Bucks Gaming fall in first round of The Turn to Mavs affiliate, 74-68

Bucks Gaming could not advance in the midseason tournament with $150k on the line, despite strong performances from Drake and oLarry in a loss to Mavs GG.

Bucks Gaming were looking to ride the success of last week’s first regular season win into this weekend’s mid-season tournament, titled The Turn, but failed to advance past Mavs GG, led by number one overall pick Dimez.

The Bucks showed spirit in coming back from a double-digit deficit, and continued to show improvement over earlier performances this season, but could not put it all together at a higher level.

The game opened with the Bucks jumping out to a 5-0 lead, but the Mavs responded with a 12-2 run and never really looked back from there. The first quarter finished 22-10, as the Bucks simply couldn’t find any rhythm offensively and couldn’t stop much on the other end.

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The catalyst for this was turnovers, as the Bucks committed several. These led to fast break points for the Mavs. When the Bucks did manage to produce a shot, it was usually a contested jumper that didn’t fall. The lone consistency was excellent finishing by oLarry in the post, but they couldn’t get him the ball often enough.

It was more of the same in the second quarter, as the Mavs ran endless pick-and-rolls with Dimez and their big man Dayfri, which produced buckets not only for those two but for their sharpshooter BallLikeSeem, as a result of good passing out of help defense.

When the Bucks did manage to get out in transition they often produced baskets, and oLarry continued to finish well. Once slowed into the halfcourt, however, the two primary ball-handlers STL and Peroxide couldn’t produce enough. Drake bailed out his teammates by hitting a few threes that kept the game somewhat close. The halftime lead was 46-28 for the Mavs.

Halftime statistics were indicative of the problems: Dimez had 10 points and 11 assists, Seem had 14 points, and Dayfri had 17 points and nine rebounds. Although Drake and BigMeek had combined for 5-of-8 shooting on threes, STL couldn’t get anything going running the point with only four points and two assists, and Peroxide was held scoreless on top of four costly turnovers. The Bucks throughout the game were out-rebounded, and couldn’t match the Mavs’ team assist totals.

In the second half, Drake and STL began to drag their team back into contention with some improved offense. Not much progress was made in the third, as a small run by the Bucks closed the gap to 53-40, but that stalled as the Mavs were able to trade buckets with them fairly consistently. Dimez showed throughout the game why he was the top pick in the 2018 draft, having almost complete control over an effective pick-and-roll offense. Ironically, the Bucks often overpassed, as they were willing to share the ball but did not have enough direction and focus to create anything with their passes, and turnovers continued to plague their halfcourt efforts.

Finally, in the fourth quarter, they began to make real progress. Shooting from Drake and fast break layups by STL brought the lead down to 65-56, and the Bucks continued to work on the lead from there.

BigMeek and oLarry continued to score consistently when given the opportunity, and Peroxide finally got a jumper to fall in the final few minutes to get on the board. A steal and layup by STL with a minute to go lowered the Mavs’ lead to five, but Seem answered with a three on the other end and it never got closer than that, despite another transition dunk from STL. They got a late stop but turned it over again despite having timeouts with 12 seconds left, and the game was over from there.

The box score can be found here, unfortunately in GIF form:

It shows how the Mavs trio of Dimez, Dayfri, and Seem were essentially unguardable, but it also shows some room for growth for the Bucks. Peroxide did finish with eight assists in his role as point forward, and Drake was a blazing 6-of-7 from behind the arc, having fixed his early season shooting woes. oLarry had a cool 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting but did need to do a better job on the glass, getting beat there 14-5 by his matchup.

The Mavs were the favorite in this matchup, and they showed why. They featured a consistently productive pick-and-roll offense, combined with good transition opportunities, and did an excellent job of manufacturing open looks when the simple PNR wasn’t working. Seem came off of several off-ball screens spread over the court, and the Mavs also ran a set involving multiple cuts on a high post by Dayfri that also produced a couple of baskets.

Next: Bucks Gaming secure first win, defeat Cavs Legion Gaming in OT

On the other side of things, the Bucks lacked that level of offensive sophistication and relied on too much iso-ball. Whether this is a chemistry issue or a scheme issue remains to be seen. They face the Celtics affiliate (1-3 regular season) at noon on June 16th, in what will be a first time matchup for the two teams.