Brought on by their defensive resurgence, the Milwaukee Bucks evened their first round series with the Orlando Magic Thursday night with their Game 2 victory.
All is finally right with the Milwaukee Bucks as they took Game 2 of their first round series with the Orlando Magic in what ended up being a 111-96 victory Thursday night.
To say the Bucks were motivated to put their Game 1 loss behind them was an understatement as they ratcheted up their league-leading defense to stifle the Magic’s once-flowing offense from Game 1. Even as the Bucks’ offense didn’t exactly fire on all cylinders, that didn’t prevent them from holding the Magic to three made field goals and leading 25-13 at the end of the first quarter.
More from Bucks News
- Bucks 2023-24 player profile: Can MarJon Beauchamp take a leap?
- Piecing together the Milwaukee Bucks’ dream starting 5 in 5 years
- Predicting Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s 2023-24 stats for the Bucks
- Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
- New workout video should have Milwaukee Bucks fans excited
The second quarter only saw the Bucks uncork their 3-point offense, all of which was led by Bucks reserve wing Pat Connaughton.
It only took an overwhelming abundance of trips for the free throw line for the Magic to get back into proceedings, but the Bucks still took a 64-43 advantage into the halftime break.
Orlando, led by All-Star big man Nikola Vucevic, started to regain their offensive potency at the start of the second half as the Bucks’ defense came out of the half a little more relaxed than at the start of the game. That was no problem as the Bucks’ offense remained steady enough to hold a 93-73 lead through three.
Milwaukee’s lead got a little precarious later through the fourth quarter as the Magic whittled down their double-digit lead as the Bucks’ offense went cold. But some timely buckets down the stretch, even amid turnovers and traveling calls, helped the Bucks clinch their bounceback and decisive victory.
So without further ado, let’s break down what stood out the most in the Bucks’ Game 2 victory over the Orlando Magic from Thursday night.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ 111-96 Game 2 win over Orlando Magic – The best defense
At long last, the Bucks’ vaunted defense for the last two seasons running finally made its long overdue appearance in the bubble.
Milwaukee’s Game 2 victory over the Magic was led by their absolutely terrorizing defensive play that served as the backbone to their return to form. That was seen by the way in which they made the Magic work hard for multiple offensive possessions and forced tough shots right away from the opening tip.
By holding the Magic to such a horrific shooting performance, the Bucks got back to to doing what they did best, that being protecting the paint by allowing 24 opposing paint points and letting the Magic live in mid-range and jack up misses from the perimeter.
Per NBA.com/stats, the 91.4 defensive rating the Bucks posted was the first time they held an opponent under a point per possession while in the bubble. And with Orlando compiling a 38.3 effective field goal percentage on the night, that stands as the third-lowest mark the Bucks have compiled this year, both regular season and postseason combined.
The engagement, relentlessness and overall effort we saw from all players on the court was unsurprisingly a point of emphasis for head coach Mike Budenholzer between games and Antetokounmpo talked about that with Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after the win:
"“He told us that if we want to win and we want to go far, if we want to be us we gotta play defense,” Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “We didn’t do that in the first game. I think everybody took that personally.”"
Orlando certainly took advantage of the Bucks’ aggressive defending by drawing 26 personal fouls and logging an incredible 31 free throw attempts on the day, which will stick in Budenholzer and his staff’s craw. But still the defensive improvements were a welcome sight to see after literal months.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ 111-96 Game 2 win over Orlando Magic – Giannis’ night
Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was obviously at the center of the Bucks’ Game 2 win, turning in a performance that was similar to what he compiled in Game 1 against the Magic.
With walls of defenders standing in front of him at every turn, the reigning MVP made do with the limited space that he had to work with against the Magic’s principled defense. That required a little more patience and canny operating on Antetokounmpo’s part to convert the point-blank finishes he had at the basket over his time on the floor. The same can certainly be said for his ability to pick out shooters and cutting teammates from the post as he showed with his five assists.
And on the other end, Antetokounmpo’s ability to clean up as many rebounds as he did, all of which helped him earn a 20-20-5 performance, helped out the Bucks immensely to jumpstart the offense down the court.
With all of that said, Antetokounmpo can surely improve his own performance and finishing at the basket. That was evidenced by the Greek phenom short-arming a few of his drives in the paint and having to clean up his misses right at the basket.
And the handful of turnovers all driven by charge calls as well as travels have to get cleaned up one way or another. Sidenote, the Bucks finished the night with 20 turnovers, which played a part in their offense sputtering for stretches late.
Antetokounmpo went on to have a team-leading 28 points on 23 shots (1-for-5 from three, 7-for-8 from the foul line), 20 rebounds, 7 turnovers and 5 assists in 31-and-a-half minutes of action.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ 111-96 Game 2 win over Orlando Magic – It’s Pat’s planet, we’re just living on it
Without question, the Bucks’ bench charge came up big as they mustered up 41 total points, up from the 35 points they collectively put up in the Bucks’ Game 1 loss.
And while the likes of Donte DiVincenzo and Kyle Korver were positive contributors on the night, it was Pat Connaughton who stood above the fray with his game-changing performance in Game 2.
It was Connaughton’s sharpshooting from three that lifted Milwaukee’s perimeter offense as he went on to pour in five triples throughout his shifts on the floor, making up one-third of the Bucks’ 15 total triples for the game. Accounting for his run through the seeding games and now in the playoffs, that brought Connaughton’s 3-point shooting in the bubble to 17-for-41 over his eight appearances in the bubble, good for 41.4 percent.
As if Connaughton’s hot shooting wasn’t enough, the fifth-year wing brought even more to the table with his hustle to win 50/50 balls, cleaning up on the glass and coming up with a pair of incredible blocks, including one at the basket on Magic wing Wesley Iwundu as seen in the picture above.
Rounding that all out with his sound drive-and-kick playmaking that set up a couple of threes for Korver and Brook Lopez and throwing a dart to Antetokounmpo in transition to close out the first half, Connaughton delivered a performance that was nothing short of spectacular on both ends of the floor.
Connaughton finished with 15 points on 5-for-8 shooting from three, 11 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a one turnover while being a team-leading +16 through his 23 minutes and 50 seconds for the day.
The Bucks will look to take a 2-1 lead in their first round series with the Orlando Magic when Game 3 tips off at noon central time on Saturday down in Orlando.