2020 and 2021 Playoffs Thread

The Bucks Are on the Brink—and Coach Bud Still Won’t Play Giannis Like He Needs To
Friday, September 4, 7:56 p.m. PT

Haley O’Shaughnessy: A fun fact about Mike Budenholzer—on top of the fact that he led a Danish professional basketball team in points in 1993-94, is a Capricorn, and lettered in golf all four years in college—is that he’s a masochist. There is simply no other explanation for his decision-making this postseason. Milwaukee lost to Miami again on Friday, 115-100, as his first-seeded Bucks fell into an 0-3 deficit. That is one loss short of a sweep. If you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance that you know that. But it can’t be overstated that the once-title favorites are one game away from a sweep. A sweep. Four losses. In the second round. Bucks. Giannis. Sweep.

Bud’s insistence on resting Giannis during crucial stretches of games has been as perplexing as it has been detrimental. Giannis’s minutes this series: 36 in Game 1, and 35 in games 2 and 3. (The reasoning couldn’t possibly be exhaustion. The likely MVP averaged 31.7 minutes in the first round against the Magic.) Jimmy Butler proved immediately in Game 1 that no minute against the Heat can be left un-sweated or un-hustled. Miami’s unit is a pumping heart collectively beating 200 times per minute; every second that Giannis or Khris Middleton watched from the sideline cost Milwaukee. (This has been the story all season, by the way—there’s no way Budenholzer didn’t know how easily the Bucks slip without their two best players, one of whom won the Defensive Player of the Year award this week, was a top-five scorer in the regular season, and, again, will probably win his second MVP award soon.)

This should’ve been the Bucks’ redemption game. Being down 2-1 isn’t impossible to come back from. Giannis is the best player in the series. If you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance that you know that. That normally counts for something. (Meyers Leonard disagrees.) Milwaukee led by 12 entering the fourth quarter, and despite another shooting night by Giannis most aptly described as yikes (0-for-7 from 3, 33.3 percent overall), the Bucks were commanding the court. Dazzling defensively, winning the battle of the boards, protecting their basket. They ended with fewer rebounds and blocks, and were outscored 37-13 in the fourth quarter, going 0-for-15 outside the paint in the final 17 minutes of the game, per Kirk Goldsberry. Giannis sat for two minutes—from 8:41 remaining to 6:51 remaining—in the midst of Miami’s run. In the fourth quarter. Of a must-win game.

There’s a chance Giannis was hurt. Halfway through the first quarter, he grimaced after landing under the basket. There was a discernible limp back to the bench when Bud called for timeouts, and additional grimaces after drives. But that doesn’t explain the coach’s game before, or the game before that, or the series before. Plus, after the loss, he said, “I feel great. Yeah, I could play more.” Bud agreed, saying it “didn’t affect the way he used Giannis tonight,” and that he “doesn’t regret not playing him [or Middleton] more.” Here’s a quote from Budenholzer last season after Toronto eliminated Milwaukee in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals:




It was one of the most self-indicting quotes I’ve read from a coach. Plus, Giannis was averaging under 40 minutes that series. And in this series, he’s averaging below it again. Not to mention that it was also only after Giannis reentered in the fourth that he was assigned Butler on defense; whether that was his decision or Bud’s, we don’t know. (Giannis was quite defensive after being asked about not taking on Butler after Game 1.) Typically, the DPOY guards the most dynamic player. If you’re reading this, there’s a strong chance that you know that. But I’m not entirely sure what I know at this point. Budenholzer’s choices have been too bizarre to reason with, even with his job increasingly inching closer to the line. What the fuck—if I get one hall pass for saying “fuck” on The Ringer, I’m using it now—does he know that we don’t?