Skies are grey right now as the Milwaukee Bucks find themselves down 0-2 to the Brooklyn Nets in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Brooklyn has convincingly blown Milwaukee out in back-to-back contests with little resistance, signaling to many that this series is all but wrapped up. Yet, as bleak as things do appear, the Bucks will have a chance to defend homecourt and put together a last stand with their season hanging in the balance facing a dreadful 0-3 deficit, to which no team has ever come back from in NBA Playoff history.
More from Bucks News
- Bucks 2023-24 player profile: Can MarJon Beauchamp take a leap?
- Piecing together the Milwaukee Bucks’ dream starting 5 in 5 years
- Predicting Thanasis Antetokounmpo’s 2023-24 stats for the Bucks
- Grade the trade: Bucks land reputable backup guard in swap with Pacers
- New workout video should have Milwaukee Bucks fans excited
If the Bucks stand any chance whatsoever in making this series competitive, they will have to head back to the drawing board and change things up drastically while doing some genuine soul searching after a collective pitiful effort over the first two games.
With that being said, here are three areas that sabotaged any chance of the Bucks winning these first two games that they must correct in Games 3 and 4, or potentially beyond.
The Milwaukee Bucks have been committing too many turnovers against the Brooklyn Nets
After being one of the better teams to take care of the basketball during the regular season, the Bucks have seemingly forgotten their ways.
No team has turned the ball over more in the postseason than the Bucks have this season, as they currently sit at 90 turnovers throughout their first six games. An abysmal 30 of those turnovers have come throughout these first two games with Brooklyn, courtesy of careless passes and other questionable decision-making with the basketball.
As expected, a massive portion of those turnovers has come from Milwaukee’s leading tandem of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton. Antetokounmpo, in particular, continues to look panic-stricken frequently with the basketball, often resulting in a turnover when he is not shooting an ill-advised jumper from the perimeter. With eight turnovers in these series along with a measly eight assists, the promising playmaking leaps Antetokounmpo looked to have taken in the regular season have vanished on the big stage.
Middleton also deserves a hefty share of the blame for these issues, as he has logged seven turnovers to just five assists to this point. While his struggles over the course of these first two games stem far and wide beyond solely his turnovers, they are yet another facet of his game that is hindering his overall production in this series.
The Bucks have become turnover-prone in these playoffs, and while it did not prove fatal against the Miami Heat in the first round, Brooklyn is a different beast entirely. They are feasting on these turnovers from Milwaukee by scoring a devastating 41 points off those mistakes in these first two games, according to NBA.com/stats. If the Bucks cannot clean up their careless ballhandling against the Nets, they will likely be doomed to suffer the same fate they have witnessed in the first two contests.
The Milwaukee Bucks have forgotten how to score against the Brooklyn Nets
You would not be able to tell by watching this series, but the Bucks were the best scoring team during the regular season this year by scoring 120.1 points per game.
That number has dipped tremendously over the past two games as Milwaukee is averaging just 96.5 points per game against Brooklyn. Those aforementioned turnover numbers have certainly played a massive factor in this predicament on offense, but it does not help that this team cannot buy a bucket by shooting just 44.3 percent from the floor.
The biggest issue is the team’s once-promising 3-point shooting, which has flipped right on its head to this point. Shooting just 14-of-57 (24.6 percent) from behind the arc against the Nets, one of Milwaukee’s strongest attributes as a team has become their weakness once more. When those triples are not fallen, as seen in the previous two trips to the playoffs, the Bucks are practically doomed.
Just like in previous years, everyone has gone ice cold from deep. Second unit guard Bryn Forbes, who proved to be a lifeline from deep last round, has started the series off shooting just 3-of-9 from long range. Jrue Holiday has matched him with three triples in nine attempts, and Giannis Antetokounmpo continues heaving triples despite being 2-of-8 thus far.
However, the player struggling the most, not just from 3-point range, but from everywhere on the floor remains Middleton. The forward has gotten off to an abysmal start this series by scoring 30 total points while shooting a horrific 13-of-43 from the field, including just 3-of-13 from deep. Milwaukee’s offense has drastically taken a hit due to his intense struggles, and they will continue to do so as long as he remains out of a rhythm.
The Milwaukee Bucks have no answer defensively for the Brooklyn Nets
The Bucks entered a different level of defensive intensity during their first round series with the Heat just a few short weeks ago.
They boasted a defensive rating of 95.4 throughout those four games, a testament to just how stellar they were on that side of the ball. However, the sheer dominance they displayed in that series has disappeared in this second round set with Brooklyn as their defensive rating stands at 120.6 over these first two games played.
It is no secret that the Nets can score the basketball at a high level as they finished second in points per game, right behind the Bucks in the regular season. In this series, Brooklyn is averaging 120 points while shooting 49.5 percent from the field and a devastating 44.4 percent from long range. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, two of the most gifted scorers to ever grace the court, have lived up the hype as they continue putting on a show versus Milwaukee’s defense. Yet, they are getting support from their role players, such as Joe Harris and Mike James, and the Bucks are yet to stop the bleeding to any extent.
These numbers also come with the Nets having 2017-18 league MVP and three-time scoring champion James Harden on the floor for just 43 seconds in this series. Although the team had gotten accustomed to playing without Harden as he missed a sizeable chunk of the regular season due to this same hamstring injury, it is disheartening to watch the Bucks get torn apart like this against a team that is not even at full strength.
With Antetokounmpo, Holiday, P.J. Tucker, and Brook Lopez all in the lineup, the Bucks have the personnel to be a formidable opponent defensively. For whatever reason, they have not slowed the Nets down to any extent, but they must buckle down in these upcoming games if they will stand a chance.