Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 122-110 Game 1 loss to Orlando Magic

Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ 122-110 Game 1 loss to Orlando Magic – Defenseless

Over the Bucks’ run through the seeding games, Bucks fans have been waiting for the league’s best defensive unit to lock in and impose its presence over their opponents. After Game 1 against the Magic, they continue waiting.

Give all the credit to Orlando and head coach Steve Clifford for not only picking apart the Bucks’ drop-back defense, but also being able to hit those shots and eventually force Budenholzer’s hand to play smaller lineups in order to withstand the spaced floor the Magic played with (that didn’t work either). Led by Nikola Vucevic’s 35-point performance and overall sharpshooting as he led the squad with five triples, the Magic went 16-for-41 from downtown (39 percent) and shot 9-of-19 on long twos (47.3 percent), per NBA.com/stats.

The Magic having six players score in double figures, all while Evan Fournier saved his three triples all for the fourth quarter, only added to how much of a wide-ranging scoring effort the Magic put in to torment the Bucks on the day.

All of this only adds another chapter to the Bucks’ defensive woes down in the bubble and it does go beyond just locking in and trying to execute their scheme. As we’ve seen, there are no illusions to how the Bucks have been operating on that side of the ball, and opponents continue to dissect them throughout the restart.

The Bucks view themselves as a defensive-minded team under Budenholzer’s reign and with good reason. But when the Bucks have struggled as much as they have had in containing their very weaknesses that they succumb to in defeats, it has a way of causing the kinds of identity problems we’re seeing right now.