4. Do you think the Bucks struggles’ were reflective of their inexperience in the moment, or were they symptomatic of bigger issues that need to be addressed this off-season?
Dan Larsen (@DanLarsen34): I think we saw their inexperience in the moment affect them. Through the first two games of the series, Milwaukee was fine. That’s because everything was breaking in their favor. Once Toronto countered by punching them in the mouth with a big win in Game 3, that quickly shifted.
It felt like, after Game 3, it finally dawned on the Bucks that they were two games away from the Finals. Everyone, from Giannis on, began to press more. Guys stopped making the right basketball plays as a result, and things would spin wildly out of control for big stretches of games. The worse the team played, the more guys pressed. This created a snowball effect that allowed Toronto to go on huge, game changing runs.
There are things that they can improve on moving forward, but I believe much of what we saw was simply an inexperienced team getting beat by one with several guys who’ve been here before.
Theo Konstantellos (@theokon7): Inexperience was, for sure, a big part of the issues the Bucks faced down the stretch of games. They just looked like they could not be trusted to create plays both individually and as a team. The Bucks had a horrible offensive rating of 91.7 in the fourth quarters of the last four losses. When a team stops to do what they normally do in the fourth quarter it’s a sign of inexperience.
Jordan Treske (@JordanTreske): The Bucks’ collective inexperience certainly grew in importance as the series went along. That obviously counts in the disparity between the two teams in playoff appearances and such, but the fact that the Bucks rarely went down to the wire in clutch game situations during the regular season certainly informed their late game shakiness and uncharacteristic errors.
Adam McGee (@AdamMcGee11): Getting within two games of the Finals within only a single playoff loss to their name, and then going on to lose four straight suggests the Bucks certainly fell prisoners to the moment. It was undoubtedly an important learning experience for the team, it’s just a pity that underachievement in recent years prevented them from being ready for such moments already.