To Become the Champs, We Need to Beat the Champs

[Goldstar88]

If the Celtics can’t beat the Milwaukee Bucks without Middleton and home court advantage, they don’t deserve to win the title.

The Celtics are probably the worst matchup for the Bucks, with Robert Williams, Tatum & Brown to throw at Giannis and Smart being the perfect equalizer for Jrue Holiday.

It’s hopefully going to be a long series but there can’t be any excuses.

I actually thought Horford did the best job covering Giannis. Theis wasn’t bad either.

[liam]

If the Celtics can’t beat the Milwaukee Bucks without Middleton and home court advantage, they don’t deserve to win the title.

The Celtics are probably the worst matchup for the Bucks, with Robert Williams, Tatum & Brown to throw at Giannis and Smart being the perfect equalizer for Jrue Holiday.

It’s hopefully going to be a long series but there can’t be any excuses.

I actually thought Horford did the best job covering Giannis. Theis wasn’t bad either.

Al was good but Theis only played 4 minutes.

[seancally]

I’m not sure Giannis could have a better game…

He scored 24 points on 36% shooting, and had five turnovers. He will have better games.

Better scoring games. He killed us with his passing out of weak doubles.

and he will continue to do so.  Giannis is BY FAR the best player in the world.  No one is even close to him.

Sure but the weak doubles don’t help. We can’t be lackadaisical about it. He’s a great passer out of double teams and we left too many shooters too open. That can clean up a lot.

strong doubles won't do much more though.  That is the problem with Giannis.  He is just so good.  I still think Boston can win this series, but they are in a hole losing game 1.  Boston has to win game 2 or the series is over.  It is a massive game.

We’re a good road team. Series are won in 7 games not 2. But point taken.

As for doubles — I actually think we should do so less frequently, while clamping down better on his outlets. That might mean he has a big scoring night. But realistically he will probably do that no matter what. I thought we were not intentional enough with the doubles and that we doubled too often.

[Sophomore]

I’m not sure Giannis could have a better game…

He scored 24 points on 36% shooting, and had five turnovers. He will have better games.

Better scoring games. He killed us with his passing out of weak doubles.

and he will continue to do so.  Giannis is BY FAR the best player in the world.  No one is even close to him.

Sure but the weak doubles don’t help. We can’t be lackadaisical about it. He’s a great passer out of double teams and we left too many shooters too open. That can clean up a lot.

strong doubles won't do much more though.  That is the problem with Giannis.  He is just so good.  I still think Boston can win this series, but they are in a hole losing game 1.  Boston has to win game 2 or the series is over.  It is a massive game.

If they could hold Giannis to 9-25 shooting and turn him over 5 times every game, I think they’d be good position to win. They just need to do better on the other end. Shooting 29% from 2 won’t get it done.

[libermaniac]

I’m thinking we may need to play Theis in place of Time Lord more to get their long defenders out of the paint so Tatum and Brown can drive.

[showtime]

Tatum and Brown need to bring their A game and someone, Gwill or Pritchard need to hit from outside!

[ozgod]

If the Celtics can’t beat the Milwaukee Bucks without Middleton and home court advantage, they don’t deserve to win the title.

The Celtics are probably the worst matchup for the Bucks, with Robert Williams, Tatum & Brown to throw at Giannis and Smart being the perfect equalizer for Jrue Holiday.

It’s hopefully going to be a long series but there can’t be any excuses.

Well it's also a difficult matchup for us, because they have 3 7 footers they can use to clog the paint and force us to shoot from the perimeter which we're not great at. And even if we clog the paint they have 7 rotation players that shoot 35%+, of which 4 shoot 40%+. If we beat them we will have earned it by being the better team, because they're probably the best team we will face on our path to a championship.

But you have to beat who is in front of you. As the OP said to be the best you have to beat the best. They got rattled when the Bucks clogged the paint, took away driving lanes and left people open on the perimeter daring them to shoot. They knew that once a few misses started happening the pressure on the team would build. They should be better in Game 2.

[GreenlyGreeny]

I’m not sure Giannis could have a better game and I’m not sure JT/JB could have a worse game. We’ll bounce back and even it up. But we need to win a game in Milwaukee now. We can do this. We’re the better team even if they have the best player.

Um… what?

Dude had a triple-double, only the second in his career in the playoffs. He absolutely killed us anytime we tried to double up on him. He could have a better shooting game, of course, but a better all-around game? Doubtful.

Would like to see a lot more Theis to stretch out their interior D. Instead of doubling Giannis, leave one man on him, and hack him anytime he touches the paint, ready to take a high % shot. He’s not going to shoot better than .60-.70 from the line.

[gouki88]

I’m not sure Giannis could have a better game and I’m not sure JT/JB could have a worse game. We’ll bounce back and even it up. But we need to win a game in Milwaukee now. We can do this. We’re the better team even if they have the best player.

Um… what?

Dude had a triple-double, only the second in his career in the playoffs. He absolutely killed us anytime we tried to double up on him. He could have a better shooting game, of course, but a better all-around game? Doubtful.

Would like to see a lot more Theis to stretch out their interior D. Instead of doubling Giannis, leave one man on him, and hack him anytime he touches the paint, ready to take a high % shot. He’s not going to shoot better than .60-.70 from the line.

He could easily have a better all around game. His entire previous series average was better all-round, given he was 20% more efficient from the field and turned it over significantly less. We largely mitigated his influence scoring the ball, it was just our other perimeter defence that hurt.

And, most of all, our inability to score inside the arc. I wouldn't really change much of our defensive strategy - holding them to 100 or thereabouts is a decent enough effort. We need to change it up on the other end though.

[GreenlyGreeny]

I’m not sure Giannis could have a better game and I’m not sure JT/JB could have a worse game. We’ll bounce back and even it up. But we need to win a game in Milwaukee now. We can do this. We’re the better team even if they have the best player.

Um… what?

Dude had a triple-double, only the second in his career in the playoffs. He absolutely killed us anytime we tried to double up on him. He could have a better shooting game, of course, but a better all-around game? Doubtful.

Would like to see a lot more Theis to stretch out their interior D. Instead of doubling Giannis, leave one man on him, and hack him anytime he touches the paint, ready to take a high % shot. He’s not going to shoot better than .60-.70 from the line.

He could easily have a better all around game. His entire previous series average was better all-round, given he was 20% more efficient from the field and turned it over significantly less. We largely mitigated his influence scoring the ball, it was just our other perimeter defence that hurt.

Better all-around game against us, though? Doubtful. Our D is too good. We can’t give him those passes for easy buckets every time we doubled up. That simple. Much better to just foul him anytime he steps inside the paint, where he gets scary dominant. On average it will only produce 1.3-1.4 points per hack, so hacking him 15-20 times would only lead to 21-28 points (and if he wants a physical game, taking 15-20 decent fouls on him will make him wish we were doubling him up to dish out). No more open 3’s or easy layups for 2 whenever he dishes out. Those are what totally killed us.

[SparzWizard]

Stephen A. Smith picked the Celtics in 7. But he just changed his pick by yesterday's halftime to the Bucks as we have absolutely no answer for Giannis. Pretty quick lol!

[gouki88]

I’m not sure Giannis could have a better game and I’m not sure JT/JB could have a worse game. We’ll bounce back and even it up. But we need to win a game in Milwaukee now. We can do this. We’re the better team even if they have the best player.

Um… what?

Dude had a triple-double, only the second in his career in the playoffs. He absolutely killed us anytime we tried to double up on him. He could have a better shooting game, of course, but a better all-around game? Doubtful.

Would like to see a lot more Theis to stretch out their interior D. Instead of doubling Giannis, leave one man on him, and hack him anytime he touches the paint, ready to take a high % shot. He’s not going to shoot better than .60-.70 from the line.

He could easily have a better all around game. His entire previous series average was better all-round, given he was 20% more efficient from the field and turned it over significantly less. We largely mitigated his influence scoring the ball, it was just our other perimeter defence that hurt.

Better all-around game against us, though? Doubtful. Our D is too good. We can’t give him those passes for easy buckets every time we doubled up. That simple. Much better to just foul him anytime he steps inside the paint, where he gets scary dominant. On average it will only produce 1.3-1.4 points per hack, so hacking him 15-20 times would only lead to 21-28 points (and if he wants a physical game, taking 15-20 decent fouls on him will make him wish we were doubling him up to dish out). No more open 3’s or easy layups for 2 whenever he dishes out. Those are what totally killed us.

He can most certainly do better against us than 9-25 shooting and 5 turnovers. He is, at absolute worst, the 2nd best basketball player on the planet. Trying to put a cap on what he can do against us is an exercise in futility.

You realise that fouling him that much would put an unbelievable amount of pressure on our defence, right? We don't have the luxury of being able to let our premier defenders get in foul trouble just for the sake of it

[gouki88]

Stephen A. Smith picked the Celtics in 7. But he just changed his pick by yesterday's halftime to the Bucks as we have absolutely no answer for Giannis. Pretty quick lol!

You shouldn't regard the opinion of Stephen A. as anything more than the moronic ramblings of a clown.

[pokeKingCurtis]

Stephen A. Smith picked the Celtics in 7. But he just changed his pick by yesterday's halftime to the Bucks as we have absolutely no answer for Giannis. Pretty quick lol!

You shouldn't regard the opinion of Stephen A. as anything more than the moronic ramblings of a clown.

He knows exactly what he's doing

[gouki88]

Stephen A. Smith picked the Celtics in 7. But he just changed his pick by yesterday's halftime to the Bucks as we have absolutely no answer for Giannis. Pretty quick lol!

You shouldn't regard the opinion of Stephen A. as anything more than the moronic ramblings of a clown.

He knows exactly what he's doing

He is excellent at what he does. But I like to think that over here our analysis cuts a little deeper than his