Yo, Aaron, your mama didn't teach you how to chug?
Now I am of the firm belief/hope that my close personal friend was just playing along with the 'Bakhtiari is a beer drinking animal' narrative here, but either way it wasn't the best look. At best that was purposeful sipping. Attitude Era Stone Cold Steve Austin would have stunned him sight unseen if that type of chugging would have taken place in a 1999 WWF ring.
In any case, at least our super fans were putting on a show last night. Drake probably sips Zima. But outside of that, one of the more frustrating nights to be a Bucks fan. They jump out to an 18-4 lead, led by 10 at the end of the 1st, and then went dark in a dreadful 2nd quarter. 6-22 shooting in that quarter that let the Raptors right back in it, and gave them the belief that they weathered the storm.
Still, the Bucks led by 3 going into the 4th quarter. I don't care if you have a 1 point lead or a 15 point lead, in a game like that, on your home floor, when you lead entering the 4th quarter you have to win. HAVE TO. But it's pretty obvious that inexperience at this level and in these types of games is catching up with us. Kawhi, who has won titles and Finals MVP's, flipped the switch in the 4th quarter. Hit dagger after dagger after dagger. Immediately put Toronto in charge. The Bucks did get the game tied at 93, but Fred VanVleet, FRED VAN BLEEPING VLEET, drilled his 7th three of the night (7-9 from distance, preposterous), and Toronto was right back in front. A couple of turnovers for us, and MORE than a few offensive rebounds for them*, and it was all over. Bucks lose three in a row for the first time all season and now have their backs against the wall in Game 6 back in Toronto on Saturday.
Now it is well documented what happens in a 2-2 series when you lose Game 5: The winner of that game wins the series 86% of the time. Well I want you to take a trip back in time with me, let's set the scene:
It's 2001, and I have dressed in the entire Dutch Boy khaki color palette. The Bucks are matched up with the Charlotte Hornets in the Eastern Conference Semi Finals. Milwaukee wins Games 1 and 2 at the Bradley Center, the Hornets take Games 3 and 4 in Charlotte. They come back to the BC for a pivotal Game 5 at home. Sound familiar? Well my folks and I were at that Game 5. There wasn't a single person at the Bradley Center that night that thought the Bucks were going to lose. I'm sure it was similar at Fiserv last night. But lose they did. It was the loudest sporting event I've ever been at, but they just couldn't dig out a close game. Again, sound familiar?
The Bucks then went to Charlotte for Game 6, were down DOUBLE DIGITS late in the 3rd quarter, when Sam Cassell rallied them. They pulled out an improbable win given the circumstances, came back to Milwaukee and took Game 7 to punch a ticket to the ECF. We've seen it happen before in this identical scenario.
So let's hope we play a little loose on Saturday, let's hope Middleton is Game 4 Middleton, let's hope Bledsoe is 1st quarter Bledsoe from last night, let's hope Giannis stops dribbling into quadruple teams and turning the ball over, let's at least get this back to Milwaukee, let's hope I'm not staring at my ceiling with Sounds of Silence playing in my head on Saturday night! We're not that drunk! We're not that drunk!
*If Lindsey would have taken a shot every time I said 'GRAB A F—ING REBOUND!' last night she would have been passed out until next week Thursday.
PS: One of the worst parts of sports social media are the 'It's over,' guys the second things start going south. It's like it's a race to see who can declare the season done first, so that if it does actually end they can say, 'TOLD YOU SO!' Shoot 'It's over.' guy into the sun. Believe in something for me, one time.
Double PS: If Niko doesn't play a minute on Saturday I won't lose any sleep over it. Guy is LOST out there.
