Milwaukee Bucks Grades, Reactions To 91-79 Win Over The Miami Heat

Reactions: The Good

• Winning on the road is always good. Dominating a team ahead of you in the standings in their house is impressive. Consistency has been the issue with the Bucks all season long so when they opened up a double digit lead you half expected them to surrender it at first sign of trouble. Like at the start of the second half when the Heat took the Bucks lead down to six. But instead of folding the Bucks replied with an 18-4 run to ice the game early. The Bucks are gaining confidence in themselves and are beginning to play to their potential every night, rather than playing to the quality of their competition.

• Giannis Antetokounmp0’s double-double streak ended at four games. But he was still effective, particularly on the defensive end and really kept Luol Deng and Chris Bosh from making too many big plays. Meanwhile he scored fourteen points–his fifth straight double-digit scoring game. His most impressive pair came at the expense of Hassan Whiteside. It looked like this.

• Despite the imposing size of the Miami Heat’s front-line (Whiteside 7’0″, Bosh 6″11″, Deng 6’9″) the Bucks actually out-rebounded their opponents 39-38. It was their fourth straight game with the rebounding advantage. There’s been a clear shift in their aggressiveness off the glass lately–as seen in Miami when on any given shot there were two or three black shirts banging around in the paint. Without Whiteside’s seven offensive rebounds, they held the Heat to just five offensive rebounds.

• Jabari Parker saw his double-digit scoring streak end at ten games. He was limited to just nine points in Miami. But that’s okay because he showed marginally better defense and handing out a trio of very nice assists. What you really want to see from Parker is a stable mid-range jumper. He delivered in Miami, hitting all three of his attempts from fifteen feet or more–including this Paul Pierce style step-back. Butter.

• We saw a lot of Khris Middleton as the prime ball handler in the offense. The ball in Middleton’s hands gives the offense a completely different dynamic than when anyone else has it. Middleton is a talented passer, can pull up from anywhere, and is particularly deadly on the pick and roll. Here he is playing the two-man game with John Henson.

• For fun here’s Parker with a transition assist to a gyro-stepping Giannis. Here’s my analysis on the play: they’re both pretty good.

Next: Reactions: The Bad