Milwaukee Bucks: Digging into their growing defensive identity crisis
The Milwaukee Bucks’ eye-opening Game 1 loss to the Orlando Magic reignited the many concerns seen from their sliding defensive performances in the bubble.
After many months of questions, nervousness and excitement, the start of the Milwaukee Bucks‘ 2020 playoff run managed to sound the same alarm bells that rang nearly 15 months ago.
The Bucks’ 122-110 Game 1 defeat to the Orlando Magic saw a Bucks team that looked stunned after getting punched in the mouth, a consistent theme when they have suffered such lapses in the Mike Budenholzer era. But while the Bucks’ Conference Finals collapse to the Toronto Raptors was seen as swift and sudden, the events leading up to the Game 1 loss couldn’t be described similarly.
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After all, the Bucks had played quite the Jekyll and Hyde act through their eight seeding games, even as they experienced a revolving door of rotation changes and absences.
With all of that coming after a four-and-a-half month-long hiatus, it’s been a long time since the Bucks have looked like the juggernaut that raced to capture the league’s best record for the second straight year.
At the heart of the Bucks’ struggles has been their once-shining play on the defensive end. Their overall excellence has been nowhere to be found as their opponents have stuck to the formula of bombing away from three and hitting jump shots at an exceptionally high rate, with the Magic being the latest squad to exploit those very susceptibilities.
Through the Bucks’ nine games in the bubble, which obviously includes their Game 1 loss to Orlando, they have allowed 110.6 points per 100 possessions, per NBA.com/stats. Given that the Bucks had ranked at the top of the league with a 101.6 defensive rating pre-season suspension, that drop-off is going from historically great to right ahead of the 17th-ranked Phoenix Suns.
Where the Bucks once looked in sync on defense, moving as if everything was orchestrated on a string, they now succumb to the same defensive issues or lapses of a team fighting to earn a playoff spot or worse. That, in turn, has turned everything out of balance and made the Bucks look very mortal, especially under these unprecedented circumstances.
With defense informing everything the Bucks do on both ends of the floor, the time missed due to the league shutting down as a result of the coronavirus pandemic has left Milwaukee trying to literally make up for lost time trying to regain the muscle memory and overall nuances of their scheme.
Combine that with the run of strong 3-point shooting teams the Bucks have faced in the bubble and the scouting report for the Bucks’ defense practically hung on the walls inside the hotels in Orlando, it’s all informed the ugliness we’ve seen on that end of the floor.
The Bucks playing mere ordinary defense has tipped the scales against their favor in all aspects of their game. By struggling to get half of the same defensive stops they were getting at their peak, their offense has been incapable of reaching another gear to get them within striking distance of ending this ongoing skid.
Case in point, Milwaukee is averaging 1.01 points per possession on offense following a make from the opposition over their time in Orlando, per Inpredictable. To make matters worse, the Bucks are averaging 1.13 points per possession after causing turnover, a mark that ranks 18th of the 22 teams for the restart.
Even on the occasions when the Bucks regain the ball on their opponents’ miscues, they’re not cashing in scoring chances at a highly efficient rate. And if the Bucks continue to rack up the level of turnovers they’ve accumulated over the bubble, it all adds to the odds that are increasingly stacking up against them with each passing game.
Add in those impulsive shots taken early in the shot clock as ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz so eloquently described have put an incredible burden on the Bucks to wake from their defensive slumber and rely what has been the bedrock to their success under Budenholzer.
This isn’t the first time the Bucks have put up a Game 1 clunker as their opening loss to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Semifinals brought about all sorts of doom-and-gloom before the Bucks promptly rattled off four straight wins to dismantle the Celtics.
But why the Bucks’ bubble struggles are veering into uncharted territory, if they haven’t already, is the fact that the Bucks haven’t produced this kind of extended stretch where their defense has been this out of sorts. Add in all of the aforementioned circumstances that preceded the league’s restart and it’s all led to the Bucks searching for answers nearly a month-and-a-half into their stay in Orlando.
Next. Now is Bledsoe’s chance to flip the script on playoff woes. dark
For all those reasons, there is no switch that can be flipped to erase the Bucks’ current woes and regain control of their series with the Magic. With these issues being repeated and ingrained into their time in the bubble, it will take more than just playing better to break the habits and vulnerabilities that their opponents have easily taken advantage of over the last few weeks.