Putting together a winning formula
Bucks’ defense helps deliver lopsided wins
The Bucks are outscoring their opponents by 12.1 points per game.
This point differential has dropped in recent weeks, but Milwaukee still is on pace to win by one of the greatest average margins in NBA history.
It’s much too early to say whether the Bucks will maintain this pace.
But this is a good time to look at some of the reasons the Bucks have achieved this margin of success, and whether it will help them reach their ultimate goal of an NBA title in June.
With a 46-8 record, and the reigning most valuable player in Giannis Antetokounmpo, and coach of the year in Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks have played dominant basketball.
Here’s a deeper look at how Milwaukee is crushing opponents:
It all starts with defense – defense on the move.
“There’s so many teams trying to push the pace, especially nowadays,” Bucks guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “If we can limit transition buckets and get them in the half court, I think we do a great job making them take tough, contested shots.”
By playing transition D, and forcing opponents to take those tough contested shots, opponents shoot a lower percentage. And when the opponent shoots 44.9% or worse, the Bucks are 36-3.
It’s well known Antetokounmpo is a force in the paint defensively. It’s hard to say how much center Brook Lopez is appreciated beyond state lines for his rim protection.
“We have the defensive player of the year on our team, in Brook,” guard George Hill said. “It shouldn’t even be close. Politically they probably won’t give it to him.
“If we look at what he does, protecting the rim, blocked shots, challenging shots, as a big? He challenges more shots than any other big in the NBA. It all starts with that man that is anchored down in the middle. And that’s Brook.”
The Bucks are not limited to a starting five, a sixth man and then a bunch of role players. Budenholzer consistently goes 12 deep and regrets that he can’t go deeper.
It helps avoid fatigue.
“We’re a deep team where guys can come off the bench and still keep that production high,” DiVincenzo said.
“We’re not over-taxing guys with minutes,” forward Kyle Korver said. “We’re fresh. We play hard every night.”
Said guard Wesley Matthews, “We come at you waves. We continue to impose our will. You can learn what our strengths are, but we have so many guys that do so many things that we all come with a lot of energy.”
The Bucks are a versatile lot. They can play a big lineup, they can play small.
“When we need to go big, to match them, or take advantage of a matchup, we can,” Korver said. “If we need to go small, we can do that. We can kind of shift to whatever we need to be to match up with the other team well.
“And that starts with Giannis to be able to be the center or whatever he needs to be.”
Budenholzer also likes to pull his starters earlier than most coaches, rest them, and re-insert them into the lineup fairly promptly.
That creates an advantage when eventually the Bucks’ A team is playing the opponent’s B team.
“Bud is really good. It’s probably one of the things that he thinks about the most as he goes into the game, the matchups and the lineups,” Korver said. “When he’s subbing guys in really early, and then bringing them back earlier, often times our second unit is playing a bit against their first unit.
“But then a lot of our first unit is playing against their second unit. So how he manages that also plays a role.”
Yes, the three-pointer is the way to win in the NBA. But Antetokounmpo has not abandoned the high percentage two-point shot.
“You know, guys who have taken the most shots are efficient. Giannis uses a lot of shots in the paint,” Korver said.
Antetokounmpo is shooting 54.9%. Milwaukee averages 50.9 points in the paint per game, third best in the NBA.
How else do you beat other teams by a dozen?
“You play the right way,” as Hill put it. Allow others to flourish and thrive.
The Bucks don’t have a problem child to manage. There’s no super ego wearing jersey No. 1. Khris Middleton barely talks above a whisper and Antetokounmpo would rather give away his shoes to kids.
This is a really big deal. It’s more than guys getting along on the court. It’s more than courtesy off it.
“We genuinely like each other. There’s no ‘I gotta get my points’ here,” Korver said. “That’s when guys start forcing the issue, and then they get cold, that’s when droughts happen.
“When it comes to that, your best player sets the tone. If the best player kind of acts like he’s the biggest deal, and they revolve around him, that trickles through the rest of the team.
“It’s been great having brothers on the team and family. I think it does create a special bond, a togetherness. But I think really it starts with our best players. Especially Giannis, how he handles himself. And how his actions lead the team in that way.”
Milwaukee beat Orlando recently, but it was unusual that the Magic were permitted to go on a 11-0 run in a 2:30 stretch. The Bucks haven’t endured a whole lot of droughts of consequence this season (defined as going scoreless for 21⁄2-3 minutes) but that was one of them.
“If you think of our droughts, it’s when we’re lazy defensively,” DiVincenzo said.
“Sometimes Coach Bud will let it go kind of a little bit to see if we can adjust. If we don’t, you’ll see Bud call a quick time out and after that time out, you’ll see almost all the time, we come out of that time out and we’re locked in, defensively.”
The Bucks don’t really worry about droughts minute by minute, or scoring runs. They look at quarters and halves.
“Anytime we’re under 55 points at the half ” is a drought, Matthews said. “We want to see how we stack up each half, each quarter. One-hundred-ten points for the game, it’s a solid number for us.”
The Bucks average 119.6 points a game, which is highest in the NBA, and have a 42-4 record when they reach the 110-number.
Late last season, the Bucks weren’t tested much by close games.
They do work in practice on end-ofgame situations, with a game tied 100 or the Bucks down by two. They try to add stress by making the losing team run extra. Veteran players really hate running extra.
But there’s nothing that really simulates the madness of a Game 6 in Toronto.
“You don’t have to be in a close game every single night to get those tests,” Korver said. “And you don’t have to be slugging. I do think we come out on the better end of this, winning games and having guys more fresh for the end. That’s better than if we’ve won 25 threepoint games.
“I think the scales will shift in our favor on that.
“But we do need close games. It gets different in the playoffs.”