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.
Milwaukee Bucks rack up high turnovers over their road swing out west
The self-inflicted mistakes wasn’t only contained to the Bucks’ undoing on the glass. Milwaukee was equally, if not more sloppy when it came to their high turnover marks over their road trip.
That was certainly seen in wins and losses alike, whether it was their decisive victory over a shorthanded Los Angeles Lakers team or losing 122-121 to the Golden State Warriors earlier this week. In fact, the Bucks matched their season-high in turnovers with 22 against the Lakers two Wednesdays ago.
For their six games on the road, Milwaukee averaged 14.2 turnovers, which led to allowing 16.2 opponent points off turnovers. Luckily, 41 of the 85 turnovers that the Bucks committed over their road trip were considered dead ball turnovers, per pbpstats.com.
Of course, it was the Bucks’ biggest shot creators that were very loose in their ball handling or Giannis Antetokounmpo going through his bouts of committing charges or offensive fouls.
As sure-handed and steady as the Bucks’ offense has been, especially with bringing Holiday on board, the Bucks will have to shore up their recent turnover deficiencies to realize their offensive potential when it matters most.
Milwaukee Bucks didn’t execute in their fourth quarters over road trip
Last but certainly not least, the Bucks’ fourth quarter performances over their road trip grew increasingly worrisome.
Again, the absence of Antetokounmpo loomed large in this regard, whether it was clinging to a 129-128 victory over the Sacramento Kings or collapsing against both the Warriors or the Mavericks. And of course, their blowout defeat to the Clippers skews things considerably when it came to their fourth quarter output.
Even with all of that in mind, the Bucks were outscored by 51 points over the last six fourth quarters. While it’s surely a small sample size, the Bucks’ -34.7 net rating over that span easily ranks as the worst in the league.
Although the Bucks have made clear progress when operating in clutch time situations as the year has gone along, this road trip brought out the worst in their overall execution when needing to close out games. Not having Antetokounmpo for three of the games surely exacerbated that, but still letting double-digit leads slip in consistent fashion just can’t happen either.
While the Bucks will quickly return back to the road after hosting the Charlotte Hornets Friday night, hopefully they take some lessons to heart from the issues that emerged over their toughest road trip of the season.