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[Milwaukee Bucks]

Milwaukee Bucks vs. Miami Heat Preseason Preview: Bucks basketball is baaack!

After a long withdrawal period (aka summer break), we finally get our fix—the Milwaukee Bucks are set to take on the Miami Heat in preseason action tonight at the Kaseya Center. While this will be the Bucks’ first preseason game, the Heat lost to the Orlando Magic 118—126 on Saturday.

Where We’re At​

These are not your father’s Bucks. Five years removed, they certainly aren’t your NBA Championship Bucks. They aren’t even your pencil-in 50-win, guaranteed playoffs Bucks—or your “let’s just get everyone healthy and we have a shot” Bucks. But, as Eric B. & Rakim attested, it ain’t where you’re from, it’s where ya at.

With Kevin Porter Jr. recently named starting point guard, the Bucks will likely lean into the group and style that gelled down the stretch last season—Porter, Giannis, Gary Trent Jr., and AJ Green, with Myles Turner taking over for Bobby Portis—and posted an outrageous +56 net rating (+9.5 in the Playoffs). However, the team has remained mum about who will be the fifth starter. If it’s not Green, will the Kyle Kuzma small forward experiment resurface? Let’s hope not. Or, perhaps media day podium surprise Amir Coffey has done enough in training camp to warrant the spot? Either way, with a younger and more athletic roster than they’ve had in recent years, the Bucks should push the tempo this season, increasing their middle-of-the-pack pace and being more aggressive on both offence and defence.

The Miami Heat are also a much different team, having made a number of personnel changes. Most notably, Norman Powell was acquired as part of a three-team trade that sent Kevin Love and Kyle Anderson to the Utah Jazz and John Collins to the Los Angeles Clippers. They also traded seven-year staple Duncan Robinson to the Detroit Pistons for Simone Fontecchio, moved Hayward Highsmith to the Brooklyn Nets to get under the tax line, and signed free agent Precious Achiuwa. Through the draft, they used the 20th pick on Lithuanian guard Kasparas Jakucionis out of Illinois. Looking ahead, Miami will aim to improve upon a disappointing 2024-25 season, during which they finished 10th in the Eastern Conference with a 37-45 record. They then advanced through the Play-In Tournament but were swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round.

Injury Report​

For the Bucks, Giannis (illness), Cole Anthony (undisclosed), Mark Sears (calf), and Jamaree Bouyea (rest/thigh) are all questionable.

For the Heat, Jakucionis (wrist), Terry Rozier (hamstring), Davion Mitchell (calf), and Pelle Larson (quadriceps) all remain questionable after missing their preseason opener, while Tyler Herro is out after undergoing offseason surgery on his left ankle.

Player To Watch​

A number of players have a case here, but as the biggest free agent signing of the offseason—and in Milwaukee since Brook Lopez signed in 2018—Myles Turner rightly deserves the spotlight. Fresh off an NBA Finals trip with the Indiana Pacers and with a new four-year $108.8m deal under his belt, Turner will finally don the Good Land green and show us what all the hype is about.

Coming in at second in our Ranking The Roster series, Turner is primed for a career year with the Bucks. Twice leading the league in blocks per game, Turner has made a name for himself on defence and will look to anchor a squad that absolutely must excel on that end of the court—think, top 10 in the league—to make noise at the pointy end of the season. It will be interesting to see how Doc Rivers and defensive coordinator Greg Buckner utilise Turner this season, given he theoretically mirrors Lopez’s skillset with additional versatility thanks to his greater athleticism and mobility—as he said during his Media Day press conference, he’s “a little more aggressive at the point of attack” and, at times, “able switch out and defend the perimeter as well.” This bodes well against the likely pick-and-roll duo of Bam Adebayo and long-time Bucks killer Powell, who will presumably take on more ball-handling responsibilities in the absence of Herro.

Offensively, Turner’s outlook is just as interesting. As arguably the second option on a team for just the second time in his career, Turner has a very real shot at besting his per-game career highs in field goal attempts (11.8) and points (18.0). But, as someone who’s been heavily dependent on others for buckets—90% of his made shots last season were assisted (5th percentile in the league)—this is no sure thing, especially as the Bucks don’t have a playmaker in the same caliber as Tyrese Haliburton. Last year, Turner feasted against the Heat, averaging 21.5 PPG (including 3.3 made threes per game), shooting 56% from the field and 50% from three. He also chipped in 5.5 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.0 SGP, and 1.3 BPG. So, tonight’s matchup should provide at least a partial answer to that question.

How To Watch​

FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 6:30 p.m. CDT.

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Source: https://www.brewhoop.com/bucks-game...-preview-start-time-tv-schedule-injury-report

 

[Milwaukee Bucks]

Top plays from Milwaukee’s 2021 title run

Hi, hello! Now that the Bucks are heading into yet another long season with the goal of winning it all (however realistic you may think that is), I found myself watching old YouTube videos of Milwaukee’s title run, reminiscing on the good ol’ times. Watching those videos reminded me of many highly influential plays or performances along the way to the title that often get forgotten. Therefore, I wanted to chronologically compile a grab bag of my favourite plays from the title run. Enjoy!

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Round 1, Game 1: Middleton’s anxiety-relieving game-winner​

In many ways, this may have been the most crucial shot of the entire run. Having just finished the previous season with the East’s top seed, making it to the second round, and getting blatantly embarrassed by the Heat in five games, the Bucks found themselves lined up against this team once more. The anxiety, at least for me, was palpable. The Miami brand, Jimmy, Heat Culture, it was all there, ready to consume me. And of course, in a game where Butler goes a putrid 4/22 from the field, he manages to drive around Giannis and hit the game-tying floater to send it to OT after the Bucks missed free throws that could have put the game away; my anxiety turned up another 10 notches. These freaking guys. This freaking team. I say this with respect, but the Heat were the ultimate cockroach of the NBA; they weren’t going to die unless the opponent killed them. Enter: Khris Middleton, stomping all over the Heat’s impenetrable exterior and breaking their will. The next three games were a walkover, but I can’t say they would have been if this shot hadn’t gone down:

Round 2, Game 3: Holiday’s spinning layup at the death​

In the rock fight of all rock fights, Jrue Holiday’s heads-up play to catch the Nets off-guard and drive to the hoop—as they may have expected him to call a timeout with less than 20 seconds on the clock—was massive. ”I think in my head, I was thinking maybe I should run some clock,” Holiday said. “But I saw Bruce Brown one-on-one, so I made a move. It was a good one and I ended up getting a layup.” After giving up a combined 240 points in Games 1 and 2, the Bucks got this game in the mud, where they’d have preferred it. And although Holiday was having another of his bad shooting games in the playoffs (4/14 on the night), his confidence to see an opportunity and take it was the reason the Bucks’ championship hopes remained alive:

Round 2, Game 7: Middleton and Holiday come up clutch​

For whatever reason, if I were to be asked about the play I recall most vividly from the ’21 playoffs, it’s not any of the common ones. Instead, the play I always think of is Khris Middleton’s shot to bring the deficit back to two points with 3:30 left of the fourth quarter in Game 7 vs. the Nets. Why? Well, James Harden (who was playing on one leg) banked in the dumbest three-pointer in all of history on the prior possession, and I thought that was a sign that it just wasn’t meant to be. At that point, it felt like the weight of the world was on the team, and they would eventually fold. And then, as the shot clock dwindled and Jrue drove into the lane, jumping up with seemingly no plan and releasing the ball to Middleton at the final second, he calmly erased the previous Harden three, and I breathed again:

There was also this step-back triple from Jrue that I wanted to include from that game, which he hit a few plays after the Middleton shot. Again, Jrue shot truly horrendously in this game at 5/23 overall and 2/9 from three, but he had no fear taking this shot, which I love. The best part, though, is the reactions. Jrue’s response is one of a steely resolve that he didn’t lose confidence in himself. The best reactions to me, though, come from Darvin Ham and Charles Lee, because I think they show the relationship Jrue had with the team and how well-liked he was:

And then, after KD hit the infamous toe-on-the-line two-pointer to send the game to OT, the Bucks went to a Giannis-Khris pick-and-roll for Middleton to get into his patented turnaround, which was one of three baskets scored by either team in the OT period, hilariously:

Round 3, Game 2: Antetokounmpo’s ridiculous Gervin-esque finger roll​

We can be honest that the true Eastern Conference Finals occurred against the Nets, with this series featuring fewer nail-biters. Regardless, Giannis pulling out this mind-bending layup in Game 2 was pure cinema:

Round 3, Game 3: Middleton downs the Hawks with 38 points​

In a game where the Bucks got down 13 early, it was Khris Middleton who made play after play in the second half to will the visitors to a 2-1 series lead:

Round 3, Game 5: Lopez’s legacy game​

After Giannis’ gruesome knee injury in Game 4 against Atlanta, the Bucks fanbase was in shambles, not knowing at that point that he would make a miraculous return just over a week later. Nevertheless, Brook Lopez put his Superman cape on and spurred the Bucks to a Game 5 victory, with 33 points on an uber-efficient 14/18 from the field:

Round 3, Game 6: Holiday and Middleton combine for 59 in the sealer​

Needing to win one more game without Giannis, it was Middleton and Holiday who stepped up, dropping a combined 59 points in enemy territory to stave off a Hawks team that continued to surge all game long:

NBA Finals, Game 3: Bucks save season in drubbing of Suns​

Onto the NBA Finals, where we forget about Games 1 and 2 for obvious reasons, and move directly to the Game 3 drubbing, with this teamwork on the fastbreak being my favourite highlight of the game:

NBA Finals, Game 4: Connaughton and Antetokounmpo come up huge​

PC had come up big on more than a few instances throughout that playoff run, but this moment was his biggest. The stones, man:

And then, from the same game, Giannis records the second-greatest block in NBA Finals history:

NBA Finals, Game 5: Knocked away and stolen by Holiday (a few times)​

Before we get to the big one, I just had to chuck this steal from Jrue on Booker on this list. There’s just something so badass about it:

And then, of course, the “valley-oop”:

NBA Finals, Game 6: The guys who started it, finish it​

This shot from Khris doesn’t seem to get talked about much, but I think it might be one of the most critical shots in franchise history. The Bucks were up 100-92 with 2:35 left in the fourth quarter, but were rapidly running out of gas, playing way too slow and coming up empty on the next two possessions. The Suns had whittled the lead down to four with one minute on the clock, and looked to have more in them. Milwaukee then went to a staple horns-like set with Holiday setting the first pick for Middleton, and Gianis handing it off. Middleton wasn’t really “open” at all but knew it had to be him to take the responsibility, rising over Booker to give the team the two-possession cushion it needed to win. Had Khris missed that shot and the Suns scored again, they’d have needed to get one stop and then could have won the game. That alternate reality was imminently possible; thank goodness it’s not actual reality!

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What do you think? Did I miss any plays? Make your thoughts known in the comment section!

Source: https://www.brewhoop.com/bucks-feat...nnis-khris-middleton-jrue-holiday-brook-lopez

 

[Milwaukee Bucks]

Giannis refutes rumors of family move to Greece

In a busy stretch of news for the Greek Freak, the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo recently took to Instagram to refute rumors that his family moved to Greece. Per a Google Translation of his post:

Stop lying and endangering my family. Publicity is a result of my choices, not my children’s. Every child has the right to grow up without public pressure.

Every child needs space to grow, explore themselves and the world without feeling watched or judged. As a parent, it is my responsibility to protect their privacy so that they grow up with confidence, dignity and a sense of security.

Do not upload my kids on any platform again….. IT IS ENOUGH

Several familiar themes in this one. First, Giannis is fiercely protective of his children and their privacy. He’s known for adding filters to any pictures of them that he posts.

Second, bad actors are incentivized by a bad system to peddle rumors about Giannis’ future. In this specific instance, the source has a checkered history, the writing reads like AI slop, and the article suggests unrealistic access to sources, but it doesn’t matter; it gets cLiCkZ because it gaslights us into thinking that Giannis is on his way out of Milwaukee.

Don’t give rumors like these the time of day—Giannis has earned our trust.

Source: https://www.brewhoop.com/bucks-news...po-refutes-rumors-family-move-greece-children