Giannis with a casual 17-foot fadeaway walkoff winner in Indiana.

GIANNIS! Game! Blouses!

Now are we in the trust tree? With the nest? When Giannis was dribbling near the top of the key and the clock was melting away, I did start to have a, “Giannis WTF are we doing here??” moment. Look, I love Giannis. You love Giannis. We all love Giannis. But we also know that “Giannis” and “mid-range jumper” go together about as well as “Strange Brew” and “grammer check.” I realize his numbers were better in that range last season, but with the game on the line, you want to see him get to the rim, not settle for a fade-away 17 footer.

But I’ll be God damned if he didn’t nail it. You could almost hear the crowd in Indy saying, “UGHHHHHHHHH.” In fact, I think the Pacer TV call is my favorite call of the night in regards to that shot:

“You’ve gotta be KIDDING ME!”

Giannis chirping the crowd for booing Myles Turner after he drilled that game-winner was a *CHEF’S KISS* as well. Bucks/Pacers bad blood stays bad.

Given the amount of unknowns revolving around this team heading into the season, a 5-2 start feels more that solid. They’re in Toronto tonight (wouldn’t be shocked if Giannis gets a load management game), but overall I think there’s a lot to like. AJ Green seems to have taken a step forward, Ryan Rollins probably a step and a half, and Kyle Kuzma off of the bench is looking like a usable piece. Which is NOT something I expected to say at all this season. Obviously a LONG way to go, but I’d rather be 5-2 than the 1-6 they were last year through 7 games.

PS: I’ll tell you something else, I think I’m coming around on Doc Rivers a bit as well. This was a fantastic rant in the postgame yesterday:

It is CRIMINAL the way that Giannis is officiated on a night in, night out basis. I’ve never seen a former 2-time MVP, Finals champion and Finals MVP get SO little respect with the whistle in my life. And Doc finally articulated way that is last night: He doesn’t flop. He’s not flopping around like Ric Flair after a knife-edge chop every single time he gets hit. If LeBron got hit the way Giannis does every night he’d spend the entire game on the floor rolling around. So because he doesn’t sell every bit of contact, those aren’t fouls? Huh? And like Doc said, other teams know he isn’t going to flop, and other teams also know he’s not going to get the calls if he doesn’t flop, so they’re just physical with him all game long. It’s maddening. I know you can’t call it EVERY time Giannis gets hit, otherwise Bucks games would last 4 hours, but you’ve got to find a balance somehow.