Milwaukee Bucks ramp up pressure, intensity on Trae Young in Game 2 rout

Now that’s more like it from the Milwaukee Bucks. Friday night saw the Bucks even up their Conference Finals series with the Atlanta Hawks with a 125-91 blowout victory in Game 2.

A wire-to-wire victory, the Bucks recaptured their dominance by putting in a much improved shooting performance, especially compared to Game 1, and absolutely smothered the Hawks defensively. That smothering pressure was certainly best seen on Hawks superstar guard Trae Young.

The Milwaukee Bucks made life miserable for Trae Young in their Game 2 win

Despite what Young said after Game 2, the Bucks ratcheted up the defensive pressure on Young well up the floor with Jrue Holiday going nearly the length of the court to start hounding Young. Combine that with Brook Lopez stationed well outside of the paint when Hawks players set ball screens for Young, the Bucks sent a greater crowd in order to clamp down on the All-Star guard’s air space.

The following possession at the 7:35 mark of the first quarter surely set the tone for the difficulties Young faced all night long as Lopez forced the first of eight turnovers Young had over the first half.

Facing such an increased pressure and physicality, Young didn’t have the space needed to slither around inside the arc and near the paint to launch his patented floater shot as he did over the course of Game 1. By constricting Young, the Bucks forced Young playing at a far more uncomfortable and hurried pace he’s certainly used to playing and that lack of rhythm carried into his porous shooting performance.

For as much as the attention was drawn to the Bucks’ drop scheme and how Young wholly dissected it throughout Game 1, Milwaukee managed to stifle Young in different situations. Just watch how Lopez completely shadows and eventually envelops Young from the baseline on to force a 24-second violation that kicked off the second half as the Bucks held a 32-point lead.

As ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz noted after the game (subscription required), Lopez played an essential part in the Bucks checking Young completely. Per Second Spectrum numbers, the Hawks averaged 0.47 points per direct pick set for Young and with Lopez on the floor, which is quite the slide from the 1.40 points per possession the Hawks posted in those situations for Game 1.

The Bucks’ success in limiting Young was not only notable for the fact that he set a season-high nine turnovers. Young only attempted three free throws throughout Game 2, which was a drop from the 12 free throw attempts he had in Game 1.

The fact that Milwaukee was able to collectively clamp down on Young while staying disciplined simultaneously was crucial in keeping him from getting into any sort groove resembling what we saw from him during Game 1. And Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer made note of that after the win to Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo! Sports:

"“It’s a fine line that you have to find between being aggressive,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “Young feeling us, the whole, Atlanta feeling us. But you got to do it with a mental discipline, a mental toughness. It’s a great challenge. We, [Jrue] did it tonight, but we got to go and do it again.”"

The Bucks showed all of the improvements and a sense of urgency that was surely needed after Game 1 and it was best seen in how they handled Young this time around. Now Young will surely have a greater feel for the increased pressure he will face against the Bucks and maintaining that defensive disruption will be the biggest key to this series.