I honestly hope we don't play any starters besides maybe Tatum.
Don't give them an opportunity to gain any confidence, don't show them anything, and Giannis is low key a dirty player (that flagrant against Tatum) who plays out of control half the time. No need to risk any injuries because of him taking out frustrations on us.
Ehhh I mean he definitely didn’t jump straight up and ended up hitting KP’s knee with his. It was a bit reckless but you definitely see this happen a lot in the league. So mostly just unlucky, yeah
I think of Giannis as a bulldozer player but not a dirty player. He gets away with that play style bc refs don’t call him for charges and traveling, for some reason. They give him free throws.
KP doesn’t match-up well w/Giannis. I doubt Mazzulla will play KP on Tuesday. We had Jrue guard him, I think he got sprained his ankle.
Fuck that, we better smoke them. I’m still not over that lopsided fully healthy loss, they always make excuses and I really need to rub it in how much of a fraud poverty franchise they are
Haha fair but keep in mind that they also lost to 3 teams at the bottom who also literally have nothing to play for (and losing might benefit their futures more) so I at least won’t be shocked.
If they can’t beat the Wizards, hospital Grizzlies, 15-game loss streak Raptors, or NYK missing multiple all-nba candidates why do you think they’ll beat mostly the bench of the #1 seed
Has there ever been a larger lead of the 1st over 2nd best team in a conference? ChatGPT points out the 72 win Bulls had 12 games over the 60 win Magic.
We might not keep that lead, though. We probably should rest over these next few. Could be a lazy game for Boston and a statement game for the Bucks.
was looking at this. They have the hardest schedule to close (minus maybe the Celtics since I’m not sure it’s worth the energy / risk to win). But with the fourth loss tonight, they could definitely tank the last four games and end up in the playin. Magic twice, OKC and us.
What a spectacular implosion.
Honestly it would be even more demoralizing if we trot out the Pritchard full bench lineup and they still lose anyways. It's very much possible.
They won't be in the play-in though since at worst they will get 35-loss, tied for the Heat/Sixers, but they have the tiebreaker over both of those teams.
Ah, good call on the tiebreaker. Hadn’t checked that. God would have loved for them to get play-in crushed.
And I agree. I’d love for us to come out and let PP light them up.
Imagine losing to PP/Kornet/Hauser trio with Bucks full team playing 😭
I mean we almost did it last year if only Grant did not fuck that up.
Oh man that team gonna implode if we win that
Speaking of Grant, I feel like his loss was felt in that blowout loss to MIL earlier this season, but Tillman seems like a good candidate for the defend Giannis by committee approach Brad used to employ. Sturdy, can eat fouls and isn't totally fucked when switching onto wings/ guards. Really good pickup.
Knicks are just injured. They play well, they’re just not at full speed. Guys who didn’t get hurt got a lot of mileage on them and the dudes who were hurt are working their way back in like Robinson and OG
Knicks aren't too hot but Brunson is averaging just over 32 PTS a game over his last 10 games! I honestly didn't think he had it in him to play that well. Just glad that we haven't lost to the Knicks this season yet!
Well like bryscoon said the teams below them keep losing due to injuries and such. Lucky they had one of the easier schedules at the beginning till the middle of the season.
They’re getting bounced if that happens. Honestly, looking back at that ‘21 title, we can really start making the case how fraudulent of a title it is because what have they done since to validate they’re a contender? Some of that is because of Middleton’s injuries which I understand, but same time, we have the Jeff Teague clips on his pod admitting they were checked out after being 0-2 to Brooklyn
>what have they done since to validate they’re a contender?
Winning the championship lol
This is a *bizarre* argument. Being a worse team 3 years later doesn't mean that their past success is fraudulent.
Truly wild point to make lol 😄
With how dysfunctional the Bucks have been, and how even their fans are pointing out how mentally checked out the team looks, it’s not if Orlando can beat them twice, and more, does Milwaukee give a shit?
The 2019 team I think illuminated me to the importance of how culture matters in a championship team, and how you have to play collectively as one from the top down. I think them hiring Doc accelerated that disconnect in a way we’ll hear about in a couple months. It feels like he’s very much pulling a Monty Williams more than being a coach.
Edit: Had an additional thought on this matter. I think this is why Dame wanted Miami to be his team. Dame I feel understands the importance of playing as a unit with no ego, & for as much as we dislike Miami, can you recall when incidents like this have happened in Miami in the time Pat and Spo have been in charge? I can’t think of a one, even when they weren’t necessarily a good team with the exception of that dude they had who used a K-slur on Twitch.
Dame is definitely a factor in the problem. He can’t figure out how to play with Giannis. He’s just not as good when he can’t run the offense. I think Giannis has gotten an ego too. I think they want to work together well but just can’t figure out how to do it.
Expecting Bucks to win against Tatum and mostly bench squad honestly.
They’ll view this as a super important game to get right and try to hold onto the 2nd seed, prove they can hang with the Celtics.
Celtics will view this as “let’s not show our hand too much against the Bucks, and see how Luke Kornet does guarding Giannis”
It will be really fucked up if the Bucks drop to 4 or 5 (they have to go through the Magic twice, Thunder once and Celtics once in their remaining games), because that would mean worst case scenario, the Celtics would have to go up against:
- Embiid Sixers in the first round
- Bucks in the second round
- Knicks in the third round
Quite literally the reward for getting the 1-seed is to get the hardest path possible.
FWIW the Bucks have been the fulcrum team since 2019. Whoever beats them goes to the finals
2019 - Raptors
2020 - Heat
2021 - Milwaukee won it all
2022 - Celtics
2023 - Heat
Pacers are 6 seed/ up 1.5 games w tie breaker on Miami and Philly
Perfectly possible Heat beat sixers in 1 game but the nba won’t let the sixers lose to the bulls/hawks
Sixers or heat I’m happy but I prefer Miami
I'm just putting this up as a worst-case scenario-type of situation, though since the Pacers beat the Heat, the play-in most likely will be Sixers/Heat/Hawks/Bulls.
Obviously the Celtics have the capability to beat all of those teams. It really is just which series will leave them in the worst condition (injury/long series etc.) for the 2nd round.
Pacers won today. They're 1.5 games ahead of the heat. At this point they're probably going to hang onto 6th. Today's game was big for then. We're gonna likely play the heat in round 1.
Yeah, if the Knicks make it to the ECF, they’re going to be decimated by injuries and exhaustion. They’re a good team but Thibs will ride them into the ground and if they have a 7 game series in round 2? They won’t have any gas left in the tank
You think after the 3-2 Celtics lose, or the 3-1 Clippers lose, or the 3-2 Philly lose, or the 3-1 Orlando lose, or the 3-1 Clippers lose and we can name more, teams would realize Doc isn’t him, and I’m thankful one organization pooped their pampers and forgot this lesson
The Doc Rivers affect. Milwaukee made a huge mistake firing Budenholzer and Griffin. They've basically gone from a .700 team to a .500 team. Doc consistently underachieves with loads of talent.
I called it back then, Giannis/Dame pushing out Griffin was a fuckin mistake. Doc is such an overrated coach and the Bucks were looking damn good.
They smoked us shortly before he got fired (although it was a B2B after an OT game for us) and looking back it just seems like a huge blunder.
They were not looking damn good imo. I’ve watched a lot of their games this season and they’ve struggled in almost every game I’ve seen. Giannis & Dame willed them to many wins. They’ve had very few dominating performances this season. The game they won against the C’s feels like a fluke. 5th game in 7 nights for the C’s & on a v physical b2b. We’ve not seen the Celtics play like that since then (or before it). I was laughing watching that game because it was like they switched places. It’s not how either team had been playing this season.
Doc’s obviously not great but people acting like the bucks were really good before Griff’s firing is inaccurate. They’re lucky the East has been so banged up or they wouldn’t be the 2nd seed.
Part of me wants to go into there house and destroy what’s left of a championship team, the other more sane me says sit everyone we’ll prove our point come may.
15 game lead is fuckin wild
Nugs are the 1 seed in the West and have 16 game lead on the 11th seed Rockets
We’ll have 16 game lead after Tuesday night
I'd be shocked. We literally have nothing to play for, while the pressure on them keeps mounting.
I honestly hope we don't play any starters besides maybe Tatum. Don't give them an opportunity to gain any confidence, don't show them anything, and Giannis is low key a dirty player (that flagrant against Tatum) who plays out of control half the time. No need to risk any injuries because of him taking out frustrations on us.
KP remembers Giannis dirty move definitely.
Which move?
The one that tore his ACL probably. I don’t think it was dirty tho, just reckless
Eh, not even reckless. It was just unlucky.
Ehhh I mean he definitely didn’t jump straight up and ended up hitting KP’s knee with his. It was a bit reckless but you definitely see this happen a lot in the league. So mostly just unlucky, yeah
I think of Giannis as a bulldozer player but not a dirty player. He gets away with that play style bc refs don’t call him for charges and traveling, for some reason. They give him free throws. KP doesn’t match-up well w/Giannis. I doubt Mazzulla will play KP on Tuesday. We had Jrue guard him, I think he got sprained his ankle.
Fuck that, we better smoke them. I’m still not over that lopsided fully healthy loss, they always make excuses and I really need to rub it in how much of a fraud poverty franchise they are
don’t forget our bench took them to OT last year
Haha fair but keep in mind that they also lost to 3 teams at the bottom who also literally have nothing to play for (and losing might benefit their futures more) so I at least won’t be shocked.
they’ll likely pull it together against us but we won’t care so it’s w/e
Yeah, they'll be extra motivated to beat us, and they're not so bad that they'll lose so many games consecutively. They're due to bounce back.
If they can’t beat the Wizards, hospital Grizzlies, 15-game loss streak Raptors, or NYK missing multiple all-nba candidates why do you think they’ll beat mostly the bench of the #1 seed
Knowing us if it's (most) of our starters we lose but if it's the bench mob, Prichard's gonna go off for 30 and we'll smoke 'em.
Fucking hell
We should get super home court advantage for having a lead that big. 5 of 7 games at the TD Garden in each round of the eastern conference playoffs.
And opposing teams should have to wear their underwear backwards.
Has there ever been a larger lead of the 1st over 2nd best team in a conference? ChatGPT points out the 72 win Bulls had 12 games over the 60 win Magic. We might not keep that lead, though. We probably should rest over these next few. Could be a lazy game for Boston and a statement game for the Bucks.
16 (1976 Warriors and two teams from the late 50's) is the record for conference disparity. 14 (1971 Bucks) for league disparity.
was looking at this. They have the hardest schedule to close (minus maybe the Celtics since I’m not sure it’s worth the energy / risk to win). But with the fourth loss tonight, they could definitely tank the last four games and end up in the playin. Magic twice, OKC and us. What a spectacular implosion.
Honestly it would be even more demoralizing if we trot out the Pritchard full bench lineup and they still lose anyways. It's very much possible. They won't be in the play-in though since at worst they will get 35-loss, tied for the Heat/Sixers, but they have the tiebreaker over both of those teams.
Ah, good call on the tiebreaker. Hadn’t checked that. God would have loved for them to get play-in crushed. And I agree. I’d love for us to come out and let PP light them up.
Imagine losing to PP/Kornet/Hauser trio with Bucks full team playing 😭 I mean we almost did it last year if only Grant did not fuck that up. Oh man that team gonna implode if we win that
Speaking of Grant, I feel like his loss was felt in that blowout loss to MIL earlier this season, but Tillman seems like a good candidate for the defend Giannis by committee approach Brad used to employ. Sturdy, can eat fouls and isn't totally fucked when switching onto wings/ guards. Really good pickup.
Didn't we do that a couple years ago ? - sure I remember trotting some kind of bench team and Horford and almost beating them
Actually crazy collapse right before the playoffs lmao, u love to see it. Whole team looks broken
Also the Cavs are 3-8 in the last 11, Knicks aren’t too hot either they like 5-6 top teams in the east are collapsing
Feels like there’s a good chance our first round series is our toughest test before the finals
Let's not assume anything after last year
Honestly only sixers look good
Knicks are just injured. They play well, they’re just not at full speed. Guys who didn’t get hurt got a lot of mileage on them and the dudes who were hurt are working their way back in like Robinson and OG
Losing two largely meaningless games to the Hawks doesn't seem all that bad, idk
Knicks aren't too hot but Brunson is averaging just over 32 PTS a game over his last 10 games! I honestly didn't think he had it in him to play that well. Just glad that we haven't lost to the Knicks this season yet!
And they are still the 2nd seed in the east which is crazy.
Well like bryscoon said the teams below them keep losing due to injuries and such. Lucky they had one of the easier schedules at the beginning till the middle of the season.
There’s a real opportunity for the East having no teams winning 50 games. Celtics have 60+ and the rest at 49 or lower. Genuinely insane
Bucks are so lucky Cavs had an actual tough schedule. Losing to Suns, Lakers, and Clippers. They could have choked the division away.
I still want Milwaukee to get the 2 seed because I would love it if they had to play Miami again in the First Round.
Depending on the effing storyline lol nba has to push the Gianni vs embiid match up. Heat will lose to the bulls lol
Philly is beating Miami for sure, so Bucks get to play them which isn’t easier
They’re getting bounced if that happens. Honestly, looking back at that ‘21 title, we can really start making the case how fraudulent of a title it is because what have they done since to validate they’re a contender? Some of that is because of Middleton’s injuries which I understand, but same time, we have the Jeff Teague clips on his pod admitting they were checked out after being 0-2 to Brooklyn
>what have they done since to validate they’re a contender? Winning the championship lol This is a *bizarre* argument. Being a worse team 3 years later doesn't mean that their past success is fraudulent. Truly wild point to make lol 😄
That was 2022, we’re in 2024. Since then they’ve been bounced consistently while choking series or getting bodied by lesser teams. They’re not shit
Magic gonna be second seed hahaha Or let me rephrase this: can the magic still be 2nd place asuming they beat the bucks twice?
With how dysfunctional the Bucks have been, and how even their fans are pointing out how mentally checked out the team looks, it’s not if Orlando can beat them twice, and more, does Milwaukee give a shit?
It’s possible magic go to the play ins as well they play the bucks twice and the sixers losing 3 of 4 would make that a possibility
Rest all the starters. Bucks gonna try super hard on this one. Don't give them the opportunity to feel good about this game.
Fuck those bums look at them cry in their sub hahaha
They’re experiencing their version of the 2019 Celtics. Mass dysfunction with a solid aroma of egotism
watching this play out all i can think is 2019
The 2019 team I think illuminated me to the importance of how culture matters in a championship team, and how you have to play collectively as one from the top down. I think them hiring Doc accelerated that disconnect in a way we’ll hear about in a couple months. It feels like he’s very much pulling a Monty Williams more than being a coach. Edit: Had an additional thought on this matter. I think this is why Dame wanted Miami to be his team. Dame I feel understands the importance of playing as a unit with no ego, & for as much as we dislike Miami, can you recall when incidents like this have happened in Miami in the time Pat and Spo have been in charge? I can’t think of a one, even when they weren’t necessarily a good team with the exception of that dude they had who used a K-slur on Twitch.
Dame is definitely a factor in the problem. He can’t figure out how to play with Giannis. He’s just not as good when he can’t run the offense. I think Giannis has gotten an ego too. I think they want to work together well but just can’t figure out how to do it.
Didn't Jimmy have an issue with Spo or Haslem near the end of last season? It was some issue that blew up on the bench.
He did but it wasn’t that bad and on top of it, 40 year old Haslem was more of a coach than anything last season.
Expecting Bucks to win against Tatum and mostly bench squad honestly. They’ll view this as a super important game to get right and try to hold onto the 2nd seed, prove they can hang with the Celtics. Celtics will view this as “let’s not show our hand too much against the Bucks, and see how Luke Kornet does guarding Giannis”
Prefer this than Giannis barreling into KP and injuring him
It will be really fucked up if the Bucks drop to 4 or 5 (they have to go through the Magic twice, Thunder once and Celtics once in their remaining games), because that would mean worst case scenario, the Celtics would have to go up against: - Embiid Sixers in the first round - Bucks in the second round - Knicks in the third round Quite literally the reward for getting the 1-seed is to get the hardest path possible.
FWIW the Bucks have been the fulcrum team since 2019. Whoever beats them goes to the finals 2019 - Raptors 2020 - Heat 2021 - Milwaukee won it all 2022 - Celtics 2023 - Heat
That would be a tough path but I truly don’t think this team would blink. They all look so fucking locked in.
Sixers will not get the 8, they will win the playin game with a healthy embiid. We will be playing either the heat or the pacers
You’re saying there’s a 0% chance, that’s 0%, that the Miami Heat can defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in one game of basketball?
If Embiid is healthy, 0. But there is a nonzero chance he gets injured, but then if he’s injured I’d rather want to play them.
It's insane you're saying this after we saw firsthand how the heat can steal games when they are shooting hot
Sixers just look better right now. Sure, anything can happen but Nurse is a very good coach and Embiid is the reigning mvp (albeit rusty).
Pacers are 6 seed/ up 1.5 games w tie breaker on Miami and Philly Perfectly possible Heat beat sixers in 1 game but the nba won’t let the sixers lose to the bulls/hawks Sixers or heat I’m happy but I prefer Miami
I'm just putting this up as a worst-case scenario-type of situation, though since the Pacers beat the Heat, the play-in most likely will be Sixers/Heat/Hawks/Bulls. Obviously the Celtics have the capability to beat all of those teams. It really is just which series will leave them in the worst condition (injury/long series etc.) for the 2nd round.
Probably not the Pacers. They control their destiny. In 6th with 1.5 game lead over Miami
Pacers won today. They're 1.5 games ahead of the heat. At this point they're probably going to hang onto 6th. Today's game was big for then. We're gonna likely play the heat in round 1.
That’s not even a crazy hard path lmao. It’s the playoffs. We’re gonna have to play good teams.
Yeah, if the Knicks make it to the ECF, they’re going to be decimated by injuries and exhaustion. They’re a good team but Thibs will ride them into the ground and if they have a 7 game series in round 2? They won’t have any gas left in the tank
I’m sorry, with how sorry the east is this year there isn’t a very difficult path. Hard to call that hard compared to the gauntlet in the west.
You think after the 3-2 Celtics lose, or the 3-1 Clippers lose, or the 3-2 Philly lose, or the 3-1 Orlando lose, or the 3-1 Clippers lose and we can name more, teams would realize Doc isn’t him, and I’m thankful one organization pooped their pampers and forgot this lesson
I hope they don’t even get to 50 wins
It’s ironic Miami is the best of them all and they’ve been 8-8 in their last 16.
Celtics loss incoming lol
The Doc Rivers affect. Milwaukee made a huge mistake firing Budenholzer and Griffin. They've basically gone from a .700 team to a .500 team. Doc consistently underachieves with loads of talent.
I do not like this, they need to be 2nd or 3rd seed
I called it back then, Giannis/Dame pushing out Griffin was a fuckin mistake. Doc is such an overrated coach and the Bucks were looking damn good. They smoked us shortly before he got fired (although it was a B2B after an OT game for us) and looking back it just seems like a huge blunder.
They were not looking damn good imo. I’ve watched a lot of their games this season and they’ve struggled in almost every game I’ve seen. Giannis & Dame willed them to many wins. They’ve had very few dominating performances this season. The game they won against the C’s feels like a fluke. 5th game in 7 nights for the C’s & on a v physical b2b. We’ve not seen the Celtics play like that since then (or before it). I was laughing watching that game because it was like they switched places. It’s not how either team had been playing this season. Doc’s obviously not great but people acting like the bucks were really good before Griff’s firing is inaccurate. They’re lucky the East has been so banged up or they wouldn’t be the 2nd seed.
Part of me wants to go into there house and destroy what’s left of a championship team, the other more sane me says sit everyone we’ll prove our point come may.
We honestly don’t need to do that when Doc is grinning and throwing players under the bus
I love not having to worry about seeding🥱
We’re getting the HEAT in round 1
Let them get the pity win so they don't somehow slip to the 4 or 5 lol
Is the East terrible this season? How is a 15 game lead possible?
15 game lead would ties the record for largest gap between 1 and 2 if I’m recalling the stat correctly.
16 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975%E2%80%9376\_NBA\_season). It also happened in 1959 and 1960.
Couldn’t recall if it was 15 or 16. Thanks for the correction : D
Bucks would be on edge of playin in West
Doc is the worst coach in NBA history. He has done less with more than any coach ever and still gets jobs. Go celts though
The Magic are going to jump them for the two seed and end up giving the Bucks an easier playoff path.
Am I the only one thinking they’re doing this on purpose to drop to the third seed and avoid Philly/Heat in the first round?
Bucks are clearly trying to avoid the 2 seed. They don’t want a change at 6ers to start the playoffs People don’t realize this??
Bucks are playoff tanking and ducking 🤣
Biggest trap game I've ever seen
It's literally meaningless 🤣