3 things to watch for Milwaukee Bucks against surging Houston Rockets

The Milwaukee Bucks need a collective bounce-back performance against the Houston Rockets

Well, ok, maybe not Jrue Holiday. He can continue to perform at an elite level as he has over his last nine or so games now. But collectively, the rest of the roster needs to have a bounce-back effort after very much struggling against the Heat.

It would start with Antetokounmpo, who had his worst game of the season in a spot where he really should have taken more advantage of the Heat being without Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler.

Despite their seven-game win streak, the Rockets are middle-of-the-pack in defensive rating over their last seven games at 111.4. It’s very much a team that can be exploited at that end of the floor and their starting five will feature Tate and Wood, who are either undersized or not good enough defenders to slow down Antetokounmpo.

I’ve touched on Middleton already, but there are few guys on the Rockets roster I’d worry too much about guarding him one-on-one. They could make life difficult for him by blitzing pick-and-rolls to force turnovers, but if he can get a defender isolated, he can have a strong game.

Beyond the two stars, it’s more of an issue with shots not falling and not having role players step up. Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton went a combined 3-of-12 from beyond the arc and I can’t even be too upset. They’ve been very good all season and there are games where shots don’t fall.

It becomes more of a problem when they don’t have other role players stepping up and guys like Wesley Matthews and Rodney Hood can’t get going. Javonte Smart gave them solid minutes, but asking an undrafted rookie to do much more than he did might be a bit too much.

There isn’t much reason to worry, those games happen throughout an 82-game season and, as the old saying goes, it’s a make or miss league sometimes. Still, this is a good chance to have a get-right game against a team that’s playing well right now.

Perhaps there will be some added motivation after the infamous Kevin Porter Jr. game last season where he had a few thoughts about Holiday’s performance. Or they don’t care because it was last season, they won a championship, and Porter Jr. likely won’t play.