Bucks Gaming fall to 0-3 regular season start after loss to Blazer5 Gaming

Bucks Gaming continued their search for a NBA 2K League regular season win, as they fell to Blazer5 Gaming in their Week 3 matchup on Friday.

The wait for a first regular season win continues for Bucks Gaming, following a Friday night loss to Blazer5 Gaming that saw their record slip to 0-3.

Bucks Gaming have undoubtedly been better than that record suggests, but it doesn’t make their start any more encouraging.

What was certainly clear heading into week three of the NBA 2K League’s regular season is that the schedule had done Milwaukee no favors. Only three teams entered this round of games with a perfect 2-0 start, of that group the Bucks had already played and lost to 76ers GC and Pistons GT, while the third team would be their opponent on this occasion.

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Boosted by top-five pick OneWildWalnut, Blazer5 Gaming have impressed early in the 2K League season. Perhaps influenced by a combination of that and their own struggles to date, Bucks Gaming continued to ring the changes heading into Friday’s contest.

The starting five remained the same from their week two loss to Pistons GT, but it was the positional changes that represented Bucks Gaming’s most drastic change of the season to date.

The Bucks’ first round pick Game6Drake moved out of the point guard spot into more of an off-ball role at shooting guard. Although the Bucks had previously trialed Drake playing off ball with Peroxide working as a point forward, on this occasion the move was to bring STL2LA across from the wing to start at point guard.

With STL2LA only averaging three points coming into the week, it seemed like an attempt to get something out of the team’s fifth starter, yet the potential knock-on effect on Drake’s influence made it a high-risk move.

In terms of archetypes, oLarry manned the middle as a pure rim protector in the hopes of slowing down Walnut, while Bucks Gaming focused on three-point shooting at every other position as their remaining four players all included some form of sharpshooting tendencies.

The plan to make more threes certainly worked as Bucks Gaming scored 15 more points than Blazer5 from distance, thanks to an outstanding 12-of-19 three-point shooting display, yet the problems that adjustment opened up hurt them twice as much in other departments.

For the most part, the story of what could have been a close game was defined by turnovers. As STL2LA tried to adjust to a new role and his teammates looked to mesh around him, there were frequent breakdowns that weren’t necessarily apparent in previous weeks.

In total, Bucks Gaming amassed 15 turnovers compared to just seven from their Portland counterparts, with four of those coming from STL2LA directly at point guard.

STL2LA did step up generally and show much improved play leading his team in the backcourt, finishing with 11 points, six assists and two rebounds, but it would be hard to describe it as a move that generally seemed to work out for the best for the overall team.

BigMeek continued his somewhat surprising run as the team’s most consistent contributor as he delivered a steady 18 points, five rebounds and two assists from a nice mix of jump shots.

It would be tough to do too much to change his role considering how effective he’s become offensively, but there’s a case to be made that Meek’s archetype isn’t necessarily helping oLarry to hold things down on the defensive glass.

Speaking of which, oLarry had an uncharacteristically quiet scoring game with just eight points, although he did some nice work across the box score with five rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks. Considering how reliably he’s scored inside in the past, Bucks Gaming likely can’t afford to move away from oLarry as a featured scorer in the future.

As the game progressed, the Bucks looked to experiment with STL2LA playing a little bit more off ball, and that freed up Peroxide to take on something closer to a role he’s thrived in already. Peroxide previously scored 41 points as a point forward, and some freedom to handle the ball and initiate saw him score 18 points behind a second half scoring burst. While Peroxide has proven to be a capable go-to scoring option, the team does look like it can get bogged down with the lack of ball movement in moments when they lean into that approach.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we arrive at Drake. Bucks Gaming’s top pick played pretty well on Friday night when he was afforded the chance to influence the game, but the reality is those opportunities were few and far between. Drake was a perfect 3-of-3, with all of his shots coming from behind the three-point line, yet the lack of attempts overall was problematic.

The positional changes involved in this game may have been a desperation move as Bucks Gaming looked for a breakthrough win, but the reality is they didn’t pay off. If anything, it looked as if the Bucks took a sizable step back from where they were just a week ago.

In the end, Blazer5 Gaming cruised to victory as OneWildWalnut produced a dominant 19 point, 12 rebound performance, and was ably assisted by DatBoyShotz and MamaImDatMan with 22 points and 21 points respectively.

Next: Bucks Gaming fall to 0-2 following heartbreaker against Pistons GT

The schedule won’t get much easier for Bucks Gaming, as their next game will come on Saturday, June 2 against a Cavs GC team that’s started the season 3-1.