Milwaukee Bucks Roundtable: Reflecting on the Conference Finals loss

TORONTO, CANADA - MAY 25: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks and Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Toronto Raptors talk after Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 25, 2019 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Mark Blinch/NBAE via Getty Images)
TORONTO, CANADA - MAY 25: Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks and Kawhi Leonard #2 of the Toronto Raptors talk after Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 25, 2019 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Mark Blinch/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ONTARIO – MAY 21: (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO – MAY 21: (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /

3. What do you think was a bigger cause of why Milwaukee lost the series to Toronto? Their offense or defense?

Dan Larsen (@DanLarsen34): The Bucks lost this series because of their failures on offense. Milwaukee’s half court offense completely broke down, and the bad turnovers and shots they had because of it, helped create offense for Toronto too. So much of the mental edge in this series stemmed from their offensive play. When the Bucks had it going on offense, their defense was great. When they didn’t, things started to unravel everywhere.

Milwaukee certainly wasn’t perfect on defense either. Their failure to push the pace stemmed from that side of the ball, and they’ll probably need to be a bit more flexible in their approach to stop a team who can hit threes moving forward. My fear for the Bucks was, if they had made it to The Finals, Golden State’s three-point shooting would have broken their defensive scheme. We saw what a team can do when they get hot on open threes in this series.

However, the Bucks lost this series because of their offensive struggles. They needed to have a plan B to go to when things weren’t working through Giannis. They never came up with one.

Theo Konstantellos (@theokon7): If we disregard shot making luck on both ends I would say that the Bucks’ offense was definitely the part that could use some work. The Bucks should have pushed the pace more aggressively and moved the ball better in halfcourt especially down the stretch of the games they let slip away.

Jordan Treske (@JordanTreske): It certainly would be their offense. Saying so doesn’t mean there should be a grand referendum on the Bucks’ offense in general because the majority of it came down to the Bucks’ players not playing as well as the Raptors’ best players.

And I think, as all Bucks fans and the basketball world at large is starting figure out, the Raptors’ defense is just incredibly impressive and very smart to boot. We’ve already seen in Game 1 of the NBA Finals just how much of a struggle it was for the Golden State Warriors to operate in the halfcourt and it only emphasizes the need for Kevin Durant to return to action for them.

Simply put, any examination of what went wrong for the Bucks offensively only reflects well on how Toronto made life absolutely miserable for them and it started at the top with Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Adam McGee (@AdamMcGee11): It’s their offense. That was highlighted by the dramatic scoring drought in Game 6 that cost them the series. On an individual level, the Bucks had too many key cogs play below their best for the offense to hum at anything close to its usual level.