Everything Round 1: Toronto Raptors vs Milwaukee Bucks

[S.R.]

http://www.celticsblog.com/2017/4/18...2-nba-playoffs

Love it. Celtics fans shouldn't be too hard on the team, almost everyone other than their fans saw Boston as a soft #1 seed. Even Bill Boston Simmons knew the team didn't have it for a deep playoff run.

Nothing has changed for Boston, they still have some young talent, a great coach, and draft assets that could still be traded or kept. Those picks have the potential to land 1 or 2 franchise players. The team has a very, very long window ahead of them. This playoff is just one step in a multi-year journey for the team, it's not make-or-break anything.

[CNinja26]

It will be great to see how Milwaukee deals with the pressures of having to defend home court. It's one thing to go into someone else's building where you're expected to lose. It's another thing to try to defend your home court when you're expected to win.

Also, how do they follow up a loss? All things I'd like to see from this young team.

[JamesNaismith]

So according to Kenny we are less talented than Bucks. Well damn i guess we overrate Raps hard

Reminds me of the bs Stephen A Smith was saying last year, to paraphrase that the Raps had no chance to win anything against CLE because our 2 best players (DD, KL of course) are not as good as the guys that support LeBron (Kyrie, Love)...when in reality the Cavs without LeBron would be a lottery team meanwhile we are a 50+W team.

American media just doesnt have any respect for us (period). I bet right now if we beat the Cavs in the 2nd rd (if we get there) that the storyline would be more so that the Cavs just fell a part rather than we were a good team (meanwhile if the Bucks did well its that Giannis is just so special) and if we beat WAS that we were just a lucky underdog that Casey just did a great job with (just to show how blatantly out of touch they are)...

[Demographic Shift]

Honest question: the clear advantage we have at the start of every game would be to post-up JV on Thon Maker. If JV can beat up strong C's like Whiteside & Drummond, why aren't we exploiting this matchup from the get-go? Are they guarding JV differently (double-teams, etc...)? If so, this should provide more spacing for our guards, no?

JV is a matchup guy this series. When Kidd brings in Maker at the 5 JV should just play him off the floor like he did to start the 3rd Q. He blew him out. Kidd took him out and in came the smaller lineup.

We are a very deep team and can afford to this against the BUcks who don't have as many options.

[JamesNaismith]

It will be great to see how Milwaukee deals with the pressures of having to defend home court. It's one thing to go into someone else's building where you're expected to lose. It's another thing to try to defend your home court when you're expected to win.

Also, how do they follow up a loss? All things I'd like to see from this young team.

Meh...I dont really buy that.

Most teams (besides ours) dont really seem to buy into the pressure of homecourt but be energized by it hence why teams play for homecourt advantage. We are one of the few teams that doesnt seem to get excited and let the energy of the crowd get them going but instead make them incredibly nervous and feel like there is a ton of pressure to live up to their hopes....its bizarre how we turn a positive into a negative like no other.

The next couple of games are VERY scary as the Bucks will be totally fired up to go.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Honest question: the clear advantage we have at the start of every game would be to post-up JV on Thon Maker. If JV can beat up strong C's like Whiteside & Drummond, why aren't we exploiting this matchup from the get-go? Are they guarding JV differently (double-teams, etc...)? If so, this should provide more spacing for our guards, no?

It's been reported that Milwaukee's trapping/doubling in the post is why the raps are reluctant to post up JV. To minimize turnovers and milwaukees transition opportunities. Not saying I agree with the reasoning, but that's what I've read.

[CNinja26]

Bucks are being really physical for a team full of lanky skinny guys, it's been rattling and distracting the Raptors in equal parts - I've never seen them look this intimidated to try to finish shots near the rim or look so soft trying to finish shots near the rim (a bit of contact leads to a bad miss). Focus, play through that shit, and give it right back. Mostly you should be able to take advantage of an overactive defence. Draw clear fouls, move the ball, find open shots. And for ffs the guards need to keep their dribble driving into the trees in the key instead of jumping without knowing what to do.

Just wrote this in game 2 but I'd actually like to see Casey use a 10 man rotation, keep the players fresh and the energy high, come at the Bucks in waves, the bench guys actually match up very well in this series and have given very good minutes. Lowry looks gassed at times (he's only been back a handful of games after several weeks off) and we know Ibaka's got one bad ankle, really showed it in the first half, came back in the second half, but Poeltl can give you good non-JV minutes, too.

Game 2 was a good step forward, just continue to calm down, pick them apart, and play your game.

I agree with the 10 man rotation. It's an advantage that guys like Norm, Poeltl and Wright can come in a play level-headed. The fresher we can keep our key guys, the better. Every other team is going with a tighter rotation that will eventually start wearing people down, especially in late game situations.

I agree with them needing to just calm down too. They really had that Milwaukee game in hand at one point in my opinion. I recall a stretch in the game when Milwaukee was bending and bending, and the Raptors could have broken them. At that point, I remember thinking, they should bring Demar into the game and lay the gauntlet down while Milwaukee is falling apart. But Casey left the line up out there two minutes too long. They forced the issue on offense and turned the ball over several times that let the Bucks back into the game. I can't help but think that if they played this stretch of basketball with more poise and just executed good plays, I think they could have broken the Bucks' spirit in that game.

[CNinja26]

Meh...I dont really buy that.

Most teams (besides ours) dont really seem to buy into the pressure of homecourt but be energized by it hence why teams play for homecourt advantage. We are one of the few teams that doesnt seem to get excited and let the energy of the crowd get them going but instead make them incredibly nervous and feel like there is a ton of pressure to live up to their hopes....its bizarre how we turn a positive into a negative like no other.

The next couple of games are VERY scary as the Bucks will be totally fired up to go.

But we don't know this for sure. They're still a young team.

[Demographic Shift]

If one person still supports Kidd's dumb ass, I will find you, and I will slap you. What a miserable piece of ****.

And Gus can ride Kidd's dick right out of town as far as I'm concerned.

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want to know...

1 - Why Telly is EVER on the court
2 - Why Snell sat for so long in the 2nd half

And if it isn't obvious to Kidd that Thon needs to play at least 30 minutes, it's his biggest indictment as a coach.

Also, less Giannis iso's. Sorry for the fanboys, but he's best when playing off Middleton or Brogdon.

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Like it's mind boggling how stupid Kidd is. There is absolutely zero reason for Hawes or Mirza to play, or for Snell to barely play in the 4th.
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buck fans don't like Kidd lol

All fans are the same....
Here is the RR version of the same Bucks fans rant

If one person still supports Caseys dumb ass, I will find you, and I will slap you. What a miserable piece of ****.

And XXX can ride Caseys dick right out of town as far as I'm concerned.

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want to know...

1 - Why Carroll is EVER on the court
2 - Why JV sat for so long in the 2nd half

And if it isn't obvious to Casey that JV needs to play at least 30 minutes, it's his biggest indictment as a coach.

Also, less Demar iso's. Sorry for the fanboys, but he's best when playing off Kyle or Patterson.

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Like it's mind boggling how stupid Casey is. There is absolutely zero reason for Carroll or Joseph to play, or for JV to barely play in the 4th.....
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Eerily similar eh ?

[Bendit]

Typo in second rant...replace Kidd with Casey.

[JamesNaismith]

But we don't know this for sure. They're still a young team.

We dont know for sure can be said for pretty much anything lol

But from what we have seen there is no indication that the Bucks feel any sort of pressure but are playing with an excited energy of a young team looking to prove themselves. There really isnt any expectation on them. The vast majority of the media picked us as the higher seed and previous ECF finalists to win the series so all the pressure falls solely on us.

As usual, we are the ones that look tight out there and in our own heads. Even when you listen to the interviews (especially after game 1) you hear our players talk about overthinking etc where as the theme through the Bucks is they are out to get the respect and prove they can win which is obvious on court. They are playing a lot more freely and energized. They look determined, we look anxious and unsure of ourselves.

If the Raps played the way they do in the regular season then I like us to take the Bucks out in 5 or 6. But with me knowing that we just seem to play tighter (especially our leader Lowry) that we are just not as good as we are in the reg season and the Bucks are a team that have been playing very well down the last stretch of the season that is starting to believe in their SUPER star and team that they can be the next East powerhouse and that now is the beginning, first challenge beat a top 4 team....where as we are playing like we are desperate to prove we are still better. Looks like 2 completely different mindsets going on. Thats why I only see this fueling them more, the only positive is that we seem to play well on the road in the Playoffs because we dont feel the self imposed pressure of the home crowd but feel the need to step up in a supposed underdog role (something our players have commented on before last year).

[KeonClark]

Thon Maker was a GREAT pick for Milwaukee. People laughed on draft night that they took him so early, a lot of people seemed stunned like when we took bruno.

No one's laughing now

[DanH]

It's been reported that Milwaukee's trapping/doubling in the post is why the raps are reluctant to post up JV. To minimize turnovers and milwaukees transition opportunities. Not saying I agree with the reasoning, but that's what I've read.

To be clear, it is the fear of the trapping, not the trapping itself. Milwaukee has yet to really stop JV on a post up this series - he's been posted 5 times and has scored 7 points with no turnovers. Unfortunately, after his token 1 or 2 post ups each half, the team ignores him, even when they struggle to score. Heck, JV has only posted Thon twice, and has 5 points out of those two post ups.

Sometimes it can be tricky to get the ball into the post. But not with the defence this Bucks team has been playing - they are hedging and trapping on every screen - one ball reversal after a screen and you should have an easy post pass. Or even have Serge or Pat screen and slip to just inside the top of the arc - that should open up the post entry as well on a big to big pass or after a pass to the corner.

[tonious35]

fuck, Joey can you change the title to game 3

I don't have to throw shade at you anymore, it's a job doing it by itself, HAHAHAHAHAAAaahahhahahaha

[tonious35]

It was bad last night that Carroll hit shots because it kept him on the floor, can he just be shit fully and we bench him as the 11th guy behind Norm or Wright?