Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 119-116 loss to Brooklyn Nets

Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ 119-116 loss to Brooklyn Nets: Coach Bud taking the long view

Speaking of the Bucks’ rotation, it is perhaps a little bold to assume we will see too much of anything resembling the Bucks’ regular rotation between now and the end of the regular season.

Milwaukee head coach Mike Budenholzer certainly shook things up with a far from conventional approach to playing time and lineups on Tuesday, which was something that ultimately proved to be a decisive factor in the Bucks’ slipping to shock defeat against a dramatically depleted Nets squad.

After the game, Coach Bud revealed to the media that the Bucks’ unusual minutes management against Brooklyn was the plan from before the game even tipped off, with the design simply to get minutes for as many players as possible.

As Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relayed:

"“I think today was an opportunity for other guys to get minutes,” Budenholzer said after noting that Antetokounmpo and Middleton’s 16 minutes apiece was intentional. “Bled and Pat are back, so it was great. I think it’s a huge step for us to get those two guys back, continue to get more healthy and stay healthy. I think some games, you know, that’s probably more important than anything – that we stay healthy. … “It just felt like with the day game and the cumulative, kind of, workload – we track and watch how much the guys are practicing and working – it made sense for us to go lighter on the load for some guys and increase other guys’ load.”"

With nothing really left to play for between now and the end of the season for the Bucks, the sole priority needs to be getting themselves best prepared for the playoffs. Building up stamina and fitness is certainly crucial to that, but the balance with confidence and positive momentum may also be worth monitoring over the course of the remaining seeding games.