????LBJ and Kawhi are cute arguments, but Giannas is the best player in the world and has been since he turned 24. Yes, he still shoots 31% from 3, and yes, the Raps + Kawhi & Danny beat him last year, but he’s rocking the best PER of all time and is on his way to a potential unanimous MVP. The good thing for the league is that he has to play with other people.
????The good thing for the Raps is that they successfully walled him off all game long, limiting him to 19 points! He got 19 rebounds (who cares) and 9 assists (this matters). It wasn’t a shut down, but the Raps have the resources, even without Gasol/Norm/Pat to dictate how Giannas plays. This is a measuring stick game, so that’s really impressive and encouraging.
????The Bucks have a better ranked defence than the Raps, but I think our defensive versatility is our biggest advantage over this squad. Last night was pure scramble defence, which is great for holding a team to a bad 3 point % (they shot 33%), but unfortunately they also have guys like Kris and Brook who can get high % 2’s. This is where you miss Gasol’s elite skills. We can play drop down like Lopez does, scramble like we did last night, go huge with our bigs or even go full small ball with RHJ.
????Playoff auditions! This was my favourite part of the game. Davis, Boucher, Thomas and RHJ all proved they can make big plays against the best team in the NBA. This is massive because when Norm and Gasol get back; minutes will get tighter and Nurse will know that these guys are more valuable than a break glass scenario.
????These are the two best teams in the NBA. Last year, we outscored the Bucks by 6 points in the series. Basically, we outscored them by 1 point every game. It was tight. Kawhi scored more than a 1/3 of our points in that series, so we’ll obviously need to find production elsewhere. We know that Pascal can fill some of that void, but efficient offensive performances from everyone is a requisite to beating this squad in May. I’m confident it’s possible, and that the Bucks are breakable, but it’s on this squad to prove that they can do it, and they haven’t yet.
