeah Giannis missing 2 games is bad, but.....
you're the 1 seed. And the Heat are an 8 seed who lost their 3rd best player for the series, then lost his replacement.

This was an enormous choke job.
 

Euclis20

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It's fun to rip on Allen, but expecting him to make the right play there is like expecting Grant Williams to win that game against Utah when they handed him the ball as the clock ran down. He's not capable of getting a good shot off in that situation (covered behind the 3 point line with 2.4 seconds remaining), his absolutely only move should have been to pass it right back to Middleton (who was flashing back behind the 3 point line) and let him take a contested 3 that would've had maybe a 25% chance of going in. The more I'm letting this breath, that last play was all Middleton. They just knew that Giannis couldn't create the shot by himself with the entire heat team between him and the basket, this is supposed to be what Middleton does.

He missed two full games and most of the first, and I don't think he was quite the same after the injury. The Heat got some breaks in that series. That being said, I never saw the Bucks as some big, scary juggernaut. The Celtics beat the brakes off of them last month.

Hard agree. The Suns defense is sus, their bench stinks and GSW is not a finals team. I think it will be the Nuggets.
Agreed on the Bucks never being a juggernaut. Their net rating was essentially identical to last year, yet they won 7 more games. Giannis missed more time and was less efficient than in years past, and Middleton being healthy was never a given.

I think that if Giannis was 100% for the full series they probably win, but at the same time, I can't blame the loss on his injury (I don't know if that makes any sense). He may not have been 100% when he came back, but over these two games he averaged 32/15/8 and shot 53% from the field. Those are monster numbers, better than any playoff run he's ever had. His play wasn't the difference.
 

Ed Hillel

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Watching that Butler game tying play again…man he just shoved the guy lol. Awesome.
 

Jed Zeppelin

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In all the Miami highlights I saw a fuckton of plays where Jimmy did not bring the ball up and was instead making back cuts, getting open on screens, etc. Makes ya think!