I think they’re the only team in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency so they’re rock solid all around. You have two elite players in CP3 and Book, emerging star in Ayton and a bunch of great complimentary 3 and D players in Cam Johnson, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, and Torrey Craig. You have Cameron Payne providing solid backup G play. I liked how the roster is constructed for them to win a title right now.
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I don’t disagree with any of that, and yet they were down 2-1 and down 11 points in the first half of Game 4 when AD got hurt. Healthy Lakers were set up for a repeat.
Milwaukee lead the NBA in scoring this year and Utah ranked #4. I think it is fairly unlikely that they would have low scoring games. Their 2 regular season games averaged about 247 points per game.
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Utah, Milwaukee, and the Clippers all ranked top 10 in both offense and defensive efficiency this season.
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Just for the record, being in the top 10 in O and/or D in a season isnt as big of a deal in the NBA as it is in college basketball. The top 10 teams comprise about a third of the league
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you are good at math. On the other hand there are only 60 something major conference teams in the NCAA, some of whom are barely trying, so it isn’t as big of a discrepancy as you would get if you considered all 350+ D1 teams as equals.
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You might be one of the only people to accuse me of being good at math 
I get your point but there are still non-HM teams that are highly ranked in O or D rankings (especially on AdjD). I feel like I am beating a dead horse on this, but Michigan was in the top 10 for AdjO and D according to Kenpom and I believe that we were the only team to end the season that way. That felt really noteworthy for our season. In the NBA, it isnt nearly as profound of a thing was the only point that I was trying to make.
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Michigan, Illinois and Houston were the three teams that were Top 10 on offense and defense per Kenpom. (Zags we’re 11th on D, USC was 14th on O.)
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If the Bucks lose…their offense has been putrid. Absolutely, no ability to make adjustments. Coaching horrible.
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Legendary performance by Kevin Durant.
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KD was incredible tonight. Triple double while dropping 49 points
I didn’t understand the appeal of Bud as a HC. He’s a solid X’s and O’s but his rotation management and scheme adjustment has been putrid in the playoff. He’s a good regular season coach but come playoff time, other coaches run circles around him. The Bucks has to move on from him if they don’t advance to the ECF right? The fact that Bud is a rigid system guy and still doesn’t adjust to take advantage of opponent’s weaknesses is bad despite having an elite superstar in Giannis, a star in Middleton with a bunch of quality supporting cast.
There is a reason why the Hawks decided to move on from him despite the regular season successes.
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I get that C Webb lost his job at TNT and he wasn’t terrible but would ramble sometimes. Can we please get rid of this guy though???
Call me crazy but I would probably want to play my best players. Now if Harden and his hamstring don’t respond well after the game I can understand it but he makes it sound you rest these guys because you have game 7. 
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yeah … hard to hold any thing against Mike B tonight. if anything, thought Holiday died tonight. sorry to see it. but truly, Durant was just amazing tonight. cant defend him.
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Yeah, Webber could ramble but I have never enjoyed Reggie Miller as an announcer.
That was a mutual thing because the Hawks were rebuilding and he didn’t want to be part of that.
But in general I agree with your thoughts on him as a playoff coach. Last night especially was embarrassing. James Harden on a gimpy hamstring played more than any Bucks player.
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Bigger picture for me personally with the NBA is that load management is one reason for the playoff blowouts. Teams are picking and choosing what games in which to really compete. Can’t go on like this. Can’t have epic 7-game series. Epic playoff series are the whole reason to slog through a relatively meaningless regular season, IMO. At this point either maybe it’s time to consider cutting the regular season down to reduce wear and tear, which will never happen of course, or maybe you have to even consider the European football model of awarding hardware based on the regular season. Which will also probably never happen. Or something. Dunno.
Well, if the Bucks lose this series, we can get another round of “Juwan Howard is being considered for…”
I don’t think any teams are load managing in the playoffs or picking and choosing which games to try
I don’t think teams have actively held stars out or were picking and choosing when to play hard; rather I think they are trying to get by with a bunch of broken parts.
Ultimately, I think this year you’re seeing the blowback from the COVID year/bubble - teams came into the playoffs ragged and injuries have mounted for most teams. The downtime was just not sufficient (especially for the Lakers/Heat or other teams that went deeper into the bubble playoffs). I generally like Silver, but this year was hastily put together to try to recoup losses for owners rather than being player-centric and providing extra days off/cushions.
It is funny, because in ding so the owners and league execs have really hurt their own brand (non competitive games in playoffs/stars injured left and right).
Oh well, it’s all about the dollar signs.
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