After winning a league-best 58 games during the regular season, the Bucks could only manage one victory against a determined Heat team in the postseason, writes Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The betting favorite to win the title heading into the playoffs saw its season end in shocking fashion Wednesday night with an epic fourth quarter collapse and an overtime loss.
“For me, I think this has been the worst postseason ever,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t think, you know, like we have a number in there, like every other team has a number (of games to win a title) like 16, 15, 14, and this like, we’re stuck at 15. I don’t think we’ve ever, as long as I’ve been in the playoffs, been stuck – maybe we lost in the first round – but not stuck at 15. Which is kind of hard to deal with.”
The back injury that Antetokounmpo suffered in Game 1 affected the direction of the series, but there were plenty of other explanations for Milwaukee’s first-round defeat. There were turnovers, missed free throws, rebounding lapses and a lack of focus at critical times.
Several players refused to talk to the media after being eliminated, but those who did expressed severe disappointment.
“I feel like we had the roster to do more than what we’ve done,” Jae Crowder said. “We came up short. Obviously we had a championship in mind and that’s the only conversation we always had, is championship. So we came up short big time. And we failed.”
There’s more from Milwaukee:
- Among the lapses were questionable coaching decisions by Mike Budenholzer, who was heavily criticized in the press and on social media following Wednesday’s loss. Budenholzer failed to call a timeout after Jimmy Butler tied the game with 0.5 seconds left in regulation or as the Bucks failed to get off a shot as the final buzzer sounded in overtime. There were rumors that Budenholzer might be fired before the Bucks won the title in 2021, and Tim Cato of The Athletic considers it unlikely that he’ll survive Wednesday’s performance.
- Brook Lopez, who will be a free agent, and Khris Middleton, who has a $40.4MM player option, will be the names to watch this offseason, per Bobby Marks of ESPN (Insider link). If the front office brings back both players, the Bucks will be a tax team for the fourth straight year.
- Antetokounmpo will become eligible for an extension in September, but that could just be a formality, according to Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. Gozlan expects the two-time MVP to wait and seek a new long-term contract once his current deal expires.
- Crowder is among several free agent bench players who face uncertain futures this summer. After the Bucks gave up five second-round picks to acquire him in February, he got into just three games and played 40 total minutes during the series, notes Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer (Twitter link).
I bet they wish the Bulls had won the play in game…and they won’t admit it but the Bulls should have built around Butler instead of everything they have done post Butler trade.
If i remember correctly, Jimmy wanted out, it wasn’t the Bulls wanting to part ways with him….
The Bulls didn’t want to give him the contract he wanted. Butler took the flak for wanting out, but it was justified. He felt they were lowballing him and didn’t appreciate him. I feel like he’s gotten a bad rep a lot of places he’s been, but hasn’t necessarily been wrong he should’ve handled things a little differently. Wasn’t wrong about the Wolves culture, but clowning all those guys wasn’t necessarily the way to go
Celtics coming out of the East again as many of us predicted. Bucks don’t have it. Coaching a big reason. Sixers don’t have it. Coaching a big reason. Heck the heat might give the Celtics some problems. Coaching being a big reason lol. Love Erik Spoelstra
Agreed… injuries AND bad coaching are not a good mix.
Heat are not beating Knicks. And Celtics better be ready for Sixers. This could be Sixers last run with this team………
He runs such a great program down there. There is a reason year in and year out the Heat tend to be a gritty, refusing-to-quit type of team. And, of course, they tend to defy expectations performance-wise while developing unheard of talent on a routine basis.
Lots of credit to the players too of course, but it all starts with Spo. I’d have him as the best coach in the league by a healthy margin if I weren’t a Spurs fan :)
It’s funny how people are trying to put an asterisk on the bubble championship, but guys were healthy & didn’t get Covid. I believe the ‘21 season was way worse. Dudes were getting Covid left and right(even in the playoffs) and there were ALOT of injuries. I thought Giannis would build off of that, but he has been the same player for the past 3 seasons now. I have never seen a top 5 player(in the NBA) get scared to have the ball in his hands down the stretch. I believe if he wants to win more rings. He either needs to develop an elite midrange or switch to center(position) full time.
He has to work more in his FT…. yes in the finals he closed with 17/19 from FT, but he needs to be more consistent +72% (wich he has been in the past).
Even his fault, this loss IMO is more on the coach and Holiday.
Bud was reluctant to double Jimmy on game #4 when the rest of the Heat couldn’t make a shot, he needs to use his timeouts to freeze the momentum and stop the bleeding.
Giannis one of my favorite players, but at this point he desperately needs to develop a post game. He needs to get with guys like Olajuwan, KG, Dirk, Duncan. Learn some finesse around the rim. Defenses against him are developing faster than his offense is.
Same goes with Boldenhowser. He’s a solid coach but, he’s going stale. Either he needs to reinvent his strategies or they need some fresh blood in there
You realize that basketball isn’t played like those eras, right? It’s hard as hell to post up like that with todays rules and defenses floating, etc. There is no player that plays consistently on the post, not even Embiid who is the better scoring big man since Shaq.
Giannis is at his best when he is attacking from the top of the key and distributing the ball, he is a really good playmaker.
The game has changed and you can’t use it constantly but there’s nothing wrong with having a post up game in your arsenal.
Embiid isn’t the only player that has success with it either. Jokic goes into the post and use it for leverage to either draw double teams to free up teammates for open shots or to take to school the poor fool that has to guard him one on one. Sabonis and Adebayo also use their post games much the same way.
Then there’s the old school guards like Butler, Middleton and Smart who bully their way to the basket to generate buckets when the offense falls apart.
Sabonis hasn’t post up at all this series. Giannis has posted more than him, actually Giannis has a little post-game. Tath’s not a problem, yes he could be better at that, but its way more important for him and Milwaukee to change their coach and get better at FT%.
The Kings generated 1.36 points per possession when Sabonis posts up which was second in the league. I haven’t watched a ton of this series since it’s usually the late game and I have to get up early but if they’ve gone away from this entirely then Mike Brown shouldn’t have been coach of the year.
Bottom line is Bucks choked. They had double digit lead in the 4th quarter playing at home… Lame.
Excatly …….. shame lol
Budenholzer got bailed out 2 years ago by Saric getting injured in Game 1 of the finals and then Phoenix deciding to go away from what they did all year. It’s crazy he lost this way, after winning the way he did, literally against the Heat 2 years ago, as well as the finals
They absolutely had the roster to be the champions. This was the only matchup I didnt like them as much in, and I still thought they should have it in 6 games if they play the right people, which they didnt
Why even have that type of depth if you dont use it? They arent the only team to question with that, but it’s crazy what they had available on that roster, only for them to just sit
Crowder absolutely should have played a lot more. Bench should have been Ingles, Crowder, Portis, Dragic, Wesley Matthews. Brook Lopez should have played 18-21 minutes instead of 38-40
Heat couldn’t guard them with Portis or Giannis at the 5, but they rarely went to those lineups. Heat didnt have to worry about Grannis catching the ball in certain areas of the floor in the half court. They took a lot of advantage of that. Much rather want him to have the ball coming up the floor or catching it beyond the 3 point line, then catching it on the elbow or the low box
Exhibit #162673 of a contending franchise waiting too long to fire a clearly mediocre head coach (not worst in the league, but far from good either) due to not wanting to ruffle feathers and thinking “Well, we did okay this year. Let’s wait until we REALLY do bad to fire this guy”, ultimately paying a steep price.
If you fancy yourself a smart front office, you should be able to a) recognize when you have a mediocre head coach holding the team back, irrespective of other factors, and b) feel confident enough in your ability to pick a superior successor.
Picking a new head coach is like playing poker; there’s some luck involved, sure, but the smart folks are good enough to the point where the odds reasonably favor them. If a front office wouldn’t feel that way, they have no business running a franchise.
Bucks no longer have a defensive stopper and Jimmy feasted. I would’ve double teamed him the whole series. No Herro. Give Bam shots, heck give anybody shots. Too late now. Bye Bud.
Yes Giannis it is a failure …….
When the #1 seed loses to the #8 seed. Especially when you lose 4-1. That’s a major Fail …….. plus you botched the gm away.
NY thanks you ……. Not only do we have the home court. We get the Heat. Better be careful. Knicks could roll into Finals
I had Bucks too ……
Had Bucks vs Suns …
But I picked Bucks to win it all…
About as bad of a choke job as you’ll see with most everyone having a hand in it. Giannis and Bud were the biggest culprits, but Jrue, Allen, even Lopez had some lapses down the stretch. It’s a well deserved exit. That final stretch was a crime against humanity.
The most startling thing is this was a veteran group lead by a veteran coach with years of playoff experience, yet they were clearly shook. They looked more like a group of scared kids than anything resembling an NBA team. That falls on everyone, but especially the coaching stuff.
Where they go from here I have no idea, but Bud has to go, for starters.
Great point about them being a veteran group.
Giannis 10 of 23 from the FT line…where he’s “unguarded”. Nough said
Sixers vs Celtics is going to be a war. So Knicks will be waiting and ready. It’s just lining up to Freakin nice …. It’s unreal.
I’m just going to enjoy 1 gm at a time.
Silver wants Celtics vs Lakers. Lakers winning. Silvers dream