On the heels of compiling their dominant run in their Game 2 win over the Boston Celtics, we look at how the Milwaukee Bucks have saved their best play for third quarters throughout their playoff run.
Coming out of halftime of Game 2 Tuesday night, the Milwaukee Bucks held a four-point edge over the Boston Celtics.
An incredibly compelling, often intense and choppy first half gave way to the Bucks clinging to their slight advantage, even as they showed signs of breaking out of their disjointed rhythm toward the end of the second quarter that swallowed them up in their dreadful Game 1 loss two days earlier.
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Twelve minutes later, the Bucks’ lead ballooned up to 25 points after they dropped a 39-point quarter that blew open up the game and eventually, helped them even up the series with the Celtics at one game apiece.
Milwaukee’s attack roared, hitting shots from all levels of the floor as they went 12-of-20 from the field, hit a nice 6-of-9 from long distance and made nine of their 10 attempts from the free throw line over the course of the third.
Meanwhile, the Bucks’ blitzing, imposing defense smothered the Celtics for the majority of the period, limiting them to just 18 points on 21 total shots and holding them to just one basket in the quarter’s final seven minutes and six seconds.
All in all, dominating third quarters is nothing new for the Bucks this postseason or even dating back to the regular season.
Per NBA.com/stats, the Bucks possess the highest net rating during the third quarter out of all playoff teams at +39.0 points per 100 possessions (it should also be noted that they have the highest net rating in general throughout the playoffs).
As for the regular season, the Bucks’ +9.7 net rating in third quarters only trailed the Toronto Raptors (+9.9 points per 100 possessions) and the defending champion Golden State Warriors, who collected a net rating of +11.1 points per 100 possessions.
Of course, the Bucks’ lofty playoff mark is helped by facing an inferior first round opponent in the Detroit Pistons, who were without Blake Griffin for the first two games of the series and who was clearly hobbled, yet still productive, in the following pair of contests before being swept.
With that said, you play the team that’s in front of you and the Bucks’ ability to either beef up their control of games like we saw during Game 2 against the Celtics or turn them inside out like in Games 3 and 4 against the Pistons has been remarkable in showing how dangerous the team came become in what feels like an instant.
That might not apply to any Bucks player more than their superstar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has looked recharged coming out of the halftime interval of games.
In the Bucks’ six playoff games, Antetokounmpo has been at his most effective and productive in the third quarter by a wide margin, especially scoring the ball. Averaging 10.5 points in the third frame, Antetokounmpo has put down 53.8 percent of his 39 field goal attempts and has shot 45.5 percent on his 11 three-point attempts in that span of games.
The 24-year-old has even seen his efficiency from the free throw line experience a significant uptick as he’s connecting on 76.2 percent of his 21 free throw tries attempted in the third quarter of playoff games, getting extra reps in around Ja Rule’s halftime show be damned.
For all of the talk of adjustments that surrounded the Bucks heading into Tuesday night down 1-0 against the Celtics, their ability to recalibrate and/or turn up the volume in-game may still be underestimated, even by those who have followed the team all throughout the year.
Through the first two games of the Bucks’ series with the Celtics, the third quarter has been the biggest bellwether to the routs we’ve seen so far. If that continues to hold, the Bucks’ third quarter mastery throughout the playoffs may just win out and dictate the rest of the series.