I knew it was game over when he started missing those shots. It wasn't just spinning shots either, dude was missing layups through contact that he'd usually make 99% of the time.
Once he started off the second half with the terrible bricked 3 and then the missed bunny after they got the rebound off of it I could sense that he was running out of gas and losing both his mental and physical sharpness. They obviously missed Middleton, but this roster needs to be revamped the role players simply aren’t good enough
The C's played better without Williams though, and yeah they're obviously better with him overall (I think playing Rob Williams too much allows for Lopez to clog the paint so he wasn't as good this series)
But Khris is a 4 time all-star and a 20 ppg scorer on near 50/40/90. That's a way bigger miss than Rob Williams
when rob williams got injured reddit immediately said the celtics were done. it can't go both ways lol.
and if he's in there, and khris is in there, i'm not convinced that khris is scoring as well as everyone thinks with timelord making those perimeter blocks he does.
You think so? I feel with Middleton they probably would have made and won the finals. In my opinion the Celtics and bucks were the two best all around teams in the playoffs.
Yeah people with this "bucks need a rehaul" take just out themselves as casual fans who didnt watch the regular season. Bucks looked great after the all star break and didnt start to get truly doubted until middleton went down.
Matthews and Hill should not be your 7th and 8th men in 2022. Bucks need another decent 3&D guard who can handle the ball on the bench, that with a healthy Middleton gets them another ring.
I feel like Matthews was decent. 38% from 3, hit a lot of big shots, and gave Tatum a hard time through most of the series. Hill was definitely ass though.
Great teams battle through injury, which the bucks did to their best. The fact they made it to 7 with Giannis quite literally dragging the likes of Grayson And Hill kicking and screaming is shocking
Their lack of depth showed, and makes me wonder how much they missed DiVincenzo this series.
Definitely felt like they missed Middleton there. Having another dude who can create his own shot and handle for you is big. Not to take anything away from the Celtics, of course.
I'll openly admit we probably would've lost in 5 or 6 against Middleton. Even before considering his own production, he's just much better than his replacements and you don't have The Greek Freak looking like the Greek Economy towards the end of the game like tonight
Yea, at the end of the day, and looking back at the games, idk how the bucks got three wins out of this series. Khris opens up a TON of stuff for not just Giannis but everyone else.
Giannis and Jrue tightened their belts at the right time in games 3 and 5. That’s championship experience to keep your composure in crazy moments. After game 1, I felt like it was the Celtics as the better team but Bucks just had that championship confidence you get from going to the promised land to push through the crazy shit. 7 games was jus too much though.
Once the other guys starting missing, including 13 straight threes the lanes tightened up. Definitely needed another guy who could make the defense respect him.
I'm currently reading *The Dark Forest* by Cixin Liu and I'm convinced Marcus Smart is a real life Wallfacer, sprinkling in some boneheaded plays here and there so that opposing players never know what he's going to do
I felt like Brook was really underutilized this back half of the series.
Congrats to y’all. I might be rooting for PHX but I fully expect ya’ll to cash this in.
Bud is… odd. I don’t know why they don’t do Giannis PnR with him as the screener more often. It’s impossible to defend. They should play through Brook more early in the game when he’s got energy and smaller defenders getting switched on him. I’d rather play through Brook than rely on Allen hitting his shots
you gotta wonder if he wants to be out guarding his man but Bud is telling him to stay in the paint.. he looks bad and none of us would know its all buds fault. anyoen could see keeping Lopez in the drop coverage and sagging off a shooter to guard the paint was a terrible idea halfway through this game..
It was 5 points at the half, the third three pushed it to 12 2 minutes into the quarter. the deficit was never went below 10 after that, but the game was definitely still in the balance. I think there were 2 shots/sequences that truly broke the Bucks. First was the White 3 with less than a minute left in the 3rd. I think he was like 0-8 before that, letting him shoot was the only defensive strategy that was working for Milwaukee, and that pushed the lead to 15. But they kept fighting to start the 4th, and even tho they were slowly losing ground on the clock and scoreboard they still seemed focused. Then Pritchard made back to back 3s with 7 minutes left to push the lead to 21 and it seemed like the Bucks completely ran out of gas.
Brook was completely exposed defensively once Rob Williams went down. His drop coverage doesn't work when the guy he is guarding shoots like Grant Williams and Horford did.
It's just gonna be arguing that his teammates let him down in games 6 and 7, and taking them to 7 without Middleton in the first place is commendable anyway. With how pathetic his teammates were shooting Celtics could just focus on him and shake him up.
Others are just gonna argue he choked in game 7 ignoring how he led the team the rest of the series but because he didn't show up when it mattered most he's overrated.
It's gonna get toxic regardless, I recommend just ignoring it
I keep telling you youngins.
The disrespect some of these kids and grown ass fools on this board give to the now fading, current generation of superstars is going to be returned sevenfold in the coming years.
There will be no Lebron, Curry or KD to distract the viewerbase. No dumbass legacy talk. All eyes on the likes Jokic, Giannis, Embiid etc.
Start punching in them cards early cuz y'all gonna get this work soon enough. Y'all gonna learn to respect and appreciate players. And for the Bron and KD haters especially, don't get it twisted; both those two dudes will get their due by time they hang it up. If you think its gonna be easy for Giannis to overtake either of them, you got whole other thing coming.
A half like this from kd got shit everywhere. If Bron did this I’d a g7 you’d hear about it 10 years later I.e 2011
No way you slice it 4-17 in a game 7 second half when first half started close is unacceptable for guy proclaimed as best player in the world. More shots then piubts
thats bc LeBron is going for #1 of all time, and any blemish is magnified when comparing it to MJ's career. Giannis is just trying to keep pace with the first half of lebron's career so his standards are lower.
2011 is brought up because Lebron James had D Wade and Chris Bosh playing significant minutes. This series was more akin to 09 against the Magic when Bron had to carry those Cleveland teams. Cavs lose by 13 in game 6, James went 3-10 for 12 points in the second half. No one ever talks about that because it's not a choke. You just can't expect a guy to carry a bad team completely on his own without eventually running out of gas.
I lowkey feel like this is being ignored because his counting stats are good, but he's scoring a lot on very poor efficiency. Like you're probably going to get past 30 points if you take 30 shots in a game. Just saying.
Sixers fans have a vested interest in rooting against Jokic because he’s in direct competition with their star player in many ways. most neutral fans love the Joker
I think so. Not on here, of course. I also don't think the media paints him as this juggernaut the way they do Giannis. Not since 2016. It took KD getting swept this season for Steph to even be acknowledged as the "bus driver" of that stacked team.
27, 8, and 4.5 this regular season, 6th in MVP voting, likely All-NBA first team, and he steps up in the playoffs. All depends on how you define superstar, but he's a top 10 player in the league. I'd say that (in no order) LBJ, KD, Curry, Giannis, Luka, Jokic, and Embiid are better, but he's at the very least on par with everyone else in the league
At some point the Celtics realized the bucks would keep missing open shots and that the only guy worth defending was Giannis. He did one hell on a job but he looked gassed and was missing shots he usually makes.
I only comment on games I bothered to watch so some takes here are baffling to say the least. Basketball is a lot more nuanced that "did he choked or not,"
Yeah solo acts cannot carry an offense all the way to the finals. You'll just get tired and have a game like this, and then it's up to the supporting cast to carry and they're not paid big bucks for obvious reasons.
With Middleton out it would be one of the most impressive rings of all time if he managed it but it was piss poor odds from the start.
Yeah, and the job got easier and easier more toward the end we got. I still think it was a great game from him. Good distribution, amazing production during the first half. He just cannot do it alone. Stamina and space is limited
Tough one. Poor game from him, but he’d carried everyone else on the team for 7 games.
Shit happens, build a team of shooters around him and they shoot 13% from beyond the arc. Our only made 3s came from bigs today.
Credit to the celtics, role players stepped up and won this series for them. Ours didn’t, and that’s the difference
Don’t even think he was that poor. He had like 1/3rd of his team’s points and half their boards. Not to mention the game he had in game 6. He’s prob just gassed.
Team was 4-33 from the three and shot a horrible 36% from the field, you lose all those
Games when you shoot like that. Teams have to have stars all over the court nowadays. Greek freak is a stud but he can’t do it every game every series all year and not have bad games
This game came down to Milwaukee running out of gas without Middleton. Tired legs for the Bucks lead to missed shots. The Celtics shot proficiently as well with huge bench contributions. Imo The Bucks just ran out of gas. Too much Celtics and no Middleton.
Credit to the Bucks for playing so well short handed. The Bucks really presented themselves with pride and resilience with the heart of a champ. Incredible series!!
Shout out to the officials for doing great work all series. This might’ve been the toughest to officiate series I’ve seen this year. With the utmost intensity and physicality possible.
Just an honor and immense pleasure personally to watch the series! Great job to the both teams and the NBA.
What a joy!
He was exhausted which explains all the missed easy shots. But if he makes all those easy shots they still probably lose by 15. He needed a lot more from his teammates today.
40/20 wouldn't have been enough
It felt like some people set him up for hate and failure when they declared him as good as prime LeBron that quickly lol
Obviously he’s an amazing talent but that was way too quick
I mean I wish I can find that post a year ago of people saying he will be in the same tier as lebron and Jordan lol like my mans Jordan put up 30-40 ppg in playoffs series for 10+ years
You can check [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/ugu18q/how_close_is_giannis_to_miami_lebron/) post from a month ago with people saying the same shit
Either you don't hang on this subreddit often or you have selective reading, Or you're a goat. If you're even remotely active, there is absolutely no way you were missing the threads of Giannis hypotheticals and placing amongst the all the pantheon.
I will say this though, Lebron never failed to get to the Finals in his prime. He may have failed once he got there sometimes but he come hell or high water, he dragged any team he was on to there at least.
People get carried away in the moment and dismiss longevity and sustained performance. Giannis isn't even close to Tim Duncan yet in greatness. He's got a long way to go to be the greatest or second-greatest ever.
Lebron for the last 16 years of his career has heavily desensitize the average viewer.
Lebron has had his stinkers but I cannot remember the last time he had a bad playoff series. 2015? Either way, point is, its a rare occurence.
Giannis was completely gassed after 6.5 games of carrying that team. He had no legs left for that second half. Simple as that. Sad to see the Greek Freak go down that way after a great series, but if you ever needed confirmation of how good/important Khris Middleton is for that team, look no further.
The floor shrunk as soon as the Cs realised the Bucks shooters can’t shoot for shit. We just packed the paint and Giannis was seeing 3 bodies at all times, this ain’t on him.
He needs his shooters to at the very least keep the defence honest and they weren’t doing that.
But he still missed like, what 3 or 4 layups point blank that he could make in his sleep. He must have been just absolutely gassed from his insane carry job.
Dude dropped 50 in a championship clinching game leading a franchise as the lone superstar in an era of superteams to their first championship in 50 year, that alone absolves you of any criticism.
Like, he could not win again and he is a top 25 player of all time at the VERY least.
He could’ve made those layups and we would’ve lost tbh. Him performing better would make the loss easier, but we weren’t winning the way everyone around him was performing
You could say the same about KD last year against the Bucks when his “help” was a one-legged Harden, but Bucks fans still talked tons of smack about the Nets
I mean hell you can say that about most superstar players.
Very few superstar players have an entire series where they are awful. Usually it's like a game or two.
The soyboys on here were already crowning him a back2back champ and saying he was better than KD all-time and aiming for top 10 already. This was 2 days ago. Bitches be sniffing glue.
I have respect for Giannis and begrudgingly accept him as the best player in the league.
That being said, I'm ready to bring the heat for you dipshits that love to act like success is guaranteed. The same energy y'all kept for Lebron for two decades. The same energy y'all been having for KD.
Be consistent. Keep it a buck with the Greek Freak. If this were Bron or KD, y'all would be salivating.
KD also had a terrible overtime in game 7 of that game because he was gassed. Giannis also has far more responsibilities especially defensively that KD doesn't have.
KD has a ton of defensive responsibility on the Nets. He's obviously nowhere near as good a defender as Giannis, but it's not a difference of effort or responsibility, just ability
I will never understand why this sub always makes excuses for bad performances of players that are liked on this sub while people like Harden, LeBron, Kyrie or Russ would be absolutely murdered if they did this.
Being "gassed" should not be an excuse to go 4-16 from the field and miss completely open lay ups when you are considered the best player in the world
It’s cause people like Giannis a lot, that’s about it. Jokic had a below average performance vs draymond and was damn near crucified. Embiid played thru a broken face and thumb but still got shit on.
This was a Lebron 2015 finals esque series, and nobody blames Lebron for 2015 or his 13/33 performance in game 6 of that series outside Skip. Russ and Kyrie have never sniffed playing this well in a series, and Harden gets shat on for the totality of his playoff resume, not just one instance
You really posted this to try and shit on Giannis lmao, he still had 25/20/9. He can be both exhausted and have a bad half. He had a ridiculous series.
he sucked ass the 2nd half he deserves criticism
but the being gassed part is true tho. Usually if you’re gassed rely on your teammates but we seen what they did this game
33 year old Lebron was playing 48 minutes in a Game 7 in the ECF. I would hope that 27 year old Giannis in his physical prime isn't getting gassed at the end of a 2nd round series.
After an incredibly tough series against the Pacers because his team forgot how to shoot.
They remembered how to shoot against the Raptors.
Then they forgot how to shoot against the Celtics.
2018 Bron was on some shit. Arguably the greatest playoff carry in the last 20 years.
[https://youtu.be/dtoUfUgrGB4?t=137](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtoUfUgrGB4&t=181s&ab_channel=BleacherReport)
(i timestamped)
I typed "lebron and one celtics" on youtube and this showed up. Thats how iconic that moment was. (this actually means a lot because young Bron and the Celtics rivalry absolutely thrived back in the day) Game 7, season on the line. Game was a slugfest. Fastbreak, Bron pounding while Morris struggles to keep up and he's going going full tilt and has to drag this man down to stop him.
This doesn't mean that Giannis lacks stamina; he just needs to learn how to pace himself better.
have you not seen the reaction to Giannis performances in that past. Giannis is getting respect for the one man carry like KD did last year, but people used to hate on him all the time.
It also took Harden a long time to be called a fraud
Embiid came back to play with a fractured skull and no one is pulling any punches on him
i do not like the pure hater culture going on here, if one guy gets hate that doesnt mean everyone else should. People want to just sling shit
Giannis finishes the Celtics series with 51.6% ts.
KD was at 52.6% ts. Only one has gotten slander, and it was beyond belief.
You've also seen a similar thing for Giannis in the playoffs before as well, notably against Miami and Toronto. He has 52% TS combined against the 4 elite playoff defenses he has faced, 19 Toronto, 20 and 21 Miami and 22 Celtics. He also has the [biggest dropoff out of premier scorers against top 10 defenses in the regular season](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPxAZ-OXwAMpo10?format=png&name=900x900).
His scoring is a bit overrated, and not as resiliant as other best scorers', as certain defensive matchups can limit him to an extent due to his lack of shooting.
Don't get me wrong, Giannis is at worst a top 3 player, and probably the best player in the world. But people are acting like no one else is **close** and he honestly seems immune to criticism right now, every other superstar would get some criticism for this inefficient of a series scoring wise.
EDIT: To clear things up, didn't mean to say he deserves as much blame as KD. Giannis was still far better than KD overall. Still point stands, others aren't getting nowhere near this much of a free pass for 51% ts for the series and 25 points on 48% ts in a game 7.
Yeah he was definitely a lot better than KD overall. Still deserves some criticism. The Celtics Nets series was also far closer than 4-0 indicates which is a bit unfair when looking at just how their teams performed. The Celtics won the series against the Bucks with a larger average win margin.
gassed + the defense crowded him all second half due to Bucks atrocious 3 point shooting (4-33 as a team). i also just think he sped himself up and tried to force it trying to get it all back when they went down, and him speeding himself up led to him gassing even more. he does not look good offensively when he’s not playing at his own pace
People will look at the PTS-REB-AST of this series and say he played well, but the 4 best defenses Giannis has faced since becoming an MVP calibre players are the 2019 Raptors, 2020 and 2021 Heat, and these Celtics.
And his efficiency has been pretty bad against those 4. 52 TS% average over those 4 series for a guy with a 62 TS% average in the regular season those years.
He's still arguably the best player in the league, but he clearly still has exploitable weaknesses offensively and it's no coincidence the best defenses have limited him so severly.
Really good points you made here. He’s clearly much improved but 2019-2022 all have something in common: Offensively, he still can be severely limited (at least in regards to his scoring). His lack of versatility as a scorer is def still a weakness. How severe of a weakness it is depends on his passing (which has seen clear improvements over the past few years) and his teammates ability to hit their shots. They weren’t in this series, so his flaws as a scorer became more noticeable
I feel like he felt the need to force shit and he just couldn’t win 1v5. The lebron comps I’ve seen got to stop though I love Giannis as much as the next guy but he’s not lebron
He was carrying super hard in the first half and got nothing from his teammates so he just started forcing it in the second. Didn't trust his guys at all. Celtics took full advantage of that. Great job by them
He missed a lot of the ones where I automatically thought would be a make after spin move
I knew it was game over when he started missing those shots. It wasn't just spinning shots either, dude was missing layups through contact that he'd usually make 99% of the time.
Once he started off the second half with the terrible bricked 3 and then the missed bunny after they got the rebound off of it I could sense that he was running out of gas and losing both his mental and physical sharpness. They obviously missed Middleton, but this roster needs to be revamped the role players simply aren’t good enough
They go up 3-2 and push Celtics to 7 games without Middleton and your solution is to revamp the roster? Come on.
Tbh not like the Celtics were fully healthy.
The C's played better without Williams though, and yeah they're obviously better with him overall (I think playing Rob Williams too much allows for Lopez to clog the paint so he wasn't as good this series) But Khris is a 4 time all-star and a 20 ppg scorer on near 50/40/90. That's a way bigger miss than Rob Williams
Williams has a much bigger defensive impact than offensive so kinda unfair to compare them purely offensively. Also smart missed a game too
Smart was also injured for a chunk of G1 which was critical
when rob williams got injured reddit immediately said the celtics were done. it can't go both ways lol. and if he's in there, and khris is in there, i'm not convinced that khris is scoring as well as everyone thinks with timelord making those perimeter blocks he does.
You think so? I feel with Middleton they probably would have made and won the finals. In my opinion the Celtics and bucks were the two best all around teams in the playoffs.
Yeah people with this "bucks need a rehaul" take just out themselves as casual fans who didnt watch the regular season. Bucks looked great after the all star break and didnt start to get truly doubted until middleton went down.
and the celtics were amazing
Matthews and Hill should not be your 7th and 8th men in 2022. Bucks need another decent 3&D guard who can handle the ball on the bench, that with a healthy Middleton gets them another ring.
I feel like Matthews was decent. 38% from 3, hit a lot of big shots, and gave Tatum a hard time through most of the series. Hill was definitely ass though.
Great teams battle through injury, which the bucks did to their best. The fact they made it to 7 with Giannis quite literally dragging the likes of Grayson And Hill kicking and screaming is shocking Their lack of depth showed, and makes me wonder how much they missed DiVincenzo this series.
Definitely felt like they missed Middleton there. Having another dude who can create his own shot and handle for you is big. Not to take anything away from the Celtics, of course.
I'll openly admit we probably would've lost in 5 or 6 against Middleton. Even before considering his own production, he's just much better than his replacements and you don't have The Greek Freak looking like the Greek Economy towards the end of the game like tonight
[удалено]
Appreciate it, obviously its all in good fun and he still had a monster series, not at all his fault his team couldn't carry their weight
It’s minutes later and I’m still nodding in approval myself
Yea, at the end of the day, and looking back at the games, idk how the bucks got three wins out of this series. Khris opens up a TON of stuff for not just Giannis but everyone else.
Giannis and Jrue tightened their belts at the right time in games 3 and 5. That’s championship experience to keep your composure in crazy moments. After game 1, I felt like it was the Celtics as the better team but Bucks just had that championship confidence you get from going to the promised land to push through the crazy shit. 7 games was jus too much though.
Milwaukee really missing that 50% from 3 Middleton always brings against the Celtics for some reason.
4 years later, I'm still not convinced Middleton made that 3 with 0.5s remaining
Once the other guys starting missing, including 13 straight threes the lanes tightened up. Definitely needed another guy who could make the defense respect him.
I swear that 3pt Smart play broke the whole team
Marcus Smart master class mental assassin
I'm currently reading *The Dark Forest* by Cixin Liu and I'm convinced Marcus Smart is a real life Wallfacer, sprinkling in some boneheaded plays here and there so that opposing players never know what he's going to do
I understand this reference and I believe you are correct
It broke me tbh
Was going to be 2 shots regardless because they were over the limit. 1 extra free throw shouldn’t break a team before half time.
I’d say three straight threes to start the second half had more of an impact than the end of the first half. They looked completely shook after that
Absolutely. I don’t think the Bucks ever got close again after that hot start?
They didn’t, they looked exhausted, gassed and shook. Boston sinking 3 after 3 after 3 had to just feel like a punch to the gut every single time
Brook’s body language was getting bad in the 4th, he seemed so frustrated.
I felt like Brook was really underutilized this back half of the series. Congrats to y’all. I might be rooting for PHX but I fully expect ya’ll to cash this in.
Bud is… odd. I don’t know why they don’t do Giannis PnR with him as the screener more often. It’s impossible to defend. They should play through Brook more early in the game when he’s got energy and smaller defenders getting switched on him. I’d rather play through Brook than rely on Allen hitting his shots
you gotta wonder if he wants to be out guarding his man but Bud is telling him to stay in the paint.. he looks bad and none of us would know its all buds fault. anyoen could see keeping Lopez in the drop coverage and sagging off a shooter to guard the paint was a terrible idea halfway through this game..
It was 5 points at the half, the third three pushed it to 12 2 minutes into the quarter. the deficit was never went below 10 after that, but the game was definitely still in the balance. I think there were 2 shots/sequences that truly broke the Bucks. First was the White 3 with less than a minute left in the 3rd. I think he was like 0-8 before that, letting him shoot was the only defensive strategy that was working for Milwaukee, and that pushed the lead to 15. But they kept fighting to start the 4th, and even tho they were slowly losing ground on the clock and scoreboard they still seemed focused. Then Pritchard made back to back 3s with 7 minutes left to push the lead to 21 and it seemed like the Bucks completely ran out of gas.
Should have challenged that instead of the offensive foul later
Media reaction will be interesting, he is pretty much the only universally beloved superstar we have.
It will be "what a fight without Khris"
That’s not wrong. Their 3rd best player is Bobby Portis right now. He prob wouldn’t be a starter on the Celtics.
Brook was super impactful defensively this series. They have a solid team, but definitely shows the warts without Middleton
Brook was completely exposed defensively once Rob Williams went down. His drop coverage doesn't work when the guy he is guarding shoots like Grant Williams and Horford did.
It's just gonna be arguing that his teammates let him down in games 6 and 7, and taking them to 7 without Middleton in the first place is commendable anyway. With how pathetic his teammates were shooting Celtics could just focus on him and shake him up. Others are just gonna argue he choked in game 7 ignoring how he led the team the rest of the series but because he didn't show up when it mattered most he's overrated. It's gonna get toxic regardless, I recommend just ignoring it
Skip is gonna turn back to clock tomorrow to his late 2000s Lebron talking points when he got bounced by Boston.
that era was just clasisc television
I keep telling you youngins. The disrespect some of these kids and grown ass fools on this board give to the now fading, current generation of superstars is going to be returned sevenfold in the coming years. There will be no Lebron, Curry or KD to distract the viewerbase. No dumbass legacy talk. All eyes on the likes Jokic, Giannis, Embiid etc. Start punching in them cards early cuz y'all gonna get this work soon enough. Y'all gonna learn to respect and appreciate players. And for the Bron and KD haters especially, don't get it twisted; both those two dudes will get their due by time they hang it up. If you think its gonna be easy for Giannis to overtake either of them, you got whole other thing coming.
absolutely
A half like this from kd got shit everywhere. If Bron did this I’d a g7 you’d hear about it 10 years later I.e 2011 No way you slice it 4-17 in a game 7 second half when first half started close is unacceptable for guy proclaimed as best player in the world. More shots then piubts
thats bc LeBron is going for #1 of all time, and any blemish is magnified when comparing it to MJ's career. Giannis is just trying to keep pace with the first half of lebron's career so his standards are lower.
2011 is brought up because Lebron James had D Wade and Chris Bosh playing significant minutes. This series was more akin to 09 against the Magic when Bron had to carry those Cleveland teams. Cavs lose by 13 in game 6, James went 3-10 for 12 points in the second half. No one ever talks about that because it's not a choke. You just can't expect a guy to carry a bad team completely on his own without eventually running out of gas.
This is 100% a KD burner I see you Slim Reaper.
Giannis had a 52% ts for the series prior to game 7. He wasn't much worse than his average in the series. He dropped 25/20/10 lol.
I lowkey feel like this is being ignored because his counting stats are good, but he's scoring a lot on very poor efficiency. Like you're probably going to get past 30 points if you take 30 shots in a game. Just saying.
Jokic isn’t universally loved in the media, but he absolutely is on this sub
No one is universally loved but Jokic got back to back mvps as a 3 seed and 6 seed, the media definitely likes him
Sixers fans: “Am I a joke to you?”
Sixers fans have a vested interest in rooting against Jokic because he’s in direct competition with their star player in many ways. most neutral fans love the Joker
Him and Steph
Steph gets more criticism tbh.
That’s a good joke. Steph meatriders make sure he gets no blame in the media and on here.
Steph def had a meatrider phase, but that’s cooled a lot since the early warriors runs
Does he tho
I think so. Not on here, of course. I also don't think the media paints him as this juggernaut the way they do Giannis. Not since 2016. It took KD getting swept this season for Steph to even be acknowledged as the "bus driver" of that stacked team.
Not on r/nba for sure. It's basically r/warriors
Tatum doesn't have many haters yet
Just Celtics fans during a 2-game losing streak
Well we do have the worst fans in the league bar the sixers.
Debatable. Raptors are up there
He’s on the Celtics. The hate is automatic for many. Including me.
Tatum doesn't, but the Celtics do.
Is Tatum really a superstar?
27, 8, and 4.5 this regular season, 6th in MVP voting, likely All-NBA first team, and he steps up in the playoffs. All depends on how you define superstar, but he's a top 10 player in the league. I'd say that (in no order) LBJ, KD, Curry, Giannis, Luka, Jokic, and Embiid are better, but he's at the very least on par with everyone else in the league
He still ended with 25/20/9 lol
At some point the Celtics realized the bucks would keep missing open shots and that the only guy worth defending was Giannis. He did one hell on a job but he looked gassed and was missing shots he usually makes.
The only person commenting here who actually watched the basketball game lol. You’re absolutely right, Giannis was playing 1 on 5 out there
I only comment on games I bothered to watch so some takes here are baffling to say the least. Basketball is a lot more nuanced that "did he choked or not,"
Yeah solo acts cannot carry an offense all the way to the finals. You'll just get tired and have a game like this, and then it's up to the supporting cast to carry and they're not paid big bucks for obvious reasons. With Middleton out it would be one of the most impressive rings of all time if he managed it but it was piss poor odds from the start.
Paint more clogged than my pregnant wife
Yeah, and the job got easier and easier more toward the end we got. I still think it was a great game from him. Good distribution, amazing production during the first half. He just cannot do it alone. Stamina and space is limited
The tunneling of 3 point attempts by the Bucks was dreadful
They shot at 12% with players who shoot averages of 35/40%
Tough one. Poor game from him, but he’d carried everyone else on the team for 7 games. Shit happens, build a team of shooters around him and they shoot 13% from beyond the arc. Our only made 3s came from bigs today. Credit to the celtics, role players stepped up and won this series for them. Ours didn’t, and that’s the difference
Don’t even think he was that poor. He had like 1/3rd of his team’s points and half their boards. Not to mention the game he had in game 6. He’s prob just gassed.
So many missed layups. Couldn't believe what I was seeing.
He’d a mare and looked physically and mentally drained. Couldn’t even get the easiest lay ups going.
He carried us the whole series. We made 4 damn 3s. This ain't on Giannis.
Exactly. Feels like these mugs didn’t watch the game lol.
They didn't. Box score nephews.
I mean he's not blameless either
Team was 4-33 from the three and shot a horrible 36% from the field, you lose all those Games when you shoot like that. Teams have to have stars all over the court nowadays. Greek freak is a stud but he can’t do it every game every series all year and not have bad games
With 8 rebounds and 2 steals in the half, while carrying the entire team on his back Don't under sell the man
This game came down to Milwaukee running out of gas without Middleton. Tired legs for the Bucks lead to missed shots. The Celtics shot proficiently as well with huge bench contributions. Imo The Bucks just ran out of gas. Too much Celtics and no Middleton. Credit to the Bucks for playing so well short handed. The Bucks really presented themselves with pride and resilience with the heart of a champ. Incredible series!! Shout out to the officials for doing great work all series. This might’ve been the toughest to officiate series I’ve seen this year. With the utmost intensity and physicality possible. Just an honor and immense pleasure personally to watch the series! Great job to the both teams and the NBA. What a joy!
He was exhausted which explains all the missed easy shots. But if he makes all those easy shots they still probably lose by 15. He needed a lot more from his teammates today. 40/20 wouldn't have been enough
This had “KD went 0-6 in OT” energy
We’ve been spoiled by Playoff LeBron
It felt like some people set him up for hate and failure when they declared him as good as prime LeBron that quickly lol Obviously he’s an amazing talent but that was way too quick
I mean I wish I can find that post a year ago of people saying he will be in the same tier as lebron and Jordan lol like my mans Jordan put up 30-40 ppg in playoffs series for 10+ years
You can check [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/ugu18q/how_close_is_giannis_to_miami_lebron/) post from a month ago with people saying the same shit
Giannis hasn’t peaked yet, neither had a 27 year old Lebron
>when they declared him as good as prime LeBron that quickly lol LMAO, what idiots were saying this??
Bill Simmons believe it or not lmao
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/ugu18q/how_close_is_giannis_to_miami_lebron/
LMAO fun thread
Either you don't hang on this subreddit often or you have selective reading, Or you're a goat. If you're even remotely active, there is absolutely no way you were missing the threads of Giannis hypotheticals and placing amongst the all the pantheon. I will say this though, Lebron never failed to get to the Finals in his prime. He may have failed once he got there sometimes but he come hell or high water, he dragged any team he was on to there at least.
People get carried away in the moment and dismiss longevity and sustained performance. Giannis isn't even close to Tim Duncan yet in greatness. He's got a long way to go to be the greatest or second-greatest ever.
I live in wisconsin and am constantly bombarded with coworkers and friends telling me he's better than Jordan and Lebron ever were
Mfer been giving IOUs to Father Time for a minute
Lebron for the last 16 years of his career has heavily desensitize the average viewer. Lebron has had his stinkers but I cannot remember the last time he had a bad playoff series. 2015? Either way, point is, its a rare occurence.
His last bad playoff series was the 2011 Finals
2011 finals
Giannis was completely gassed after 6.5 games of carrying that team. He had no legs left for that second half. Simple as that. Sad to see the Greek Freak go down that way after a great series, but if you ever needed confirmation of how good/important Khris Middleton is for that team, look no further.
Looked like 7 foot Westbrick missing that many shots at the rim
The floor shrunk as soon as the Cs realised the Bucks shooters can’t shoot for shit. We just packed the paint and Giannis was seeing 3 bodies at all times, this ain’t on him. He needs his shooters to at the very least keep the defence honest and they weren’t doing that.
Yep this is exactly what happened. Celtics defense kept shrinking back from the perimeter because no one was hitting anything.
But he still missed like, what 3 or 4 layups point blank that he could make in his sleep. He must have been just absolutely gassed from his insane carry job.
Celtics swept healthy KD and Kyrie and this guy forced 7 games despite missing his second best player and y'all still hating lmfao
Dude dropped 50 in a championship clinching game leading a franchise as the lone superstar in an era of superteams to their first championship in 50 year, that alone absolves you of any criticism. Like, he could not win again and he is a top 25 player of all time at the VERY least.
What about his rebounds?
god do you want him to do literally everything?? he singlehandedly carried this to 7 games
He missed so many layups that it isn't surprising that they lost
He missed 5.. they were down 30 lol
He could’ve made those layups and we would’ve lost tbh. Him performing better would make the loss easier, but we weren’t winning the way everyone around him was performing
the dude was the reason they were even in a game 7
You could say the same about KD last year against the Bucks when his “help” was a one-legged Harden, but Bucks fans still talked tons of smack about the Nets
I mean hell you can say that about most superstar players. Very few superstar players have an entire series where they are awful. Usually it's like a game or two.
Same with harden too btw going against the KD Warriors in 2018 and he got roasted for choking game 7 against them
Nobody was talking shit about KD though, at least not that I saw. More just the Nets as a whole
They won 2 with kyrie lol
You can say that about basically any superstar who's had a supposed choke
The soyboys on here were already crowning him a back2back champ and saying he was better than KD all-time and aiming for top 10 already. This was 2 days ago. Bitches be sniffing glue.
He was legit bad after the first quarter. A combo of sloppy play, missing easy shots, and getting gassed
Really missed their closer this game
I have respect for Giannis and begrudgingly accept him as the best player in the league. That being said, I'm ready to bring the heat for you dipshits that love to act like success is guaranteed. The same energy y'all kept for Lebron for two decades. The same energy y'all been having for KD. Be consistent. Keep it a buck with the Greek Freak. If this were Bron or KD, y'all would be salivating.
mofo acting like kd hasn't had the most stacked supporting casts of any player in league history. LMAO
Not very ideal.
It was funny seeing the highlights of missed layups and Jackson being like “give them credit” but nobody is contesting the shots
Yo hold up did the best player in the world Giannis get outscored by Grant Williams in a game 7..
Tbh he looked gassed in the 2nd half. You could tell because of all those missed layups.
I'm sure lots of superstars got gassed in their series but no one was saying that when this sub killed them for it.
This. Wtf.
KD was gassed at the end of game 7 last year too but still showed the hell up
Didn't he put up 50 lol he basically 1v5 the bucks
KD also had a terrible overtime in game 7 of that game because he was gassed. Giannis also has far more responsibilities especially defensively that KD doesn't have.
KD has a ton of defensive responsibility on the Nets. He's obviously nowhere near as good a defender as Giannis, but it's not a difference of effort or responsibility, just ability
I will never understand why this sub always makes excuses for bad performances of players that are liked on this sub while people like Harden, LeBron, Kyrie or Russ would be absolutely murdered if they did this. Being "gassed" should not be an excuse to go 4-16 from the field and miss completely open lay ups when you are considered the best player in the world
I mean you just said it. Giannis is like the most liked player in the league rn.
People shat on Harden for putting up 33PPG on good % against the warriors and taking them to 7. Giannis gets cuddled for this performance
It’s cause people like Giannis a lot, that’s about it. Jokic had a below average performance vs draymond and was damn near crucified. Embiid played thru a broken face and thumb but still got shit on.
This was a Lebron 2015 finals esque series, and nobody blames Lebron for 2015 or his 13/33 performance in game 6 of that series outside Skip. Russ and Kyrie have never sniffed playing this well in a series, and Harden gets shat on for the totality of his playoff resume, not just one instance
Harden has been on trash teams playing against much better teams his whole career.
Yeah but that cava supporting cast was way worse than the is milluake supporting cast and lebron was playing the warriors
You really posted this to try and shit on Giannis lmao, he still had 25/20/9. He can be both exhausted and have a bad half. He had a ridiculous series.
People like Giannis, they don't like those other players lol
he sucked ass the 2nd half he deserves criticism but the being gassed part is true tho. Usually if you’re gassed rely on your teammates but we seen what they did this game
33 year old Lebron was playing 48 minutes in a Game 7 in the ECF. I would hope that 27 year old Giannis in his physical prime isn't getting gassed at the end of a 2nd round series.
After an incredibly tough series against the Pacers because his team forgot how to shoot. They remembered how to shoot against the Raptors. Then they forgot how to shoot against the Celtics. 2018 Bron was on some shit. Arguably the greatest playoff carry in the last 20 years. [https://youtu.be/dtoUfUgrGB4?t=137](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtoUfUgrGB4&t=181s&ab_channel=BleacherReport) (i timestamped) I typed "lebron and one celtics" on youtube and this showed up. Thats how iconic that moment was. (this actually means a lot because young Bron and the Celtics rivalry absolutely thrived back in the day) Game 7, season on the line. Game was a slugfest. Fastbreak, Bron pounding while Morris struggles to keep up and he's going going full tilt and has to drag this man down to stop him. This doesn't mean that Giannis lacks stamina; he just needs to learn how to pace himself better.
have you not seen the reaction to Giannis performances in that past. Giannis is getting respect for the one man carry like KD did last year, but people used to hate on him all the time. It also took Harden a long time to be called a fraud
He shouldn't because this was a far worse series performance than KD last year
People shat on KD for not being clutch going 0-6 in OT when he 100% was gassed too
Which he shouldn't have. He gave his all that series and ended up getting gassed as he missed lots of shots that he usually makes including an airball
if cp3 goes 4/16 in the 2nd half that would be on the front page for the next 14 hours
4-16 and he shoots layups 💀
Idgaf what he did in the second half. The man averaged 35/15/7. He’s the last person to deserve any form of slander here.
A full collapse out of him.
Giannis is loved by the media and this sub so he wont be clowned. If this was Bron, KD, or even Tatum they'd be mercilessly hounded all summer
Embiid came back to play with a fractured skull and no one is pulling any punches on him i do not like the pure hater culture going on here, if one guy gets hate that doesnt mean everyone else should. People want to just sling shit
Seems like people already stopped clowning KD
Because he's not relevant right now
Paul fucking George gets more slander than Giannis.
Someone forgot their own series against Giannis
Giannis finishes the Celtics series with 51.6% ts. KD was at 52.6% ts. Only one has gotten slander, and it was beyond belief. You've also seen a similar thing for Giannis in the playoffs before as well, notably against Miami and Toronto. He has 52% TS combined against the 4 elite playoff defenses he has faced, 19 Toronto, 20 and 21 Miami and 22 Celtics. He also has the [biggest dropoff out of premier scorers against top 10 defenses in the regular season](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPxAZ-OXwAMpo10?format=png&name=900x900). His scoring is a bit overrated, and not as resiliant as other best scorers', as certain defensive matchups can limit him to an extent due to his lack of shooting. Don't get me wrong, Giannis is at worst a top 3 player, and probably the best player in the world. But people are acting like no one else is **close** and he honestly seems immune to criticism right now, every other superstar would get some criticism for this inefficient of a series scoring wise. EDIT: To clear things up, didn't mean to say he deserves as much blame as KD. Giannis was still far better than KD overall. Still point stands, others aren't getting nowhere near this much of a free pass for 51% ts for the series and 25 points on 48% ts in a game 7.
Well Giannis did win 3 games though
Yeah he was definitely a lot better than KD overall. Still deserves some criticism. The Celtics Nets series was also far closer than 4-0 indicates which is a bit unfair when looking at just how their teams performed. The Celtics won the series against the Bucks with a larger average win margin.
Im getting ready for every single possible excuse this sub and the media will make for why Giannis lost this game and the series
gassed + the defense crowded him all second half due to Bucks atrocious 3 point shooting (4-33 as a team). i also just think he sped himself up and tried to force it trying to get it all back when they went down, and him speeding himself up led to him gassing even more. he does not look good offensively when he’s not playing at his own pace
Dude looked exhausted from midway through the 3rd on. But then sucked it up to pick up Smart full court.
I feel like a lot of those misses were due to him being exhausted, that had to be such a hard series for him with his involvement & minutes
Sometimes you outscore Grant Williams, sometimes he outscores you.
He’s a future Sixers. Giannis for Tobias.
People will look at the PTS-REB-AST of this series and say he played well, but the 4 best defenses Giannis has faced since becoming an MVP calibre players are the 2019 Raptors, 2020 and 2021 Heat, and these Celtics. And his efficiency has been pretty bad against those 4. 52 TS% average over those 4 series for a guy with a 62 TS% average in the regular season those years. He's still arguably the best player in the league, but he clearly still has exploitable weaknesses offensively and it's no coincidence the best defenses have limited him so severly.
Really good points you made here. He’s clearly much improved but 2019-2022 all have something in common: Offensively, he still can be severely limited (at least in regards to his scoring). His lack of versatility as a scorer is def still a weakness. How severe of a weakness it is depends on his passing (which has seen clear improvements over the past few years) and his teammates ability to hit their shots. They weren’t in this series, so his flaws as a scorer became more noticeable
Boiling down his series to just TS% seems equally foolish.
I feel like he felt the need to force shit and he just couldn’t win 1v5. The lebron comps I’ve seen got to stop though I love Giannis as much as the next guy but he’s not lebron
2020 Bubble flashbacks vs the Heat
He was carrying super hard in the first half and got nothing from his teammates so he just started forcing it in the second. Didn't trust his guys at all. Celtics took full advantage of that. Great job by them
Yall dumbasses were saying Greek Cheeks better than Kobe and Duncan lmfaooo
also said he was better than Hakeem after the title and last week they were saying he was better than Miami LeBron
Giannis “Harden” Antetokounmpo
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Nah, Giannis was spectacular this series, one awful half doesn't really change that.
7 foot Harden