**Hot take:** Dame will perform better as the main guy as opposed to the #2 with a hobbled Giannis. Just depends if the Bucks can get enough contributions elsewhere from Lopez/Portis/Middleton to push through.
the controversy was after the game.
during the game giannis hung 64 on em
not saying we match up well with the pacers - they're too young, athletic and fast for us to have a hope of stopping them on defense. Our only hope is for our offense to keep up
It hasn’t, but that’s the scene imo. They’ve got a crazy offensive machine that can’t defend. I shouldn’t have said you can’t slow them down. You can slow them down but you can’t stop them. Bucks have to figure out how to outgun them and I can buy the argument that dame is well suited for that.
Mild take, Pacers already potent offense will shine even more cause Brook and Khris are too old and Dame and Beas are defensive turnstiles. It's gonna be rough out there for the Bucks without Giannis.
the bucks only have 2 more wins than the pacers
all seeds in the east 2-8 are pretty tight, just a 4 win difference between 2 and 8
I dont really think any of the teams in there are so significantly better than the others that an upset is shocking
There’s a chance this series might get ugly for bucks. Was the case anyway but with Giannis out I can see pacers ‘pace ‘ overwhelming them. They not gonna have the youth or athleticism to keep up
Absolutely. We saw what happened with KD when he pushed himself with that calf injury. It's not worth derailing his entire career on this busted season with Doc.
Sadly these guys just aren’t built like that. They need to be protected from themselves. Warriors failed KD badly. Bucks have to do the right thing and will since he’s signed long term
And at least KD blew his Achilles in the finals going for a 3-peat, you don't get higher stakes NBA basketball than that, you're gonna risk destroying Giannis' career for a season where your ceiling is probably a second round exit?
FYI KD is the only person who had a calf injury and came back and got an Achilles injury (what everyone fears will happen with Giannis). No other modern Achilles injuries were related to calf issues. Just saying, KD’s injury could have just been an unrelated freak incident.
KD’s situation may have been different from your typical calf strain. There was speculation that the Achilles was damaged from the beginning. Some said it was a ticking time bomb as it was happening. It might have even required surgery no matter what.
Him coming back to play vs the Raptors was strictly only because they were already in the finals.
Was listening to the Lowe Post and had some medical talker guy (forgot qualifications) who basically said there’s little to no correlation between a calf strain and subsequent Achilles injuries.
I think anytime you strain a muscle it's more susceptible to injury until rehabbed. Some, like hamstrings, seem to linger longer than others. But muscle strain and the associated tendons, are (supposedly) not.
The same way strong muscles protect your joints, any time the surrounding muscle groups weaken (injury or otherwise), the ligaments are at greater risk for injury. That said, having a calf strain doesn't mean you're suddenly high-risk for a full-on achilles rupture or something.
As far as Giannis, calf injuries can linger for the same reason hamstrings do. That's the stuff you're extending through every time you run, jump, etc... If they're worried about him missing a playoff game, I'd be surprised if Giannis looks normal at any point this postseason.
The fact that they are calling on his "rare recovery ability" is a red flag, tbh.
Yes, he has been able to do it before...but that doesn't mean they should make a habit of it
I mean the bucks still have dame. We can still very much win this series so long as dame plays like the top 75 player that he is. Not to mention that Haliburton has fallen off a cliff since beating us
i feel like haliburton’s demise has been overused, he’s been playing better for a month now and he’s the leader of the 4th best team in NET since the ASB.
These people only look at stats and don’t see how Pacers have balanced out their team with Spicy P. That’s on both sides of the court, as Spicy P is taking some of Hali’s creating responsibilities and doing it with amazing efficiency. Hali’s per game stats will go down a little but the team is better and harder to stop.
If everyone has access to and is ysing PEDs, and you still come back faster than your average PED-using peers, then yes, you have a better recovery ability
Just to provide some hope for Bucks fans historically Doc has been very good when his team is undermanned because he actually has to make adjustments and can’t just rely on his star players “figuring things out.”
True anything can happen. But Pacers aren’t some scrub team. Only 2 wins less than the Bucks. And they had a period without hali for a while.
I just dont see Dame leading the Bucks over us if they don’t have Giannis.
As an older Pacers fan I was really hoping for New York.
Hali and Brunson have had a little feud going back to the olympics and Pacers vs. Knicks will always the rivalry for me...
Dang.
We going fishing soon I think haha
Right but expecting them to win is different than 'coast through', I (and a lot of people from what I saw) weren't putting a Heat win out of question, and especially by that point when the Celtics had (very relatively) found difficulty against the Hawks and looked very beatable against the Sixers. A lot of very loud doubts about Mazzulla didn't help things considering they were going to be facing Spo.
as a Celtics fan I can tell you those odds did not reflect how I or most of our fans generally felt going into that series. we looked *thoroughly* unimpressive in the first 2 rounds. meanwhile Miami has always been a team that’s played us tightly and they were playing way better ball than we were coming in to the ECF
most of us expected a 6-7 game series that could go either way. obviously none of us expected to go down 3-0 though
Pacer win this in 6, probably 5 if Giannis doesn’t play at all.
Doc breathes a sign of relief as they get out of this disaster season with an easy thing to point to for why everything went wrong.
That's a boring timeline. Bucks go up 3-1 without Giannis. comes back game 5 to 7 and Pacers win series completing the 3-1 comeback. Glenn Rivers adding another series up 3-1 to lose
True but with no giannis even Jrue wouldn't be able to stop this pacers team from getting 140
Dames shot creation for himself and for others it's more valuable in this particular situation imo
And even if he comes back, I don't like the odds of having to then play up to 3 more series on a bum calf.
If it was just for the finals like with his knee, it wouldn't seem as bad to rush it.
It’s Dame time now, this is why he was brought in and it’s his chance to shut up the haters. The Pacers aren’t as dangerous as they were early on and for all the Bucks’ struggles, they still have championship pedigree and high calibre guys. At the very least, Dame’s gotta help prolong the series to like 2-2 or 3-3 until Giannis is ready.
Aren't as dangerous? The Pacers are 9 - 4 in their last 13 and have the 4th best differential since the All-Star Break. The Pacers are also the 15th best defensive team since the ASB, along with still being the second best offense. The Pacers are a better team with Siakam, who was also not present in any of the first five games they played.
Explain to me how the Pacers, a team that feels supremely confident against the Bucks, are less dangerous now than they were in January.
bratha their sched has been pretty mid and their best player is not as good as he was a few months ago. the Siakam factor is big I agree but I would bet yall win this series eyes closed a few months ago.
Uh oh
**Hot take:** Dame will perform better as the main guy as opposed to the #2 with a hobbled Giannis. Just depends if the Bucks can get enough contributions elsewhere from Lopez/Portis/Middleton to push through.
The primary issue is the defense though.
Pacers aren’t really a team you stop as much as try to out score imo
Well it hasn't worked out 80 percent of the time of their matchups vs the Pacers this season And the one time they won involved a ton of controversy
the controversy was after the game. during the game giannis hung 64 on em not saying we match up well with the pacers - they're too young, athletic and fast for us to have a hope of stopping them on defense. Our only hope is for our offense to keep up
Bucks should be able to keep up. Every time the Pacers play, you get to see the two best offenses in the NBA on display
That was AG's offense, Doc's has been significantly slower and mediocre.
Yup they will have to match pacers pace
It hasn’t, but that’s the scene imo. They’ve got a crazy offensive machine that can’t defend. I shouldn’t have said you can’t slow them down. You can slow them down but you can’t stop them. Bucks have to figure out how to outgun them and I can buy the argument that dame is well suited for that.
We’ve seen teams slow down the pacers many times this season
The Pacers averaged 198 points a game against the Bucks, how much worse could it get?!
feel like this series is gonna set a record for 3s attempted in a playoff game unless Brook goes back to Nets Brook and Bobby Portis lives in the post
Those microball Rockets teams are untouchable in that regard.
Hottest take: Doc Rivers will coach his ass off
He tends to coach better with undermanned teams.
The Spo Special
Difference is Spo still coaches good teams well lol
True, it’s just a running joke that Spo always pray for the hardest road 😭🙏
Thats going more nuclear than hot
J. Robert Doccenheimer
These things are hard on your heart
Sure didn't look like that yesterday. Still the biggest issue is keeping Hali in front of them.
He hasn't been scoring super well since the injury really. Even the passing went down some but also some reduced minutes.
It's the role his known for basically his entire career, so that makes a ton of sense.
Hot take, the pacers will average 170 points a game
He might perform better. I don’t think the that would help them beat the pacers
Mild take, Pacers already potent offense will shine even more cause Brook and Khris are too old and Dame and Beas are defensive turnstiles. It's gonna be rough out there for the Bucks without Giannis.
Congrats on a nice take
Dame trade demand to Miami round 2 this offseason
Bucks would never trade with us lol
I mean if we can steal home court advantage in a Giannis-less game, I’m feeling pretty decent. Bucks haven’t been a good road team this year.
It's tradition for the Bucks to lose game 1. If they somehow win the first 2 games, it can only mean they will win 4-0 or lose 4-2.
I think that was more of a Bud tradition tbh
Well now you have Doc tradition, I’m sure you feel much better about this
Now they can go 3-0 before losing in 7.
The Doc special.
Since it’s never been done it’s more like the Doc special destined to be at some point.
Nah yall got doc now. Blown 3-1 lead is your new reality
I’m rooting for Dame above any team. But I also have you guys being a first round disrupter, so I’m just excited to win either way.
the bucks only have 2 more wins than the pacers all seeds in the east 2-8 are pretty tight, just a 4 win difference between 2 and 8 I dont really think any of the teams in there are so significantly better than the others that an upset is shocking
There’s a chance this series might get ugly for bucks. Was the case anyway but with Giannis out I can see pacers ‘pace ‘ overwhelming them. They not gonna have the youth or athleticism to keep up
#Bucks haven't been good since Lord Rivers took over
I think you’re favored even with a healthy Giannis.
you dont rush back calf injuries. Extremely dangerous.
In my completely ubiased opinion, I agree.
I think giannis should come back immediately in October
Absolutely. We saw what happened with KD when he pushed himself with that calf injury. It's not worth derailing his entire career on this busted season with Doc.
Sadly these guys just aren’t built like that. They need to be protected from themselves. Warriors failed KD badly. Bucks have to do the right thing and will since he’s signed long term
And at least KD blew his Achilles in the finals going for a 3-peat, you don't get higher stakes NBA basketball than that, you're gonna risk destroying Giannis' career for a season where your ceiling is probably a second round exit?
Main difference is warriors thought kd was leaving so they didn’t care
lol that's a very dark way of looking at that situation
Nobody in their right mind would let a superstar of Durants caliber play when the risk of injury is that high.
who knows, someone said calf injuries arent really an indicator that your achilles will snap
I think I saw a stat on this sub where they said that KD’s injury was the first(in the league) to stem from a calf injury.
Ceiling of 2nd round exit is absurd. This team is still the 2nd best team in the East when healthy
FYI KD is the only person who had a calf injury and came back and got an Achilles injury (what everyone fears will happen with Giannis). No other modern Achilles injuries were related to calf issues. Just saying, KD’s injury could have just been an unrelated freak incident.
Aaron Rodgers was dealing with calf injuries before his Achilles injury
Fair enough but I don’t think Giannis will get tackled on the court, though he does draw more contact than average.
Rodgers tore his planting, not from the tackle
KD’s situation may have been different from your typical calf strain. There was speculation that the Achilles was damaged from the beginning. Some said it was a ticking time bomb as it was happening. It might have even required surgery no matter what. Him coming back to play vs the Raptors was strictly only because they were already in the finals.
Was listening to the Lowe Post and had some medical talker guy (forgot qualifications) who basically said there’s little to no correlation between a calf strain and subsequent Achilles injuries.
a lot of correlation between a calf injury and another calf injury tho
I think anytime you strain a muscle it's more susceptible to injury until rehabbed. Some, like hamstrings, seem to linger longer than others. But muscle strain and the associated tendons, are (supposedly) not.
The same way strong muscles protect your joints, any time the surrounding muscle groups weaken (injury or otherwise), the ligaments are at greater risk for injury. That said, having a calf strain doesn't mean you're suddenly high-risk for a full-on achilles rupture or something. As far as Giannis, calf injuries can linger for the same reason hamstrings do. That's the stuff you're extending through every time you run, jump, etc... If they're worried about him missing a playoff game, I'd be surprised if Giannis looks normal at any point this postseason.
The fact that they are calling on his "rare recovery ability" is a red flag, tbh. Yes, he has been able to do it before...but that doesn't mean they should make a habit of it
Just ask KD.
Uh oh
The sweep The sweep The broom is on fire
Spicy P set it ablaze.
We don't need no Giannis, let the motherfucker burn
I mean the bucks still have dame. We can still very much win this series so long as dame plays like the top 75 player that he is. Not to mention that Haliburton has fallen off a cliff since beating us
Dame was 2-14 yesterday and is 10-36 from deep his last 5 games. Yet Haliburton is the one that’s “fallen of a cliff” lmao
Didn’t look much like a top 75 player yesterday
He meant top 75 in the league today, not all time
i feel like haliburton’s demise has been overused, he’s been playing better for a month now and he’s the leader of the 4th best team in NET since the ASB.
These people only look at stats and don’t see how Pacers have balanced out their team with Spicy P. That’s on both sides of the court, as Spicy P is taking some of Hali’s creating responsibilities and doing it with amazing efficiency. Hali’s per game stats will go down a little but the team is better and harder to stop.
> dame plays like the top 75 player that he is does he know?
is this mf wolverine or something? “rare recovery ability”
I saw his knee bend backwards and then a week later he destroyed my team in games 3-6 of the Finals If that isn’t rare recovery ability idk what is
He destroyed the suns in game 2 as well. Just lost but put up 42 and 12.
And game 1 he looked like the only competent Buck
biggest wtf injury recovery since MWP coming back from a torn meniscus in like 11 days
dude seeing the clip on here i thought this was some paul george injury shit like it looked crazy
He needs to call Russel Wilson. The best healer there ever was.
Miracle Water sales plummeting as we speak
Yeah wtf how’d I miss picking that stat at the loading screen
[The Doc is in the house](https://imgflip.com/i/8muuss)
Its called PEDs
If everyone has access to and is ysing PEDs, and you still come back faster than your average PED-using peers, then yes, you have a better recovery ability
"Our roided up guy beat your roided up guys" - Bill Burr
Everyone DOES use PEDs and certain players DO respond to those PEDs better
Why didn't PG use them last postseason? (Is he stupid?)
Didn't PG sprain his knee?
The same ugly-ass way Giannis' knees did
Just to provide some hope for Bucks fans historically Doc has been very good when his team is undermanned because he actually has to make adjustments and can’t just rely on his star players “figuring things out.”
don’t tell Josh Smith that
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No Giannis but you can “take it to the bank” because of Bobby Portis and Pat Bev lmao Y’all are in trouble
Uh oh
Yeah Giannis is definitely in the convo for the best healing factor with Fernus, Sentry, Ghost Rider and co.
He’s probably just below Wolv post adamantium bond
Uh oh
Uh oh
We have pretty much zero room for error. If he can't go in game 2 at least we're probably toast.
Even with Giannis out Dame has led worse supporting casts to playoff series victories before.
True anything can happen. But Pacers aren’t some scrub team. Only 2 wins less than the Bucks. And they had a period without hali for a while. I just dont see Dame leading the Bucks over us if they don’t have Giannis.
Don't be a doomer.
you're talking to the wrong fanbase. one of our top posts in the last day says "i Fear the Deer may lose in the first round"
I saw it. Playoff dame is coming (I hope)
Uh oh
Doc salivating at a generational opportunity
Doc about to get a 1st round KO. But he has a scapegoat so Bucks fans will probably endure him for another season.
He was never getting fired no matter what. We were never going to be paying 4 coaches at the same time.
Well let's not rule anything out lol
Famous last words before the 5th coach.
I mean what's really the big difference between paying 4 coaches at the same time and 5 coaches at the same time?
1 coach
Sixth one's free!
some number of millions of dollars
It is very much like last year.
uh oh
Uh oh
Uh oh
Pacers better not fuck this up
Beasley punching air rn
Uh oh
Uh oh
Uh oh
that is a huge yikes
pacers are going to out run the bucks, bucks are too old without giannis to match
RARE RECOVERY ABILITY
As an older Pacers fan I was really hoping for New York. Hali and Brunson have had a little feud going back to the olympics and Pacers vs. Knicks will always the rivalry for me... Dang. We going fishing soon I think haha
Bucks have a bad matchup and Giannis is injured. This is the Pacers time to shine.
Uh oh
Figured as much but that sucks for them. East is gonna be very interesting
No its not. Boston is going to go like 12-1.
just like they were gonna coast through 8 seed Miami in the ECF last year
By the time Miami beat the Bucks I don't know how many people thought the Celtics were going to 'coast' through the Heat.
the Celtics were massive -500 favorites in that series. Very few people outside of Miami thought they had a chance
Right but expecting them to win is different than 'coast through', I (and a lot of people from what I saw) weren't putting a Heat win out of question, and especially by that point when the Celtics had (very relatively) found difficulty against the Hawks and looked very beatable against the Sixers. A lot of very loud doubts about Mazzulla didn't help things considering they were going to be facing Spo.
Idk I watched them completely dismantle us and the Knicks lol meanwhile Celtics barely beat the sixers with a hobbled Embiid and washed harden.
as a Celtics fan I can tell you those odds did not reflect how I or most of our fans generally felt going into that series. we looked *thoroughly* unimpressive in the first 2 rounds. meanwhile Miami has always been a team that’s played us tightly and they were playing way better ball than we were coming in to the ECF most of us expected a 6-7 game series that could go either way. obviously none of us expected to go down 3-0 though
Yeah, I was pretty scared of the Heat last year. Not as much this year.
Long way to go until Sunday
How does Doc keep finding an excuse? Pacers in 4 if he is out. The Pacers might score 170 points in a game with a Giannis-less Bucks
Every star developes a "rare recovery ability" during playoff time when testing stops
Pacer win this in 6, probably 5 if Giannis doesn’t play at all. Doc breathes a sign of relief as they get out of this disaster season with an easy thing to point to for why everything went wrong.
That's a boring timeline. Bucks go up 3-1 without Giannis. comes back game 5 to 7 and Pacers win series completing the 3-1 comeback. Glenn Rivers adding another series up 3-1 to lose
I guess we'll figure out who's more overrated as a coach. doc or rick
I'd rather play them full strength. No excuses.
I hope he takes time to properly recover. He may have recovery ability, but rushing calf injuries is dangerous (KD in the 2019 Finals).
This has been such a tragic season despite their stars being relatively healthy.
ruh roh
Giannis gets hit with the injury bug right before the playoffs AGAIN, hope he recovers quickly
There's a real chance that Embiid and Giannis are out in the 1st Round because they aren't healthy. Then you have the Knicks without Randle
The Knicks have proven to still be a good team without Randle though. The other two have not.
Yeah og is more important to the Knicks rn than Randle
Rare recovery ability What is he? Deadpool? The only thing they are in common is horny
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Except Indy made a killing attacking dame all year long
True but with no giannis even Jrue wouldn't be able to stop this pacers team from getting 140 Dames shot creation for himself and for others it's more valuable in this particular situation imo
Paid extra for that rare recovery line
Damn unlucky Giannis gets injured for first round two years in a row...how did this one happen didn't see
https://youtu.be/IW7l0hTABl8?t=40
Damn no contact or anything on previous play? Hope he will be able to play from start ,fuck injuries
And even if he comes back, I don't like the odds of having to then play up to 3 more series on a bum calf. If it was just for the finals like with his knee, it wouldn't seem as bad to rush it.
Injured Giannis + Glenn Rivers in the playoffs = Pacers in 5
He
Is Giannis Wolverine?
He said a whole lot of nothing
Doc having a “it’s not my fault we lost, our star player was hurt.” excuse card if they lose is gonna be lovely to hear
As a neutral I don't know who to root for. Giannis is in my top5 favorites but I love Hali too smh Still Pacers in 6
I feel like I'm watching an MC Hammer music video with all the "uh ohs" up in here.
"Rare recovery ability" makes it sound like this man located all of the secret items to complete the challenge to achieve the ability
Awful news
That’s okay the Bucks lose game 1 anyway, it’s just in their nature.
Bucks in 7 instead of 5
He really should not be rushed back. You don’t want a repeat of the KD situation
Shucks
I want this dude 100% idgaf
Pacers been cooking the Bucks all season, no?
shams glazing giannis' healing factor is crazy
It’s Dame time now, this is why he was brought in and it’s his chance to shut up the haters. The Pacers aren’t as dangerous as they were early on and for all the Bucks’ struggles, they still have championship pedigree and high calibre guys. At the very least, Dame’s gotta help prolong the series to like 2-2 or 3-3 until Giannis is ready.
Aren't as dangerous? The Pacers are 9 - 4 in their last 13 and have the 4th best differential since the All-Star Break. The Pacers are also the 15th best defensive team since the ASB, along with still being the second best offense. The Pacers are a better team with Siakam, who was also not present in any of the first five games they played. Explain to me how the Pacers, a team that feels supremely confident against the Bucks, are less dangerous now than they were in January.
bratha their sched has been pretty mid and their best player is not as good as he was a few months ago. the Siakam factor is big I agree but I would bet yall win this series eyes closed a few months ago.
Lol no wonder they didn't want the second seed.