2021 NBA Finals: Milwaukee Bucks vs Phoenix Suns BUCKS WIN THE TITLE!!!!

[GAME05]

My heart hurts. The last two games they absolutely couldn't lose and they pulled them out. Suddenly it's a three-game series despite most folks thinking the Bucks were toast.

 

Whatever they're doing, hopefully it carries on into Phoenix. Seemed like the Bucks were down 9 most all of the game and it's just hard to figure how they managed to pull this one out. Holy man that was one heck of a great basketball game. Just when you see Giannis isn't going to hit 40 and they talk about how tired he is, he still manages to make plays that absolutely change the direction of the ballgame. He's one heck of a special player.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

I sort of feel like the Bucks either win this in 6 or they don't win it at all.

[rickh150]

And they hit their usual ton of mid range shots this game, too.

 

 

Booker did. Nobody else did a whole lot on offense for the Suns. Booker went bonkers.

 

Double Booker and you get wide open threes. That’s the debate. Contested Booker jumpers or wide open threes. For me, it got to a point around Booker’s 30th point where you just gamble with others hitting a 3.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Devin Booker with an impressive double-double tonight. 42 points and 10 fouls!

[homer]

The Suns can shoot all the twos they want but if they are gonna let the Bucks get 17 offensive boards, then Milwaukee can beat them with quantity if not quality.

[GAME05]

I sort of feel like the Bucks either win this in 6 or they don't win it at all.

 

Well not many other options left.

[KeithStone53151]

I sort of feel like the Bucks either win this in 6 or they don't win it at all.

 

I could see the bucks losing game 5 and winning the next 2, but if they win game 5 they gotta win game 6 because no way are we losing a home clincher then going on the road and winning. They'd have all the momentum.

[rickh150]

Holiday shooting horribly is now another reason to be confident….. still outplayed Paul.

[lcbj68c]

Some hot takes...

 

- Middleton is surely a good enough #2 to win an NBA Championship. Is he infallible? No.

- I think Crowder making threes irritates me more than the happiness of Lopez making threes.

- I don't understand the Conaughton hate off the bench. On the Giannis steal of the inbounds pass, he literally forced the pass guarding the inbounder. He hustles for rebounds. Makes some silly fouls and isn't best defender, but his energy is enough for being the 3rd of 4th guy off the bench.

- How the refs failed to call the 6th foul on Booker might be the biggest NBA reffing travesty I've ever witnessed, including Jordan's push-off vs Jazz.

- I dont see how PHX wins in MKE. Very cool that there is atleast a game 6. I don't know that MKE can win in PHX either, but aside from winning it all, I couldn't be more proud of the end result this season, even amongst the frustration of the failures.

- Devin Booker is a STAR! Chris Paul is just "a guy". #ISaidIt.

Edited July 15, 2021 by lcbj68c

[DuWayne Steurer]

Devin Booker with an impressive double-double tonight. 42 points and 10 fouls!

 

 

Booker had 42 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists.

 

I'm not going to say that Jrue played a "good" game. He missed a lot of shots, and he took shots he shouldn't have taken. But he had 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, and was all over Chris Paul *ALL NIGHT LONG*. Yup, we really need Jrue to shoot better, but at least he does a lot of other things to (try) to offset his bad shooting nights.

[adambr2]

Some hot takes...

 

- Middleton is surely a good enough #2 to win an NBA Championship. Is he infallible? No.

- I think Crowder making threes irritates me more than the happiness of Lopez making threes.

- I don't understand the Conaughton hate off the bench. On the Giannis steal of the inbounds pass, he literally forced the pass guarding the inbounder. He hustles for rebounds. Makes some silly fouls and isn't best defender, but his energy is enough for being the 3rd of 4th guy off the bench.

- How the refs failed to call the 6th foul on Booker might be the biggest NBA reffing travesty I've ever witnessed, including Jordan's push-off vs Jazz.

- I dont see how PHX wins in MKE. Very cool that there is atleast a game 6. I don't know that MKE can win in PHX either, but aside from winning it all, I couldn't be more proud of the end result this season, even amongst the frustration of the failures.

- Devin Booker is a STAR! Chris Paul is just "a guy". #ISaidIt.

 

Booker is better, but it's hard for most guys to be a star at age 36. I like Paul a lot more than I like Booker, in any event.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Some hot takes...

 

 

- I don't understand the Conaughton hate off the bench. On the Giannis steal of the inbounds pass, he literally forced the pass guarding the inbounder. He hustles for rebounds. Makes some silly fouls and isn't best defender, but his energy is enough for being the 3rd of 4th guy off the bench.

 

I think sometimes Patty C gets running around being the "high energy guy" and makes dumb fouls by smashing into guys when he absolutely has no chance at affecting the outcome of a shot or a play because he will absolutely only play at full throttle. He'd be a better player if he contained himself at times and didn't swipe at guys from behind 1.5 seconds after they take a shot or leap at someone making a pass only to bodily crash into them. Just seems like he'd rather play all out than make good decisions.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Pat is fine. He's brutal to watch defensively at times, but I didn't have an issue with him tonight because nobody other than Khris was really hitting any shots and he had a couple threes.

 

The goat tonight was Jrue. He had a big board at the end but c'mon man, at some point feed the hotter hands. You don't have to shoot 4-of-21 or whatever.

[FVBrewerFan]

Some hot takes...

 

 

- I don't understand the Conaughton hate off the bench. On the Giannis steal of the inbounds pass, he literally forced the pass guarding the inbounder. He hustles for rebounds. Makes some silly fouls and isn't best defender, but his energy is enough for being the 3rd of 4th guy off the bench.

 

I think sometimes Patty C gets running around being the "high energy guy" and makes dumb fouls by smashing into guys when he absolutely has no chance at affecting the outcome of a shot or a play because he will absolutely only play at full throttle. He'd be a better player if he contained himself at times and didn't swipe at guys from behind 1.5 seconds after they take a shot or leap at someone making a pass only to bodily crash into them. Just seems like he'd rather play all out than make good decisions.

 

He's also a bench guy, so he's going to be called for ticky tack fouls. Tucker actually takes way more stupid fouls in the playoffs than Pat. Let's no forget his 3P shooting either. Other than Middleton, he's the only one I feel it going in when he shoots it.

[Menotti80]

Some hot takes...

 

- Middleton is surely a good enough #2 to win an NBA Championship. Is he infallible? No.

- I think Crowder making threes irritates me more than the happiness of Lopez making threes.

- I don't understand the Conaughton hate off the bench. On the Giannis steal of the inbounds pass, he literally forced the pass guarding the inbounder. He hustles for rebounds. Makes some silly fouls and isn't best defender, but his energy is enough for being the 3rd of 4th guy off the bench.

- How the refs failed to call the 6th foul on Booker might be the biggest NBA reffing travesty I've ever witnessed, including Jordan's push-off vs Jazz.

- I dont see how PHX wins in MKE. Very cool that there is atleast a game 6. I don't know that MKE can win in PHX either, but aside from winning it all, I couldn't be more proud of the end result this season, even amongst the frustration of the failures.

- Devin Booker is a STAR! Chris Paul is just "a guy". #ISaidIt.

 

 

 

Jordan didn't push off. Sorry...

[wildcat83]

Jordan's push-off vs Jazz.

 

I didn’t like MJ, and even I will admit he didn’t push off on that shot.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Just an odd game. The Bucks were outshot 55-38 pretty late into the evening and then it leveled out late at 51-41. The Suns blocked 9 shots to the Bucks 3, but the Suns turned the ball over 17 times to the Bucks 5. Rebounds overall were somewhat close, but the Bucks destroyed then on the offensive glass.

 

The turnovers helped wipe out the shooting mismatch. There was some FT disparity though nothing quite like game 1 and the Bucks were pretty excellent at the line going 24/29.

 

I'd say the Bucks will probably shoot better than this again, but I also don't think the Suns flirt with 20 turnovers at home.

[homer]

Just an odd game. The Bucks were outshot 55-38 pretty late into the evening and then it leveled out late at 51-41. The Suns blocked 9 shots to the Bucks 3, but the Suns turned the ball over 17 times to the Bucks 5. Rebounds overall were somewhat close, but the Bucks destroyed then on the offensive glass.

 

The turnovers helped wipe out the shooting mismatch. There was some FT disparity though nothing quite like game 1 and the Bucks were pretty excellent at the line going 24/29.

 

I'd say the Bucks will probably shoot better than this again, but I also don't think the Suns flirt with 20 turnovers at home.

 

And hopefully Booker doesn't have another game like that

[Mr Southpaw]

Who had the best +/- in this game..... Patty C +21. Who was lowest... Brooks Lopez -11.

 

I think we are better playing small ball with them, I love Lopez, but the Suns don't play big. He should only play when Ayton plays and then not always. GA and Portis can guard Ayton, heck Tucker can guard him.

 

Lastly, our starters (other than Middleton) were 0-13 from the three point line... and we won by 6. More passing will create better three point looks. Those threes need to be shot from the corners and top of the key. That only happens with more passing.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

+/- isn't my favorite stat. I find there's a tendency to lock into it and not acknowledge that some of that is coincidental or affected by something else going on at the time a certain dude is on the floor. Ex) was Pat on the floor a bunch while Booker sat? I thought Lopez had a nice game. On a night we didn't shoot at all, 14 in 19 minutes is pretty efficienet.

[MrTPlush]

17 offensive rebounds compared to 5 and 5 turnovers compared to 17.

 

That is the game right there. One of those games you are glad you won and hope you never play that poorly again because you probably aren't going to get that lucky again.

 

That being said it leaves me pretty confident they can defend their home court and will have the two remaining shots to win a game in Phoenix.

[MrTPlush]

+/- isn't my favorite stat. I find there's a tendency to lock into it and not acknowledge that some of that is coincidental or affected by something else going on at the time a certain dude is on the floor. Ex) was Pat on the floor a bunch while Booker sat? I thought Lopez had a nice game. On a night we didn't shoot at all, 14 in 19 minutes is pretty efficienet.

 

Crowder had the highest +/- for the Suns in Game 1 at +19

 

33 minutes

0-8 FG

0-5 3PT

1-2 FT

9 REB

2 TO

ONE POINT

 

That stat makes no sense to me, at all.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

+/- isn't my favorite stat. I find there's a tendency to lock into it and not acknowledge that some of that is coincidental or affected by something else going on at the time a certain dude is on the floor. Ex) was Pat on the floor a bunch while Booker sat? I thought Lopez had a nice game. On a night we didn't shoot at all, 14 in 19 minutes is pretty efficienet.

 

Crowder had the highest +/- for the Suns in Game 1 at +19

 

33 minutes

0-8 FG

0-5 3PT

1-2 FT

9 REB

2 TO

ONE POINT

 

That stat makes no sense to me, at all.

 

Didn't see this was Game 1 at first. My fault.

 

But yeah. I always thought plus/minis was more useful long-term. Over the season. When some of those other factors (opponent, opponent's lineup, etc.) get added up and are less prone to variation.

[KeithStone53151]

Connaughton is the teams best 3 point shooter in the playoffs of players that actually play, at 38.8%. Forbes is next at 37.1% and Middleton 3rd with 34.4%. Pat had a really strong game I thought for him. He was the guy I was second most confident in shooting the ball late if needed behind Middleton. I just have no issues with him as a top option off the bench. Plenty of his +/- is deserved, but also worth noting he wasn't in the game to start when we were bricking everything and the Suns went up 8-10 early.

[KeithStone53151]

+/- isn't my favorite stat. I find there's a tendency to lock into it and not acknowledge that some of that is coincidental or affected by something else going on at the time a certain dude is on the floor. Ex) was Pat on the floor a bunch while Booker sat? I thought Lopez had a nice game. On a night we didn't shoot at all, 14 in 19 minutes is pretty efficienet.

 

Crowder had the highest +/- for the Suns in Game 1 at +19

 

33 minutes

0-8 FG

0-5 3PT

1-2 FT

9 REB

2 TO

ONE POINT

 

That stat makes no sense to me, at all.

 

In fairness that was a bit of a unique circumstance. I'm sure you watched the game, all he had to do was stand at the 3 point line while Paul and Booker switched off to get 1v1 against Lopez and Portis in space for easy mid-range shots. See most coaches make an adjustment whereas Bud just let this happen for 3 quarters, and the suns kept doing the same exact thing with those 2 guys and getting easy buckets. so yes in this case his +/- is completely undeserved and a byproduct of him being in the right place at the right time.