DuWayne Steurer

Beautiful chance to get up 7 or 8 and Giannis takes the one shot he has no business even attempting.

At some point this will become a playoff basketball game, and these guys will all settle in and play. Right now everyone looks super tight not just shooting but handling the ball as well.

Both teams look like they're struggling with the pressure here early.

If you have a problem with the way that Josh hader threadwas handled, take it up with that moderator via PM or talk about it in that thread. Don't hijack another thread because you've got an ax to grind. This is the last word on it. Period.

Deer district basically looks like a concert. People packed body to body, a lot of jumping and screaming and yelling... That's what it looks like to me when they show the people on TV. That's kind of what I feel like you have to expect as far as atmosphere down there. If you're good with that then get down there and have a blast.

Booker acting like he got shot by a sniper every little bit of contact and then instantly getting up and asking/begging/complaining for fouls is awful. It's not even that he flops, it's that he acts like every incidental contact is nearly a career ending injury Middleton flops/falls down a lot in the act of shooting but doesn't act like he almost died. The guy on our side that kinda whines a lot is pj tucker. Every foul called on him he's running at a ref with his arms out... "Whaaaaat?"

This is the optimism thread. Let's not waste it on complaining about negative posters

What I mean is.... If the national media poo poos the bucks or doesn't make a big deal about us, it doesn't lessen my enjoyment of a title any bit. How we are perceived doesn't matter to me. If we're champs...

The amount of Mets fans on Twitter that are arguing that that was a foul ball "because it hit foul territory first" really hurts my brain. Not just arguing it, but claiming it as absolute fact.

Yeah, I'm not taking it for granted. I hope the players don't. I hope they come out hungry to finish this thing. ANd... I don't care if anyone outside of WIsconsin cares about the Bucks winning a title. I care, and I know a lot of Bucks fans care. That's what matters, in the end. These guys see how crazy WI is for a contender, and how much we support our teams.

I didn't have a problem with it. It kinda sucks we've been so trained by baseball's trendy cautious handling of pitchers that we can't enjoy an opportunity for a complete game shutout. Stat chasing would really suck if Burnes would be complaining about a sore forearm or shoulder a few days from now. There's an 8 run lead. There's absolutely nothing to be gained by sending him out there for the 9th. If you can't trust a guy like Perdomo or someone else to hold an 8 run lead, they shouldn't be on the team.

ok that's enough

Good point. Bud made some adjustments (as previously mentioned, harrassing Chris Paul has been huge), but the Suns have basically done what everyone has done, and that's "build the wall" and foul Giannis a lot. Obviously fouling Giannis isn't the worst strategy, but in game 5 when both Middleton and Jrue are scoring in volume, that's not going to work. Maybe I'm watching the game through the wrong lens, but I don't see what Phoenix was doing other than "hope they miss" on the midrange jumpers and runners.

Good job by Counsell starting Houser in the first game of the series and getting that W, and making the Reds know that they were gonna get swept going against Woody and Burnes.

If this offense didn't suck so much we'd have 30 runs in this series instead of 24

Nice

I think the only guy in the NBA I "hate" (which is probably too strong a word) is Kyrie Irving. He thinks he's on this other, weird plane of enlightenment and talks down to people like they don't understand why he thinks the earth is flat and other such nonsense. Nah, you're just kind of a weird, spacey dude. I don't really hate the guy, I just think he's kinda full of his own intellectual self and needs to back it up a bit. Talking down to people doesn't make you smarter, it just makes you an arrogant jerk. I don't hate Lebron (I have already said IMO he's the best player in this generation), I just think he's made some immature choices. As do we all, I suppose. I think when it comes to "hate", we mostly just hate the guys that either win a lot at our favorite team's expense, or win a lot of titles, like Tom Brady or Derek Jeter, or Lebron.

If I sounded like it was knocking LeBron for his chasing rings comment, maybe I should have reworded it. I'll be honest, I think LeBron is the best player of this generation, and I don't even think it's particularly close. I don't even think Durant is close to LeBron. Durant is a better pure scorer, but he doesn't have the all-around skill set that LeBron has. I don't think LeBron is a better player than Jordan, and I don't think that is particularly close. I think the knock on LeBron is the stupid ass "decision" and the real negative publicity that surrounded him in his second stint at Cleveland when he was the general manager in all but name only, basically demanding an entire roster rebuild to get the players he wanted. We all know that Giannis has made similar requests and maybe even demands here in Milwaukee to get a championship caliber team. He just hasn't acted like quite such a diva about it. There's a narratives around everything. Perception means a lot. I think off the court, LeBron is probably a genuinely good dude. Didn't he build an elementary school for Intercity kids or something like that? A lot of athletes are buying cars and houses for their entire posse instead of building schools and giving money away to actual causes.

Could just be that his brother is in protocol and couldn't be at the game. Speculation on my part, obviously, but maybe that's what it is.

Lebron is pulled into it because Giannis will (right or not) always get compared to the top tier players of this generation. IF the Bucks win this title, the narrative becomes Giannis won it with the team that drafted him. Even if this is the only title he wins here... he didn't chase it. Is that fair to Lebron or Durant or other guys? Who knows. That's for each person to decide for themselves. But that'll be the narrative for a lot of Bucks fans.

I mean, give Lebron credit for what he accomplished early on with the Cavs (going to the finals and losing), but he definitely started chasing rings by going to teams loaded for bear. Eh.... it is what it is. I just hope we get ours.

Beat the Heat and exorcise the demons from last year - check Beat the Nets and get back to the Conf finals - check Take care of business with the Hawks and WIN the conf finals - check Win game 5 and at bare minimum guarantee a game 7, with a chance to win the clincher at home - CHECK I think I'm gonna say something unpopular here, but here it goes. Bud has been adequate in the finals. There, I said it. Our starters have been playing 40+ minutes. He's been making defensive adjustments (hounding Chris Paul full court, is a big one, the last 3 games). Getting Lopez out of the game when Phoenix is trying to abuse the matchups and play small ball to facilitate scoring. He's actually *coaching* I don't think he's been fantastic, by any means. I think he's doing the obvious things that most good, or even average coaches do in the playoffs... but these are things he didn't do in the previous years and a big part of the reason the Raptors trounced us and the Heat bounced us. There's no possible way he's insulated from the criticism that is out there that he's a good (even great) regular season coach, but fails to make adjustments to the way the game is played in the post season. Maybe he swallowed his pride or whatever it is that made him such a bad post season coach 2 1/2 seasons up til now and suddenly he's at least.......average? I don't know. It just seems like the things we've all been yelling about haven't been as huge a factor this series. They're trying to adjust, and not get annihiliated by matchups and the bench isn't playing a bunch of crucial minute when the other teams are running starters 42 - 44 minutes each. I'm not advocating a 7 year extension for Bud..... but if there was ever a time for him to figure out how to suck at coaching a little less, this has been it.

that dude is meme central right now. in all the worst ways.

way back on july 17th 2021. I remember. I bet Giannis remembers too.

dear sir this offense is irretrievably broken. i read it in a game thread i think.