Bucks look to stop Leonard
Milwaukee is the No. 1 defensive team so far in the 2019 playoffs
Mike Budenholzer remembers a young Kawhi Leonard from their short time together with the San Antonio Spurs, but this Kawhi Leonard is not that Kawhi Leonard, so the Milwaukee Bucks head coach is not putting much emphasis on that relationship.
“He’s grown and evolved and just obviously one of the elite players in our league,” Budenholzer said here Tuesday, after the Bucks practised at their spanking new downtown facility. “He was great when he was in San Antonio, but it’s been a long time ago that I was there. (I) know him a little bit, appreciate and respect him, but I don’t think it has much bearing on preparing or getting us ready.”
Budenholzer was an assistant on Gregg Popovich’s staff with the Spurs for the first two years of Leonard’s career before moving on to be the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and now the Bucks.
Leonard was good, but certainly not the otherworldly player he is now, more a role player on a team dominated by Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili rather than the central figure he is for the Raptors. But like the rest of the league, Budenholzer has been well aware of Leonard’s development and the kind of superelite star he’s become.
Budenholzer is also well aware that stopping Leonard is no easy task.
“Obviously, he’s a great shooter —the mid-range shot, the three-point shot,” the coach said. “He can finish in the paint, get to the free-throw line. Just a very dynamic, gifted scorer with a great body. He brings a physicality to the offensive end of the court, so it’s a great challenge.”
How the Bucks handle that challenge — and they are the No.1defensive team in the NBA through two rounds of playoffs — will go a long way in determining in the outcome in the Eastern Conference final.
Leonard is averaging 31.8 points per game in the playoffs and shooting nearly 54 per cent from the field. There have been times when he has single-handedly kept a scuffling Raptors offence going, and his role isn’t going to change with the arrival of another series.
“He scores in lots of different ways. It’s really difficult to defend him without extra activity,” Budenholzer said. “You’ve got to throw a lot of different looks at him, a lot of bodies at him.”
Said Milwaukee’s Malcolm Brogdon: “It's just about making it tough for him, making him uncomfortable every play down the floor and trying to limit his touches on the ball.”
Leonard knows what awaits, at the Fiserv Forum on Wednesday and in every subsequent game. He’ll see multiple defenders at different times.
It’ll be like the Philadelphia 76ers guarded him, but it will also be different. And it will take time to figure out.
“They help each other well,” Leonard said of the Bucks. “I feel like they’re a good defensive team in helping and showing length, showing bodies on whoever gets into the paint or gets to the lane. That’s what helps them: They’re on the same page.
“It is a different personnel (than Philadelphia), so there is different tendencies on how they help. (Will) they strip guys? Box out guys? Charge guys? Those are things you have to (take into account) when you’re playing a new team or new system.”
The Bucks have been idle since eliminating the Boston Celtics a week ago in a fivegame conference semifinal. They lost the first game of that series before rattling off four relatively easy wins, just as Toronto did in its first-round win over Orlando.
Those results give both teams a better perspective on the significance of Game 1.
“Every game’s important, but obviously both of us lost Game 1 and continued to advance. I think hopefully our players are just ready,” Budenholzer said, “maybe understand something better going into this round than the last round, but ultimately it’s the first team to get to four. You’d like to get off to a good start, but it doesn’t always happen that way.”