Bucks scratch out a Game 1 win, pass me the Xanax/Tums/Pepto.

Game 1 of the playoffs and we had to hop right in the blender, didn’t we. Live look at me for the last hour of last night’s game:

And do you know what my dumb, idiot brain thought when the Bucks grabbed a 32-16 lead early? ‘Ahhhh, this is what we need. A nice relaxing Game 1 win in a series that shouldn’t be too difficult.’ Jon, you ignorant slut. Everybody makes a run in the NBA, and EVERYBODY makes a run in an NBA playoff game. The Bulls slowly crept their way back into it, then grabbed a 5-point lead late in the 3rd quarter. The Bucks responded with a 10-2 run to take a 3-point lead into the 4th quarter, then hung on in a rock fight of a final frame to win 93-86.

A few things:

1. I know excuses for multi-millionaire athletes fall on deaf ears, but given the Bucks history in Game 1’s, and given their history after prolonged rest, I suppose we should have expected last night to be a grinder. The core of this team hadn’t played since April 8th. That’s a month in NBA time-terms. The quick start they had made me think they weren’t going to fall into the typical malaise we see from them when they are coming off of a lot of rest, but that was a mirage. The offensive execution outside of that 1st quarter was ugly. Horrific shooting, mind-numbing turnovers. We should expect them to be much more in rhythm on Wednesday for Game 2.
2. Giannis was great again, but Brook Lopez won this game. Down the stretch he hit YUGE shots (and a few 3-point plays) when the game was tight in the 4th quarter. In a game that resembled the 90’s NBA, Lopez loaded up his ‘back-to-the-basket big man’ style of play from early in his career.
3. Khris Middleton: WOOF. Jrue was bad as well, but he did hit some shots late and played his usual brand of ball-hawk defense. Middleton looked like Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Along Came Polly, and turned ball over 7 times. Yeesh. Doesn’t take anything away from the run he went on last summer, but I’d like to see Playoff Middleton sooner rather than later please and thanks.

Maybe this is a ‘glass is half full’ mentality, but what I take from this game is that they couldn’t have played much worse and still won the game. They couldn’t shoot, they committed 21 (21!) turnovers, weren’t good at the free throw line, the bench contributed nothing outside of Bobby Portis, and they still won the game by 7 points. It was a WAY more tense than I wanted it to be, but as the great Dom Torretto once said, ‘winning is winning. ‘ 1 down, 15 to go.

PS: The Nets/Celtics series is going to be a WAR. Clearly the Bucks have work to do in the 1st round, but if you’re looking to the semi-finals, I think we win no matter who wins if the games go like that. If those two teams play 6 or 7 back-and-forth type of games, whatever team makes it out is going to be exhausted for the 2nd round. Again: Not looking to the 2nd round at this point, just keeping an eye on it. Big difference.