What the Bucks Need to Improve on for the Rest of This Series
The Bucks were able to come away with a big win in game 3 against the Nets on Thursday, keeping their series hopes alive. The Nets now lead the series 2-1, with game 4 on Sunday in Milwaukee. The Bucks obviously looked bad in the first 2 games of the series, and although a win is a win in the playoffs, it still was not particularly pretty in game 3. There are several things that need to be improved if they want to have a real shot at winning this series.
Can Somebody Else Step Up?
Game 3 was the Giannis and Khris show, which is normally fine, as you want your best players to be the ones leading the way offensively. The problem is that it was ONLY the Giannis and Khris show, and they combined for 68 of the team’s 86 total points — a whopping 79%.
Khris scored 35, Giannis had 33, and the next highest scorer was Jrue Holiday with… 9.
That’s not going to get it done normally against an offense as good as Brooklyn’s. The bench has provided very little scoring, as Bryn Forbes, Bobby Portis, and Pat Connaughton have all done close to nothing so far in this series. In game 1, the bench scored a measly 6 points before garbage time, and when Bud is sitting Giannis and Khris as much as he was (35 minutes for Giannis, 36 for Khris), the bench must be better than that.
For game 3, the bench once again was ineffective and scored just 6 points. Bryn Forbes had 0 points in 15 minutes, Pat Connaughton had 2 points in 13 minutes, and Bobby Portis had 4 points in 12 minutes. However, for this game, the bigger problem seemed to be that none of the other starters besides Giannis and Khris could get any offense going.
The starters played a TON together — Giannis played 43 minutes, Khris played 44, Jrue played 46, Brook played 35, and PJ played 33 — so it is up to them to be the ones to generate the offense, and only 2 out of 5 guys were able to do so. Jrue Holiday had 9 points on 14 FGA in those 46 minutes, Brook Lopez had 3 points on 7 FGA in his 35 minutes, and PJ Tucker did not score in his 33 minutes.
Jrue Holiday will absolutely need to play better offensively like he is expected to do. Brook and Bobby then need to score more in their minutes, and hopefully Bryn Forbes can start making shots as he did in the Miami series. Giannis and Khris can’t continue to beat this Nets team on their own.
What Happened To The Shooting?
The Bucks shot 38.9% on threes in the regular season, the 5th highest mark in the league. They looked primed to be able to make teams pay for crowding Giannis and leaving them open. However, in the playoffs, that percentage has fallen all the way down to 29.2%, and in this series it is at 22.7%.
The Bucks shot 6/30 on threes in game 1, 8/27 in game 2, and 6/31 in game 3. That is not going to get it done.
Nobody on the team is shooting it well right now, as Brook Lopez is shooting the best percentage from three in this series at just 33%. Khris struggled mightily prior to game 3, Bryn Forbes and Jrue Holiday are cold, and Giannis is taking way too many threes. Holiday and Forbes are the two guys that shoot a good amount of threes who need to be better. Khris should be fine from three, but others need to make shots for the Bucks to keep pace with the Nets.
Giannis, STOP SHOOTING THREES
Giannis is shooting 59% on two-pointers in the playoffs and 13% on three-pointers. This isn’t complicated. More twos, fewer threes.
It’s good to see that he has the confidence to keep shooting, but he needs to play to his strengths and cut down on the threes. He is taking 4.6 threes per game in the playoffs, and he attempted 8 of them in game 3. When Giannis is shooting more threes than Khris in a game (he did in game 3), there’s a problem. His 3-point attempts are basically turnovers at this point, and somebody on the coaching staff needs to tell Giannis to stop.
Giannis has dominated inside for a majority of this series, and it is inexplicable why he would go away from that to attempt threes early in the shot clock.
He shouldn’t eliminate all jumpers, as he has been good on two-point jumpers in the series (50%), but the threes look like they need to stop right now.
Better Offensive Gameplan
One of the biggest issues in this series for the Bucks has been their lack of ball movement and constant isolation possessions offensively. In all 3 games, there have been far too many possessions, such as the ones from the 4th quarter of game 3 below, where there are 4 guys just standing around.
The Bucks need to have more of an offensive gameplan and actually run some stuff, and doing this will help Giannis out as well. Rather than being used as a play initiator in the half court, Giannis should be used more as a play finisher. Other players should be used to generate looks for him instead of asking him to just do it on his own.
Here is Giannis trying to do it on his own:
And now here is what happens when they move the defense, move the ball, and generate looks FOR Giannis:
Move the ball, run some offense, use Giannis a ton as a screener, help turn him into a finisher, and then this offense can start to get going.
Defensive Adjustments
The Bucks did a solid job of making things difficult for Durant in game 3, but there are issues that are still being exploited, and Durant is not going to miss as many shots as he did. Here are some examples from back-to-back possessions in the 3rd quarter:
The Bucks cannot be content with letting KD get to his spots and get these shots off. It will kill them in the long run if it keeps up. Brook Lopez overall played some pretty solid defense in game 3, but the Nets were able to exploit him in the pick and roll at times.
Going small in these situations with Giannis at center or potentially using Lopez a bit less and Bobby Portis a bit more could help this issue. Portis and Giannis have more athleticism to handle these situations and could be used to trap Durant in order to prevent him from getting midrange shots. At the very least, the Bucks should be trapping Durant in late-game scenarios, even if Lopez is on the floor and the one doing the trapping. Make someone else other than Durant beat them.
Overall, the Bucks should be happy that they are only down 2-1 right now and have a chance to even up the series on Sunday. They aren’t playing their best ball, but hopefully they can begin to shoot better and make some of these changes, because it doesn’t look like they can win 4 out of 7 against this Brooklyn team if they keep playing the way they are playing.
