Milwaukee Bucks Game Preview: Jan. 10 at San Antonio Spurs

Major Key For Milwaukee: Try To Move Fast

Despite sporting transition weapons like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker, the Milwaukee Bucks actually move at a pretty slow pace. Milwaukee is 19th in pace, or possessions per game on average.

The Spurs are 27th in pace, which makes a lot of sense. San Antonio doesn’t shoot a lot of threes, so the team relies on great defense and efficient, methodical looks on offense to slowly outscore opponents as the game goes on. Sometimes Spurs shooters get hot, but many of their wins come from grinding other teams into dust.

The Bucks can’t really do that. Milwaukee has a good defense, but the Bucks sputter in half-court offense all the time. Only four teams score more fast-break points than Milwaukee does, and the Bucks need those easy buckets.

Milwaukee relies on points in the paint more than any team except the Oklahoma City Thunder, which means opposing teams know if they clog up the paint it can be tough for the Bucks to score. That’s not exactly an option when the Bucks are running down the floor, but in set defenses teams can do that.

Look at all the Knicks that end up around Giannis on this drive. They actually sort of leave Malcolm Brogdon open in the corner which is typically a mistake, but the Knicks are clearly focused on preventing easy inside buckets here.

That’s not a bad strategy against the Bucks, and it’s one the Spurs will likely employ too. Milwaukee needs to get running in transition as much as possible, plus speed up their half-court sets too. If they don’t the Greek Freak might be running into a lot of walls on Tuesday.