GAME05

I was kinda hoping Mirotic would sign on the cheap and be a good candidate for a rebound year. But can't blame him for going to be the best player on a Barcelona team instead of a bench player on an NBA team.

I keep trying to pay off my credit card. I put big payments in every month, and then the month ends and it seems like it's right back where it was. Nothing really sticks out as far as stupid spending apart from small things on Amazon I'll get now and again, and probably too much spent on groceries at Wal-Mart, though that's odd because I only buy cheap stuff and mostly make everything from scratch. Will be nice to finally get it taken care of, and then finish off paying for the truck. I'm really looking forward to the next personal hobby of managing investments.

I told my auto bodywork guy to start doing that, or more specifically to offer discounts if paying cash. Since his bills are pretty high, he's losing upwards of $100 to the credit company every time someone pays a bill.

I think I'm late to know, but I guess Amazon is re-tooling their version of Top Gear. Episodes are being scrapped and they're focusing exclusively on making their specials--those episodes where they drive to the north pole or through Uganda in RVs and stuff like that. I'd stopped watching the Amazon version in Season 1 because their conversation got to be way more scripted and the silly weekly challenges were boring. Specifically, I stopped watching when they went to Hollywood movie set designed to look like ancient Arabia. Not only did they just run laps for the whole show (boring) but I was supposed to believe the short guy genuinely thought they'd discovered an ancient city. I just watched 15 minutes of the BBC one with the new hosts. The chemistry isn't really there, which I think is a consequence of not near as much insulting each other and consciously trying not to be exactly like the old hosts. But the show itself wasn't all that bad.

I haven't been to a theater in a very long time, but the Beatles movie Yesterday looks like fun and I think I'll make an effort to go see that.

Joe Buck calling anything.

Ugh, not sure exactly where to put non-Bucks NBA news, but the Lakers just traded for Anthony Davis. Gave up Josh Hart, Lonzo, Brandon Ingram, the #4 overall pick this year and another two first-round picks.

I so rarely get a weekend off, and now that I have one I can't think of anything I want to do and have just hung around the house. I'm becoming something of a hermit.

Lopez will get good offers, but I could also see it that he recognizes he's getting a little older, he's probably having a ton of fun on the Bucks being able to shoot as much as he does, and he may not get a coach like Budenholzer who sees him go 0-12 from 3 one night and tells him to shoot just as much the next. I wonder if it'll come down to More Money vs. Most Fun for him. I still have a hard time seeing Middleton come back whether Milwaukee is able to find the cash for him or not. He sometimes slipped to the #3 option depending on how Bledsoe was doing, and a new team is also probably going to want him to shoot more than he does here. Plus I think he'll get stupidly paid since there's a lot of Max slots available this offseason without so many Max-deserving players.

But that also means he's declining a sizeable signing bonus with an MLB team. Sure it's more money with Japan, but when you're rich either way I don't know how that's necessarily a better option. I don't see this becoming a real trend nor changing much of anything about the MLB draft process.

Almost an entire team that hasn't seen so much as Round 2 in the playoffs versus a team that would've had the #1 seed had they not sat Kawhi 20 games in the regular season. The script can easily be flipped and we just lost to the better team. So it goes. There's an entire offseason to try and develop Giannis' jumpshot/3-pt shot, as well as time to develop an offensive strategy designed around beating the Giannis Wall. And ultimately you can't keep superstars down for very long. Regardless of who leaves in the offseason there's no reason to think that barring injury, the Bucks shouldn't be one of the three best teams in the East. Boston either loses Kyrie and does a soft rebuild with Tatum, or they keep Kyrie and get Tatum and Brown complaining all season about getting ignored. Philadelphia is a mess and Toronto may well watch their entire franchise bolt for the Clippers. The East may well be even worse next year.

It's not like there wasn't a Giannis Wall in the regular season. How is it suddenly so confounding in the playoffs?

Well, one thing which hasn't been brought up much in the main Bucks playoff thread and maybe it applies in this situation, is what if it's just that Toronto's defense is really good?

Bucks aren't a great half-court team and do best by pushing the pace and getting up the court quickly. They've been allowing Toronto to slow down the pace and get back on defense. Especially considering they have the much deeper bench, there's absolutely no reason for it. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing Snell and DJ get six minutes per game for nothing else than telling them to sprint up and down the court to tire their defenders out. The Bucks get aggressive when they know they're the dominant team, but they play scared and slow when they're not sure of that. Their spread offense works when the opposing three guys making the Giannis Wall either haven't all gotten back in time to set up, or Giannis has teammates who run ahead to set up on the corners to be open for a kick-out once the Giannis Wall commits to defending him at the top of the key. They're running mostly even with Giannis when he brings the ball up. Or just as bad, guards have been bringing the ball up the court a lot more in this series than they did in the regular season. Of course Giannis will be passed the ball at the top of the key right away to start the offense, but their open offense really isn't predicated on starting off that late. If they're going to do that, Giannis shouldn't be getting the ball at the top, but he should be trying to set up closer to the basket--it would require two guys on him which should open up kick-outs as well as open things up for Bledsoe to drive. Plus Bledsoe might actually have someone to pass to when he does, which he's been lacking these past few games. Toronto should be tired and Milwaukee should have energy, but you allow opponents to still have energy after 40+ minutes in a game when you've allowed them to slow-jog down the court all night. Plus Bledsoe tends to do best driving to the lane when it's early enough in the shot clock, when the defense hasn't entirely established itself. It's not so much having a man right on him, but having a second defender near the basket to cut him off, and that man has always been there. He at least got the message last night and declined a ton of open 3s and open long shots that Playoff-Bledsoe otherwise would have taken. He's been completely taken out of the series and I don't think it's entirely his fault. Bucks are holding Toronto to basically the same 3-pt percentage that they held all teams to in the regular season, the same % which made them the #1 defense in the League. The success of their defense isn't predicated on the opposing team shooting a low percentage of those shots, but of the Bucks being able to give up just that one shot and then rebounding the ball. It's the rebounding numbers and points in the paint which have been the biggest key. Points in the paint because if they're not getting many, that's allowing the non-Wall defenders to play two or three steps more toward the corners to guard the 3 instead of needing four guys to commit to defending the lane.

They're lacking that desperation and desire. Every game there's four or five plays that an individual makes simply because he's fighting so hard. The Bucks haven't had a single one of those plays tonight.

Just finished Schitt's Creek on Netflix. Started slow but it grew on me, and they did a good job slowly developing the characters over time. Every time Hollywood portrays a middle-of-nowhere town, it's amazing how many beautiful people are walking around.

The Bucks didn't move around much on offense two nights ago. They're so used to Giannis finishing off the play and going ISO (well, him against three guys) and two nights ago they just stood in place and watched. Teams are walling off the middle even more against him, and usually it's four guys selling out to defend him. The shooters just need to do a better job of moving around into passing lanes. Giannis is an ok passer, and that he didn't have a really high assist number considering his few shots speaks more to the other players not trying to get themselves open. Considering the defense that Giannis sees, there's really no reason a guy like Middleton shouldn't be shooting nine 3s a game. Now and again the Bucks have games where they're just complacent, and two nights ago was an example. You can get away with it against mediocre defensive teams, but you're not going to against high-IQ defensive teams like Toronto and San Francisco. The Bucks still succeed because Giannis and Middleton and regular-season Bledsoe are such good individual players, but that kind of style just doesn't work this deep in the playoffs.

I like the feature on Amazon where you can ask a question related to the product, but it bugs me that people take the time to answer "I don't know."

Middleton wanted to hit that winner in the 4th Q so bad he just didn't seem to care that it was a bad shot at a bad time with tons of people around him. Bad bad decision. Just no reason Bledsoe shouldn't be trying to drive to the basket every chance he gets. Considering Giannis would be in the lane and everyone would still be paying attention to him, Bledsoe should be seeing little defensive help or at least a kickout to an available player. But every time the playoffs come around he thinks he's Steph Curry.

I'll be fine if they stored up some of those great 3-point shooting nights for the Warriors. Not that we're out of the woods against Toronto. I mean, you're supposed to win at home. But Toronto looks exhausted, though running most of your starters 40+ minutes will do that to you.

I'm amazed Modern Family has lasted so long. The characters are all so one-note and lack any real depth at all. I liked the Big Bang finale, though. Or maybe I'm still sour from How I Met Your Mother that I was just happy the writers didn't do anything crazy and kept everyone on a reasonable path. It was a nice nod to how they were all friends and I don't think it needed anything more.

I like what they started this year with the worst three all having the same odds. I would also support setting the lottery order not at the end of the season but a week or two after the trade deadline. That way at least for the last month of the season the worst teams could win some games without penalty. I'd still trade Anthony Davis. He's said he wants to go and this offseason they'll get some value out of him besides watching him walk. They could pick up a guy like Tatum and get younger since they'll be rebuilding anyway. I'm not sure there's much you can do to prevent tanking. Every sport has that issue.

I think I was actually more nervous about Boston than I am against Toronto, not that they don't have a great team. Can't be a good sign for Toronto that for the last 5 or so minutes of the game nobody on that team was aggressive enough to take a shot and they all just dumped it back to Leonard. Maybe that will impact whether or not Milwaukee chooses to come with help defense or keep guarding the perimeter man depending on who has the ball.

I've been listening to more rap music since I'm starting to work out. Ordinarily don't like rap because of the content and language, but I like NF a lot, too. Really smart lyrics and clean. Propaganda is another guy you might want to check out.

I'm almost more tempted to root for Toronto today since Philadelphia played us better during the regular season and I think we match up better against Toronto.