It is the 2018-19 NBA Playoffs discussion thread for hoops friends ONLY

ha yeah he was on a heater, only reason that series went 7

middleton extremely borderline for second best player on a champ team status, on the other hand giannis extremely not borderline for best player on champ team status

yeah. if the bucks get that far it's b/c of the overall roster fit around giannis not any other individual player.

still i'm watching tonight and they give a lot of minutes to guys like sterling brown and arlington, mass's own pat connaughton.

ok i'm not a reggie jackson guy but that was awesome

sick play def, that one where giannis went up for the dunk got fouled switched hands and laid in the bay floater was ridic too

yeah. if the bucks get that far it's b/c of the overall roster fit around giannis not any other individual player.

still i'm watching tonight and they give a lot of minutes to guys like sterling brown and arlington, mass's own pat connaughton.

― call all destroyer, Monday, April 22, 2019 9:17 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

coach bud has a history of reg season over achievement too...................on the other hand he never had giannis before

xp yeah that was crazy

i guess he did not actually switch hands still p cool tho

SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHAT GIANNIS JUST DID RIGHT NOW pic.twitter.com/YWEcMWYpPz

— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) April 23, 2019

he half switched hands and then kinda shot it off both

even that much reggie miller is too much reg for me at this point

had it up to here with you, reggie miller xp

not a cool guy

smoke reggie miller ->->-> coughing/choking constantly

There was a post somewhere today about his “click click welcome to your Kodak moment” catchphrase making a return....

lol

Blake joined in with the crowd on "refs, you suck" chant 😂 pic.twitter.com/hhqsMwJP2V

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 23, 2019

btw god bless blake out there on one leg in a hopeless situation feel like he really showed us something this year

it's cool, this pistons team has some fight. blake doesn't have to be out there but it's obvious how much he wants to be.

subplot

An underrated aspect of the next series is Ojeleye has spent an entire year angrily lifting weights before and after games to turn himself into a mobile brick wall precisely for this moment for 10 minutes a night of pure pain

— PeoplesJaylenbrownLiberationFront 69☭ (@Riffs_Man) April 22, 2019

lol here's hoping

giannis is good

every series except spurs/nuggets feels over now

― ciderpress, Sunday, April 21, 2019 11:33 PM (yesterday)

honestly haven't cared at all about any series except this one

bad first round this year imo

historically, since the first round went to seven game series instead of five games, the first rounds rarely deliver more than cursory excitement, unless you find it fascinating to watch higher seeds choke.

Spurs nuggs and okc pdx have been v good imo

But the rest v snoozy. We always knew the 2nd round was where it was gonna be at this season

ehh i think there were a bunch of possible upsets this year but they didn't manifest

Jazz rox seemed good on paper

okc pdx has been good bc of the drama

The hoisting. It burns!

the kyrie-horf high pnr is death to slow footed tall guys

― lag∞n, Monday, April 22, 2019 8:41 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Celtics outscored the Bucks by 28 points during the 44 minutes both Al Horford and Brook Lopez were on the court during the regular season.

— Jay King (@ByJayKing) April 23, 2019

i could see boston scheming robin lopez off the floor essentially but the bucks could just slide giannis to center and i don't think the celtics could really punish them for that or would want to even try

shdnt be too hard to scheme robin lopez off the floor since he plays for the bulls haha

brook lopez is the bucks leading 3pt maker and the bucks whole offense relies on spacing to get giannis single covered in the paint is the point of getting him off the floor

mirotic is 3rd btw another very attackable big man, ilyasova also fits the profile

saying the bucks whole offense relies on brook lopez feels a bit strong...

if someone said that i agree it wld be strong

i understand why they would want to get him off the floor i just think that the bucks have a lot of line up flexibility and some decent role players -- mirotic, ilyasova, dj wilson, sterling brown, tony snell etc -- to throw at the problem

the first two guys in that list are basically in the same boat as lopez tho, another interesting aspect of this series is the bucks give up a ton of threes and the celtics take a ton cld easily just swing on shooting variance yay lol

mirotic is a better athlete but maybe big al would wanna take him into the post. im just saying that i think this is a series where two good/smart coaches have lots of line up flexibility and one adjustment -- playing brook lopez off the floor -- would beget another etc. i think the bucks roster is good enough that there isn't going to be a skeleton key to solving them.

imo the bucks roster is pretty sus

i think they have a solid and intractable crunch time 4 and enough options for the fifth spot that they'll be able to find combos that give them good chances to win

the bucks are exploitable, doesn't mean their roster is bad

i guess brodgdon is a wild card

if Bledsoe has shaken his cowardly ways than that changes quite a bit. and they are supposed to get brogdan back here soon. they are deep and can try a lot of different lineup things.

bledsoe and brogdan def key

also who will defend giannis, obvs horf will be primary but who after him last year semi got some burn theyll prob give baynes a shot at bodying him but idk man

not giving the bucks liveball turnovers is huge celtics were a low turnover team all season but then indy got a ton of steals off them as they do

feel like "making teams execute in the halfcourt" is so huge in the playoffs, but its even huger when they have a player whos unstoppable on the break

idk if u can really just let giannis get his and try to guard the rest of the team cause hell just foul yr whole team out if u dont try to take the ball out of his hands at least some of the time

gotta switch up yr looks try to keep him uncomfortable

Giannis' halfcourt scoring efficiency:

vs. Man: 92nd percentile
vs. Zone: 29th percentile

— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) April 23, 2019

The Celtics played the Bucks 3 times this year:

With Horford: 4-point home win, 1-point road loss

Without Horford: 13-point home loss

— Max Carlin (@maxacarlin) April 22, 2019