When You Don’t Got It…

My Thoughts on the games I watched yesterday…

[Ed. note: This article was originally published at raymondsimms.com, a temporary personal blog I ran during the 2022-23 basketball season. It was ported over to Crucial Baskets on April 20, 2024.]

EuroCup Semifinals: Prometey Slobozhanske vs. Turk Telekom Ankara

I was pulling for Prometey simply because I liked the idea of a Ukrainian team earning a berth into the EuroLeague while the Russian teams are still barred due to that whole invasion thing. A win over Turk Telekom and in the final on May 3 would have made that possibility a reality.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Turk Telekom was just too much on both ends of the floor. They had a steady defensive game that stagnated a lot of Prometey’s offense. Their offense, however, was otherwordly. Tony Taylor also showed off his lethal mid-range pull-up game. Meanwhile, Jerian Grant and Axel Bouteille were knocking down three-pointers with Prometey defenders draped all over them. Basically, the shotmakers came through for Turk Telekom, but came up short for Prometey, and sometimes that’s all it takes in high stakes games.

Prometey’s run apparently exceeded expectations, so I truly wonder what’s next for this squad. I mean that not only in terms of the roster, but also where they will play and even if they’ll return to the EuroCup next season. A lot of questions in the air, but I applaud them for the campaign.

NBA Playoffs First Round: No. 8 Miami Heat vs. No. 1 Milwaukee Bucks, Game 5

Wow. I truly wonder what’s going through the minds of the Milwaukee Bucks players. This team, whose core and coach already won a title in 2021, seemed lost and frazzled for most of this series when the Miami Heat applied pressure. I understand that the Heat are always a tough out, but my goodness. It’s like the seeds were reversed.

Giannis had a monster 38 points and 20 rebounds, but still left key points on the table with his 13 missed free throws. The same man that dropped 50 in a Finals close-out game looked lost at the charity stripe.

Then there’s Mike Budenholzer. He had to mentally be in Cancun late in this game. The team seemed schematically lost for large stretches of this game, and he failed to call timeouts in key situations to stabilize his reeling team. I try to avoid hyperbole, but a failure like this is certainly grounds for a firing.

I found it funny that Grayson Allen was the man with the ball when the clock ran out on Milwaukee’s season. I’m not particularly thrilled with his rough on-court style of play, so it felt delicious that he was the last one holding the bag. I feel bad for the rest of the team, though.

The Miami Heat played well, and Jimmy Butler played absolutely out of his mind. However, Milwaukee’s defeat was a mental failure on multiple fronts. It’s so bad it makes me wonder if more news is going to spool out in the coming days. What is truly going on in Milwaukee?