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Everything Round 3: Raps vs Bucks
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It's counter-intuitive to say this about an ECF but I think it's gonna come down to the supporting cast of both teams. We know both Giannis and Kawhi are going to be extremely impactful. They're 2 of the top 3 players in the league right now, so chances are they'll be outstanding but somewhat cancel each other out. It'll come down to mainly 4 factors imo: coaching, supporting-player performance (outside shooting), defence, and experience/mental toughness.
My armchair coaching booklet says:
On our defence:
--Sag off Giannis
--Stay home on shooters
--Let Giannis go for 50 if you must. If we hold other guys to around 40 we'll win most games.
--Siakam to guard Giannis, with intermittent spurts of Kawhi & Gasol
--Have Siakam NOT leak out in transition, unless he's sharing the court with Ibaka & Gasol. If these 2 are not the court with him, he's gotta be boxing out or crashing the glass himself. Can't have the cake and eat it too
On our offence:
Bucks defence is heavily focused on the interior (paint). For anyone that have seen enough games or know a bit about defence x's and o's, you can see this is one of the most skewed teams on that end of the floor. They will leave people free to bomb 3's all night, but it's a nightmare to score inside. Therefore:
--Everyone (especially Gasol & Lowry) must shoot when they're open. They will have to shift their mentality from facilitators to scorers on this series.
--Outlet plays (kickouts) need to be designed/incorporated for Kawhi & Siakam. they will not be able to score inside as easily as they're used to.
--Utilize Ibaka's (and Gasol's) midrange elbow jumpers more often, Bucks are not equipped to defend that. Ibaka had huge games vs Bucks this series, and so has Gasol with the Grizzlies, just popping to the 3 or elbow free throw for wide open shots.
If we shoot from deep at the same clip we did vs Philly, Bucks will take this in 4 or 5, won't matter how good our defence is. But if we shoot at our regular % from outside or even league average, while maintaining the defence we had vs Philly & Orlando, we take this in 6.
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Two minutes for rebuttal with mr. g_Deane
the bucks pose a serious speed bump for sure..but brush the stats aside for a minute and turn the focus on the players themselves. The nba more than any other league relies on a few guys ... watching Leonard do things that were beyond the scope of dd’s ample skills made the difference against a really effing good Philly team.
That series was black and blue. Physical big boy ball. Good Regular season players on both sides were rendered to collateral damage in a big time fight.
I rag on embiid but no more..that guy came to play in games 5 through 7 ...Who talked to him or why he buttoned down should be a good story. Simmons the same in games 6 and 7. Butler was a force all series long. Harris didn’t get untracked and Redick the same. A lot of that has to do with really tough defense played but your Toronto Raptors. And the raps were last man standing.
So let’s have a look at the Bucks.....
Lopez or Embiid....have to give the decided edge to the king of twitter..
Giannas vs. Simmons....Edge to the Alphabet..its wide but not ridiculously so.
Middleton or Butler....Like Middleton but Jimmy is a big game guy.....edge to Jimmy
Bledsoe or Harris....kind a wash...
Brogdon or Redick.....both guys bring different things and roles.....Tough compare....
Not that Boston was a bad team this year but they just folded up in games 2 through 5. They aren’t a physical team .Detroit was without their best player and weren’t in the same class as he Bucks.
The raps will inject a physical style that the Bucks haven’t seen so far. The NBA whistles tend to get forgotten in the refs room. This favours the raps. Toronto’s Speed and Defense doesn’t slump....
Raps in 6.Last edited by Demographic Shift; Mon May 13, 2019, 06:49 PM.
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MixxAOR wrote: View Post
I'm afraid Bud is going to use same strategy as Brown and put Lopez on Pascal and sag off of him.
I could see them throwing Ilyasova on Siakam though. 'Sova is a smart defender. I believe he lead the league in charges one year.
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bertarapsfan wrote: View Post
I have a hard time using George Hills stats with the cavs as a measure for his play this season. He looked like shit last year. So far in the playoffs he's playing like he did in indiana. And remember how much of a problem he was in that 2016 series?
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golden wrote: View PostKey player for the Raps is Siakam. He's absolutely feasted against the Bucks (24PPG, .643 FG% in 4 games). And this was before he got really, really good.
The bigger problem for the Bucks is that Giannis is the only guy with the size/speed combination to guard him effectively and Pascal's used that to our advantage to get Giannis in foul trouble. Of course, the refs probably won't call fouls on Giannis, so there's that too.
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Key player for the Raps is Siakam. He's absolutely feasted against the Bucks (24PPG, .643 FG% in 4 games). And this was before he got really, really good.
The bigger problem for the Bucks is that Giannis is the only guy with the size/speed combination to guard him effectively and Pascal's used that to our advantage to get Giannis in foul trouble. Of course, the refs probably won't call fouls on Giannis, so there's that too.
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planetmars wrote: View PostI was looking at the head 2 head stats between George Hill and Fred and their stats are pretty close. Fred is 4-2 against Hill in the RS and Hill is 4-0 in the playoffs (the Cavs series last year). In the playoffs last year (small sample size) Hill averaged like 32mpg and Fred 23.. they had similar stats (about 10/2/3 give or take). So Fred can neutralize Hill. In the RS its more of the same (averaged about 13/3/4 again give or take).
And we've seen Norm against the Bucks 2 years ago. It's a different team, but Norm's job has to be able to neutralize Pat Connaughton (who's been great for the Bucks this year) and play passable defense on guys like Middleton, Snell, Brown, etc. Connaughton is a sneaky offensive rebounder and can shoot. But so can Norm. It's just that Norm has to be locked in.
Serge is obviously key too. Probably our best Giannis defender after Siakam.
I'm not too worried about our 6-8 guys (I guess the 9th guy here would be McCaw or Meeks, but it's really a coin flip and would rarely play IMO). Maybe I'm just being a homer or naive. But I'm feeling more confident with our bench in this series.
The only guy I'm worried/nervous about is Marc Gasol. He really has a limited role. Giannis will get the best of him. He's afraid to shoot so doesn't really spread the floor. He can't rebound. You put him on Lopez I guess.. but you could really put anyone (other than Lowry/Fred since their too short) on him. But if Lopez is sitting and they go small with Giannis at the 5, it's tough.
I hope Marc averages about 20 mpg against the Bucks.. and we see more Serge. I think it just makes more sense in this series. And bring out Marc again against Boogie who is probably going to be available for the finals.
As for the Bucks.. I'd be scared as hell for Kawhi. Who the hell is going to cover him for 40+ minutes? I'm guessing Middleton but that's a tough, tough task man.
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I was looking at the head 2 head stats between George Hill and Fred and their stats are pretty close. Fred is 4-2 against Hill in the RS and Hill is 4-0 in the playoffs (the Cavs series last year). In the playoffs last year (small sample size) Hill averaged like 32mpg and Fred 23.. they had similar stats (about 10/2/3 give or take). So Fred can neutralize Hill. In the RS its more of the same (averaged about 13/3/4 again give or take).
And we've seen Norm against the Bucks 2 years ago. It's a different team, but Norm's job has to be able to neutralize Pat Connaughton (who's been great for the Bucks this year) and play passable defense on guys like Middleton, Snell, Brown, etc. Connaughton is a sneaky offensive rebounder and can shoot. But so can Norm. It's just that Norm has to be locked in.
Serge is obviously key too. Probably our best Giannis defender after Siakam.
I'm not too worried about our 6-8 guys (I guess the 9th guy here would be McCaw or Meeks, but it's really a coin flip and would rarely play IMO). Maybe I'm just being a homer or naive. But I'm feeling more confident with our bench in this series.
The only guy I'm worried/nervous about is Marc Gasol. He really has a limited role. Giannis will get the best of him. He's afraid to shoot so doesn't really spread the floor. He can't rebound. You put him on Lopez I guess.. but you could really put anyone (other than Lowry/Fred since their too short) on him. But if Lopez is sitting and they go small with Giannis at the 5, it's tough.
I hope Marc averages about 20 mpg against the Bucks.. and we see more Serge. I think it just makes more sense in this series. And bring out Marc again against Boogie who is probably going to be available for the finals.
As for the Bucks.. I'd be scared as hell for Kawhi. Who the hell is going to cover him for 40+ minutes? I'm guessing Middleton but that's a tough, tough task man.
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KeonClark wrote: View Post
Do you really wanna count on 7 guys for 7 games every other day? Guys 7 thru 9, vleet, Powell, hopefully soon OG, are capable nba players that have to figure out again if they're going to contribute. 2 days to decompress and take a long hard look in the mirror. Watch some Kawhi Leonard videos..Last edited by GLF; Mon May 13, 2019, 05:49 PM.
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GLF wrote: View Post
That's the thing. Nurse has to realize and finally accept that our bench is trash and THEY can go 9 deep WE cannot! If we stick to playing 7 guys their bench being good probably won't matter. But if he goes back to trying to play 9 guys it's not gonna work out well for us
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DogeLover1234 wrote: View Post
Yeah their bench is better for sure. Thing is it doesnt matter how much better their bench is if Raptors go 7-8 deep with starters playing 35+ minutes. Plus this is the Bucks first series against a talented team that doesnt want to fight each other.
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