Bucks’ star duo runs play to perfection
With the score close late in the final minutes of Friday’s game against the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo turned to his longtime running mate and fellow all-star Khris Middleton.
His message was simple yet clear: “Down the stretch, it’s just going to be me and you playing and just make the right play,” Antetokounmpo recalled after the game.
Neither of them did anything intrinsically complicated. In fact, what they did is one of the oldest plays in basketball. Middleton dribbled the ball beyond the three-point arc and Antetokounmpo came over to set a screen, setting up the classic pick-and-roll conundrum for the opposing defense.
With 1 minute, 3 seconds left, Middleton saw the defense’s attention shift to Antetokounmpo as he set the pick. Given an opening, Middleton called his own number and fired off a three-pointer to put the Bucks up by six.
After a Jaylen Brown three-point play at the other end, Middleton and Antetokounmpo went right back to work playing their simple – yet hard to stop – two-man game. This time, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart locked onto Middleton, leaving the lane open to Antetokounmpo.
Middleton waited a beat to let Antetokounmpo start rolling then snapped a bounce pass between the two defenders, hitting Antetokounmpo in stride for a strong andone finish over Celtics big man Daniel Theis – a play that sealed what would become a 119-112 Bucks win.
The Middleton-Antetokounmpo dynamic isn’t anything new, either. If you’ve watched the Bucks over the past few seasons, particularly the most recent two, you’ve undoubtedly seen it run hundreds of time. It’s a connection the two players have been working on throughout their seven seasons in Milwaukee. As they’ve progressed with their individual skills – particularly Antetokounmpo’s rolling and finishing and Middleton’s passing – the combination has gotten more potent.
Every opponent knows it needs to pick its poison, but Antetokounmpo and Middleton have made it so that choice is incredibly difficult. Teams can’t just key on Antetokounmpo and leave Middleton because his pull-up three-point shooting is deadly. They can’t sell out on Middleton, either, because leaving any window for Antetokounmpo to catch inside is basically giving up two points.
“Those two guys, it’s just that they’re such good players, they make good reads and they see any opportunity that’s available and take advantage of it,” Bucks coach
Mike Budenholzer said.
Middleton has demonstrated marked improvement in the pick-androll this season whether it’s scoring for himself or finding teammates. His individual scoring numbers as a pickand-roll ball-handler are much more efficient, going from about 0.87 points per possession last year to 1.01 points per possession in 2019-20 according to NBA.com.
While his assist numbers are about the same year-over-year, Middleton seems to have found a better rhythm and added a little more diversity to his passes, threading the needle to find open teammates – particularly Antetokounmpo – on the roll. His turnovers are down compared to last year and his assist percentage (21.3%) is the highest of his career as he’s taken on a bigger ball-handling role.
“He’s just such a great basketball player and he always makes the right read down the stretch,” Antetokounmpo said. “So, you know, personally I’ve been with him seven years and I always trust him down the stretch . ...
“We’ve done it over and over again during the playoffs. We’ve done it in regular-season games. I feel like me and Khris, we’re smart. And we know that we’re going to make the right play down the stretch. There are times that we’ve not made the right play and we’ve lost games, but 70, 80% of the time, we know how to close out games.”
As they head into Sunday’s 7:30 p.m. game against the Houston Rockets, the Bucks have played the fewest clutch minutes in the league (55) and own the best winning percentage (16-4; .800) in such games. However, they clearly know how they want to close out tight games. Middleton and Antetokounmpo combining on the pick-and-roll is a big part of that.
If all else fails, it doesn’t hurt to have Antetokounmpo, either. The reigning and presumptive MVP knows a thing or two about closing games, something he demonstrated with 16 fourthquarter points on Friday, including eight in the final three minutes.
“That’s what he works on every single day,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said. “He lives for that moment. He wants that pressure, that spotlight on him in that situation and he’s good to go. That’s his mindset, that’s where he wants to be and when you see him put that work in every day, every single day, just putting the work in to get better . ...
“I don’t want to normalize it but that’s Giannis. That’s what he does.”