The Milwaukee Bucks will be looking to even up this year’s NBA Finals when they host Game 4 versus the Phoenix Suns at Fiserv Forum Wednesday night.
After going down 2-0 while playing the first two games of the Finals in Phoenix, the Bucks got back home and welcomed the opportunity to play their first Finals game in more than 47 years as they took home a 120-100 victory in Game 3.
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As resounding as the victory was for the Bucks and impactful for them to get on the board in this series, it certainly portended where this series could go further, especially if Milwaukee dictates the tone and tempo that they did last Sunday night.
So without further ado, let’s look at the three biggest things the Milwaukee Bucks can build on from their Game 3 win over the Phoenix Suns going into Game 4 of the NBA Finals Wednesday night.
Milwaukee Bucks need to continue dominating the offensive glass in the NBA Finals
To say the Bucks continue to win the battle on the boards this series is a bit of an understatement.
Game 3 saw Milwaukee not live on the glass and extend plays, but thoroughly dominate the possession battle as a result. Pulling down 13 offensive boards in that 20-point win, the Bucks cleaned up 29.4 percent of their own misses that led to them outscoring the Suns 20-2 in second chance points on the night, per NBA.com/stats.
That came after the Bucks pulled down 37 percent of their own misses in their Game 2 loss to the Suns and the Bucks’ size advantage over the Suns has steadily surfaced to the top of the biggest differences between both sides in this series.
Of course, the Bucks’ dominance on the glass was surely influenced by the foul trouble Suns center Deandre Ayton got into. With the Suns playing more small ball as a result to keep within distance of Milwaukee for the first three quarters, the Bucks not only controlled the offensive glass, but saw a much-needed resurgence on the defensive boards as well by pulling down79.5 percent of the Suns’ misses, which is a big improvement from the 67.4 defensive rebounding percentage they had in Game 2.
It’s hard to tell whether the same circumstances that hindered the Suns and Ayton in particular will resurface yet again in Game 4. Even so, the Bucks are pulling down 30.8 percent of their own misses in the 105 minutes Ayton has been on the court this series and they can continue seizing on their size advantage with and without Ayton on the floor.