Bucks (2-1) at Celtics (1-2) Round 2 Game 4 5/6/19

[Phantom255x]

Danny Ainge has a better heart than this Celtics team.

Sad 

[jambr380]

@BrianTRobb
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Marcus Morris: "We miss shots, we’re not getting back. I feel like we’ve been pretty soft."

https://twitter.com/BrianTRobb/status/1125587419481477121

Now that's how you should respond after this type of loss.

Morris has really turned me around, and I'd love to have him back as a rotation player next season for 7-8M per year.

I agree. There are often times during the regular season that I can't stand his selfish play, but he seems to understand that it isn't all about him these playoffs. He would make a solid MLE type of player if we do indeed add AD...I prefer him off the bench, though, where he can play in spurts and it's okay for him to look for his own.

[SparzWizard]

@BrianTRobb
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Marcus Morris: "We miss shots, we’re not getting back. I feel like we’ve been pretty soft."

https://twitter.com/BrianTRobb/status/1125587419481477121

Now that's how you should respond after this type of loss.

Morris has really turned me around, and I'd love to have him back as a rotation player next season for 7-8M per year.

Morris is really earning my love back again. I think I'm more inclined to have him back than Hayward and that's saying a lot.

[Kuberski33]

Just got back from the game - just an awful performance. Milwaukee was very beatable tonight but the Celtics just couldn't make any shots. And they were nearly as bad as the Celtics from 3 pt range so Milwaukee easily could have won by 25.

The game was there for the taking when Middleton & Giannis picked up their 4th fouls and that's basically when Milwaukee won the game - mainly because no one in a Celtic uniform could make a shot.

Good luck fixing this mess this summer. I'm not sure where you start.

[tenn_smoothie]

Just got back from the game - just an awful performance. Milwaukee was very beatable tonight but the Celtics just couldn't make any shots. And they were nearly as bad as the Celtics from 3 pt range so Milwaukee easily could have won by 25.

The game was there for the taking when Middleton & Giannis picked up their 4th fouls and that's basically when Milwaukee won the game - mainly because no one in a Celtic uniform could make a shot.

Good luck fixing this mess this summer. I'm not sure where you start.

How loud was the booing and was it obvious it was directed towards effort and not missed shots, though in my book, lazy shot selection is also a lack of effort.

[Kuberski33]

Just got back from the game - just an awful performance. Milwaukee was very beatable tonight but the Celtics just couldn't make any shots. And they were nearly as bad as the Celtics from 3 pt range so Milwaukee easily could have won by 25.

The game was there for the taking when Middleton & Giannis picked up their 4th fouls and that's basically when Milwaukee won the game - mainly because no one in a Celtic uniform could make a shot.

Good luck fixing this mess this summer. I'm not sure where you start.

How loud was the booing and was it obvious it was directed towards effort and not missed shots, though in my book, lazy shot selection is also a lack of effort.

Honestly I didn't hear any booing till the end.  And I think it was just in response to the performance in general. It was a very frustrating game to watch.  But the crowd was into the game and supported the team all night - the team just gave nothing back. They played hard enough - but couldn't make any shots and got outplayed by a better team.

[smokeablount]

I’m not proud to admit it, but I turned it off at halftime and went for a drive for an hour. My heart wasn’t in it at all in the first half and I was pretty sure the Bucks would take the 3rd again.

As one of Kyrie’s biggest supporters I can admit he’s been bad the past 3 games, but I still don’t think he’s the problem. As I’ve said for most of the year, do what you have to do to land AD, try to keep Brown, and hope GH makes a PG13-style leap in Recovery Year 2.

I’m fine with losing game 5 and starting the offseason, which is what this year has been about for some time. I’ll take a mercy killing.

I apologize for the defeatist attitude, I kept my fighting spirit as long as I could. Next year could be huge for team if things break right, but this year is pretty much over.

[blink]

@ChrisForsberg_
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For the third consecutive game, Kryie Irving has missed 14 shots.

Irving's last three games:

17-59 FG
28.8 FG%
4-19 3PT
21.1 3PT%
6:11 PM - 6 May 2019

https://twitter.com/ChrisForsberg_/status/1125568900115124224

That one tweet seems to have summarized this whole series with the Bucks.  If our main star can't hit shots, we aren't beating anyone.
If Kyrie even was hitting 40% of his FG we might have pulled one or two of these games out.  Sorry Kyrie, I have been a big supporter of you, but a lot of this is on him.

[blink]

@BrianTRobb
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Marcus Morris: "We miss shots, we’re not getting back. I feel like we’ve been pretty soft."

https://twitter.com/BrianTRobb/status/1125587419481477121

Now that's how you should respond after this type of loss.

Yup Morris and Brown have been the two bright spots for us.  Both of those guys have worked their butts off in the series, and haven't stopped trying to get to the rim and draw fouls.  Big props to Morris and Jaylen.

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

Just got back from the game - just an awful performance. Milwaukee was very beatable tonight but the Celtics just couldn't make any shots. And they were nearly as bad as the Celtics from 3 pt range so Milwaukee easily could have won by 25.

The game was there for the taking when Middleton & Giannis picked up their 4th fouls and that's basically when Milwaukee won the game - mainly because no one in a Celtic uniform could make a shot.

Good luck fixing this mess this summer. I'm not sure where you start.

I really don't think there's any way to fix it, at least not in the short term. Kyrie walking might help chemistry, but it won't free up any cap space. Trading for AD would require giving up some solid young pieces—but NOT trading for AD leaves the team without a genuine superstar.

And does any of this really matter as long as Giannis is in the East? Danny's master plan definitely didn't account for "the next LeBron" showing up as soon as LeBron left. They might as well start tanking for the next Zion-level future star.

[Kuberski33]

In Kyrie's defense (somewhat) the Bucks are gearing their entire defense to slowing him down. The way the Celtics have tried to build a wall against Giannis - the Bucks are doing the same to Kyrie. 

He's getting guarded initially by Bledsoe (and Hill) and they're doing their best to stay in front of him and make it as difficult as possible from him to drive, but when he gets by the initial guard he's getting picked up the the 2nd layer - usually guys like Lopez or Giannis and they're succeeding in making it very difficult to get to the basket.  If he drives they contest everything. If he kicks, the ball moves and they miss a 3.  If someone else would get hot and make some shots, then Kyrie would be able do more.

But if no one else can make a shot, then it becomes a lot easier to guard him. 

[makaveli]

In Kyrie's defense (somewhat) the Bucks are gearing their entire defense to slowing him down. The way the Celtics have tried to build a wall against Giannis - the Bucks are doing the same to Kyrie. 

He's getting guarded initially by Bledsoe (and Hill) and they're doing their best to stay in front of him and make it as difficult as possible from him to drive, but when he gets by the initial guard he's getting picked up the the 2nd layer - usually guys like Lopez or Giannis and they're succeeding in making it very difficult to get to the basket.  If he drives they contest everything. If he kicks, the ball moves and they miss a 3.  If someone else would get hot and make some shots, then Kyrie would be able do more.

But if no one else can make a shot, then it becomes a lot easier to guard him. 

disagree,

he is the one that is supposed to calm things on offense, control the tempo, instead all he did is took quick bad shots, dribbled the air out of the ball, made stupid passes and by doing so, got us out of any type of tempo.

from the eye test, i can see that he makes stupid decisions on defense, really showing no defensive effort so that the defense has no chance to react, especially speaking on someone fast like giannis and afterwards, complains and argues with the resto of the players. it is rediculous at this point, he is not a leader which he desperately is trying to be.

[liam]

Brad has to do something different in game 5 or it's just madness. Why did he play Kyrie for 44 minutes.

What happened to the game one Celtics?

From The Ringer: https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/5/6/18534921/winners-losers-bucks-celtics-rockets-warriors-game-4

"Brad Stevens might not feel he has many other options. But for a coach who uses his men so fluidly at the wing despite their true position, it’s becoming inexcusable to not at least try his other options, even if that means going super small with three guards, or playing Aron Baynes (seven minutes in Game 4) fully knowing he’d wind up guarding the deep ball. At this point, any shift to the lineup is worthwhile."

[blink]

In Kyrie's defense (somewhat) the Bucks are gearing their entire defense to slowing him down. The way the Celtics have tried to build a wall against Giannis - the Bucks are doing the same to Kyrie. 

He's getting guarded initially by Bledsoe (and Hill) and they're doing their best to stay in front of him and make it as difficult as possible from him to drive, but when he gets by the initial guard he's getting picked up the the 2nd layer - usually guys like Lopez or Giannis and they're succeeding in making it very difficult to get to the basket.  If he drives they contest everything. If he kicks, the ball moves and they miss a 3.  If someone else would get hot and make some shots, then Kyrie would be able do more.

But if no one else can make a shot, then it becomes a lot easier to guard him.

Except that (bolded) wasn't what happened tonight.  Literally all the other 4 starters shot way better than Kyrie.  The narrative that all the other 4 guys suck and if we just had someone else who could hit a shot wasn't true tonight.  It hasn't been true all series.  Kyrie hasn't hit shots, and he keeps taking a boat load of them, and keeps dribbling into the middle with no plan and turns the ball over, or forces a bad 3. 

We may not have gotten the perfect effort from the other 4 guys, but at least (2) of them Morris and Brown were scoring well this game.  Kyrie had more shots than both of them combined.  Kyrie has to be smart enough to recognize that spazzing out and forcing drives and forcing bad shots isn't going to beat a good team.  In this series he never figured that out.

I am done apologizing for Kyrie.  He is the star, he needs to play like one, both in shooting, but intelligent ball handling, distribution and defense.  We haven't gotten any of that from him in this series except game 1.

Honestly, we have to credit the bucks for executing their game plan.  Their plan was to wall off Kyrie, not let him get where he wanted, and force him to distribute or take bad shots.  The plan has worked really well.

[liam]

In Kyrie's defense (somewhat) the Bucks are gearing their entire defense to slowing him down. The way the Celtics have tried to build a wall against Giannis - the Bucks are doing the same to Kyrie. 

He's getting guarded initially by Bledsoe (and Hill) and they're doing their best to stay in front of him and make it as difficult as possible from him to drive, but when he gets by the initial guard he's getting picked up the the 2nd layer - usually guys like Lopez or Giannis and they're succeeding in making it very difficult to get to the basket.  If he drives they contest everything. If he kicks, the ball moves and they miss a 3.  If someone else would get hot and make some shots, then Kyrie would be able do more.

But if no one else can make a shot, then it becomes a lot easier to guard him.

Except that (bolded) wasn't what happened tonight.  Literally all the other 4 starters shot way better than Kyrie.  The narrative that all the other 4 guys suck and if we just had someone else who could hit a shot wasn't true tonight.  It hasn't been true all series.  Kyrie hasn't hit shots, and he keeps taking a boat load of them, and keeps dribbling into the middle with no plan and turns the ball over, or forces a bad 3. 

We may not have gotten the perfect effort from the other 4 guys, but at least (2) of them Morris and Brown were scoring well this game.  Kyrie had more shots than both of them combined.  Kyrie has to be smart enough to recognize that spazzing out and forcing drives and forcing bad shots isn't going to beat a good team.  In this series he never figured that out.

I am done apologizing for Kyrie.  He is the star, he needs to play like one, both in shooting, but intelligent ball handling, distribution and defense.  We haven't gotten any of that from him in this series except game 1.

Honestly, we have to credit the bucks for executing their game plan.  Their plan was to wall off Kyrie, not let him get where he wanted, and force him to distribute or take bad shots.  The plan has worked really well.

Agreed. No adjustment to this has been made on Boston's side.