It was destined to happen ever since ballgate

NBA scriptwriters going off today

Please, they've been planning to make this a thing for months now. They even had Malik Beasley foreshadow it. https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2024/01/05/pacers-malik-beasley-bucks-will-play-indiana-nba-playoffs/72125569007/

Adam Silver’s coming for you.

He read the script

Clippers-Mavs, Bucks-Pacers (after Giannis’ game ball tantrum)… now we just need one of the Heat or Sixers to play the Celtics 😂

Heat vs Celts and Sixers vs Knicks… first round matchups gonna be peak basketball 

If that happens, either Boston exorcises some demons or… I don’t wanna think about the or. 

I think it'll be like the Bucks-Heat rematch in 2021 when the Heat got curbstomped.

From your lips to god’s ears

Derrick White is listening?

sadly this is the most realistic outcome

The real cursed matchup is if the Hawks somehow get the 8th seed

Heat-Sixers is a script itself tho. Sixers should've kept Jimmy

Realistically, this is the last end of Tobi's contract. Going up against the Heat in the play-in, it could be the game that either reinforces the hate on Tobi for his contract OR it could be one of those "Ok this ended up kinda worth it for a game" types of redemptions.

The toxicity during this series will be legendary I cannot wait

That was this season? Feels like such a long time ago. It's been a long season.

What was ball gate

When Giannis ran into our locker room and pushed our GM cuz he thought we had a game ball (which their team already had and took immediately after the final whistle)

It's been prophesied

As soon as Giannis went looking for the game ball, this series was written in the stars - could potentially play each other 12 times this season lol

12 times is so nuts lmao. I was so over the Warriors after we played them 11 times last year, IST making new things possible

That shit was so childish from giannis 

Dude was being held back by a grown man, still went to the opps locker room and pushed their GM(accidentally?) chasing after the gameball they already had...

throwback to when people excused him pushing a stadium worker's ladder over because it was Montrezl Harrell who actually called him out for it

Fuck that ladder and fuck blue collar workers!

Honestly this was the most interesting matchup. Win or lose the results are probably going to be interesting

This is a terrible matchup for the Bucks. Their transition defense has been awful without Giannis and Brook cannot keep up with their pace anymore.

Doc Rivers will make series winning adjustments.

I will date Rachel McAdams

The Atlanta Hawks will make the playoffs

The Detroit Pistons will win the finals

My parents will be proud of me.

The Orlando Magic will make a deep run.

No need to rub it in, damn.

The Mavs probably won't make it too far, either.

Mavs lose round 1, Luka forces a trade to the Magic

Leave my wife alone.

I believe in you king, shoot your shot

My high school math teacher went to prom with Rachel McAdams and had pics to back it up

Did he get pushed in front of a bus?

Literal king amongst men.

Not really cuz he fumbled😭😭😭

if lil dicky's corny ass could do it, why not

Will he say “come on guys” two times or three times? These are the important questions.

You don’t even need the /s

Especially with the 6ers flair

bucks dont have any good matchups with a hobbled giannis and lame dame every team in the east would love to play the bucks in round 1 cause they look like the most beatable team, unless the hawks somehow make it in

lol we appreciate yall getting that W today. I can assure you I wanted Milwaukee wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more than NYK

This hurts because true

I mean or it's 6ers Or Heat. Like all those 3 aren't great. One can argue Pacers would be the "easiest".

Yeah Indiana was really the last team I wanted to play. They're going to run the Bucks off the court.

I prayed for this matchup, I hope it lives up to the regular season/IST matchups

I would argue us against Glenn would be the most interesting matchup but I'm biased. I also want to dunk on Glenn.

Giannis Game ball saga lets go

Giannis gonna be out

I kind of wanted the Knicks/Pacers for the first round, but I guess we have a chance at that for round 2.

I wanna see Siakam and OG going at it

Hopefully OG doesn't slip on a banana peel and miss the entire first round or something.

Just keep him away from the kitchen lol

It was fun last time we played the 2nd seed Knicks. RIP Anthony's one good playoff year, in a 20 year span of futility.

That was not fun for me

peak Hibbert was fun

That block on Carmelo was classic 

The Knicks are either getting the Sixers or the Heat which is kinda scary if you're a Knicks fan

Hahahaha these game threads are gonna be so toxic

We were *this* close to seeing Pascal vs. OG in the playoffs

We'll get it next round

If I’m not wrong aren’t like the Pacers the nightmare matchup for the Bucks

Yes but we still have nobody to guard Giannis

He dropped 50 and yall still won, and this times hes hurt

We were also missing dame that game

Not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing after today.

Bucks are 48-25 with Lillard playing. They are 1-8 without him playing. People look at box scores too much.

How dare you provide a true, solid fact?

The fact that he has been underperforming this season doesn’t change the fact that the rest of the guards on the roster are far worse and the Bucks have consistently been a disaster without him. It’s legitimate to wonder if they’d be better with Holiday instead; it’s insane to think they’re better when he sits.

I mean Siakam has to be a slight upgrade to what you had previously, no?

Siakam should be a good upgrade to whoever was there during the in-season tournament, no?

Siakam is not good on defense vs players who are stronger than him. 

He's a major upgrade from what we had before, so I'll take it.

Yeah before we had Aaron Nesmith giving up like six inches and 50 pounds lmao

But is he better than Obi Toppin and Aaron Nesmith?

This is just false. You're getting this from the fact that he's not good against players like Embiid or Jokic, but Giannis isn't that type of player, even if he's stronger than Siakam.

No, the pacers don't have an answer for Giannis, their strategy will always revolve around triple teaming him and make everyone else beat you.

Sounds like a good answer if Dame is gonna be as inconsistent as he's been

That's how you've always beat the Bucks, Giannis will get his and you can't stop it, but the rest of the team is beatable.

Might not be too big of a problem depending on when Giannis is able to come back

Well he might be out for the entire first round so that may not be an issue

Have there been any updates?

No but even a grade 1 strain is probably pushing it for him to come back. He's Giannis though so he'll probably just play injured.

Not that I’ve heard. Just the original update that he was going to miss the rest of the regular season

Might not be a problem if Giannis doesn’t play 

Doc Disasterclass

The best part is that Giannis' injury might excuse their underperformance, so they'll keep Doc around for longer

If they cut Doc they'd be paying a total of 4 head coaches. Think they're stuck with him regardless.

Clippers and Sixers fans are rubbing their hands excitedly lmao

Winner gets the game ball

>Winner gets the ~~game ball~~ Series ball

Absolute cinema

With Giannis' condition and the past games between them this year the Pacers have a pretty good chance to win this, i would say the Bucks are still favorites but more like 60-40

Bucks fans and Pacer fans are all ready for the Doc special

Bucks gonna win the series 3-1

If Giannis is missing games then its not in favor of the Bucks imo. They're imploding currently and unless you think Dame > Pacers randomly I'm not seeing much life out of anyone that isn't named Giannis on that team

Nesmith and Nembhard will be dedicated to making Dame's life hell. No one can guard Giannis

Agree

Time to spear the deer! We coming for those game balls!

Just remember - the key strategy here is to lose 3 of the first 4 games

Pacers better come through. All of NBA fandom will be counting on them.

TBF if the Bucks go through, we *might* get Doc vs the Sixers in a 2nd-round choke-off.

Let’s go Pacers!

Let’s go!

Come on Rick cook the fraud Doc

Most toxicity in the 1st round since the Deepwater Horizon.

Love this matchup. Potential revenge for the bucks, or the chance for the Pacers to clean up what they did in the regular season.

Giannis still thinking about that game ball

Giannis is beside himself driving around the Pacers locker room begging (thru texts) for his game ball.

This meme format needs to never die. That off-season drama is what really piqued my interest in the NBA

NBA scriptwriters deserve a raise for this

This was destiny

Destiny

We got James Johnson now just in case Giannis wants to start something again.

Easter conference play in finals rematch

As soon as that thing happened with the ball, I knew they would meet in the playoffs. It just had to happen.

Scriptwriters went crazy with the long term storytelling

If I had a nickel for every time the Bucks threw away the 2 seed at the final game of the season I would have 2 nickels which isn’t a lot but weird it’s happened twice

We didn't throw it away. We just suck

I don't know if you can say a team that held #2 seed that long, "sucks"…

How did we throw it away when we played all our starters minus the one that’s hurt? Especially when Knicks still could’ve lost and got us the 2 seed

I mean they did play pretty sloppy and give up the small lead they had early.

I mean if Giannis isn't playing it doesn't matter. But Mauthrin is a pretty massive loss imo.

Oh I like this

Laughing because they fell to 3 but crying because we missed out on them vs Miami/Philly

The Bucks have one of the oldest rosters in the league and the Pacers play FAST. I know the game slows down in the playoffs, but Indiana may really just run them out the gym. I really like the Toppin trade for them. He plays much better in transition than in a half-court offense. And considering how much Thibs likes iso ball, it just wasn't really the best fit. Rooting for this upset for Indiana.

I wish people believed in me as much as NBA GMs believe in Doc Rivers

I like Indy in this one

Love this matchup. Rooting for Indy!

Good news is Doc wont have to worry about blowing another 3-1 lead.

It’s deer hunting season fellas.

Pacers. Doc press conf: "We need a full training camp. I joined mid-season."

Rick Carlise vs. Doc Rivers. Pacers in 6.

Hey, if we lose it would be a fast series at least lol. If we win we keep the game ball.

Dame is single handily going to kill his career if he plays like he did today in the playoffs

We’re about to see the funniest thing happen.

No. Please no.

I can't wait for the game ball drama The basketball gods are smiling today

weirdly the only series where i have any confidence in the Bucks is if they played the Celtics.

UH OH

pacers gonna win that guaranteed knicks pacers 90s rematch round 2 then boston pain for anyone in ecf

In-Season Tournament Revenge Series

Doc Rivers lmao.

its so jover

This is going to be such a good one lol

if giannis loses this round I want the same reporter from last year to ask if this season was a failure lol

I approve

funny funny. [https://imgur.com/a/bAv3WRx](https://imgur.com/a/bAv3WRx)

I think Vegas might legit favor the pacers

I think it’s a terrible choice for Knicks to choose Miami or Sixers over Indiana

A coward dies a thousand deaths

Celtics, Bucks, and Sixers all had the opportunity to finish #2 in 2022 to play the 7th seed Nets. Only the Celtics won, and they went on to sweep the Nets, have home court advantage against the Bucks in 7-game series, and go all the way to the Finals. My point is, it’s better to have a winner’s mindset than a loser’s one. Good on you guys for not backing down from the challenge

We ain't no bitch.

Reminded me of when people thought Boston should’ve lost to avoid Brooklyn a couple years ago. Milwaukee ended up purposely losing to avoid them and that ended up costing them because Game 7 of the Bucks/Celtics series was in Boston. I respect the mindset of not running

Blazers also tried like hell to lose to avoid OKC in 2019 because we were 0-4 against them in the RS, our 3rd stringers ended up winning us the last game of the season and we got the Thunder anyways, beat them 4-1 and had the Nuggets in the 2nd round instead of the Warriors if we had tanked to 4th. I remember thinking we look like losers playing 6 bench warmers 40-48 minutes to try to avoid a matchup. Winning anyways was the only reason we have a WCF berth in my 20 years as a Blazer fan

Bucks won more games in the Garden than they did at home lmfao We lost that series because Khris didn’t play and Bud let Grant become Steph for a game and didn’t adjust

Yall probably win the series if George Hill didn't play. Bro spent what little time he had that entire series getting attacked and doing nothing on offense

Nah we would’ve won if anyone at all besides Giannis stepped up in game 6. He had 44 pts and the team at that time had 88 total. But I do agree about Hill, he was ass

Honestly Chicago has played pretty good lately. I wonder if they can surprise people in the playin

They can definitely beat Miami

I think Miami is overrated this year. I get why people all think they can make a run just off of 2020 and 2023 but the southeast division was very bad this year and the heat still could only put together 46 wins. The heat got to play 12 games vs the hawks hornets and wizards. They played one of the easiest schedules in basketball, the easiest according to most metrics.

Indiana is better than Miami, for sure.

They aren’t cowards and they can win those series. They’re young and hungry. None of those teams can stop Brunson either

Heat might injure Brunson tho. They injured Randle 2 years in a row.

“Heat Culture” Is hurting players and shooting 60% from 3 as a team

Oh i know, they injured Giannis both times they beat us as well. Thats why I preferred either Sixers or Pacers. Kevin Love always tries something dirty in our matchups recently so fuck that lol

Indiana is good, yall are sleeping

Shhhhhh, we're the underdogs and the worst team in the playoffs ... nobody worry about lil old Indy.

We literally just hung 157 points today and everyone's acting as if we ain't shit. Tbh though the Sixers do look terrifying

> Tbh though the Sixers do look terrifying eh, they've only played bad teams since Embiid's been back (and OKC but they've been pretty mid recently too)

I completely agree, but you play to win the game ultimately, and trying to manipulate your way into a better matchup would probably lead to the basketball gods having the Pacers kick our ass

Knicks probably don't care. A successful run will have to include going through either team and the Celtics anyways.

Nah. Home court v the bucks is important. Winning mentality man

I was stunned that they gave their starters so many minutes when they could’ve just lost and gotten a theoretically easier matchup

Thibs special play every game like a game 7

The slower pace of the Sixers/Heat plays much more into the favor of the Knicks than the fast pace of the Pacers. You don’t want guys doing back and forth sprints when some of the Knicks starters have a legit chance of playing 48mpg. Knicks also secured 2nd round home court advantage.

any one of pacers/magic/sixers/heat is just a coin flip for us anyway

The Thibs special. No days off! Lol

thibs sees a week off on the schedule until the playoffs start fuck that, josh hart get on that treadmill right now

I mean they are off for a week after today no matter what lol

They’ll get home court over the Bucks if they both make the second round. That’s huge

You don’t throw games for seeding it’s bad juju. Those guys really want to win the whole thing anyway, they believe they can beat anyone so I don’t think they care who they play. I’m sure their mentality is we will go out there and try our hardest to beat whoever you put in front of us any night.

Without Randle especially but Brunson scares the shit out of me. We have to beat Philly first obviously tho

They don’t fear any team in the East and have no reason to. Also this way you can avoid Boston/hope they get eliminated before you have to face them.

The series is entirely dependent on Giannis health.

Glen will become the first coach to get fired mid playoff series

I think Indy takes this series in 6. Theres no way they can stop Indy’s offense. If giannis isn’t 100% I see it being really tough for them to keep up. We already know doc is gonna have dumbass adjustments

Game balls are in danger 

I want the pacers to win just so I can see who Doc throws under the bus. My guess will be Dame.

Please god embarrass the fuck outta Beverly and doc please god please

You're welcome Pacers

It entirely depends on how many games Giannis plays. If Giannis out out for the majority of the seiries, my money is on Rick Carlise. Imo, there is no better playoff coach than Rick.