3 keys for the Milwaukee Bucks kicking off road trip against Miami Heat

How much production will the Milwaukee Bucks get from their bench against the Miami Heat?

As I mentioned earlier, the Bucks didn’t have Giannis Antetokounmpo (or George Hill and Grayson Allen) against the Heat four days ago. This forced head coach Mike Budenholzer to start Pat Connaughton and Sandro Mamukelashvili and left the Bucks relatively thin on their bench.

I say relatively because the Bucks’ usual key bench pieces this season were either out (Hill) or starting (Connaughton) which left the reserve roles to Rodney Hood and the recently acquired DeMarcus Cousins, Wesley Matthews, and even Javonte Smart.

If the Bucks have Antetokounmpo and Allen back (which appears likely after they each played over 25 minutes each in their last game), that will give them a bit more depth but still not a ton of familiarity.

If Hill remains out with his hyperextended knee issue, then Smart will likely see backup point guard minutes again and force Holiday to play over 35 minutes as he did against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Connaughton will be the only reserve that is guaranteed to be in the playoff rotation playing in this game and the Bucks will once again be looking for production from Hood and Matthews on the wing. The acquisition of Matthews was an interesting one because it gave them another option on the wing after some disappointing performances from Hood and Jordan Nwora this season.

Hood played over 27 minutes in their first game (partially due to the blowout) but has struggled to find his scoring touch as of late. He’s made just one 3-pointer in his last seven games, shooting eight percent on around two attempts per game. Matthews has made one 3 in his first two games so far and played a couple of more minutes than Hood in their last game.

Every game is going to be a chance for one of their veteran wings to prove they deserve to be in the rotation come playoff time. While they likely won’t crack the main rotation, as we saw last season, each series is a chance for a different role player to shine (hello Bryn Forbes against the Heat).

Luckily for the Bucks, they’ll have two of their starters back so they won’t need to rely on the bench as much, but it’s an interesting subplot as we progress through the first half of the season.