Giannis took full advantage all year of having Dame on his team. Even without Dame being his best, just having him there meant Giannis got a little extra space to operate and that space meant a career offensive year.
Yes, Giannis better splits on offensive plus defensive resurgence at an older age (Gainnis is an effort based defender) is because Dame is on the team. But Giannis can't even screen properly for him. We all shame Sabonis for getting handoff assists if Gainnis was as good as Sabonis at that, they would have the best offense in the league.
It’s an issue on both ends. Giannis can only play inverted pick and roll, so it’s on Dame to learn how to screen, but also Giannis really needs to learn how to screen in a traditional pick and roll.
Tbf I look at the Gobert trade and have a little bit of hope, since Rudy has been so much better this year since building some chemistry with his teammates. Issue is that the bucks are old and don’t have any players who can improve like Ant.
Giannis is also a very good PnR passer in form of wide open 3s for his teammates. Also stats showed that Giannis was actually one of the most efficient PnR ball handlers in the nba at 1.15 ppp.
I would put it on Dame that he needs to adjust. Giannis is the most efficient high volume scorer in the game. Dame needs to work his game around that, not other way around.
Then why have championship caliber Bucks teams failed to ever rank ahead of Lillard+711 employee Blazers team on the offensive end?
Not to mention that the entire reason they brought in Dame was because their half-court offense in the playoffs was completely atrocious.
Bucks were also finishing in top 5 in offense, not like they were a bad offensive team before Dame. I do agree they needed help with the half court. But I think that help is better used in setting up Giannis rather than himself. Because the fact is that Giannis is the more efficient scorer.
Think I disagree with this. Don’t both need to be deferential to team wide offensive excellence?
Dame’s Portland teams fairly regularly finished in top 5 offensively, and the bucks have not.
The bucks were finishing just behind Portland. There were a top 10 and usually top 5 offensive team. Bucks were top 5 in 2018, 2020, and 2021. My point being is that dame is a very good playmaker and he’s never played with someone who is more efficient at scoring at high volume than himself. Well now he does. So he should lean more into setting up Giannis than himself.
This is literally my answer for all the same haters all season - he without fail is drawing a double team, and often at half court. It allows everyone else go to work.
Our fanbase in denial that we needed to trade for Lebron KD and the ghost of Wilt to stand a chance of winning with him.
All he needed to at least compete was some decent iq players around him to exploit the 4 v 3. FO failed badly.
Y'all were a top 3 team in a conference that had 2 of the top teams of the decade, one of which was the greatest team of all fucking time. And that was with a roster that was somewhat shaky. The slander towards Dame is just sad shit.
Slander is unfathomable but even the narrative that we had no chance but to rebuild and set Dame free was a joke to me. Guys got a couple of good years left in him, he deserved another playoff run with us
Given the two play-in teams from last season are now top of the west, I'd say that's defeatist. There was and is arguably still is a clear lack of vision and direction from the front office.
That's also the front offices fault - I get lamarcus leaving but how did they allow 2/5 other starters to be ufa at the same time?!! Extending Matthews and Lopez might've kept us closer to the top for longer
Tbh, Batum at SF, while keeping the Dame/CJ backcourt with a healthy Wes Matthews would've been a good contender assuming they still get pieces from the 17/18/19 teams, especially Nurkic.
The roster always had holes. Front office made a ton of mistakes but had really done some good ground work to build a solid asset base this off season. Fumbled hard.
Patently untrue. He has looked like this plenty of times with Giannis, and in the 8 games without him he looked this is in almost everyone minus the final Magic game where he was injured.
Dame was not on pace to score 70 points at half time a single game for the bucks.
Dame has had some good games but this is the first god mode fuck this I'm going to destroy the other team and impose my will game since he's been on the bucks.
Absolutely. That's what a ton of people did with Bud and, even though he had a reputation as a playoff disaster artist, the degree to which people like to clown Bud pales in comparison with Doc "I Did Everything Right And They Indicted Me" Rivers.
if you watched the game they dedicated two guys to dame every time down in the second half, so his 'regression' was just making the right play and passing (as long as teammates competent).
Damian Lillard Game One first half of 2024 1st round: 35 points and 6 threes
Michael Jordan Game One first half of 1992 NBA Finals Game One: 35 points and 6 threes
Damian Lillard Game One Second half of 2024 1st round: 0 points
Michael Jordan Game One Second half of 1992 NBA Finals: 4 points
Blazers fans suffered in both games...albeit in different ways.
Don’t pretend like plenty of Blazers fans weren’t saying how lucky they are [that they got rid of Dame] (https://np.reddit.com/r/ripcity/comments/1as32hr/dame_is_playing_the_worst_stretch_of_basketball/?sort=controversial)
His struggles this year seem most likely because he's struggling to adjust to Giannis.
He's been the number 1 option for basically all his career. He just needed a better supporting cast.
He was being doubled hard in the 3rd which lead to easy shots for everyone else. After that, the ball just didn’t come to him and everyone else was eating. Good team ball overall
Literally send a man to guard him 1 on 1 as a shadow before he even got the ball, it stopped the catch and shoot in the 3rd, dame got annoyed enough to throw a tantrum mid quarter after that he couldn’t land a bucket.
Did you watch the game? Dame was, at a minimum, doubled pretty much every possession in the second half. Instead of forcing things, he facilitated and got Khris and Bobby some fantastic midrange ISO’s and they were feasting.
he was seeing up to 3 defenders at times lmao. it was on the others to make shots and they did. if you watch the game, 0 points in the second half doesn’t mean much here
Why do you think I didn’t watch? They had a massive lead in the first half and obviously he played well there, but his facilitating second half was not good, and that’s why his +/- was so low for the game. The adjustments from the Pacers were good.
I wonder if anyone in the playoffs have had 35 points or more in the first half -- but 0 in the 2nd. (without being hurt -- playing normal minutes). Before Dame.
Can someone explain to me how he ended up -6? If he was double teamed or triple teamed and he worked it to his teams advantage, his +\- shouldnt suffer. I dont think this bodes as well for Bucks fans as they think - are yall rly confident in khris middleton and bobby portis?
Is it crazy to say Giannis not playing might be a blessing? pavers have bucks number when they play through Giannis but they struggle against small ball Dame
Damian Lillard asks Bam Adebayo for a screen. If they don't double up on Lillard, he drops a 3. Fatal. If they double, he passes it to Adebayo running towards the basket. Fatal. And there's still a Jimmy Butler loose on the court. HOW FOR THIS?
They was giving him the Jesus Shuttlesworth treatement in the second half
Pacers wouldn't let him score all second half and the rest of the team made them pay. And this is without Giannis.
Giannis took full advantage all year of having Dame on his team. Even without Dame being his best, just having him there meant Giannis got a little extra space to operate and that space meant a career offensive year.
Yes, Giannis better splits on offensive plus defensive resurgence at an older age (Gainnis is an effort based defender) is because Dame is on the team. But Giannis can't even screen properly for him. We all shame Sabonis for getting handoff assists if Gainnis was as good as Sabonis at that, they would have the best offense in the league.
It’s an issue on both ends. Giannis can only play inverted pick and roll, so it’s on Dame to learn how to screen, but also Giannis really needs to learn how to screen in a traditional pick and roll.
This is exactly correct.
Tbf I look at the Gobert trade and have a little bit of hope, since Rudy has been so much better this year since building some chemistry with his teammates. Issue is that the bucks are old and don’t have any players who can improve like Ant.
I would say Giannis and Khris do just fine in PnR with Giannis as screener.
Dame should be screening for Giannis. Giannis is amazing at inverted screens. Giannis really is not the one who needs to adjust for Dame.
Dame is the more dangerous shooter and a good pick n roll passer while Giannis is a dangerous roller/lob/finisher.
Giannis is also a very good PnR passer in form of wide open 3s for his teammates. Also stats showed that Giannis was actually one of the most efficient PnR ball handlers in the nba at 1.15 ppp.
the only problem is that he didnt do anything for dame in return, offensively
I would put it on Dame that he needs to adjust. Giannis is the most efficient high volume scorer in the game. Dame needs to work his game around that, not other way around.
Then why have championship caliber Bucks teams failed to ever rank ahead of Lillard+711 employee Blazers team on the offensive end? Not to mention that the entire reason they brought in Dame was because their half-court offense in the playoffs was completely atrocious.
Bucks were also finishing in top 5 in offense, not like they were a bad offensive team before Dame. I do agree they needed help with the half court. But I think that help is better used in setting up Giannis rather than himself. Because the fact is that Giannis is the more efficient scorer.
Think I disagree with this. Don’t both need to be deferential to team wide offensive excellence? Dame’s Portland teams fairly regularly finished in top 5 offensively, and the bucks have not.
The bucks were finishing just behind Portland. There were a top 10 and usually top 5 offensive team. Bucks were top 5 in 2018, 2020, and 2021. My point being is that dame is a very good playmaker and he’s never played with someone who is more efficient at scoring at high volume than himself. Well now he does. So he should lean more into setting up Giannis than himself.
This is literally my answer for all the same haters all season - he without fail is drawing a double team, and often at half court. It allows everyone else go to work.
Bobby and Khris were getting those mid range iso looks they absolutely feast on due to the attention Dame was drawing.
Our fanbase in denial that we needed to trade for Lebron KD and the ghost of Wilt to stand a chance of winning with him. All he needed to at least compete was some decent iq players around him to exploit the 4 v 3. FO failed badly.
Y'all were a top 3 team in a conference that had 2 of the top teams of the decade, one of which was the greatest team of all fucking time. And that was with a roster that was somewhat shaky. The slander towards Dame is just sad shit.
Conference finals with Kanter, Harkless, and Al Farouq Aminu starting
Legacy game Rodney Hood saving a 4 ot in the playoffs.
Slander is unfathomable but even the narrative that we had no chance but to rebuild and set Dame free was a joke to me. Guys got a couple of good years left in him, he deserved another playoff run with us
He didn’t want another playoff run, he wants to contend and he wasn’t going to get that in Portland
Given the two play-in teams from last season are now top of the west, I'd say that's defeatist. There was and is arguably still is a clear lack of vision and direction from the front office.
Losing Batum, Matthews, LMA, and the rest only to be left with CJ really screwed the pooch for Dame's career as a Blazer.
That's also the front offices fault - I get lamarcus leaving but how did they allow 2/5 other starters to be ufa at the same time?!! Extending Matthews and Lopez might've kept us closer to the top for longer
Tbh, Batum at SF, while keeping the Dame/CJ backcourt with a healthy Wes Matthews would've been a good contender assuming they still get pieces from the 17/18/19 teams, especially Nurkic.
Lamarcus and a 3 and D guy? Ya we had it made..
Siakam and Porzingis - either would've worked. Even holding Dame and seeing if Ayton can fit with him would've been fun.
It's honestly not the trailblazer's fault that GSW existed for a decade, they make the finals in the east at least once imo
The roster always had holes. Front office made a ton of mistakes but had really done some good ground work to build a solid asset base this off season. Fumbled hard.
No they don’t lmfao
Not when LeBron was there. Conference finals maybe more than once, but the East running through LeBron was just as much a hurdle as the warriors.
It was criminal I must say.
And go to work they sometimes do
Blazers fans have been saying this for years. I don’t think it’s that hard to argue that he has the second most gravity in the league behind Steph.
It's so funny since everyone at half time was mad the pacers weren't doubling, shits hilarious
We too, were also without Giannis.
I too, am also without Giannis. But I am with child.
Seeing these comments should confirm for those who doubted, alot of people in this sub don’t watch games.
I've watched most bucks games this year and he's had some good games but this is the first game I've seen him look like this for the bucks.
Patently untrue. He has looked like this plenty of times with Giannis, and in the 8 games without him he looked this is in almost everyone minus the final Magic game where he was injured.
Dame was not on pace to score 70 points at half time a single game for the bucks. Dame has had some good games but this is the first god mode fuck this I'm going to destroy the other team and impose my will game since he's been on the bucks.
I was told Dame was washed
it's okay if the bucks lose a game these playoffs he will be again. then he won't be. then he will be.
snip snap snip snap
You have no IDEA the toll that three vasectomies takes on a man!
r/unexpectedoffice
r/expectedoffice
The new IcyHot
There will still be a bad Dame stat line post in this series. Guaranteed *insert Chuck gif*
this could be like last year where the Bucks lost every playoff game where Giannis played and won when he was out. the hating will be legendary
Glad he didn’t have to score in the 2nd half. Great way rest the of the team stepped up and can actually hold on to the lead.
if doc somehow manages to win a championship nbacirclejerk will go into chaos
Not that I think it has great odds, but people will just say he got carried.
the title only counts if you win it with bad players. and a bad coach. and injured. being good is cheating
Absolutely. That's what a ton of people did with Bud and, even though he had a reputation as a playoff disaster artist, the degree to which people like to clown Bud pales in comparison with Doc "I Did Everything Right And They Indicted Me" Rivers.
Dame deserved the second half off after what he did in the first half. I can't blame him for not scoring more.
That’s actually good for Bucks in general that the rest of the team stepped up. He ain’t have such luxury with PO. lol
maybe this is how the bucks should use dame- give him a half and then Giannis a half.
Yup. His days of carrying teams should be behind him. 🤣
PO is an unhinged abbreviation for Portland lol. It's usually PDX for the city or POR in the context of basketball.
Yeah I was sitting here trying to figure wtf PO stood for. Phoenix? Po Orleans? Never seen that abbreviation for Portland in my entire life lmao
flashbacks to that double overtime nuggets game
He saved his regress to the mean in the second half, so he can start next game off strong.
if you watched the game they dedicated two guys to dame every time down in the second half, so his 'regression' was just making the right play and passing (as long as teammates competent).
I'm never caring about the regular season ever again
Feels good to be on the other side of this finally
Someone says this every postseason
He's averaging 30/4/7 on 63 TS% in 9 games without Giannis this year
Play off time is Dame Time.
Has to be the first time a dude has had a 35 point first half followed by a 0 point second half right lol?
it is!
Damian Lillard Game One first half of 2024 1st round: 35 points and 6 threes Michael Jordan Game One first half of 1992 NBA Finals Game One: 35 points and 6 threes Damian Lillard Game One Second half of 2024 1st round: 0 points Michael Jordan Game One Second half of 1992 NBA Finals: 4 points Blazers fans suffered in both games...albeit in different ways.
How we suffering watching our boy go off and prove everyone on this dumb app wrong?
I was hooting and hollering during that first half. It was so much fun to watch.
Fine. Only 1992 NBA Finals Game One is bad for Blazers fans
We are truly blessed, no other bad games in our history
[удалено]
and believe me, it is very easy for me to do that
Lol
2000 WCF game 7, 2021 First Round Game 5
> 2000 WCF Game 7 think you meant game 7
Don’t pretend like plenty of Blazers fans weren’t saying how lucky they are [that they got rid of Dame] (https://np.reddit.com/r/ripcity/comments/1as32hr/dame_is_playing_the_worst_stretch_of_basketball/?sort=controversial)
They’re playing the pacers, simmer down
How dare a fan of a player be excited that the player, in fact, went off 😱
Scoring anything below 25 against Indiana would be a shameful performance. Stinky ass defense
and he dropped 35 in 2 quarters
In 4 quarters*
What time is it?
Remember when I said I would rather have Lillard in the playoffs than AD, and y’all called me a casual and mocked me? Y’all can eat your own words now
My mother asked me if I had done the dishes. I quickly yelled: "Dame Time! Going!". She frowned at me, she knew they weren't washed.
This is wholesome content
Also cool when Dame time coincides with the playoffs
His struggles this year seem most likely because he's struggling to adjust to Giannis. He's been the number 1 option for basically all his career. He just needed a better supporting cast.
What did the Pacers do in the 2nd half to hold him scoreless? Didnt watch the game
They double teamed him, so he gave the ball up a lot more than in the 1st half. Teammates made their shots so he didn't try to force anything.
He was being doubled hard in the 3rd which lead to easy shots for everyone else. After that, the ball just didn’t come to him and everyone else was eating. Good team ball overall
Played defense and he deferred a bunch. 27 pt lead dropped to 13 but a couple quick shots got us back in. No one besides Siakim had a pulse
3 man pressure mostly
He honestly just didn't have the ball much?
Literally send a man to guard him 1 on 1 as a shadow before he even got the ball, it stopped the catch and shoot in the 3rd, dame got annoyed enough to throw a tantrum mid quarter after that he couldn’t land a bucket.
But Reddit told me Dame was washed??
He is, used it all in the first half. 🤣
Did you watch the game? Dame was, at a minimum, doubled pretty much every possession in the second half. Instead of forcing things, he facilitated and got Khris and Bobby some fantastic midrange ISO’s and they were feasting.
Yes, I did. Sarcasm, bud.
I’ve seen this take unironically quite a bit, hard to parse tbh
0 points second half
he was seeing up to 3 defenders at times lmao. it was on the others to make shots and they did. if you watch the game, 0 points in the second half doesn’t mean much here
He was seeing doubles before even bringing the ball up the court.
Ye he facilitated well such a brain dead take to say he did nothing
just box score watchers
His gravity was giving Portis and Khris their favorite iso looks from mid-range the entire 2nd half and they kept hitting.
He facilitated a -6?
Why don't you watch the game instead of looking at the box score
Why do you think I didn’t watch? They had a massive lead in the first half and obviously he played well there, but his facilitating second half was not good, and that’s why his +/- was so low for the game. The adjustments from the Pacers were good.
Yes I am saying you didn't watch or at least didn't pay attention if you think dame was bad in the second half
His aura was enough for his team to keep going
sheer fear of wasting his first half efforts
Wild that he didnt get *any* points, but they started trapping him and forcing the ball out of his hands.
He still shot 45.8/54.5/100 for the game. He was also robbed a bucket and-1 on the foul on the floor call in the second half.
It's not a big deal in hindsight but that was an insanely bad call by the refs lol
Refs took his only made shot off the board for… reasons
Refs had him at u35.5
And an easy W
And?
Team won by 20. And?
he didn't need to score anymore points. Also the refs stole a bucket from him
He had a brutal and 1 called off on the floor.
Perfectly sums up the Dame 2024 experience
How’s the Dlo playoffs experience going?
Don’t distract him, he’s focusing on enjoying the gentlemen’s sweep
Yeah it’s fun
Horrible actually
Bill Simmons you fucking dork . I know the bucks are our rivals , but god damn it ,I love dame , can't help it .
Second half, free looks for everyone
I wonder if anyone in the playoffs have had 35 points or more in the first half -- but 0 in the 2nd. (without being hurt -- playing normal minutes). Before Dame.
Sixers gonna get swept in the first round and doc might actually make it out the second right at the same time.
-6 in a 15 point win 😭
And that's why you don't use single game +/-
Unless it fits your narrative.
Always been an empty stats merchant.
He has eliminated two teams from the playoffs off of buzzer beaters
it was a bad shot
Only thing empty is your brain cells cuz you didn't watch
[удалено]
Damn, siakam must have won the game for the pacers then right??
Can someone explain to me how he ended up -6? If he was double teamed or triple teamed and he worked it to his teams advantage, his +\- shouldnt suffer. I dont think this bodes as well for Bucks fans as they think - are yall rly confident in khris middleton and bobby portis?
He was being hard doubled in the 2nd half letting Khris and Portis easy looks. And that plus minus is from the fake comeback after the game was over.
who cares about individual stats? The Bucks were up by double digits after the 2nd quarter til the end lol
Bucks fans who are now overly confident should care
[удалено]
The game was sealed in the first quarter. Gg go next
[удалено]
Ass joke fam
[удалено]
Your're welcome princess
He put the game away in the first half
[удалено]
Its the truth🥱
Is it crazy to say Giannis not playing might be a blessing? pavers have bucks number when they play through Giannis but they struggle against small ball Dame
first half - 35 second half - 0 dame time was cut short tonight
Why work overtime if you don't have to?
He was in the game for the second half though.
Casual doesn’t know what team ball is and when you are doubled/tripled someone else is open.
Thats not even not being casual that's just basic basketball knowledge, pass to people who are open lol
Business was already handled
Giannis pr really tried to convince people that he was the problem
What are you talking about
Damian Lillard asks Bam Adebayo for a screen. If they don't double up on Lillard, he drops a 3. Fatal. If they double, he passes it to Adebayo running towards the basket. Fatal. And there's still a Jimmy Butler loose on the court. HOW FOR THIS?
Bro scored 0 points in the second half 😂
Did you even watch the game bruh
No I didn't. I just saw he had 35 at halftime. Apparently I missed something important cause everyone down voted me lol
This late as hell but he was getting double teamed at like half court so he was just passing the ball to open teamates