It’s safe to say the Milwaukee Bucks will enjoy having a respite from being on the road, at least for one night.
Following their 116-101 loss to the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night, the Bucks finished their toughest road trip of the 2020-21 season by going 3-3. It certainly wasn’t trending in that direction midway through as the Bucks had overcome their early stumbles out west to pick up wins over the Los Angeles Lakers, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Sacramento Kings.
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While the Bucks were without their superstar Giannis Antetokokounmpo for half of their road trip, underlying issues in the Bucks’ performances took center stage and soured the end of their road trip against Western conference opponents.
So without further ado, let’s explore the three areas the Milwaukee Bucks must improve upon that proved to be very concerning over their road trip.
Milwaukee Bucks have let up their dominance on the glass
Having been one of the best defensive rebounding teams historically under head coach Mike Budenholzer, the Bucks have taken a slip in that regard this season. After pulling down 77.5 percent of their opponents misses last season, the Bucks have a 74.9 defensive rebounding percentage this year, per NBA.com/stats.
That slip was fully seen over the Bucks’ trek out west and all started with their loss to the L.A. Clippers at the start of their trip. Milwaukee allowed 13 offensive rebounds that led to 25 second chance points for the Clippers.
Over the six games throughout the road trip, the Bucks allowed 12.7 offensive rebounds to their opponents and they averaged 19.3 second chance points. On the season, the Bucks are now allowing 13 opponent second chance points per game, which is quite the slip from the 11.3 opponent second chance points per game that they allowed for the 2019-20 season.
It’s certainly strange to see a Budenholzer-led team struggle so much on the defensive glass and suffer these kind of self-inflicted lapses. While the Bucks will get tighter in this department, these kind of miscues only add up when the pressure is on.