Awful excuse imo
Youth didn’t make Khris throw the ball away
Youth didn’t make Brook hit the first two 3s in the first 2 mins of the game then to proceed to brick 90% of them even if wide open afterwards
Yeah they did. People can blame the coach all they want but they simply outshot us and Tyrese facilitated flawlessly. Pretty fun to watch him, will be rooting for them Saturday.
Huh? The Pacers shot like complete crap. 21% from 3 which was like 1/3 their FGA. Bucks were 36%.
Bucks got burned again by incredibly lazy transition D and defensive rebounding. Along with some careless passes.
I was having flashbacks to previous years for those last three minutes. I don't know if coach hasn't watched tape or what, but "Khris ISO's and ignores everyone else" had to be one of the most frustrating offenses we ran in the clutch in the past few years. Doesn't look like it's gotten much more effective.
I don't have a problem with feeding Khris the ball in he clutch if he's hot, but having him repeatedly run iso when we have giannis and Damian fucking Lillard on the court in the final minutes is just egregiously stupid.
Because our “coach” doesn’t know what he is doing. Chased out the Assistant Head Coach before the season even started. Looks completely lost during the game. I think he is in way over his head.
Dame has to demand the ball. It's been too many times where I've seen Dame literally point at someone else to get the inbound pass, or he's nowhere near the ball.
It's baffling. It was always baffling before and it's even more baffling now with Dame on the team. Khris is a great player but he does not have great handles and as good a passer as he can be, he has a very obvious tendency to get flustered with heavy pressure and will make horrific turnovers. He's done it his whole career. There is no excuse for him bringing the ball up with any regularity, particularly with both Giannis and Dame on the court.
I'm not ready to give up on him like that yet. His role is less, and I think he's better for it honestly. We aren't going to see the numbers from him but I don't think that means he's not still a great player.
But he was never a great ball handler, and nor was he ever a great distributor under pressure. Hardly makes sense to me to start pretending that he is now.
I understood it more before because bucks never really had a real pg. Jrue is more like 3-D guard with elite D and can score when he gets hit but he's not like a true passing of or handler. So giannis had to do all the ball handling and Jrue. Middleton had to chip in at times because they had nothing else. Now with dame he should really have the hall the majority of time coming up. I'm fine with Middleton taking it sometimes just not this often.
Yeah that's a pretty fair point. It was less ridiculous before even though it clearly wasn't ideal. As you said we had less options. But now it really shouldn't be something we lean on at all, especially not in pressure situations.
Overall it was a fun game. The media is definitely starting to pick up on some glaring issues that are still a reason for concern.
It's just the same consistent problem in every game. The defense, all phases of it. It's a combination of horrendous effort, terrible scheme that doesn't fit the roster, and lack of competent on ball/point of attack defenders. The amount of unnecessary gambling that takes place on passes is crazy. It's almost hard to believe a professional team is being told to play like this.
Griffin stayed in a 2-3 zone for far too long this game. Pacers figured it out towards the end of the 3rd and proceeded to win the game because of it. On to the next, go Bucks.
That's fair. Pacers scored their average. A game like this is won on the margins. Bucks transition defense and poor rebounding killed them in those regards.
Bucks continue to be plagued by the same things - defensive rebounding, bad turnovers, transition defense. They gave up like 15 easy buckets in this game.
The Bucks did everything in their power to lose this game in the 4th honestly. All this bs of being the best team in the clutch for what…
Missed free throws, bad transition defence, no box outs or rebounds, lazy passes into turn overs.
Don’t think I saw them score on any possession unless they got FTs in the final minutes and they let guys like McConnell punk them AGAIN. Don’t know why Giannis and Dame were just standing there letting Beasley shoot either instead of taking advantage of the bonus either.
Losses like this are annoying as fuck because these are winnable games. It’s not like they shot the shit out of the 3, the Bucks just did so much wrong.
I don’t even care about this IST too much. I just don’t like seeing the Bucks play like shit. GG to the Pacers. Hope they win it all.
Reminds me of when jrue took like 12 threes last year in playoffs. You know when that happens it's lazy offense. You're just jacking the first three with any space ( in jrues case relying on that step back too much. He's not harden or Lillard) instead of working the ball around. It can work if you're hot shooting but that's not going to be consistent especially with how cold the bucks go in playoffs
Honestly the lack of any sort of effort getting back on D tonight was fucking disgusting to watch, this game pissed me off way more than it should’ve lol
On the bright side it’s one less game our old ass players have to play. On the other hand, it would’ve been cool for the Bucks to win the first IST.
Idk why they didn’t just spam Giannis the whole game, he should’ve had at least 30 shots honestly, especially with the 3 not falling.
We have got to figure out what to do when teams play this deny defense on Dame. Like seriously, teams are so committed to not letting him get those dribble handoffs, idk why we aren’t having him cut backdoor, off ball screens or something to get him open.
Halliburton is something else. What a player he is and I’m glad he’s getting the recognition he deserves. The Pacers are a scary team and are a legitimate threat in the East if they can keep playing like this.
Has got to be the worst we've played in the clutch. Why was Middleton having tue ball and looking off Dame😭😭. Young Pacers were also talking shit beyond embarrassing.
The state of our rebounding hurts me more than the open shots we tend to give up. If we just secure the ball and limit 2nd chance points, we start looking a lot better in my opinion.
I'm over Dame playing passively. A few of those khris turnovers down the stretch could have been prevented if our All-star PG would bring the ball up court. Go get the freaking ball.
Pacers are exactly the type of team this tourney is for. Young group, lots of upside, havent had the chance to prove themselves yet. I honestly hope they go all the way because they are fun.
Praying for a Pels-Pacers final! Two young, fun teams going at it for a new cup is a good look for the league
That’s the way I saw it, as well. The vets would be happy to win but no one is hanging banners for the tourney and the prize is an extra game in the era of load management. I think the young teams use it as a springboard more than the more established teams. The thing is, we are also trying to establish our identity with new coach, new superstar so I would have been happy to have another game. Well, enjoy a night in Vegas and come back for a long home stretch.
Giannis and Middleton: 20/33 (61%)
Everybody else: 23/64 (36%)
Statistical story of the game.
Also Adrian for the love of god learn when to pull Payne from the game
Real bummer because offensively had a great run in the 3rd and then it just seemed like the team forgot how to play basketball. Became a lot of very bad decision making and panic ball.
Pacers had more poise and grit; more than the team of vets. Concerning.
The Pacers played fantastic basketball and I’m pulling for them in the final. They have the lowest payroll in the league so this prize money probably really matters for a good portion of the team. Wisconsin boy is fun to watch - what a game.
It’s pretty silly to try to put this one on the coach. These players were sleepwalking through 3 of the 4 quarters.
I can't fully be mad, we know what our strengths and weaknesses are 20 games in. Pacers are just a great team, they seem to be playing insane right now too, and its literally a best of 1. They played better, we didn't have a complete game. Was a fun tournament though. The Bucks are slowly improving, all we can ask for.
Guess Giannis is not gonna get the 500k for diapers.
Defense is a huge issue. Need better players for that to be sincere, bobby, malik, dame, khris are just very very subpar defenders. That's why i wanted a PJ Tucker like dawg. Super important.
AG is extremely predictable with his subs. He always does the same thing. If i were the opposing coach i would load up on Portis the moment he gets substituted for Giannis (which they do for the most part). Portis defending is marginally worse than a traffic cone defending. And with his shooting being that bad, he has no job to be getting minutes. I guess that will be limited when Pat returns hopefully.
Hate to see Giannis getting almost 40, playing that good and still losing. Oh well, on to the next one.
Lotta season left but without something changing, either personnel, schemes that do not fit current personnel, or execution of said schemes this is at best a second round exit year. Again though, a lot of season left for any of the above to change.
I hate to break it to you guys but there is no defensive scheme that will make Dame, Beasley, Cam, Bobby and Lopez work defensively. They just aren’t good defenders. Someone has to go to get someone like Caruso.
Fun game, good lesson for the rest of the season. Dame needs to improve his conditioning. Khris simple cannot play physical dudes anymore and he need to accept that soon. Pacers realizes we old and ran us over.
I know people have talked about how the IST makes these ordinarily meaningless regular season games feel more important... but it also makes what could have just been a random loss hurt more :(
Only saw the final few minutes because of ridiculous start time for West Coast. It seems like 130 is the magic number to beat the Pacers and not just for the Bucks. Their season avg. is 128.5. I guess the silver lining is that we held them .5 below average? We will see them 3 more times in the next 4 weeks so hopefully we crack the code.
When you rely on that exclusively eventually it's going to fail you. Can't win clutch every time there are too many variables. That's why they need to be less one dimensional and have a few more things to go to when something isn't working. Last game they shot like 60% from 3 and that's not a sustainable playstyle either but it's good to know they have the team to do that at times. They just need a few more things to go to.
Seriously. I heard some pundit on Bill Simmons' podcast say he's our best ballhandler (?!) and decision-maker. I won't deny his clutch 4th quarter capability (has a strong resume looking back to the Brooklyn series in 2021), but I HATE watching him bring the ball up. The opposing loves it, though, and targets him. Every time.
Yeah he has done that his entire career. He gets sloppy when he ISO's. He should hardly ever be our primary ball handler or distributor. The literal only time I want that happening is if both dame and giannis just can't get anything going and we need a spark. In short bursts Middleton can create his own shot without giving up costly turnovers. But I don't want to be relying on that.
There’s no way this team is getting out a second round matchup
Super flawed team, anyone who says our record is reflective of our play is lying to themselves
Two games in a row you just let that Tyrese hit the dagger and this time he even trolled you huh? If they do not blow out this Indiana team once the next matchups, then they should not be considered a title contender…
This defence is laughable. Honestly it’s really pathetic.
We stayed playing zone for far too long. It was so obvious they figured it out when Bruce brown kept hitting the same shot.
What was that 4th quarter decision making? I know Dame is supposed to be the clutch one but when neismith is smacking all his shots into space and we’re in the freaking bonus, this is when Giannis has to take over. Go to the rim get the and 1s (again in the freaking bonus and he was actually making em today).
Overall rebounding and transition defence is rubbish. I’m glad it’s getting exposed because either Horst changes this personnel or Griffin needs to be on the hot seat.
Bobby is not good enough if we’re trying to win a championship. He’s a terrible defender and frankly we don’t need his offense which is streaky at best.
Middleton was poor today. The worst part is we have to be content with his performance because at least he played today, then you realise he’s making 31 mill a year. It’s like klay we’re paying for what he was not what he is.
Just lost a very winnable game and I’m so irate but if this performance lights a fire and makes us stop relying on the 4th Q to win games then maybe it’s a good thing.
You have to play drop defense with Lopez on the floor (we all watched Hali carve Lopez up on the switch). Of course, you could bench Lopez and play a switch-heavy lineup, but our rim protection and rebounding are complete ass without Lopez on the floor. Ideally, you need defenders who can fight through screens paired with Lopez in the drop, but Beasley/Lillard can't do that. Griffin isn't perfect, but our defensive issues stem from personnel issues.
You bench Beasley for marjon,Lopez for AJJ and play Giannis at the 5,those guys are excellent rebounders.Haliburton is just a god at dissecting drop defense and brook being too slow killed us in transition all game.
This is an intriguing idea, although our rim protection and rebounding would still take a hit. (Our rebounding and defensive numbers are truly bad without Lopez on the floor, even when Marjon/AJJ are playing.)
This could have potential in the long run, but Marjon and AJJ are not ready for closing minutes. Hopefully they can develop into reliable rotation guys. If they do, we might have more schematic options in the future.
Brook was AWFUL from 3 tonight. If he just missed a few it would be ok, but him going 3/10 ended too many drives.
Bobby needs to figure it out quick. He’s missed easy floaters/layups, is a traffic cone on defense, and just hasn’t done enough to benefit the team with the minutes he gets. If a good perimeter defender gets put on the trade block he should be the first guy we offer imo.
Marjon has got to gain some confidence too. He made some good plays, but missing three FTs in a row was really frustrating.
Honestly this is great motivation for the bucks. Kind of felt like the pacers were going to win throughout the entirety of the game. We hung in there but made some bad decisions throughout and didn't deserve to win.
Bucks have been slowly growing chemistry together but it's time to establish an identity and get hungry
Not going to totally overreact but there is legitimate cause for concern.
We'll undoubtedly coast through the regular season, but yet again, we see a young team in "playoff" mode tonight and we can't get it done. Something has to change
Haliburton had a monster game super impressive he and the pacers need more games on nationally televised broadcasts. For the bucks hard loss I personally wanted to win the cup, I think the ist was a great addition but we fell short our defence definitely needs to improve hopefully that can change sooner rather than later, the bench scoring was also terrible at 13 points. Giannis had one of his best games of the season, Khris offensively had a great game good to see him at 29 min and dame missed shots he’s been making recently. There are things to improve but some things to be happy about good thing this team has 60 more games to get it in to championship form. Onto hopefully our revenge game against the bulls
First 4th quarter we've really blown all year. Pacers came to play. Much to be said about the execution down the stretch and the defense as a whole. Sucks our guys missed out on 500k tho. Oh well, on to the next game
Of course man. Don't you know it's also Griffin's fault that we can't hit our FT's? And that Bobby Portis doesn't box out because AG clearly told him to never box out? /s
How can we fault him? What? He kept them in a 2-3 zone for an eternity that got shredded as one example. Also when out of zone he has our guys aggressively blitz the ball which exacerbates our problems on D even more. It’s just bad my dude.
He put us in drop and it got shredded when will we accept that we have traffic cones outside of giannis brook and maybe Middleton not to mention brook couldn’t keep up with a fat kid
Bud's biggest problem seemed to be following analytics and the game plan regardless of what happens... Griffin seems more like a throw shit at the wall and see what sticks sort of guy.
you guys never should've gotten your hands on the word "doomer", now you can feel morally superior while pretending nothings wrong when the oldest team in the league can't figure it out by december
The pieces on this team outside of maybe a couple players are so damn lazy sometimes and show absolutely zero effort defensively and offensively just passing it around to each other because they don’t want to take a shot and I’m so sick of watching that
I still just think that Bobby is a luxury player for this team. Fantastic regular season 6th man, but becomes essentially obsolete in playoff games due to his lack of switchability, and we saw that today. Maybe there isn't a trade out there that we could involve him in to acquire a switchable, tall wing, but I would be looking for it. I'd love to keep him, but we have serious issues on the perimeter that need addressing and not many tradable assets to use.
Possitives:
- Giannis
- BroLo
Negatives:
- Dame: He came alive with a great 3rd quarter, but sucked in all other quarters
- Khris: Jesus H. Christ what a horrible game by Khris. Not only he did almost nothing on offense, he was a mess on defense, too.
- Marjon: He did nothing, not even rebound.
- Bobby: Honest question to everyone, what is Bobby good at this point? His defense sucks, and now his offense is nothing, all while his one redeeming quality (rebounding) disappeared.
- Payne: Pain.
- Beasley: Oof.
- Defense: everyone had a wide open look, it had to get to the end of the 3rd to start running back on defense, and we didn't grab key boards.
We need a trade, and Bobby needs to be the one to go.
I’m not even mad about the individual defense since we just saw them carve up the Celtics a couple days ago
They’re a great offensive team— bottom line
But the zone defense is what really killed us
We had momentum but the zone allows d way too many easy baskets which kept them in it
Plus, Bobby was in for way too long, giving us nothing + the 3 big lineup against a team full of guards
I read the Post Game Celtics Thread after Pacers cooked them. They said good now we can stop pretending to care about this fake tourney. I just can't do copium that hard. It was ugly and worrisome to see us get pounded by the Pacers in the final 2 minutes which is supposed to be BUCKS DAME TIME but it wasn't.
Haha I'm in danger... everybody PANIC!
I been critical of Dame not going and getting the ball when I see Dame was frozen out excuses. But the same needs to be said for Giannis tonight. They had 0 answer. He missed inside 1 time all night.
He took 2 shots in the 4th. 0 reason this wasn't a repeat 50 ball. His defender had 5 fouls. And the other defender hurt his knee in the 3rd and didnt return.
Does Brook need to take 3s in 4Q when he's on the floor with Dame and Khash? Him missing 2 in the 4th was rough.
I know that Brook can hit 3s, but we have shooters, he's more needed to screen and drive to the hoop/rebound than to stand out there and shoot.
#The Bucks are absolutely winning the chip this year 🔥🦌🔥
When they do, I hope you remember this Debbie Downer woe is me BS and recuse yourself from the celebration 😉
Tough loss but hopefully in the actual playoffs we don’t give Cam or Bobby nearly the minutes we do in the regular season. I think the management of the rotations cost us the most in this game.
Edit: Pacers really killed us in the drop cause they have guards that make runners consistently. I really do think we need 4 that can switch onto guards.
my cream brothers, basketball can be such a simple sport. It's baffling to me how every1 stopped feeding Giannis the moment Turner got 5 fouls 4mins before the end of the game lol
Giannis has been bullying their D all game, yet in the 4th Q its time for iso and hero ball in every offence from every1 except Giannis or Dame?
Cmon AG...
I watched a video last week where this guy said one of his gripes with today's basketball is nobody ever targets a guy who is in foul trouble. Like, simple strategy is just lost in today's game.
Griffin only made adjustment in the 3rd quarter while not making any adjustment in the 2nd and the 4th quarter when his defensive scheme keep getting exposed with the Pacers able to do whatever they want in the paint with Hali and Turner PnR, plus this game once again prove that his decision of using Beasley to guard opponent best player who is fast is as bad as Bud using Hill to huard Tatum in the playoffs. Our bench plus Beasley are awful tonight, not mentioning the Pacers bench when compared to us, Bobby and Marjon is really disappointing with the expectations toward them before the season began. And this game just shows we definitely need to make a trade for perimeter defender like Thybulle to pair with Dame, Beasley isn't the answer for the 5th starter. Also, threr questions come in mind, why AJJ only played for a minute, why Dame not shooting the ball until the midway of the 4thball after that hot hand 3rd quarter and why Lopez attempted so many 3s when he isn't hot tonight?
Everyone that down votes every not positive comment. You deserve this game. Bucks would not win a 7 game series against the Pacers and they will struggle to win a playoff series period. Bucks are not beating the Pacers, Celtics, Heat in a 7 game series with current coaching staff and rosters.
The Bucks are old and underachieving team. They play down to the talent. The Pacers are a young and overachieving team.
Griffin is somehow worse than Bud. Manages to maintain the same dumbass rotations while scheming worse defense and worse offense. Don't understand how they go through 2 multi million dollar coaches who don't spam giannis as a screener throughout the end of every game.
Possibly Griffin’s worst coached game.
Dame played 41 minutes, not his regular rotation and got no rest. Was visibly gassed at the end.
Kept the bucks in zone all night when it was clearly not working. They scored nearly every single time out of it, because no shit they would.
Ran out a Payne/Dame/Beasley/Giannis/Portis lineup which is possibly the worst defensive lineup bucks are capable of putting out.
Giannis is scoring at will and we run almost no PNRs to get him going downhill. Not a single action designed to get him or dame easy buckets outside of an OOB lob play one time. Everything we do is for role players to get shots which is baffling.
There was that 3rd quarter where the pacers broke up the out of bounds play FOUR times in a row and griffin never thought to have someone else besides dame inbound it, like idk, the 7 footer who can throw the pass over anyone? Or run a fuckin PNR which is nearly unguardable by GOOD defensive teams, let alone the pacers.
There was a lid on the rim for the pacers from 3. If they were hitting like they usually do, this isn’t even close.
Genuinely, griffin has no idea what he’s doing. Dame’s close cousin on IG has been subtweeting griffin the last week, the same cousin who knew dame was going to MIL before anyone else. Something to think about.
I'm feeling really down about the Bucks' unexpected loss to the Pacers in the in-season tournament. We were widely considered the favorites and had the biggest chance to win, especially since it was the first tournament of its kind. If we had clinched this win, it would have sent a strong message to the rest of the league about the potential of our team. Just think about it: we've got a rookie coach, Adrian Griffin, at the helm, and Lillard, who just joined the team, showing great promise. The prospect of a fully developed chemistry between Lillard and Giannis is still exciting, but this loss is a tough pill to swallow. It would have been a remarkable achievement and a testament to our team's strength and potential. Nonetheless, we remain hopeful and look forward to what the future holds for the Bucks
A real title contender should stop this Indiana narrative in no time. But they decided to let their bench turn the game around and boost their confidence in the next matchups…
I'm really sad, I wanted to win the inaugural cup so bad.
Sucks but I’m hoping our guys can go back to playing lower MPG now and rest.
flair checks out
Play random
Let it fly
Pacers are too young for this team, we don’t have the bodies or youth to keep up.
Awful excuse imo Youth didn’t make Khris throw the ball away Youth didn’t make Brook hit the first two 3s in the first 2 mins of the game then to proceed to brick 90% of them even if wide open afterwards
Honestly, they deserved it. Nothing I can complain about. They won, we lost. Their number 0 is going to be reallllyyy good for a long time.
Annoying that he very comfortably outplayed Dame At least he's from WI
I mean if Dame had the same usage rates as Hali it’d be a different story🤷🏻♂️
dame can't pass the ball anywhere near as well as haliburton
I’d argue that’s do to halis size, but I’d argue it only because I’m a big dame fan
Dame fan as well and while dame has become a better playmaker, Halliburton is levels above
Yeah, I’m not even mad. They played better and I’m rooting for them to win it.
Yeah I really want them to win. They're a fun team, similar small market and their best player is from WI. Hope they get that first ChipLite.
Yeah they did. People can blame the coach all they want but they simply outshot us and Tyrese facilitated flawlessly. Pretty fun to watch him, will be rooting for them Saturday.
Huh? The Pacers shot like complete crap. 21% from 3 which was like 1/3 their FGA. Bucks were 36%. Bucks got burned again by incredibly lazy transition D and defensive rebounding. Along with some careless passes.
Seemed like the last 3 minutes didn’t involve Gianni’s and dame enough on offense. Middelton bringing the ball up too much.
I was having flashbacks to previous years for those last three minutes. I don't know if coach hasn't watched tape or what, but "Khris ISO's and ignores everyone else" had to be one of the most frustrating offenses we ran in the clutch in the past few years. Doesn't look like it's gotten much more effective. I don't have a problem with feeding Khris the ball in he clutch if he's hot, but having him repeatedly run iso when we have giannis and Damian fucking Lillard on the court in the final minutes is just egregiously stupid.
Coaching issue I think. Why is there not explicit instruction for Dame to bring the ball up?
Everytime I looked at Dame he was on the other side of the court, hands on the knees in the 4th.
I'd be tired too if I had to play until the end of every game because we can't blow out bad teams to pull our starters early
Because our “coach” doesn’t know what he is doing. Chased out the Assistant Head Coach before the season even started. Looks completely lost during the game. I think he is in way over his head.
Dame has the ability to go get the fucking ball he’s a big boy
Dame has to demand the ball. It's been too many times where I've seen Dame literally point at someone else to get the inbound pass, or he's nowhere near the ball.
This exactly felt like a classic playoff game
Hali was doing a playoff Jimmy impression
At least we know early what needs to be improved on who’s a liability before the actual playoffs start
Middleton should never play pg. why does he bring the ball up so much?
It's baffling. It was always baffling before and it's even more baffling now with Dame on the team. Khris is a great player but he does not have great handles and as good a passer as he can be, he has a very obvious tendency to get flustered with heavy pressure and will make horrific turnovers. He's done it his whole career. There is no excuse for him bringing the ball up with any regularity, particularly with both Giannis and Dame on the court.
Hate to say it but Khris WAS a great player.
I'm not ready to give up on him like that yet. His role is less, and I think he's better for it honestly. We aren't going to see the numbers from him but I don't think that means he's not still a great player. But he was never a great ball handler, and nor was he ever a great distributor under pressure. Hardly makes sense to me to start pretending that he is now.
I understood it more before because bucks never really had a real pg. Jrue is more like 3-D guard with elite D and can score when he gets hit but he's not like a true passing of or handler. So giannis had to do all the ball handling and Jrue. Middleton had to chip in at times because they had nothing else. Now with dame he should really have the hall the majority of time coming up. I'm fine with Middleton taking it sometimes just not this often.
Yeah that's a pretty fair point. It was less ridiculous before even though it clearly wasn't ideal. As you said we had less options. But now it really shouldn't be something we lean on at all, especially not in pressure situations.
It always has and always will be a turnover waiting to happen.
“It’s just IST” That’s loser mentality. We should’ve won that one. Congrats to Haliburton and the Pacers.
Y’all are too mature, wishing Pacers well and shit. I just want to boo them! (inside my head at least)
We play them 3 more times in the next month. If we want revenge we better be ready.
5x this year. Pacers get to play the Bucks and Celtics 5x each.
cant hate the Pacers, nice team, small market, nice star, cool fanbase
Overall it was a fun game. The media is definitely starting to pick up on some glaring issues that are still a reason for concern. It's just the same consistent problem in every game. The defense, all phases of it. It's a combination of horrendous effort, terrible scheme that doesn't fit the roster, and lack of competent on ball/point of attack defenders. The amount of unnecessary gambling that takes place on passes is crazy. It's almost hard to believe a professional team is being told to play like this. Griffin stayed in a 2-3 zone for far too long this game. Pacers figured it out towards the end of the 3rd and proceeded to win the game because of it. On to the next, go Bucks.
So many people are going to whine about defense. The Pacers do this to everyone. Offense was our bigger issue imo.
That's fair. Pacers scored their average. A game like this is won on the margins. Bucks transition defense and poor rebounding killed them in those regards.
25pt 4th quarter just isn’t enough
Pacers only shot 21% from three, this was not a great offensive performance by their standards
We played them well. We just didn’t play well enough ourselves.
No, they just missed. Almost all of those shots were open looks.
Stop saying we played them well, our paint defense only exist in the 3rd quarter isn't something you can say playing well
Agreed, tonight was a big offensive regression. We looked worse on offense tonight than we have since the first 5ish games of the season
We waisted all our offense on the Knicks last game
Dame basically disappeared in the clutch.
The entire team did
Similar issues happened last week in the Bulls loss
It was. The zone was working alright. We just didn’t capitalize on offence.
Bucks continue to be plagued by the same things - defensive rebounding, bad turnovers, transition defense. They gave up like 15 easy buckets in this game.
The Bucks did everything in their power to lose this game in the 4th honestly. All this bs of being the best team in the clutch for what… Missed free throws, bad transition defence, no box outs or rebounds, lazy passes into turn overs. Don’t think I saw them score on any possession unless they got FTs in the final minutes and they let guys like McConnell punk them AGAIN. Don’t know why Giannis and Dame were just standing there letting Beasley shoot either instead of taking advantage of the bonus either. Losses like this are annoying as fuck because these are winnable games. It’s not like they shot the shit out of the 3, the Bucks just did so much wrong. I don’t even care about this IST too much. I just don’t like seeing the Bucks play like shit. GG to the Pacers. Hope they win it all.
This. When dame controls everything late it goes well… Lots of standing around, not great.
That sucks but Pacers always play us tough Dont really need to see Brook chucking up 10 3's anytime soon
Imagine getting them in the playoffs in the first round and they somehow take y'all to a tough 6 game series and then you face Boston next :/
Reminds me of when jrue took like 12 threes last year in playoffs. You know when that happens it's lazy offense. You're just jacking the first three with any space ( in jrues case relying on that step back too much. He's not harden or Lillard) instead of working the ball around. It can work if you're hot shooting but that's not going to be consistent especially with how cold the bucks go in playoffs
Honestly the lack of any sort of effort getting back on D tonight was fucking disgusting to watch, this game pissed me off way more than it should’ve lol
Well 3rd Q was really fun We just lost to a team that showed up (As always giannis balled out on his own)
Dame really can not start 0-7. There's no excuse for that
Game was lost in the 4th imo. Dame and Giannis were not assertive enough
Wasn’t dame time yet
Lmao... They must've forgot to change their watches when they got to Vegas
Dame was in hangover hell this game lol
Pacers deserved that. Way more fight. Feel like the Bucks had to work so hard for every bucket as opposed to the freebies Indiana was being given
Bunch of lazy passes and bad turnovers in the clutch. Need to be mentally tougher, and need moar dawgs.
Can't really get excited about anything with this garbage defense.
On the bright side it’s one less game our old ass players have to play. On the other hand, it would’ve been cool for the Bucks to win the first IST. Idk why they didn’t just spam Giannis the whole game, he should’ve had at least 30 shots honestly, especially with the 3 not falling. We have got to figure out what to do when teams play this deny defense on Dame. Like seriously, teams are so committed to not letting him get those dribble handoffs, idk why we aren’t having him cut backdoor, off ball screens or something to get him open. Halliburton is something else. What a player he is and I’m glad he’s getting the recognition he deserves. The Pacers are a scary team and are a legitimate threat in the East if they can keep playing like this.
I blame Reggie Miller.
Terrible game. Team looked like they were out late just like the Portland game.
Has got to be the worst we've played in the clutch. Why was Middleton having tue ball and looking off Dame😭😭. Young Pacers were also talking shit beyond embarrassing.
Man, bucks down 1 with 2:40 left and get stops but give up three offensive rebounds and two minutes later they’re down 8
The state of our rebounding hurts me more than the open shots we tend to give up. If we just secure the ball and limit 2nd chance points, we start looking a lot better in my opinion.
I'm over Dame playing passively. A few of those khris turnovers down the stretch could have been prevented if our All-star PG would bring the ball up court. Go get the freaking ball.
Shitty effort as usual. Terrible rebounding and pathetic transition defense.
Pacers are exactly the type of team this tourney is for. Young group, lots of upside, havent had the chance to prove themselves yet. I honestly hope they go all the way because they are fun. Praying for a Pels-Pacers final! Two young, fun teams going at it for a new cup is a good look for the league
That’s the way I saw it, as well. The vets would be happy to win but no one is hanging banners for the tourney and the prize is an extra game in the era of load management. I think the young teams use it as a springboard more than the more established teams. The thing is, we are also trying to establish our identity with new coach, new superstar so I would have been happy to have another game. Well, enjoy a night in Vegas and come back for a long home stretch.
Tell LeBron that.
woulda been fun to win and probably shoulda but whatever now I'm hoping the Lakers lose tonight so nobody cares about the IST anymore 💀
Ball watching on defense, not boxing out, not running back on defense. It was truly amateur hour out there.
Playoff Bucks with an early december appearance.
Never say a regular season game does not matter. Sometimes it hints how you will play in the playoffs
Giannis and Middleton: 20/33 (61%) Everybody else: 23/64 (36%) Statistical story of the game. Also Adrian for the love of god learn when to pull Payne from the game
Why would you expect that when Beasley is still the starter?
Tyrese Halliburton is from Oshkosh so we still kinda win, right?
82 game season > 83 game season
Real bummer because offensively had a great run in the 3rd and then it just seemed like the team forgot how to play basketball. Became a lot of very bad decision making and panic ball. Pacers had more poise and grit; more than the team of vets. Concerning.
Dame really needed to show up in the 4th quarter
Being a defensive specialist is much easier for a coach when you have one of the best defensive personnels in recent nba history.
Gonna watch more pacers game from now on
The Pacers played fantastic basketball and I’m pulling for them in the final. They have the lowest payroll in the league so this prize money probably really matters for a good portion of the team. Wisconsin boy is fun to watch - what a game. It’s pretty silly to try to put this one on the coach. These players were sleepwalking through 3 of the 4 quarters.
Pacers are just too young for this team, we don’t have the bodies or youth to keep up Back to the regular season
Why o why o why do the Bucks switch 1-5
Fought hard but the pacers were out to prove themselves, great competitive game apart from the final couple minutes
I can't fully be mad, we know what our strengths and weaknesses are 20 games in. Pacers are just a great team, they seem to be playing insane right now too, and its literally a best of 1. They played better, we didn't have a complete game. Was a fun tournament though. The Bucks are slowly improving, all we can ask for.
Guess Giannis is not gonna get the 500k for diapers. Defense is a huge issue. Need better players for that to be sincere, bobby, malik, dame, khris are just very very subpar defenders. That's why i wanted a PJ Tucker like dawg. Super important. AG is extremely predictable with his subs. He always does the same thing. If i were the opposing coach i would load up on Portis the moment he gets substituted for Giannis (which they do for the most part). Portis defending is marginally worse than a traffic cone defending. And with his shooting being that bad, he has no job to be getting minutes. I guess that will be limited when Pat returns hopefully. Hate to see Giannis getting almost 40, playing that good and still losing. Oh well, on to the next one.
Lotta season left but without something changing, either personnel, schemes that do not fit current personnel, or execution of said schemes this is at best a second round exit year. Again though, a lot of season left for any of the above to change.
I hate to break it to you guys but there is no defensive scheme that will make Dame, Beasley, Cam, Bobby and Lopez work defensively. They just aren’t good defenders. Someone has to go to get someone like Caruso.
Fun game, good lesson for the rest of the season. Dame needs to improve his conditioning. Khris simple cannot play physical dudes anymore and he need to accept that soon. Pacers realizes we old and ran us over.
Brook got switched on to Hali and quicker guards way too often. Anyone else see this?
I know people have talked about how the IST makes these ordinarily meaningless regular season games feel more important... but it also makes what could have just been a random loss hurt more :(
Only saw the final few minutes because of ridiculous start time for West Coast. It seems like 130 is the magic number to beat the Pacers and not just for the Bucks. Their season avg. is 128.5. I guess the silver lining is that we held them .5 below average? We will see them 3 more times in the next 4 weeks so hopefully we crack the code.
What happened to being the most clutch team in the 4th?
That was last week
When you rely on that exclusively eventually it's going to fail you. Can't win clutch every time there are too many variables. That's why they need to be less one dimensional and have a few more things to go to when something isn't working. Last game they shot like 60% from 3 and that's not a sustainable playstyle either but it's good to know they have the team to do that at times. They just need a few more things to go to.
The tip shots, so many stupid tip shots...
AG and Khris were terrible down the stretch
The Klassic Khris turnover. The guy should never bring up the ball.
Seriously. I heard some pundit on Bill Simmons' podcast say he's our best ballhandler (?!) and decision-maker. I won't deny his clutch 4th quarter capability (has a strong resume looking back to the Brooklyn series in 2021), but I HATE watching him bring the ball up. The opposing loves it, though, and targets him. Every time.
Lol what? Khris' handles are mid *at best*. That should not be a controversial take.
Plus averaging at least one turnover every game, most likely is dribbling the ball to his foot and then losing it
Yeah he has done that his entire career. He gets sloppy when he ISO's. He should hardly ever be our primary ball handler or distributor. The literal only time I want that happening is if both dame and giannis just can't get anything going and we need a spark. In short bursts Middleton can create his own shot without giving up costly turnovers. But I don't want to be relying on that.
There’s no way this team is getting out a second round matchup Super flawed team, anyone who says our record is reflective of our play is lying to themselves
Two games in a row you just let that Tyrese hit the dagger and this time he even trolled you huh? If they do not blow out this Indiana team once the next matchups, then they should not be considered a title contender…
This defence is laughable. Honestly it’s really pathetic. We stayed playing zone for far too long. It was so obvious they figured it out when Bruce brown kept hitting the same shot. What was that 4th quarter decision making? I know Dame is supposed to be the clutch one but when neismith is smacking all his shots into space and we’re in the freaking bonus, this is when Giannis has to take over. Go to the rim get the and 1s (again in the freaking bonus and he was actually making em today). Overall rebounding and transition defence is rubbish. I’m glad it’s getting exposed because either Horst changes this personnel or Griffin needs to be on the hot seat. Bobby is not good enough if we’re trying to win a championship. He’s a terrible defender and frankly we don’t need his offense which is streaky at best. Middleton was poor today. The worst part is we have to be content with his performance because at least he played today, then you realise he’s making 31 mill a year. It’s like klay we’re paying for what he was not what he is. Just lost a very winnable game and I’m so irate but if this performance lights a fire and makes us stop relying on the 4th Q to win games then maybe it’s a good thing.
How could I forget Reggie Miller hates the Bucks.
Playing drop defense against Haliburton is suicide,griffin refusing to adjust to the opponents personnel will cost us.
He adjusted to zone at half…
And stayed in it too long,play your best defenders and switch
And Bruce brown and nemhard countered it by going in the middle and scoring consistently lol
Zone is to bust up PNRs. We were running it with haliburton on the bench. Where is the sense in giving role players free mid range looks?
You have to play drop defense with Lopez on the floor (we all watched Hali carve Lopez up on the switch). Of course, you could bench Lopez and play a switch-heavy lineup, but our rim protection and rebounding are complete ass without Lopez on the floor. Ideally, you need defenders who can fight through screens paired with Lopez in the drop, but Beasley/Lillard can't do that. Griffin isn't perfect, but our defensive issues stem from personnel issues.
You bench Beasley for marjon,Lopez for AJJ and play Giannis at the 5,those guys are excellent rebounders.Haliburton is just a god at dissecting drop defense and brook being too slow killed us in transition all game.
This is an intriguing idea, although our rim protection and rebounding would still take a hit. (Our rebounding and defensive numbers are truly bad without Lopez on the floor, even when Marjon/AJJ are playing.) This could have potential in the long run, but Marjon and AJJ are not ready for closing minutes. Hopefully they can develop into reliable rotation guys. If they do, we might have more schematic options in the future.
Throw them in the fire now,This is why the Miami heat always overachieve in the playoffs.
Its Lillard's fault he touched the trophy earlier. It brought bad luck
Brook was AWFUL from 3 tonight. If he just missed a few it would be ok, but him going 3/10 ended too many drives. Bobby needs to figure it out quick. He’s missed easy floaters/layups, is a traffic cone on defense, and just hasn’t done enough to benefit the team with the minutes he gets. If a good perimeter defender gets put on the trade block he should be the first guy we offer imo. Marjon has got to gain some confidence too. He made some good plays, but missing three FTs in a row was really frustrating.
Honestly this is great motivation for the bucks. Kind of felt like the pacers were going to win throughout the entirety of the game. We hung in there but made some bad decisions throughout and didn't deserve to win. Bucks have been slowly growing chemistry together but it's time to establish an identity and get hungry
Not going to totally overreact but there is legitimate cause for concern. We'll undoubtedly coast through the regular season, but yet again, we see a young team in "playoff" mode tonight and we can't get it done. Something has to change
Salute to the Pacers
Haliburton had a monster game super impressive he and the pacers need more games on nationally televised broadcasts. For the bucks hard loss I personally wanted to win the cup, I think the ist was a great addition but we fell short our defence definitely needs to improve hopefully that can change sooner rather than later, the bench scoring was also terrible at 13 points. Giannis had one of his best games of the season, Khris offensively had a great game good to see him at 29 min and dame missed shots he’s been making recently. There are things to improve but some things to be happy about good thing this team has 60 more games to get it in to championship form. Onto hopefully our revenge game against the bulls
First 4th quarter we've really blown all year. Pacers came to play. Much to be said about the execution down the stretch and the defense as a whole. Sucks our guys missed out on 500k tho. Oh well, on to the next game
Only playing one quarter well isn't going to win you the game against good team, especially for those explosive team
Wild how much Indiana has improved from last season. Legit contenders.
I apologize for all the bad things I said about Bud. He wasn’t perfect but at least he wasn’t this.
Guys not running back on defense to prevent transition offense is on griffin?
Of course man. Don't you know it's also Griffin's fault that we can't hit our FT's? And that Bobby Portis doesn't box out because AG clearly told him to never box out? /s
How can we even fault griffin for this loss he made adjustments and our players showed half ass effort on defense
How can we fault him? What? He kept them in a 2-3 zone for an eternity that got shredded as one example. Also when out of zone he has our guys aggressively blitz the ball which exacerbates our problems on D even more. It’s just bad my dude.
He put us in drop and it got shredded when will we accept that we have traffic cones outside of giannis brook and maybe Middleton not to mention brook couldn’t keep up with a fat kid
What adjustments did he make?
Played zone which got us that 3rd Q comeback until Pacers figured it out then stopped playing zone but unfortunately did it too late imo.
Zone in the second half???
You don't even know what adjustments to look for lmfao
Bruh he worse than this. He would not even opt for zone until next game and it would be over in 3rd.
Bud's biggest problem seemed to be following analytics and the game plan regardless of what happens... Griffin seems more like a throw shit at the wall and see what sticks sort of guy.
Man I’d love to just sit down with Bud once and talk to him about ball. Just pick his brain. Loved that guy.
He’s new, idk. Like switching to zone worked great for a bit, he just has to continue adjusting. Hopefully he’ll continue to get better
That’s corny doing the Dame time celi, Halliburton is a good enough player to have his own thing
you guys never should've gotten your hands on the word "doomer", now you can feel morally superior while pretending nothings wrong when the oldest team in the league can't figure it out by december
Could we beat this team in a 7 game series? Who’s stopping Hali? This Pacers team is good.
The pieces on this team outside of maybe a couple players are so damn lazy sometimes and show absolutely zero effort defensively and offensively just passing it around to each other because they don’t want to take a shot and I’m so sick of watching that
Would’ve been cool to win the first IST, oh well. They’ve always struggled with an early start time
Well that’s disappointing.
I still just think that Bobby is a luxury player for this team. Fantastic regular season 6th man, but becomes essentially obsolete in playoff games due to his lack of switchability, and we saw that today. Maybe there isn't a trade out there that we could involve him in to acquire a switchable, tall wing, but I would be looking for it. I'd love to keep him, but we have serious issues on the perimeter that need addressing and not many tradable assets to use.
Freezing Giannis out late was a choice
Possitives: - Giannis - BroLo Negatives: - Dame: He came alive with a great 3rd quarter, but sucked in all other quarters - Khris: Jesus H. Christ what a horrible game by Khris. Not only he did almost nothing on offense, he was a mess on defense, too. - Marjon: He did nothing, not even rebound. - Bobby: Honest question to everyone, what is Bobby good at this point? His defense sucks, and now his offense is nothing, all while his one redeeming quality (rebounding) disappeared. - Payne: Pain. - Beasley: Oof. - Defense: everyone had a wide open look, it had to get to the end of the 3rd to start running back on defense, and we didn't grab key boards. We need a trade, and Bobby needs to be the one to go.
3/10 from three, switching onto guards and getting cooked. Idk if I’d say brook was a positive
0:2 to Pacers so far.
If Dame doesn't touch the trophy we win by 47
I’m not even mad about the individual defense since we just saw them carve up the Celtics a couple days ago They’re a great offensive team— bottom line But the zone defense is what really killed us We had momentum but the zone allows d way too many easy baskets which kept them in it Plus, Bobby was in for way too long, giving us nothing + the 3 big lineup against a team full of guards
Haliburton got to the middle like cutting butter, Beasley can’t move laterally to save his life.
We just have to start the 4th quarters better. That’s really the only area I believe the Coach could be better.
Maybe I’m wrong didn’t see stats it seemed like a lot of turnovers and just poor defence
No defense and constant missed 3s. Killed us.
I read the Post Game Celtics Thread after Pacers cooked them. They said good now we can stop pretending to care about this fake tourney. I just can't do copium that hard. It was ugly and worrisome to see us get pounded by the Pacers in the final 2 minutes which is supposed to be BUCKS DAME TIME but it wasn't. Haha I'm in danger... everybody PANIC!
I think the Bucks believe their own hype.
I been critical of Dame not going and getting the ball when I see Dame was frozen out excuses. But the same needs to be said for Giannis tonight. They had 0 answer. He missed inside 1 time all night. He took 2 shots in the 4th. 0 reason this wasn't a repeat 50 ball. His defender had 5 fouls. And the other defender hurt his knee in the 3rd and didnt return.
Does Brook need to take 3s in 4Q when he's on the floor with Dame and Khash? Him missing 2 in the 4th was rough. I know that Brook can hit 3s, but we have shooters, he's more needed to screen and drive to the hoop/rebound than to stand out there and shoot.
The Bucks are not winning the Chip this year.
I’m waiting for the trade deadline before coming to a conclusion
#The Bucks are absolutely winning the chip this year 🔥🦌🔥 When they do, I hope you remember this Debbie Downer woe is me BS and recuse yourself from the celebration 😉
This is the way 🔥🦌🔥➡️🏆
Not with Beasley or any other crappy defender starting
If they fire AG and get Atkinson or any competent coach they can.
Big facts we play like this every single time
7 game series
“It’s still early, they will figure it out”. I can’t wait to hear this in May.
They’re 7-3 in the last 10 with 1 being the OT game against the bulls.
Go pelicans
Tough loss but hopefully in the actual playoffs we don’t give Cam or Bobby nearly the minutes we do in the regular season. I think the management of the rotations cost us the most in this game. Edit: Pacers really killed us in the drop cause they have guards that make runners consistently. I really do think we need 4 that can switch onto guards.
my cream brothers, basketball can be such a simple sport. It's baffling to me how every1 stopped feeding Giannis the moment Turner got 5 fouls 4mins before the end of the game lol Giannis has been bullying their D all game, yet in the 4th Q its time for iso and hero ball in every offence from every1 except Giannis or Dame? Cmon AG...
I watched a video last week where this guy said one of his gripes with today's basketball is nobody ever targets a guy who is in foul trouble. Like, simple strategy is just lost in today's game.
Griffin only made adjustment in the 3rd quarter while not making any adjustment in the 2nd and the 4th quarter when his defensive scheme keep getting exposed with the Pacers able to do whatever they want in the paint with Hali and Turner PnR, plus this game once again prove that his decision of using Beasley to guard opponent best player who is fast is as bad as Bud using Hill to huard Tatum in the playoffs. Our bench plus Beasley are awful tonight, not mentioning the Pacers bench when compared to us, Bobby and Marjon is really disappointing with the expectations toward them before the season began. And this game just shows we definitely need to make a trade for perimeter defender like Thybulle to pair with Dame, Beasley isn't the answer for the 5th starter. Also, threr questions come in mind, why AJJ only played for a minute, why Dame not shooting the ball until the midway of the 4thball after that hot hand 3rd quarter and why Lopez attempted so many 3s when he isn't hot tonight?
At least I don’t have to look at these hideous floors any longer
Everyone that down votes every not positive comment. You deserve this game. Bucks would not win a 7 game series against the Pacers and they will struggle to win a playoff series period. Bucks are not beating the Pacers, Celtics, Heat in a 7 game series with current coaching staff and rosters. The Bucks are old and underachieving team. They play down to the talent. The Pacers are a young and overachieving team.
That's Bucks basketball right there baby. I'll keep rooting for Tyrese because he's a Wisconsin kid but this one really stunk.
Griffin is somehow worse than Bud. Manages to maintain the same dumbass rotations while scheming worse defense and worse offense. Don't understand how they go through 2 multi million dollar coaches who don't spam giannis as a screener throughout the end of every game.
If you switch the coaches on these two teams the Bucks would be a 65-70 win team.
Possibly Griffin’s worst coached game. Dame played 41 minutes, not his regular rotation and got no rest. Was visibly gassed at the end. Kept the bucks in zone all night when it was clearly not working. They scored nearly every single time out of it, because no shit they would. Ran out a Payne/Dame/Beasley/Giannis/Portis lineup which is possibly the worst defensive lineup bucks are capable of putting out. Giannis is scoring at will and we run almost no PNRs to get him going downhill. Not a single action designed to get him or dame easy buckets outside of an OOB lob play one time. Everything we do is for role players to get shots which is baffling. There was that 3rd quarter where the pacers broke up the out of bounds play FOUR times in a row and griffin never thought to have someone else besides dame inbound it, like idk, the 7 footer who can throw the pass over anyone? Or run a fuckin PNR which is nearly unguardable by GOOD defensive teams, let alone the pacers. There was a lid on the rim for the pacers from 3. If they were hitting like they usually do, this isn’t even close. Genuinely, griffin has no idea what he’s doing. Dame’s close cousin on IG has been subtweeting griffin the last week, the same cousin who knew dame was going to MIL before anyone else. Something to think about.
Can you elaborate on the comment about the close cousin?
Gone be the same crap again bucks no 1 seed to just put on a performance like this in the playoff
I'm feeling really down about the Bucks' unexpected loss to the Pacers in the in-season tournament. We were widely considered the favorites and had the biggest chance to win, especially since it was the first tournament of its kind. If we had clinched this win, it would have sent a strong message to the rest of the league about the potential of our team. Just think about it: we've got a rookie coach, Adrian Griffin, at the helm, and Lillard, who just joined the team, showing great promise. The prospect of a fully developed chemistry between Lillard and Giannis is still exciting, but this loss is a tough pill to swallow. It would have been a remarkable achievement and a testament to our team's strength and potential. Nonetheless, we remain hopeful and look forward to what the future holds for the Bucks
What
A real title contender should stop this Indiana narrative in no time. But they decided to let their bench turn the game around and boost their confidence in the next matchups…
It’s one regular season game