PG: Indy Game 1 - Bucks Take Opener

theFireBlanket · Post #101 » by **theFireBlanket** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:27 am

Damn, Rone. Carrying belt 4 ass. :lol:

Baddy Chuck · Post #102 » by **Baddy Chuck** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 4:33 am

ShootingtheJ wrote:
MickeyDavis wrote:
ShootingtheJ wrote:
Too bad Beasley was routinely embarrassed on defense, while Green became the 1st Buck ever to successfully defend TJ.

Green played 6 minutes, McConnell played 18, going 5-13. it wasn't just Green

Yup, TJ was able to hit some buckets against Beas.

Beasley played 29 minutes, Green played 6. McConnell had 3 baskets on Beasley and 1 on Green. Pacers shot 5/13 being guarded by Beasley. Hell, if Beasley came in and missed 3 straight wide open corner threes like AJ you'd hammer those nails on the cross so hard it wouldn't be funny. He was the secondary defender on Haliburton who scored 2 points on him. Beasley was fine tonight and that's a good sign.

Karsenmitsche · Post #103 » by **Karsenmitsche** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:01 am

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=ddAiiE29NVvKq9tn5tKPIQ

percent chance our crowd wears them? i’ll give it 1%

theFireBlanket · Post #104 » by **theFireBlanket** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 5:10 am

Patty C with a Sam Cassell big ball performance too. Helluva game from everyone. Improve on it Tuesday!

emunney · Post #105 » by **emunney** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 6:08 am

Thought Green's defense was good but it was weird how badly he was missing everything to the right. That's not like him.

RiotPunch · Post #106 » by **RiotPunch** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 6:52 am

old skool · Post #107 » by **old skool** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:05 am

Lillard was great in the first half, but his one-man offense led to a stagnant Bucks attack. Only 3 team assists in the first quarter.

Middleton was great in the second half, leading the Bucks in scoring in both the 3rd and 4th quarters. He scored 8 of the Bucks 14 3rd quarter points.

I thought Green played an appropriate number of minutes. He is a great 3-point shooter, but he contributes little else. 5:30 minutes, 0 assists, 0 rebounds, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 1 foul, 0 turnovers. Decent defense, but nothing extraordinary, imo.

Beasely got roasted a couple of times, but contributed to the overall defensive effort. In 29-minutes, his stat line was similar to Green's with lots of zeros, but he had 4 rebounds and 9 points. His shooting was not clutch, as much as it was timely - his 6 4th quarter points were second highest on the Bucks.

Rivers ran some odd five man units. Lots of 3 guard units. Once he had 4 forwards and Lillard. Post game, Rivers said that the Bucks failed to execute some defensive actions in the second half giving him "proof" that those defensive actions were needed. As if some on the team were skeptical and needed "convincing". Rivers said there was a lot that needed to be cleaned up, and that he was confident the team would play better.

The Pacers shot poorly from 3-point and only lost by 15. If they shoot 37% from 3-point, they score an additional 18 points and the game is theirs for the taking. Rebounding from a below average shooting game with an above average game and they could be the team winning in a blow out. Nothing for the Bucks to be complacent about.

Game 1 was the Bucks 2nd win in their last 8 playoff games. Ugh.

Giannis has missed playoff games due to injury in 4 of the last 5 seasons. Double Ugh.

The Pacers looked shaken, shooting poorly and not getting good looks for much of the game. Post game radio said that was the first time the Pacers were held under 100 points in 18-months.

Beverly with 7 assists in the 2nd half, when the Bucks only made 16 baskets. How valuable was that? With Lillard fighting double teams and Middleton having to take the lead in scoring, Beverly's ability to assume the role of distributor was key. Rivers gets criticized for not making adjustments, but somehow the team made that huge adjustment in the 2nd half.

I thought the rotations were masterful. With Giannis out, Lopez and Portis had to handle the center position, starting and ending the game together, and subbing in and out for each other in between. Lillard and Middleton were the scorers, and likewise started and ended the game together and mostly covered for the other when one of them had to sit. Everything was balanced with some funky units, but it worked.

Seemed to me that the Bucks won because their veteran players were able to assume different roles, reacting to the challenges the Pacers presented and the absence of Giannis. The Pacers were uncomfortable and maybe a bit surprised by the Bucks effort and cohesion.

I think that the Pacers will be very disappointed if they take solace in the fact that they "won" the 2nd half.

'

RiotPunch · Post #108 » by **RiotPunch** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:10 am

verbalhologram · Post #109 » by **verbalhologram** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 7:55 am

Finally got to watch after work. Man, what a performance by Dame in first half , absolutely knocked the wind out of the Pacers and he was talking to the Pacers bench about it too . Middy looked solid, Bobby played like he has most of the season which is great , and although Brook took his requisite forced threes he made some beautiful stops and that beastly dunk.
Super encouraging game one but I really hope we keep the foot on the gas for game 2.
Is there some indication of when Giannis may be able to play ?

aboveAverage · Post #110 » by **aboveAverage** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:02 am

Really good win! It’s so nice to start the playoffs off on the right foot. How many times did we enter a playoff series unprepared under coach Bud and ended up losing the first game? So glad that didn’t happen this time.

We need to win game 2 now to buy us some time in case Giannis needs to play later in the series.

FlagsFlyForever · Post #111 » by **FlagsFlyForever** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:11 am

As far as I can tell, Dame's 35 points is the most in history when one half was scoreless. Curry had such a game where he scored 33.

AussieBuck · Post #112 » by **AussieBuck** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 9:30 am

That'll do.

Fotis St · Post #113 » by **Fotis St** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:07 am

kanyon wrote:

FOTIS in disguise

Fotis St · Post #114 » by **Fotis St** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:17 am

After reading every post in the Game Thread and in here ... it is time to watch the game on replay.

I believe the Pacers are missing that guy Mathurin so much ... that guy murdered us in regular season.

Congrats to the whole team and Doc for Game 1.

I will post some more game notes after watching the whole game.

soxperry · Post #115 » by **soxperry** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:46 am

Not at all worried about Dame's second half. It seemed like he wanted to use as little energy as possible to keep the tank full for Tuesday. Offensively, he exerted himself maybe 5 times. Often waved the ball off. Was basically a decoy.

Pacers may have missed some threes but we also forced them into a ton of mid range shots and often not very good ones. The pacers big run happened while we generated 3 great corner 3 looks for our best pure shooter and we missed em all.

Bottom line for me was our defense, cohesion and composure. All of that is replicable. Most of our tertiary role players sucked offensively, and that can improve.

The Pacers are a bad defensive team, thats also not going to change. If Giannis comes back, its a wrap. If he doesn't, it may go 6 or 7. I have no idea what we will look like in Indy.

BroncoBuck · Post #116 » by **BroncoBuck** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:19 am

Karsenmitsche wrote:

Read on Twitter
?s=46&t=ddAiiE29NVvKq9tn5tKPIQ

percent chance our crowd wears them? i’ll give it 1%

Maybe don’t make them a 100% cotton XXL blanket.

Get a little crazy and make them a medium or large for once.

ShootingtheJ · Post #117 » by **ShootingtheJ** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 11:57 am

Baddy Chuck wrote:
ShootingtheJ wrote:
MickeyDavis wrote:Green played 6 minutes, McConnell played 18, going 5-13. it wasn't just Green

Yup, TJ was able to hit some buckets against Beas.

Beasley played 29 minutes, Green played 6. McConnell had 3 baskets on Beasley and 1 on Green. Pacers shot 5/13 being guarded by Beasley. Hell, if Beasley came in and missed 3 straight wide open corner threes like AJ you'd hammer those nails on the cross so hard it wouldn't be funny. He was the secondary defender on Haliburton who scored 2 points on him. Beasley was fine tonight and that's a good sign.

I never make decisions based on shooting in an individual game, because shooting is inconsistent.

I don't know how someone can watch last night's game, see Beasley constantly or of position, getting beat off the dribble, getting stuck on screans, and blowing rotations, and simply not notice any of it.

Lillard literally pushed Beas during a live play because the bum was jogging back leisurely during a transition play.

tydett · Post #118 » by **tydett** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:12 pm

"Indy won't shoot this poorly" blah blah blah. The reason they shot poorly is a lot of their threes came off of one pass or no movement and rhythm. We've seen the Bucks struggle with this for years. Playoffs are a different beast, and Indy has a lot of work on their halfcourt O if they want those shots to go in. FWIW there's few I'd want working on it than Carlisle, so their coaching should at least be superb, but players need to execute.

KidA24 · Post #119 » by **KidA24** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:32 pm

MickeyDavis wrote:Seems like it's been awhile since we had a game where we missed no FT

Well, in 73 games this season, Giannis only had one perfect game from the line.... So....

soboMP3 · Post #120 » by **soboMP3** » Mon Apr 22, 2024 12:37 pm

BroncoBuck wrote:
Karsenmitsche wrote:

Read on Twitter
?s=46&t=ddAiiE29NVvKq9tn5tKPIQ

percent chance our crowd wears them? i’ll give it 1%

Maybe don’t make them a 100% cotton XXL blanket.

Get a little crazy and make them a medium or large for once.

Throw a little rayon and polyester in there too. A tri-blend! I hate 100% cotton shirts.