After letting one slip, Milwaukee wins against a wounded opponent
After falling to the Curry-less Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, the Milwaukee Bucks got another shot at a (very) wounded outfit on Thursday in the Los Angeles Lakers, and corrected their mistakes, winning comfortably with a final score of 118-89. Giannis led the Bucks with 28 points, seven rebounds, and four assists in just 29 minutes of work. Gary Trent Jr. and Kyle Kuzma picked up for the injured Damian Lillard with a combined 43 points. For the Lakers—who were down LeBron James, Luka Dončić, and Austin reaves to name a few—it was Bronny James and Dalton Knecht who starred with 17 points each. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.
What Did We Learn?
Granted, they were playing against a much lesser team than the Warriors (even without Curry) last night, I thought the ball moved better in this one, and their execution was crisper. The passing stats don’t show a great deal of difference between the two games, but the Bucks missed a fair few open threes last night. And again, the moment the Bucks stopped moving the ball was when the Lakers went on that second quarter run and their 23-point advantage got down to eight. I keep stressing it, but no matter the opponent and their defensive infrastructure, bad stuff tends to happen when the ball gets sticky. Nice job course-correcting in the third, where they outscored LA 34-23. Let’s go through some plays I really liked that speak to that improved ball movement and execution:
There is a common play in basketball universally known as “Spain,” involving a ball-handler, big man, and shooter. Here we see KPJ, Giannis, and AJ filling those roles, respectively. The goal is for the ball-handler and big man to engage in a pick-and-roll while the shooter sets a back-pick on the rolling big. If the shooter’s defender helps to tag the rolling big, they’re open on the pop above the three-point line. The Bucks introduced a slight wrinkle where the shooter (AJ) sets what’s called a “ram screen” before the Spain action (a ram screen is just an off-ball screen for the big man about to set the pick-and-roll). Ram screens are used because they make the screener’s defender late to the action and introduce chaos. Anyway, the ram screen from AJ is mostly cut off in the start of this video, but you can see Giannis screen (well, sort of) for KPJ, AJ sets the back pick for Giannis, Jaxson Hayes gets caught slightly on AJ’s screen and is a step late, causing Bronny to tag the rolling Giannis and leave his man (Trent), who gets an open three. Could have been a tad crisper if there was slightly better screening from Giannis and AJ (I personally believe effective screening is the key to offensive execution), but this is good stuff nonetheless.
This next one is a simple play the Bucks run a fair bit, but the timing is what makes it work well in this instance. The play begins with a dummy pick-and-roll with KPJ and Kuz, Green rises to the top of the key to receive the ball. Now here’s the crucial part: Lopez sets the wide pin-down screen for Trent and they are both on the move before AJ has really even caught the ball. Shake Milton is too deep in help, causing him to be late on the catch. Bingo.
Three Bucks
Maybe some of us fans have been a little tough on Kyle Kuzma?
Kuzma scored 20 points for the second consecutive game last night. He used his size and agility to score around the rim at an efficient 9/16 clip. Unfortunately, Kuz couldn’t get a three to go down (0/4), but that means he went 9/12 from two (plus five assists and five rebounds to boot), which you’ll take any day of the week considering his wonky rim finishing of late. Asked after the game about what’s been working for him over these past two games, Kyle referenced health. If you’ll remember, he sprained his ankle on the March 2 against the Dallas Mavericks and was initially listed doubtful for their next game against the Atlanta Hawks but ended up playing in that one; he has not missed a game since.
“I think I’m feeling [better] health-wise. I’ve been playing on one leg for the past three weeks. The OKC game I felt pretty good, then felt much better in Golden State, then felt the best I’ve felt [tonight] since the Dallas game when I sprained it.”
Kuzma then referenced his big dunk early in the fourth quarter as evidence he was feeling better:
Ryan Rollins proved, yet again, that he can help this team.
Rollins has been the tenth man in a nine-man Bucks rotation for most of the season, really. It wasn’t a great shooting night from Rollins, who went 3/11 and 2/7 from three in the start with Dame out. But who could really blame him for missing shots when he has barely played lately? On the plus side, he had three steals last night and just makes stuff happen on defence whether the offence is going or not, man. He also plays with feel and can knife into the defence and kick out to shooters. I think it would be a mistake to simply shelve him in the playoffs; if someone’s struggling or not doing their job, throw Ryan in there. Postgame, Doc had some good things to say about Ryan:
“I thought he was spectacular in the first half. Thought he struggled a bit in the second half… but Ryan pressures the ball and picks the ball up. Ball pressure is amazing with what it does for everybody else. They were starting their offence at 16 [seconds] and 14 because of Ryan, and that was huge for us.”
Blocking a shot like this… with your off hand!? Mr. Rollins, you are a maniac:
Gary Trent Jr. came up huge in converting good ball movement.
Trent went 6/10 on the night, and every attempt was from three. I mentioned this on Deer Diaries (A Milwaukee Bucks Podcast!) a few weeks back, but for all the focus we (I) sometimes put on some of Gary’s limitations as a player, it is nice to have a guy who can just drill six threes for you when your star point guard is out. Volume bombers who shoot a good percentage… sign me up!
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Milwaukee won the TO battle 19-9 and the fast-break points battle by a whopping 22-2 margin. Yay!
- Giannis appeared to roll his ankle early in the third quarter. Knock on wood it’s nothing serious.
- Pete Nance got his first real minutes for the Bucks. Having watched the Herd a lot this year, I’m interested to know why he has gotten a few two-way contracts over a guy like Henry Ellenson. Not saying Nance doesn’t deserve it, but I’m just curious; they both profile as very similar players when I watch them.
- Brook Lopez continues to try and screen sometimes by pushing dudes with two hands in their back; he seemingly gets called for it every time. Becoming a slight bugaboo for me.
- Good pull from our Jackson Gross in the rapid recap on Giannis’ improved free throw shooting since the All-Star break.
- For any eagle-eyed observers, it looked like Ryan Rollins forgot which way the Bucks were going on the first play of the game after receiving the tip from Lopez with nobody ahead of him but pulling it out, LOL.
Up Next
The Bucks play the third game of this trip against the Sacramento Kings on Saturday at 9:00 p.m. Central. Watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
Support our site! | BreakingT | ESPN+ | ESPN+ 30 For 30 | fuboTV | Disney+