The Milwaukee Bucks are a few hours away from Game 3 of their Conference Finals series with the Atlanta Hawks.
With a road victory clearly on their mind to take a 2-1 series late Sunday night in Atlanta, there is clearly much to build on from their Game 2 rout of the Hawks that ended up being a 125-91 victory in favor of Milwaukee. Not only was the game notable for the way they stymied Trae Young, but the Bucks’ defense as a whole locked into their terrorizing gear we’ve seen previously throughout this year’s run.
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While it was headlined by how they hounded Young into missed shots and miscues, Milwaukee’s defensive pressure was on full display as the Hawks finished with their worst offensive rating for a single game these playoffs (90.1), per NBA.com/stats.
Of course, going against the best defensive unit these playoffs will have that effect, but the way the Bucks frustrated the Hawks into 22 turnovers was notable in itself, especially for a Bucks that has historically been a turnover-adverse team under Mike Budenholzer. To that effect, the Bucks’ 19.8 opponent turnover ratio in Game 2 versus the Hawks is the fourth-highest mark they’ve set this season, both regular season and postseason combined.
The Milwaukee Bucks’ offense has been at their best when getting stops and turnovers
By generating that volume of turnovers, the Bucks finished with 27 fast break points and 25 points off turnovers, both of which are the highest marks they’ve set for this postseason.
Not all turnovers were created in this fashion, but just watch how Brook Lopez swallows up Young and his attempted kick out pass to Bogdan Bogdanovic, which P.J. Tucker cleans up and then makes a simple hit-ahead pass to a striding Jrue Holiday.
So many of the Bucks’ buckets over the course of their impressive 20-0 run midway through the second quarter came as a result of the Bucks shutting down the Hawks’ offense and creating live-ball turnovers.
As impressive as it was to see the Bucks bearing down the Hawks’ necks and forcing them into making mistakes repeatedly, just getting stops has been a key ingredient in their recipe for offensive success. Per Inpredictible, the Bucks are averaging 1.3 points per possession after misses from the Hawks so far this series.
All of this is far from a surprise for Bucks who followed the Budenholzer era night in, night out. So much of the Bucks’ ethos and focus has come on that side of the floor and it’s led to them being the best defensive team for both the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
With that standing as the foundation to their success, the Bucks have obviously added high-caliber defenders like Jrue Holiday and P.J. Tucker to their roster and they’ve brought their physicality and toughness to that end of the floor. All of it has blended the old-school, new-school ways the Bucks have evolved defensively and have improved their transition game in the process.
Game 2 proved to be the exact response the Bucks needed to even up the series and their dominance came in classic fashion. Being able to replicate that formula will only carry their offense to greater heights as they look to thwart this upstart Hawks squad on their home floor.