2025 NBA Season

[Reid]

Dominant Game 3 win from Bucks tonight. Does anyone think this will flip to be a "Giannis" series and Suns are just fortunate he came from a hyperextended knee that made him a bit uncomfortable to what could have been a dominate Game 1 performance from him? I mean the Suns had no answer to stop him tonight when Ayton got in foul trouble and it looks like homecourt will be a huge factor in this series. Bucks shut down Booker. Suns had a run led by Cam Johnson but Bucks impressively able to deny any momentum shift because of Giannis' play below the rim. This is going to be an interesting series if Ayton remains in foul trouble. Steady dose of Chris Paul pick and roll are killing the Bucks but they may have found out a way to exploit how to punish them in the paint. Looking forward to Game 4.

Could be but I witness the Suns dominate the game whenever their transition plays are successful.
When they start controlling the pace of the game it will be the end for the Bucks until the 4th.
That's why I think the Bucks need to stop all those rhythms that will happen. Slow down the game and let Giannis decide how fast or slow the speed of the game will be.
Booker is pretty good whenever the defense is not yet set and so does CP3. But when every guard is active he is having a hard time looking for an opening especially when Jrue is defending him.

[tygeade]

This was the game that we needed, because if Bucks lost this one as well then it wouldn't have been even a competition and we would know who will win the series and the ring. Now thanks to this one win, it changes everything, instead of being 3-0 it became 2-1 and that is a huge thing, one more win and you end up equal whereas otherway it is still 3-1 so it wouldn't matter.

I personally believe that now there is a big game coming up again but this time it is a bit easier for Bucks. The biggest problem Bucks had was confidence, they lacked confidence a lot for some reason on the first two games and they weren't sure how to play, even though Giannis scored a lot and all, it was good on paper whereas other players weren't given the ball nearly enough times, and forcefully given when there is nothing to left to do, like a time bomb. That is why they lost the first two games so decisively, but this time around it looks a lot better and they knew how to share the ball even while Giannis still had it more than anyone else.

[stadus]

Dominant Game 3 win from Bucks tonight. Does anyone think this will flip to be a "Giannis" series and Suns are just fortunate he came from a hyperextended knee that made him a bit uncomfortable to what could have been a dominate Game 1 performance from him? I mean the Suns had no answer to stop him tonight when Ayton got in foul trouble and it looks like homecourt will be a huge factor in this series. Bucks shut down Booker. Suns had a run led by Cam Johnson but Bucks impressively able to deny any momentum shift because of Giannis' play below the rim. This is going to be an interesting series if Ayton remains in foul trouble. Steady dose of Chris Paul pick and roll are killing the Bucks but they may have found out a way to exploit how to punish them in the paint. Looking forward to Game 4.

Could be but I witness the Suns dominate the game whenever their transition plays are successful.
When they start controlling the pace of the game it will be the end for the Bucks until the 4th.
That's why I think the Bucks need to stop all those rhythms that will happen. Slow down the game and let Giannis decide how fast or slow the speed of the game will be.
Booker is pretty good whenever the defense is not yet set and so does CP3. But when every guard is active he is having a hard time looking for an opening especially when Jrue is defending him.

I agree, a slow pace game will favor the bucks as they have Giannis who can get inside and Dominate, their movement is also more accurate which would result in a better shooting percentage. Suns are a good fast pace team, they have the best PG in NBA now, and everyone is moving so it's hard to predict who will score, unlike the Bucks where it's most likely Giannis. They need to take it slow, just like an old-school game.

The 3 point shooing of the Suns dropped to    29% compared to 50% in game 2.

[goinmerry]

The biggest problem Bucks had was confidence, they lacked confidence a lot for some reason on the first two games and they weren't sure how to play, even though Giannis scored a lot and all,

Going against a big crowd on Game 1 and 2, maybe Bucks was got intimidated and the way the Suns are playing, they really surprised with their good ball rotation.

But I'm not taking that as a reason why the Bucks lose on both games. On the other hand, Phoenix is also new to the Finals scene so there should be no such thing as pressure on that game. The suns just really played well.

Good thing that Bucks did the same and Giannis is putting seriously all his best on every game, like what he did since the start of the playoffs. I hope the same confidence by his teammates will be seen next game.

[Kasabus]

The biggest problem Bucks had was confidence, they lacked confidence a lot for some reason on the first two games and they weren't sure how to play, even though Giannis scored a lot and all,

Going against a big crowd on Game 1 and 2, maybe Bucks was got intimidated and the way the Suns are playing, they really surprised with their good ball rotation.

But I'm not taking that as a reason why the Bucks lose on both games. On the other hand, Phoenix is also new to the Finals scene so there should be no such thing as pressure on that game. The suns just really played well.

Good thing that Bucks did the same and Giannis is putting seriously all his best on every game, like what he did since the start of the playoffs. I hope the same confidence by his teammates will be seen next game.

I guess this series will go down in 7 games and it will be a great game 7 that we are going to witness. Giannis has now become the most consistent in the playoffs, the only reason why the Bucks became an underdog is because of Giannis health, but now that he is 100% healthy (no need to explain), I believe the Bucks would be able to come back and will not give CP3 his first championship.

[gagux123]

40+ points per game after a comeback from a hyperextended knee. It was a scary look but damn he managed to be back with just a week of rest.
I say this man will do more in the next years of the NBA. A champion or not every team will be offering him something huge that the Bucks need to equal with.

I am more worried about his wingmen. They need to keep up with what is Giannis is trying to achieve and support him in every way possible they can.
I still didn't see Middleton at his best performance but thankfully, Jrue's consistency is never fading.

I confess, I am very surprised with the performance of Giannis Antetokounmpo after his injury, it even looks like he got even better.
For some seasons now, Antetokounmpo's performance was also superior, he is being a more consistent player in these playoffs.

Let's see how he will behave in the next games.

[Fredomago]

40+ points per game after a comeback from a hyperextended knee. It was a scary look but damn he managed to be back with just a week of rest.
I say this man will do more in the next years of the NBA. A champion or not every team will be offering him something huge that the Bucks need to equal with.

I am more worried about his wingmen. They need to keep up with what is Giannis is trying to achieve and support him in every way possible they can.
I still didn't see Middleton at his best performance but thankfully, Jrue's consistency is never fading.

I confess, I am very surprised with the performance of Giannis Antetokounmpo after his injury, it even looks like he got even better.
For some seasons now, Antetokounmpo's performance was also superior, he is being a more consistent player in these playoffs.

Let's see how he will behave in the next games.

Trying your best to prove something inside you, that's how I see Giannis mindset. After that injury, people expectations is that he's going to sit and rest by the management.

For the best interest of his career, he can demand that and ask for more time for his recovery, but his competitiveness brings him now into this finals.

He's giving all the best that he can to continue the chase for the title., Very impressive performances so far.

[OgNasty]

Seems to me that the Suns lost because Ayton was in foul trouble after a monster first quarter worthy of the record books. Why would he then get into foul trouble you ask? Well, Chris Paul is now 0-12 in playoff games officiated by Scott Foster. It seemed fairly obvious this was about extending the series. More ad revenue and the chance for Phoenix to clinch on their home court. Hopefully we don’t see much more of Scott Foster this series. I hate when games are more about the refs than the players.

[Oasisman]

Dominant Game 3 win from Bucks tonight. Does anyone think this will flip to be a "Giannis" series and Suns are just fortunate he came from a hyperextended knee that made him a bit uncomfortable to what could have been a dominate Game 1 performance from him?

You could argue that game 1 was just his "test" coming from injury but 20 points and 17 rebounds in 35 minutes is still a solid performance so I wouldn't say Suns were fortunate. They simply played better as a whole team compared to Giannis and his underperforming teammates.

...

I know he's a monster but he's still human who will be exhausted. I expect his numbers to drop to 20ish in the next two games. Suns will take a 3-1 or 3-2 lead if Giannis teammates do not step up.

Giannis is unarguably unstoppable when he attacks the basket, but there are quite a few things that could stop his team from winning regardless of how consistent and unstoppable he is.
A few of those are good ball movement, efficient scoring, and good defensive transition. The Phoenix Suns have all these traits as a team.
Giannis can't do it alone, If his teammates become inefficient, they'll probably have a bit higher chance of lossing than winning doesn't matter of how much Giannis scores.
So, they key aspect for the Bucks to win it all is consistency.

[Kelvinid]

The biggest problem Bucks had was confidence, they lacked confidence a lot for some reason on the first two games and they weren't sure how to play, even though Giannis scored a lot and all,

Going against a big crowd on Game 1 and 2, maybe Bucks was got intimidated and the way the Suns are playing, they really surprised with their good ball rotation.

But I'm not taking that as a reason why the Bucks lose on both games. On the other hand, Phoenix is also new to the Finals scene so there should be no such thing as pressure on that game. The suns just really played well.

Good thing that Bucks did the same and Giannis is putting seriously all his best on every game, like what he did since the start of the playoffs. I hope the same confidence by his teammates will be seen next game.

I guess this series will go down in 7 games and it will be a great game 7 that we are going to witness. Giannis has now become the most consistent in the playoffs, the only reason why the Bucks became an underdog is because of Giannis health, but now that he is 100% healthy (no need to explain), I believe the Bucks would be able to come back and will not give CP3 his first championship.

Most likely as the Bucks had a comeback with an impressive win, if they'll win game 4, then that's almost automatic, who knows, they might steal one game on the road and finish the game in 6, if this will happen, everyone will be shock, but not seeing it, game 7 is likely possible.

[gagux123]

Trying your best to prove something inside you, that's how I see Giannis mindset. After that injury, people expectations is that he's going to sit and rest by the management.

For the best interest of his career, he can demand that and ask for more time for his recovery, but his competitiveness brings him now into this finals.

He's giving all the best that he can to continue the chase for the title., Very impressive performances so far.

Yes, that's really what I thought, he is surprising me a lot, for his performance and his consistency, because when the team needs him, he will be there to help!

CP3 is another player that is on fire in these playoffs (in my humble opinion he is one of the players who most deserve this NBA title)

[harizen]

Seems to me that the Suns lost because Ayton was in foul trouble after a monster first quarter worthy of the record books. Why would he then get into foul trouble you ask? Well, Chris Paul is now 0-12 in playoff games officiated by Scott Foster. It seemed fairly obvious this was about extending the series. More ad revenue and the chance for Phoenix to clinch on their home court. Hopefully we don’t see much more of Scott Foster this series. I hate when games are more about the refs than the players.

I'm aware that thing really happened but I will not apply it to what happened in Game 3. I've watched the whole game and we as viewers can see and noticed if there's a sh*t happening on the game like missed obvious calls or intentional ones.

Ayton is one of the keys for the Suns but it doesn't mean that they will never able to close the game without him. Booker also does have a bad night on which he only nailed 3 out of 14 shots of which 7 of those are on the rainbow area. We see some adjustments made, at least by the other Bucks players who are missing in action on Game 2 that is not their usual.

Bucks win because of the team effort, not because of the participation of referees to extend the series. I'm totally aware of Paul and Foster's saga and it's been for years. James Harden didn't also like that ref. But the way I watched the game, most are fair calls. Suns didn't force to make a run late quarter but decided to rest their key players instead. They want to take the chip to their home.

[danherbias07]

Bucks win because of the team effort, not because of the participation of referees to extend the series. I'm totally aware of Paul and Foster's saga and it's been for years. James Harden didn't also like that ref. But the way I watched the game, most are fair calls. Suns didn't force to make a run late quarter but decided to rest their key players instead. They want to take the chip to their home.

Agree. But Coach Monty sees things in a different way.

Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams said he wasn't going to use his postgame news conference to gripe about the officiating. And then he did just that.

"I'm not going to get into the complaining publicly about fouls," Williams said. "Just not going to do that. But you can look -- we had 16 free throws tonight. One person had 17."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31804429/deandre-ayton-foul-trouble-hampers-phoenix-suns-game-3-loss-monty-williams-points-free-throw-disparity
17 freethrow attempts for Giannis while 16 for the whole Suns team. It's not okay for him for Giannis to make a lot of freethrows, while they also had 25 attempts in Game 1 for unknown reasons.
They did hack Giannis below the rim a lot of times, that's obviously a foul. I think he is just getting sensitive and greedy after winning the first two games.

[Dave1]

Seems to me that the Suns lost because Ayton was in foul trouble after a monster first quarter worthy of the record books. Why would he then get into foul trouble you ask? Well, Chris Paul is now 0-12 in playoff games officiated by Scott Foster. It seemed fairly obvious this was about extending the series. More ad revenue and the chance for Phoenix to clinch on their home court. Hopefully we don’t see much more of Scott Foster this series. I hate when games are more about the refs than the players.

NBA is all about business, so I guess someone (referees), can really change the outcome of the game just like what we have seen in the last game. Lots of no calls on the side of Phoenix and it's really frustrating for them on how they are going to fight back in game 3. You can see how frustrating that even coach Monty who is soft spoken and haven't heard anything from him criticizing the calls is now calling how refs are 'biased'.

[Reid]

I agree, a slow pace game will favor the bucks as they have Giannis who can get inside and Dominate, their movement is also more accurate which would result in a better shooting percentage. Suns are a good fast pace team, they have the best PG in NBA now, and everyone is moving so it's hard to predict who will score, unlike the Bucks where it's most likely Giannis. They need to take it slow, just like an old-school game.

The 3 point shooing of the Suns dropped to    29% compared to 50% in game 2.

Yes, that's why CP3 suits with the Rockets before with Mike D'Antoni as the coach who loves a fast-paced game and he had Harden who can manipulate the tempo of the game.

The Bucks can win this as long as they stop those plays and go "old-school" hoops as you said. They could try the Spurs plays before with Tim Duncan dominating the perimeter and inside the paint.
Height advantage is their key. Even if Giannis shoots a perimeter shot while being defended by Capela, Lopez has a high percentage for an offensive rebound as long Giannis will pull Capela out as much as he can.

Side: After Rachel Nichols now it's Stephen A. Smith. These guys wear their masks all day long they just forget it sometimes.

[LogitechMouse]

Seems to me that the Suns lost because Ayton was in foul trouble after a monster first quarter worthy of the record books. Why would he then get into foul trouble you ask? Well, Chris Paul is now 0-12 in playoff games officiated by Scott Foster. It seemed fairly obvious this was about extending the series. More ad revenue and the chance for Phoenix to clinch on their home court. Hopefully we don’t see much more of Scott Foster this series. I hate when games are more about the refs than the players.

NBA is all about business, so I guess someone (referees), can really change the outcome of the game just like what we have seen in the last game. Lots of no calls on the side of Phoenix and it's really frustrating for them on how they are going to fight back in game 3. You can see how frustrating that even coach Monty who is soft spoken and haven't heard anything from him criticizing the calls is now calling how refs are 'biased'.

Since you already said about business lets think about it.
In Game 2, Giannis scored 42 but loss on the game but on the other side Booker and the others played a superb performance.
In Game 3, Giannis scored 41 and won the game. On the other hand, Booker and others played an awful performance.

Come to think of it, if the Suns won in Game 3 the revenue of the league will be affected right because the Bucks are down 0-3 and we know what is the history about it. I agree though that NBA is business and there is a possibility that we might see a Game 7 with this. More games = more revenue and more revenue = happy commissioner and other authorities.

Its just funny that CP3 really is 0-12 when the game is being officiated by Scott Foster. We might think that there is a bit of biased on it but we can't say it without proofs at all.

[Karartma1]

For Game 4, before placing a bet, I would focus a lot on the Suns' defensive problem that needs to be solved quickly; I think that for the next game the Suns need a different Booker than the one who fights with his aim and closes with 10 points and 3/14 on his shot, ending up in serious criticism while becoming the most watched man in view of Game 4.
Because of this, and if the Greek God will keep rockin', I believe the Bucks can win another important game even though this time with less than 10 points difference. Do you share my view?

[Natalim]

For Game 4, before placing a bet, I would focus a lot on the Suns' defensive problem that needs to be solved quickly; I think that for the next game the Suns need a different Booker than the one who fights with his aim and closes with 10 points and 3/14 on his shot, ending up in serious criticism while becoming the most watched man in view of Game 4.
Because of this, and if the Greek God will keep rockin', I believe the Bucks can win another important game even though this time with less than 10 points difference. Do you share my view?

Suns understand that they are not the better team than the Bucks in terms of defense, that is why they are focusing more on their offense to win. If they made an adjustment on their defense, they could have limit Giannis but he was still dropping 40+ points in game 3, so expect that he will do the same in game 4.

[arwin100]

For Game 4, before placing a bet, I would focus a lot on the Suns' defensive problem that needs to be solved quickly; I think that for the next game the Suns need a different Booker than the one who fights with his aim and closes with 10 points and 3/14 on his shot, ending up in serious criticism while becoming the most watched man in view of Game 4.
Because of this, and if the Greek God will keep rockin', I believe the Bucks can win another important game even though this time with less than 10 points difference. Do you share my view?

Suns understand that they are not the better team than the Bucks in terms of defense, that is why they are focusing more on their offense to win. If they made an adjustment on their defense, they could have limit Giannis but he was still dropping 40+ points in game 3, so expect that he will do the same in game 4.

Defense is their main problem as they don't have a solid defender which can stop Giannis inside the paint, Maybe they should set a good defensive plays unto him so that the bucks cannot dominate them again. They need a good luck on their next match since if Bucks will defeat again the Suns then provably they can snatch the championship. I want Suns to win this season but bucks really give a good match unto them so let see if Giannis can dominate and take the Finals MVP this season

[Hypnosis00]

For Game 4, before placing a bet, I would focus a lot on the Suns' defensive problem that needs to be solved quickly; I think that for the next game the Suns need a different Booker than the one who fights with his aim and closes with 10 points and 3/14 on his shot, ending up in serious criticism while becoming the most watched man in view of Game 4.
Because of this, and if the Greek God will keep rockin', I believe the Bucks can win another important game even though this time with less than 10 points difference. Do you share my view?

Suns understand that they are not the better team than the Bucks in terms of defense, that is why they are focusing more on their offense to win. If they made an adjustment on their defense, they could have limit Giannis but he was still dropping 40+ points in game 3, so expect that he will do the same in game 4.

Defense is their main problem as they don't have a solid defender which can stop Giannis inside the paint, Maybe they should set a good defensive plays unto him so that the bucks cannot dominate them again. They need a good luck on their next match since if Bucks will defeat again the Suns then provably they can snatch the championship. I want Suns to win this season but bucks really give a good match unto them so let see if Giannis can dominate and take the Finals MVP this season

I don't know how they'll do it as they don't have anyone who can match up Giannis one on one unless they'll double or triple Giannis, but this would not work further as the Bucks had already learned how to beat the opponent if they'll implement that kind of strategy. Bucks won game 3 coming from 2 losses, now they came from a big win, so we will see a more confident Bucks and maybe will once again dominate the Suns.