Bubble fatigue. Don’t come in here trying to sully playoff Jimmy’s good name!
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Hey, Michael Jordan played 15 years, won 6 championships. The other 9 years were clunkers?
Curry had some ridiculously tough layups down the stretch. Almost like Zavier hook shots.
Sure, but that’s pretty much it.
In Miami (mostly when he’s been doing this, but also the only situation where he was the #1) he has lost three playoff series:
The finals to the Lakers - he obviously dragged that team there in the first place, but had a 26/8/10 on 16 shots per game in 43 minutes
The ECF to the Celtics last year - 26/7/3 in 36 mpg on 18 shots per game
Then, yes, the stinker to the Bucks.
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His shooting is obviously the highlight, but Steph is one of the best guard finishers at the rim in the league, and has been for a loooong time. He shot 76% at the rim this year! That’s Giannis-esque (Giannis’ volume at the rim is faaaaaaaaaar higher)
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He had several mediocre (by star standards) series during the bubble run. He was not really even their best player through most of that run. He did go crazy in the finals. Playoff Jimmy more or less started during the finals in the bubble
I love Giannis, and I won’t bother to defend Bud too strongly.
But Giannis wasn’t top 5 player in the NBA Giannis in the games he played this series (and I think his regular season was a decent decline). This team has always struggled to score in the playoffs, and with Giannis not being THAT guy, it makes it way harder.
They have a great overall defense, but I don’t think they’re that versatile. Jrue is, but they seemed hesitant to switch Giannis, and Lopez is great at 1 way of playing defense, but can’t really do other things, etc…
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Again, Bud is a dumb@ss and chose to not stick Giannis on Butler all series.
Sure, Giannis didn’t have the best of performances but it’s on the coach to get the most out of the best player in the league.
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Wasn’t Jimmy mostly injured in the bubble?
The thing is, I’m not positive, given how he was used all year, that he can even do that. I think the injury throws it further into question.
To be fair, I am not positive that blowing two double digit leads in the final minutes to then make the game fall into the “clutch” zone applies here. Like, sure, once it gets to a one possession game it’s a coinflip, but…it WAS a 5 possession game. They completely lost a 3 possession lead in 58 seconds.
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Totally fair. I will say, the discourse is almost completely about how they handled the end of the game and OT.
that’s right. michigan is going to win the nba championship next year
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Sure. I think the discourse is based partly on the blown leads and the fact that these Bucks were playing close games against THESE Heat was…surprising.
I think the marginal choices like “Did Lopez play enough?” when he was at like 42 minutes sort of miss the point though
Puts ‘play fast, play random’ into perspective.
I love Giannis too, and I would argue that this year his stats were better than the stats he produced the years he got his two MVPs. He had a bad game yesterday, no excuses. In the other game he played in this series he had a triple double. He got injured and he missed essentially 3 games. Perhaps his injury had something to do with the way he played yesterday after missing the games, and with a 2 days rest.
We can also argue that the strategy the team followed (tanking the last 2-3 games of the season after they established the best record), had something to do with the way the team chemistry and play worked out in the playoffs. Granted the starters were well rested, but the team we watched in the playoffs was not the team that destroyed the competition this year.
Only thing that matches this is Durant shooting 70% from midrange.
100% agree. Bud did not adjust at all in the 4th quarter. Both teams were clunking their 3-point shots. Jimmy was the main reason the Heat came back from a 16 point deficit, just like in the previous game. So if you are Bud you know that Jimmy will attempt to take most of the shots. Put your best defender on him and even double team him and live with his passing the ball to others.
Many things went wrong for the Bucks, but I would blame Bud for:
- Go for his only challenge in the first quarter on a questionable call.
- Failure to adjust to Jimmy in the 4th quarter on defense, and not taking advantage of their size on offense with the Heat players in foul trouble.
- Taking your top defensive guy, Lopez, out of the game with 2 seconds left.
- Not calling a TO to set for the final shot in OT.
Giannis shot 70 points worse from floater range, 60 points worse 10–16 feet, 60 points worse 16 feet to the arc, and 20 points worse from 3. His free throw % dropped 80 points
His overall number stayed where they were (he billed to the rim more) but his inability to make a jumper (he made 1 this series) made him easier to defend and his free throw struggles led to things like him hot-potatoing the ball late.
There was definitely visible marked decline in his ability to shoot, and that impacted the overall team offense.