Calling on Jabari
The Bucks are hoping for more tonight from Jabari Parker in Game 2 against Boston.
BOSTON - The Milwaukee Bucks know there are numerous things they need to clean up heading into Game 2 of their playoff series against the Boston Celtics at 7 p.m. Tuesday at TD Garden. They can’t have the 20 turnovers they had in Game 1 and expect to even the series before it heads back to Milwaukee. That also holds true for Milwaukee’s lack of defensive rebounding, which allowed Boston to rack up 22 second-chance point while attempting 11 more shots than the Bucks.
“The 50-50 balls, the rebounds, the hustle plays, got to make sure we come up with those,” Bucks interim coach Joe Prunty said Monday following the team’s practice at TD Garden.
Maybe most of all, the Bucks need more from their role players. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton carried the load Sunday afternoon with a combined 66 points on 23 of 41 shooting, 21 rebounds, 13 assists and five steals.
When those players were off the floor, especially Middleton, the Bucks fell apart. Outside of those two, there weren’t enough two-way contributions to get Milwaukee over the hump.
John Henson held things down defensively with six blocks, but had three turnovers and little offensive impact. Tony Snell was minus-17 in his 33 minutes — missing all three of his threepoint attempts — and Eric Bledsoe had limited impact, in part due to foul trouble, finishing with nine points and five turnovers.
“Just keep them more involved,” Middleton said when asked how to get more out of his teammates. “I feel like they had some great shots, great opportunities for the most part last night. Some shots just didn’t go down. … We’ve got confidence in those guys. We need them.”
The players listed above are starters. The Bucks also need much more from their bench, which really only went four players deep. Sterling Brown came in for one second while Mattthew Dellavedova, Thon Maker and Shabazz Muhammad didn’t see the court.
Malcolm Brogdon was a bright spot with 16 points and solid defensive effort off the bench. Jason Terry had three points and was a net-neutral in his 18 minutes and Tyler Zeller provided some energy with a steal for a dunk during his 41⁄2 minutes on the floor.
What Milwaukee’s bench was missing most, though, was a more positive output from forward Jabari Parker, who finished with two points on 1-of-5 shooting and was minus-14 in his 141⁄2 minutes of action. In his first career playoff game — Parker was rehabbing a torn left ACL during each of the Bucks’ past two playoff runs in 2015 and ’17 — Parker didn’t have the same kind of impact he had during the regular season.
In 31 regular-season games after returning from his latest ACL rehab, Parker averaged 12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 24.0 minutes per game. He shot 48.2% from the field and 38.3% from three-point range.
He wasn’t that same kind of force against the Celtics on Sunday. Parker had a couple shots blocked inside and didn’t knock down either of his shots outside the paint. He was on the floor for 13 points during Boston’s 15-0 run to close the first quarter and never got into a rhythm from there.
“That was his first playoff game,” Middleton said. “It’s never easy. We don’t want him to put a ton of pressure on himself. We just want him to go out there, relax and be the Jabari we know he can be and the Jabari that we’ve seen him be since he came back from injury.”
Parker’s day, which included playing about four minutes in each of the first three quarters, ended 21⁄2 minutes into fourth after a lapse led to an easy bucket for Boston’s Jaylen Brown, putting the Celtics ahead by eight.
With Brown defending him, Parker missed long on a corner three. Brown immediately ran out and got behind the Bucks’ defense for an easy layup. Parker was well behind the play, trotting only as far as the three-point arc by the time Brown caught the ball inside. He was the furthest Bucks player from the ball.
Prunty immediately called timeout and Parker didn’t return for the rest of the fourth quarter or overtime.
“I think for him just getting into a good rhythm when he gets out on the floor,” Prunty said. “First playoff game, that’s not always easy. I think for him there’s a lot of things that you can do, just like anybody else. It doesn’t have to be scoring, like a couple rebounds here and there, a nice pass and an assist, a good defensive stop and getting out on the break and getting something easy in transition.”
Parker was out of the locker room by the time media were allowed in following Sunday’s game. He left Monday’s practice alongside assistant coach Vin Baker as media arrived and was the only player not available for interviews.
His teammates, though, have had plenty of access to him and have offered words of encouragement following his first playoff experience.
“Just talk to him as teammates, especially veterans on the team,” Bledsoe said when asked how the Bucks can help Parker shake off Game 1. “He’s a talented player; we need him. His emotions are going all over the place right now. Just the gym, lot of fans screaming, the game’s just moving fast. Everything’s going 100 miles per hour for him right now. It’s going to come to him. He’s just got to slow down.”
Parker was far from the only Bucks player who left something to be desired on Sunday, but him rounding back into regular-season form, especially offensively, would be a major boon for the Bucks in Game 2. He’ll still be attacked on defense, as teams have long taken advantage of him on that end, which means he’ll need to rise to the occasion and demonstrate consistent focus and hustle to stay on the court.
His teammates have no doubts he can turn things around in Game 2.
“I know Jabari’s going to come out being more comfortable and definitely being more aggressive,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’ve got to do a better job, too, of finding him . ... He didn’t have a great Game 1 but he’s going to have a great Game 2 because that’s what Jabari does.”