adambr2

I like the way this game is trending...but I liked where we were with 5 minutes left on Tuesday, so we'll see.

Look, I'm sorry, but win or lose this game, I can't understand how there are those that refuse to give the Heat their due on the way this series has gone. Middleton and Giannis are on pace for about 40 each and we're still losing. On our court.

Fans can look past the Heat all they want, players shouldn't. It absolutely may have contributed to the position they're in now. An 82 game sample, again, isn't always indicative of a team's true talent level. There's obviously a correlation, but it's not perfect. There are too many variables. You don't just go from the 1 seed to the 8 seed in a year with most of the same core just because you suddenly suck. They outperformed their talent level last year and underperformed it this year.

Meh, I'm sure there's some truth in this but I don't entirely agree; I absolutely do tend to be more on the emotional side, both positively and negatively depending on the tide. I stated several times that I thought it was us or Boston and nobody else, I certainly wasn't pessimistic going into this series or ever dream we'd be staring at a 3-1 deficit. It is what it is. I hope we can win tonight and go from there.

A week ago all I heard was, the Heat stink, nothing to see here, no contest, etc. etc. The only debate was whether or not Boston could beat us. Now it's, well, the Heat aren't your typical 8 seed, there's a lot more balance in the league, conference is really deep.

Why do we always do this? I don't mean you specifically or even this board in general, but everyone always seems to feel the need to rationalize a loss against what they feel is an inferior opponent. Game 1, oh, it took 60% shooting from 3 to pull it off. THAT isn't happening again. Just a fluke. Game 4, oh, it took an otherworldly performance by their star to pull it off. I don't know what the rationalizations were in Game 3, but I'm sure they were there. Maybe there are far too many variables in an NBA game to be able to simplify a result down to "as long as THAT doesn't happen again, we'll be fine." The Heat have kicked our butts this series, there's no benefit in trying to explain it away, it has happened. I'm not saying they can't win the next 3, they can, (although it's simply a mathematical improbability), but it won't be by hoping for Miami to stop doing what they've done. Has anyone at all considered the possibility that maybe the Heat are a lot better than what we thought or expected? This team was the #1 seed in the East last year. The Heat, not us, faced the Celtics in the conference finals. Yeah we steamrolled them in '21, but they did the same to us in '20, and much of the core of that team is still here. I realize the Heat haven't had a great year, but an 82 game snapshot with so many variables is not always an absolutely perfect representation of the talent level of a team. Perhaps the team, just like us, was excitedly looking ahead not only past this round but the next one, and are paying dearly for treating this round like a tuneup and not focusing on the task at hand.

And here I thought the Pirates were the NL Central mirage. Whoops.

I'm assuming it's a near certainty that the Packers will pick up the 5th year option on Love. It's not ideal with the information they have, but they are pretty much hitching their wagon to him for at least the next 2 seasons anyway. May as well just go that route rather than do what the Giants did and miscalculate and end up paying more with no leverage on Jones other than the franchise tag.

Honestly, what difference does it make? Middleton isn't a playoff difference making player. The gap between our best and 2nd best player is massive. The fact that Middleton is our 2nd best player speaks volumes to the issue of this team's roster construction. As an aside, probably a good time to note that we were offered Butler for Middleton several years ago.

Any chance if Khris opts out this offseason that Giannis asks for a trade after this debacle? I wouldn't blame him and he could easily hold his head high and say he accomplished what he wanted to accomplish here.

I hope we can also LOL at ourselves now for acting like the only reason we didn't make the NBA Finals last year was because Khris Middleton got hurt.

I don't really disagree. I'm really grateful the Bucks were able to win one. Giannis is a good enough star, but his supporting cast is old and not as good as they need to be. I don't know where they go from here. They don't have ammo of any kind in either draft capital or money to build around Giannis.

Against any marquee opponent, Boston, Philly, NBA Finals, Giannis guts it out for Game 2. The Bucks did not respect the Heat or take them seriously and have no one to blame but themselves for the position they're in. Not the NBA, not injuries. Themselves.

4-7 would be interesting. That's about 64.7% but could wind up on either side of 65. My assumption is that they'd still go for it, they have too much invested not to, unless Rodgers was somehow so disastrous that they had a good excuse to switch. The Jets have a pretty good defense and some good skill players on offense so I doubt this is a factor though.

Well at 6-8 he's already played 80+% of the season snaps, assuming no injuries.

In past years we had some decent bench depth that helped keep us in games when Giannis takes a breather. These days our bench is total garbage and it offers no margin for error. We have Portis and that's about it, everything else is just junk. DDV would look pretty good as a shooter off this bench and we traded him for the right to watch a washed Serge Ibaka sit on our bench for a couple months last season. This year it was Jae Crowder, another huge swing and miss by our FO.

They could easily win the next 3 games and I don't know if I'd be over my disgust enough to get excited for the next round.

Lest I remind everyone that the Heat are missing 2 key players. This is an embarrassment of epic proportions.

They have like no way to rebuild aside from trading Giannis which I think most agree would be a terrible idea. They've hooked their anchor to their core in just about every way.

You losers blew a 12 point lead with 5 minutes to play against an 8 seed. You are the laughingstock of the NBA.

Budenholzer should be fired. This is beyond disgusting.

We still thumbing our noses at the Heat?

Oh my freaking God. Biggest bunch of chokers ever. A 0-13 run late in the 4th against an 8 seed? You kidding me right now? You guys call yourselves championship contenders?

JHC, Bucks. Are you serious right now?