Milwaukee Bucks: 3 keys to victory when hosting New Orleans Pelicans

Third key to victory when hosting New Orleans Pelicans — Milwaukee Bucks need to keep their Pelicans’ shooting at bay

While the Pelicans are among the worst teams in the league at defending the long ball, the Bucks are not much better themselves.

The Bucks rank have the seventh-highest opponent 3-point percentage as they’re letting their opponents hit a troublesome 38.1 percent of their shots from long distance. It is not a coincidence that teams tend to catch fire shooting the ball against the Bucks thanks to their defensive scheme, which was the case for the Pelicans when these two teams last met.

Despite being an average 3-point shooting team at best, New Orleans torched the Bucks by shooting 21-of-48 from behind the arc on January 29th, which tied a franchise record in made triples. New Orleans’ backcourt duo of Lonzo Ball and former Bucks player Eric Bledsoe did a bulk of the work by combining to hit an astounding 14 triples in the game, which was one more than Milwaukee’s entire team had.

It goes without saying that it will be insanely difficult for the Bucks to pull out a victory if the Pelicans rain down another 3-point barrage against them as they did previously. Tightening up the perimeter defense will be pivotal for the Bucks, and hopefully, things are different this time around.

It should be another great game in Milwaukee tonight as a handful of stars will share the court on a nationally televised stage. You can catch the action at 8:30 p.m. CST on TNT.