The Milwaukee Bucks unquestionably received the worst news possible regarding the health of starting shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo Friday morning.
As initially reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, DiVincenzo will officially miss the remainder of the playoffs after suffering a tendon injury in his foot. The non-contact injury occurred in the first half of the Bucks’ Game 3 blowout win over the Miami Heat on Thursday.
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Poised to make a deep run in these playoffs, losing the 23-year-old is a devastating blow for the Bucks as this unit had been playing fantastic basketball with everyone healthy in their first round matchup with the Heat.
With their starting shooting guard now sidelined for the foreseeable future, head coach Mike Budenholzer will have to get creative in mixing up the rotation. Luckily for him, one of the biggest strengths of this team is their depth and they have a handful of bodies to fill that void.
With that being said, here are three players that must step up in DiVincenzo’s absence.
Pat Connaughton must step up for the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Playoffs
A household rotational player for the Bucks in the Budenholzer era, Pat Connaughton got the nod in the starting lineup for Saturday’s Game 4 with the Heat.
Although his contributions were minimal in the victory by scoring two points on 1-of-5 shooting, the guard had himself a solid series overall. Averaging 7.0 points while shooting 45.5 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from deep, Connaughton provided the Bucks with high-energy play over these four games. That importance offensively will be heightened drastically moving forward with DiVincenzo taken out of the fold for good.
The same goes for trying to replicate DiVincenzo’s defensive stature in that starting lineup, which will be sorely missed. However, Connaughton has also proven to be a serviceable defender for the Bucks and he has made good in this series by holding his opponents to an impressive 10-for-30 (33 percent) shooting from the field, according to NBA.com/stats. His versatility on that side of the ball will be pivotal now as the Bucks have lost one of their better defenders, particularly with the star-studded matchup potentially awaiting on the horizon.
If Connaughton can keep things consistent with the solid two-way effort he has given the Bucks to this point, his play will be a massive boost amidst the disheartening loss. While he might not be equipped to fill that gap entirely, he will certainly receive more minutes moving forward to try and prove himself.