Milwaukee Bucks: Analyzing bench matchup with the Boston Celtics

Defense

To counteract the Bucks’ second unit advantage offensively, the Celtics certainly hold the upper hand in how their bench can perform defensively over the course of a playoff series.

Backed by the fact that they built the best defense in the NBA this year in terms of defensive efficiency, the Celtics have the versatility, size and commitment to limit what the Bucks want to do to outpace them.

Yes, Brad Stevens will have to reach further into his bench and rely on rookies like Ojeleye, Abdel Nader and potentially Guerschon Yabusele to impede the Bucks’ athleticism throughout their roster. As tall of a task as that sounds, the results have stayed consistent all throughout the year no matter how green the latter end of their roster may be.

As we all know well by now, the opposite of that holds true for the Bucks, considering their many defensive woes. The Bucks certainly have sturdy, savvy defenders off their bench that can hold down the fort such as Brogdon, rookie Sterling Brown and Matthew Dellavedova, whose reputation as an irritant always shines on the playoff stage.

However, Parker’s weaknesses as a defender are inescapable, especially as we’ve seen plenty of moments this year where he’s displaying total apathy to his matchup or even running back to the other end of the floor. For as intriguing as it will be to see the 23-year-old finally participate in his first playoff series, the prospect of Parker being gameplanned and inevitably singled out is something all Bucks fans are not looking forward to watching.

Combine that with the Bucks’ wide-ranging schematic concerns under this coaching regime and they have plenty of factors to work around, even if they buck the trends of this year and fully commit to that end.