2021 NBA Finals: Phoenix Suns vs Milwaukee Bucks

suns 5

Bucks in 6, it's gotten us this far

after u vote in this, vote here:
It's the 4th Annual I Love Hoops NBA Role Player Hollafame - VOTING & CAMPAIGNING THREAD (voting closes FRIDAY, JULY 23, 2021, 11:59 PM CST)

i voted suns in 6, cp3 wins finals mvp

ilx in not believing in khris middleton shockah

what’s gianiss’ status broadly?

when i googled that this morning i read that he is expected to come back, maybe as early as game 1, but that's unknown

suns are favored prob mostly cause of uncertainty over giannis sitch

i voted suns in 6, cp3 wins finals mvp

― class project pat (m bison), Monday, July 5, 2021 2:20 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is also my vote

I think it’ll be a good series. I’m looking forward to it!

i am happy w whoever wins, i just hope everyone has a good time!!

i have voted suns in 6 too

Giannis (at less than 100%) going to the rim against Ayton who's having a stupendous playoffs should be fun. I tilt toward the Suns in 6. They have more of the Team of Destiny vibe atm.

suns 7

suns had an easier trot to the finals with much stiffer competition and are less beat up is how i see it

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Suns in 5 if no giannis. Bucks in 7 if giannis plays and is at least ~85%

Aw I meant for this to close tomorrow

no jokesters in ilh

finals is serious biz

fwiw both Bucks/Suns regular season games were incredible, even though the Bucks lost them both (by 1 point apiece). was actually hoping for this from the get go so

Vegas has this as Suns -200/Bucks +170 which I think is probably about right....if this was a 1st round series I'd put 'em about even but the Bucks best player may be hobbled/out, they're down a starter, and they took a much more stressful road to the Finals. plus the Suns have played nearly perfectly the whole way while Milwaukee has been really hot and cold. I would think a team like Phoenix with a good head coach and one of the smartest players in the league would know how to exploit them. otoh if Giannis is out there idk how they'd defend a lineup with him and Lopez. should be a great series, I voted Bucks in 6 because I always do no matter what but it'll be a real battle for them

I think the bucks were my favorite team in the eastern conference playoffs. but now I hope they lose. cool to have such a new and unpredictable finals matchup

yeah this is a cool matchup, mostly homegrown teams with interesting and fun players, chance for both giannis and cp3 to get over the hump, neither team has been to the finals for a long time

tbh i dont actually find the bucks players to be fun but thats ok they have other good qualities

this series has some really interesting matchups that should be fun to track--lopez/ayton, holiday/booker, bridges/whichever buck he ends up guarding. there's no reason for the bucks to try their switching defense at least initially so ayton needs to hold his own or better against lopez and make sure brook is somewhat neutralized as a rim protector. another thing that's interesting is pj tucker does not really have anything useful to do in this series, and bobby portis will probably have to go back to spot minutes.

basically i don't see a ton of matchup advantages for the bucks and the suns should more or less be able to play their game on offense. there are ways you can talk yourself into the bucks having the talent advantage but i have no reason to think their best 3 guys will put together enough good performances to win the series. i'm going to say suns in 7 because i think most of these games will be close and competitive.

wonder if we might see some ayton on giannis

i think more likely crowder draws that assignment to better cut off driving lanes wd be my guess, otherwise youve got crowder on lopez which could be problems but idk

my other guess is tucker gets the "guard book" assignment so that middleton is more focused on buckets

i guess "who guard giannis" is an interesting question--my thought was bridges would get first crack but i didn't see the two regular season games.

i think booker would slice tucker up but maybe the thought would be just be a brick wall and turn him into a jump shooter and make their offense more stagnant.

Honestly you should have Connaughton on Booker a lot. He’s not the world’s greatest defender but those other guys just are too slow and big.

yeah i agree with that, would try him first over pj

So I looked back at the ILH predictions from 2012 onward & tallied the votes for each team. Track record is about 5 right / 4 wrong so far.

2012: Thunder 19 - 5 (wrong)
2013: Spurs 13 - 9 (wrong)
2014: Spurs 24 - 10 (right)
2015: GSW 27 - 9 (right)
2016: GSW 25 - 5 (wrong)
2017: GSW 12 - 8 (right)
2018: GSW 18 - 3 (right)
2019: GSW 21 - 5 (wrong)
2020: Lakers 17 - 8 (right)

2021: Suns 13 - 7 ...

that 2012 prediction margin is crazy. we have collectively picked lebron to win a title...once, last year

lol why did we pick okc by so much, were we more mad at the heatles than usual?

we went 26-9 for the mavs in 2011, I appear to have been the idiot who picked heat in six

in other words we've never picked the eastern conference. even the presence of LeBron did not overcome that bias

Giannis Antetokounmpo has been upgraded from doubtful to questionable ahead of Bucks-Suns Game 1 of the NBA Finals. pic.twitter.com/KhPLX70Dyu

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) July 6, 2021

hes gonna play isnt he

seems like

now a GTD

Reporting with @Malika_Andrews: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has continued around-the-clock treatment on his left knee with hopes of becoming cleared to play Game 1 of the Finals vs. Phoenix tonight. There’s expected to be a game-time decision on his availability.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 6, 2021

i didn't get a chance to vote but i think i would've gone suns in 7. i want to lean towards the bucks here, it just kinda feels like their year to me despite how bumpy the road has been, but it's hard to figure what giannis effectiveness is going to be and the suns prob have enough scoring between cp3 and booker to overcome that. i also think if this goes to 7 that the bucks are gonna have a struggle trying to win in phoenix in that kind of environment, i don't trust what they're going to get on offense

that said, i did think the suns showed signs of mortality vs the clippers. booker was pretty inefficient, bridges was blah. the bucks have legit size to throw at ayton. they can also have games where they shoot the lights out, which will stretch the suns pretty thin. crowder turned into a pumpkin in the finals last year after a huge playoffs. i think this is a very winnable series for the bucks even if giannis isn't healthy -- maybe more so if he doesn't play at all, we'll have to see what he gives them once he steps on the floor

now a GTD
🐦[Reporting with @Malika_Andrews🕸: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has continued around-the-clock treatment on his left knee with hopes of becoming cleared to play Game 1 of the Finals vs. Phoenix tonight. There’s expected to be a game-time decision on his availability.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 6, 2021🕸]🐦

whenever a player improves from "doubtful" to "questionable" on game day they pretty always wind up playing so I'd be surprised if he weren't out there. that said, centering your offense around Giannis at 80% feels like a surefire way to lose this game, especially since they seem to play so much better w/ Jrue as the primary ball handler. he isn't gonna be able to take on 3 defenders like he normally does and the Suns will be fouling him and pressuring him to shoot which is how the Bucks get themselves into a hole early in games. and if he's clearly hobbled I doubt Bud will take him out either. of course if they leave him near the paint for lob plays & use him mostly for his defense and ability in transition I think it'll be fine

we'll know in the first ten minutes what he can do and that should certainly start to answer a lot of questions for the series.

Watching the warmups, he’s gonna play

there it is

Giannis is a go for Game 1 of the NBA Finals, source tells ESPN.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 7, 2021

I just drop knowledge on ILH all the time

thanks matt, what would we do without you

incredible that the suns arena's naming rights are currently not spoken for

coach bud pregame: "compete compete compete. have some fun, play some basketball"

can't argue with any of that

Brook still has some years left it seems

appreciate all the shout outs, congrats also to eephus and Neanderthal's Manitowoc friend. after the game I heard yelling outside, all the neighbors got together except for the one who had a Bucks flag on his porch, which promptly got stolen by a dude with a bike who rode it around the neighborhood. he did return it though

was gonna type up a long post about how much this all means to me, because sometimes it feels a little ridiculous caring so much about sports, but I'm sure everyone who posts on here understands. I could barely sleep on Monday!!

feel like I just witnessed some all-time shit with Giannis last night. I always thought all that talk about putting the team on your back and willing yourself to victory was some Stephen A Smith bullshit but that's absolutely what happened last night. the man would not be denied. and the fact that he did it with his free throw shooting!! his one weakness, the thing every away crowd is constantly reminding him of...and clearly something that does rattle him, he shoots like 57% in the playoffs compared to 70% in the regular season. and here he is, biggest game of his life, and all the sudden he's Steph Curry? it's like fairy tale shit

also gotta shout out Bobby Portis. we have this thing in Wisconsin where we absolutely love mediocre/backup type players with cool names who come through in big moments, like everyone's favorite Brewer for 2 years was Casey McGehee for some reason. idk maybe every fan base is like that. anyway these players usually wind up disappointing in the end but Bobby was super clutch the whole way, really the only other guy hitting anything. dude definitely earned the respect Milwaukee has for him, its really fun to see

in conclusion....hoops

booming post frogbs

hoops indeed

i forgot to say congrats to eephus last night. congrats, eephus!

Yeah I think every fanbase is like that. It's usually an unathletic white guy they latch into tho.

I really hope that game means the end of crowds counting when Giannis goes to the line

I think they gotta keep Portis

absolutely. that lineup with giannis at the 3, portis at the 4, and lopez at 5 was bananas.

the contract they will give him will be hilarious but it doesn't really matter at this point

congrats bucks nation!!!

no one is as generous as a front office that just won a championship! they'll give 4th year player options to the towel guy.

yeah that's what the Mavs did if I recall correctly but they gotta be smart because Milwaukee could potentially repeat

after the third straight they just get tired of you

yeah that's what the Mavs did if I recall correctly but they gotta be smart because Milwaukee could potentially repeat

frogbs is Bud still getting fired

its the galaxy brain move, yes

xp lol for some reason I thought Barea, Mahimini and Chandler all got contracts afterwards. perhaps what I meant to think was they did *not* get contracts

Surprised the Pack didn't seize the opp to sneak trading Aaron Rodgers while everyone in WI is too busy popping bottles to notice

lol just remembered CP3 saying "everyone expects him to miss" when Giannis is at the line

it was kind of a bummer that Rodgers (who is a minority owner) wasn't there but tbf I'd probably wanna stay away from Packer fans if I were him too

people would have thrown shit at him

lol just remembered CP3 saying "everyone expects him to miss" when Giannis is at the line

Yeah I think every fanbase is like that. It's usually an unathletic white guy they latch into tho.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Dudley#2010_Oregon_gubernatorial_campaign

dudley lost -- as a republican in oregon in 2010! -- by 1.5%. every subsequent republican has lost by 6+ points. sports, man

Alex Caruso seems like the quintessential example of that

thats ASSISTANT MANAGER caruso to you, pal

caruso's defense is probably good enough for him to rise above that categorization

you think he could be manager? its a lot of responsibility

maybe like night manager, not sure he's ready for peak hours

My nickname for him is “The Accountant”

Scalabrine is the ne plus ultra imo

thats ASSISTANT MANAGER caruso to you, pal

lmao

One interesting thing you can see in the stats -- Giannis really did just stop shooting threes. 31 attempts against the Nets, 15 (in four games) against the Hawks, just 8 against the Suns.

It felt like the hawks were able to bottle him up and frustrate him way more. I mean he was just amazing in these finals

ok I'm watching Budenholzer speak at the parade and I genuinely feel good for the guy. whether you think he deserves this or not you cannot deny the man was the most stressed person on the court day in and day out, it's nice to see him relaxed and actually smiling

I think he deserves it! The thing he has been criticized again and again for in the playoffs is blind devotion to his plan and inability to adjust. I think he has absolutely showed this year that he's able to see what's not working and change it mid-series.

he was pretty good after that horrific Game 5 loss to the Nets. admittedly a lot of the criticism of him was the result of his team shooting 9 points worse from 3 point range than they did in the regular season

he coached a great series, and there's a little bit of "yeah it's about time you coach a great series" but that doesn't take away much imo. i'm happy that he got to finish the job after starting this team on the right path following the kidd years. he seems like a good dude and has accomplished a lot while being someone that guys seem to be really happy playing for.

https://www.theringer.com/2021/7/21/22585355/giannis-antetokounmpo-book-excerpt-the-improbable-rise

this is a great article about Giannis & Kidd. I guess I'm going to have to buy this book. Kidd seems like a genuine psychopath though, this is the sort of dumb shit awful NFL coaches do

Knight searches for the right words. “I don’t want to sound negative,” he says. Knight explains some of Kidd’s methods, such as how Kidd would embarrass the culprit of an error by making everyone but that person run sprints for his mistake. “He just had his way of getting his point across,” Knight says.

Little things were made to be a big deal: At one point center Thon Maker didn’t have an iPhone, messing up the team’s blue-bubble iPhone group chat. Kidd was upset about it and made the team run because Kidd felt that Maker not getting an iPhone was an example of the team not being united.

good lord kidd belongs in the hague

I never understood how his domestic-abusing ass ever got a coaching job to begin with

pic.twitter.com/pLn1TEfz3U

— Moneybagg Yo(hannes) 🇪🇷 (@AronYohannes) July 22, 2021

on cue

The crazy thing about that Kidd article is they have all those sources who say he’s a psychopath but also a basketball genius

Both things are probably true but that doesn’t make you a good HC - knowing what your players are good at, and more importantly, knowing what they are NOT good at, is key

apparently my Fitbit thought I was jogging for 3 hours

https://i.imgur.com/8ZYMXXg.jpg

ball is intense activity

lol it thinks I burned 5500 calories that day

frogbsanteteokounmpo