After drawing the ire of fans for much of the season, Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer deserves credit for the team’s fantastic performances in the NBA playoffs so far.
What a difference a season can make! Just a few months ago, the Milwaukee Bucks got throttled by the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Because of how that series played out in the bubble over the summer, some Bucks fans feared that a rematch in this season’s opening round of the NBA Playoffs could play out in a similar fashion. As it turns out, those fears appear to have been unjustified.
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In a complete role reversal, it’s Milwaukee, not Miami, that find themselves up 3-0 in the series following their 113-84 rout in Game 3 Thursday night.
Despite an opening game slug fest that took a Khris Middleton shot at the buzzer in overtime for Milwaukee to win, the following two games of the series have seen the team completely dominate the Heat in every facet. It was, undoubtedly, their most complete play in consecutive games that they have put together all season.
Although it’s been just three games out of what could be a long playoff run for this team, it’s worth briefly discussing how just how well Budenholzer has done in this series so far.
Mike Budenholzer has put the Milwaukee Bucks in a position to succeed this postseason
On the offensive end, we’ve seen the team play with much more structure and motion than a season ago. Rather than using Giannis Antetokounmpo as the primary ball handler on most possessions in the half-court, the Bucks have been increasingly using him more frequently as a screener or roller in pick-and-roll situations with Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton.
In addition to this, Brook Lopez has been much more involved in screen-setting himself as well as setting up in the low-post and diving inside on drives to keep Miami from effectively establishing a wall and to provide the driving player with a passing outlet if they can’t get to the rim themselves. These moves have helped open up space for Holiday and Middleton to get open shots as well as putting both Lopez and Antetokounmpo in positions where they can better contribute on offense.
The team has also been setting more off-ball screens away from the main play to create room for shooters and cutters. This has created more space for players to get open shots at the rim in the corners or above the break spots. This has especially benefited guys like Bryn Forbes, whose dynamic shooting ability has given the team something they sorely lacked in their past two post-season trips.
Three other areas that the Bucks have found success on offense is through their more aggressive ball movement, greater use of transition, especially in secondary transition opportunities and a clear intent to attack mismatches when they create them.
In the past two seasons, we often saw this Bucks team get bogged down in the half-court time and again. Since the opening game in this series, Milwaukee has been aggressively moving the ball until they find the best shot opportunity and it’s working because of the smart screens and moves they are making both on-and-off the ball. Related to this is that they’re also attacking mismatches with much greater frequency and that’s leading to better offense.
They’ve also done a better job of controlling the pace and utilizing transition opportunities to get open looks. Too often in past series, Milwaukee has settled for playing at a slower pace that their opponents wanted them to play at. In this series so far, the Bucks have been pushing the tempo and using transition opportunities to get open looks before Miami can fully reset their defensive shape.
On the other end of the floor, the Bucks have played their best defensive ball of the entire season. By switching everything up high and having Brook Lopez play in more of a zone-type defense designed to protect the rim, Milwaukee has found a way to play to Lopez’s best strengths defensively while hiding his weaknesses. They’ve also improved at executing a switch-heavy scheme generally and being much more disciplined and selective in the situations where they decide to help.
We’ve also seen Milwaukee beginning to use their best defensive players to guard the opposing team’s most dangerous players.
Last season, the team rarely played Antetokounmpo against Jimmy Butler on the defensive end. In this series so far, Butler has been Antetokounmpo’s main defensive assignment and Antetokounmpo has done well in this role. Per NBA.com/stats, Antetokounmpo has held Butler to five points on 2-for-9 shooting (1-for-2 from deep), six assists and four turnovers across 64.1 partial possessions.
When Antetokounmpo has not guarded Butler, Budenholzer has put P.J. Tucker and Jrue Holiday on him. Both of them have also done an incredible job of hassling him on every possession and keeping him from getting open looks.
One final area where the Bucks have excelled on both ends of the floor is by controlling the glass. Milwaukee has completely dominated in this category, which has not only limited Miami’s second chance opportunities, but has also created a slew of high quality second chance opportunities for the Bucks.
Whether this can hold throughout the playoffs, of course, remains to be seen. There is no doubt that adverse moments await the Bucks in the games to come. How they adjust to those challenges in the moment will go a long way towards deciding just how far they can go.
However, at least for the moment, Mike Budenholzer deserves a ton of credit for making the necessary adjustments and putting this team in the best position to succeed against Miami. Milwaukee couldn’t have asked for a better start to the playoffs.