The Milwaukee Bucks are making their highly anticipated Eastern Conference Semifinals series with the Brooklyn Nets quite the letdown at the moment.
Of course, this comes after the Bucks had suffered a 125-86 onslaught in Game 2 from the Nets that puts them up 2-0 in the series with little resistance coming their way. The loss served as the second-worst playoff defeat in Bucks history that trails their 54-point defeat to the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs.
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Where the Bucks were the plucky upstart in that instance in what was Jason Kidd’s first year as head coach, Milwaukee doesn’t have that excuse this time around.
The Bucks have focused on making sweeping changes, both in terms of personnel and ideologically, to improve upon their disappointing playoff performances under head coach Mike Budenholzer. `
That was best seen in their demolishing of the Miami Heat in the first round that ended up in a sweep and led to all Bucks fans thinking this time around would be different. That thinking was valid as the Bucks confidently swept the Heat in convincing fashion just as Miami had done to the Bucks nine months ago.
The only problem, though, is that the Bucks have been overmatched through every phase of the series against a Nets team that is clearly a juggernaut. Milwaukee may have made all of these changes in mind for thwarting a Heat team that ended their season last year, but they’re showing that they weren’t at all prepared for taking on a superpower like the Nets that is currently without James Harden.
To be fair, very few teams will be prepared to take on a Nets team that has felt inevitable as they have this series.
The Milwaukee Bucks are staring at another quick playoff run for the second straight year
For the time being, though, the Bucks have to muster up some kind of response that conveys the urgency of being down 2-0, even against a loaded Nets team that is clicking into place at the right time. They’ve seen this series gone completely sideways and out of their grasp in an instant. They were already underdogs heading into the series and now they’re slipping away without much of a fight as evidenced by their Game 2 thrashing.
All of this comes in spite of plenty of talk from the players themselves that they are erasing the perception that the Bucks can’t perform in the playoffs and wilting under the pressure. So far, their words are not meeting up with their actions and their stale play so far this series and their overall resolve seemingly slipped away upon P.J. Tucker drawing two early fouls in the opening minutes of Game 2.
Ask players like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Jrue Holiday or any Bucks coach as we read the temperature of the locker room and there is no fire to be extinguished. Take this response from Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer as an example as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst relayed after the Game 2 trouncing:
"“In the locker room, there’s a lot of great leadership,” Budenholzer said. “The guys will respond appropriately.”"
It’s hard to imagine anything other than a measured response from Bucks players and coaches. Sure, the Bucks being back on their home floor for Games 3 and 4 will surely be nice as will an additional day off to regroup and potentially salvage what is a disastrous start to the series. Will all that end up mattering with what we’ve seen from the Bucks over the last eight quarters, though?
Therein lies the dilemma facing the Bucks. They’ve spent the entire 2020-21 season looking inward, overhauling their roster and focusing on what they can get better internally to be prepared the playoff challenges they previously failed in over the last two years. Now that the time has come, they’ve never looked more lost than they have ever been right now over the Mike Budenholzer era.