Undisciplined and unfocused play doomed the Bucks to their fourth loss in the last five
The Milwaukee Bucks‘ post-NBA Cup run has been a struggle. They have lost their fourth game in their last five, this time to the Portland Trail Blazers, 105-102. Giannis Antetokounmpo continued to put up ridiculous numbers, going for 31 points (14/27 shooting, 51.8%), 11 boards, two assists, two steals, and two blocks. AJ Green scored 21 points in his first game after missing Thursday night’s loss to the Nets. Anfernee Simons led the Blazers’ offense with 28 points, and the entire Portland starting five finished in double figures.
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 We Learned
The Bucks have lost their discipline and focus. All the constantly good habits that they built up before and during their trip to Vegas have seemingly vanished in the aftermath. Everyone has a different answer in terms of how to get it back, but the cause of this shift is unknown.
“It’s frustrating watching us play,” Doc Rivers said. “Where we had [the team] a week or two before Vegas and then going into Vegas we haven’t returned, we’re not playing right. It’s on both ends, defensively we get beat off the dribble over and over again, getting beat off the glass. Offensively, I don’t see us playing with much pace; we’re not getting in the paint much.”
The stats back up those sentiments, as the Bucks allowed 44 points in the paint, they were outrebounded 55-43, the offense had 25 assists on 41 made shots, and 40 points in the paint (they’ve struggled all year long to do so, sitting 26th in the league in paint scoring at 42.2 PPG).
For Green, it’s not only about refocusing on their discipline and good habits but treating every game like it was a game in Vegas.
“Going into Vegas, there’s excitement, we got something to play for, something to win, but we should have that, every night,” Green said. “It’s [the] goal to win each game, so I think just getting back to that and being disciplined and coming together through the ups and downs.”
That’s not to say that there aren’t glimmers of that team that built itself back up from a 2-8 start. The 20-0 stretch against the Nets on Thursday and the multiple runs in the second and fourth quarters last night against Portland are proof of that. But as Lillard put it, they haven’t been able to sustain those runs.
“We’ve had four games in the last two weeks where we have lapses, we don’t sustain that focus and that discipline,” Lillard said. “When a team is playing hard, a team that is playing with energy, and every NBA team has talent, you could put yourself in a dog fight like we were in again tonight, and at that point, anything can happen. We put ourselves in that situation, and [it was] another loss.”
As for the offensive side of the ball, Giannis discussed at length the issues plaguing the offense and how (to a degree) he and Dame getting sick has hampered things since they’ve come back:
“The ball sticking is not just you take the ball and you play one-on-one, like we have to do that, that’s what we get paid to do. But when you get the rebound, throwing the ball ahead, advancing it, having somebody else make a play. If he doesn’t have a play then you trail into the play, you get the ball [and a] pick and roll comes. You drag it and you kick it right back, the big touches the ball, the big doesn’t have a shot then he has to go to a DHO (dribble hand-off), the guy from the corner comes back, the big rolls. The guy gets into the paint, he doesn’t have a shot, then he swings it right back. Now in just six to eight seconds three people touch the ball, we touch the paint and now the ball gets back to Dame and now he has three to four seconds to operate… some times we come down and we’re so taletned and some times it gets in the way, we come down and we go straight to the one-on-one instead of having all those actions, then play to the one-on-one.”
This reminds me of the difference between a test and an experiment in science class. You can know all the right answers to the test on paper and get 100%. That’s great, but just like with science, in basketball you need to know how to apply your knowledge to the given situation to succeed. It’s not foolproof, and you will fail. The point is to do what you say you know consistently, and as of yet, the Bucks have failed to do so.
AJ Green Threes
What a return to the lineup it was for AJ Green. After missing Thursday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets with a lower back contusion, Green went 7/13 from beyond the arc (5/7 in the first half) for 21 points, three assists, two rebounds, and one steal. Here are three of his best three-point makes from last night.
What better way is there to erase an overturned bucket than to make another one?
During his ballistic first half shooting the ball, Green made a fading corner three with 8:45 left in the second quarter to give the Bucks a 37-32 lead. After an apparent injury to Simons forced Chauncey Billups to call timeout, the officials reviewed the play and found that Green had stepped out of bounds, thus nullifying the basket.
Just over a minute later, Green “made up” for his mistake of stepping out by drilling another three-pointer off a quick dribble handoff from Giannis on the right wing. The bucket gave the Bucks a four-point cushion, 40-36, with 7:31 left in the frame.
This is what happens when you drive to the lane and move the ball.
As referenced above, the Bucks’ lack of ball movement has been killing them as of late. It’s not as simple as them not doing it at all; it’s the fact that they do it so inconsistently, and it’s maddening. Here’s a perfect example that leads to a wide-open Green three. Taurean Price drives into the lane and draws all five Portland defenders to him, leaving Green uncovered in the opposite corner. The result? As a famous fictional soccer coach said: “barbecue sauce.”
Green can hit big buckets in key moments, and it’s a sight to behold.
While trying to mount their comeback down by as much as seven points during the fourth quarter, Green helped keep up the momentum that the Bucks had been building. After cutting the deficit down to two points thanks to a Giannis dunk, the Bucks got their fourth stop in five possessions and moved the ball quickly down the court. Giannis found Dame, who passed it to Prince, who then handed it off to Green for a corner three that was open despite a late contest from De’Andre Ayton. Green nails it to give the Bucks their first lead since the start of the quarter and forces Chauncey Billups to call timeout.
“I thought he was great, for us as a team whenever you get a performance off the bench from a guy like that where he’s shooting the ball well, he’s defending the way he did, you get that punch off the bench, and you want to take advantage of winning those games,” Lillard said. “I don’t think it’s a wasted game [from Green] cause now he’s in a good rhythm and that can carry over into the next two, three or four games.”
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Giannis Antetokounmpo continued his recording-shattering streak of scoring 20+ points and shooting 50%+ from the field to game number 27 after he put up 31 points (14/27) and 11 boards against Portland.
- AJ Green tied a career-high in three-point makes with seven on the night. It’s the third time he’s done it in his career and twice this season (did it on November 4 against the Cavs).
- During the fourth quarter, Damian Lillard passed Larry Bird on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, moving into 9th place with 21,793 points to his name over his career.
- This was the third time in 12 games that Khris Middleton failed to score in double figures. Middleton had nine such games last season when he played in 55.
- The Bucks have now shot below 33% from three-point range in three of their last four games. The team as a whole shot 13/41 from deep (31.7%), but if you remove Green’s 7/13, Milwaukee combined to shoot 6/28 (21.4%) from range.
Up Next
The Bucks will look to get back on the winning track as they will travel over the Canadian border to take on the Toronto Raptors. You can catch all the action on Monday at 6 PM Central on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
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