3 keys as Milwaukee Bucks wrap up season series with Orlando Magic

The Milwaukee Bucks need to continue to fine tune their defense against the Orlando Magic

Speaking of working on cohesion, the Bucks can use this game (as well as the next few games) to regain their defensive identity that they’ve been inconsistent with as of late.

Of course, there are clear reasons why that’s happened, namely that they were without Giannis Antetokounmpo for 10 days and became devoid of any real rim protection in his absence. Over their last eight games, the Bucks are 16th in defensive rating at 109.8.

Although that’s not terrible, especially considering who the Bucks were missing in those games, these are the games where they can try things and find their defensive identity. We saw how good the can be in the final minutes of their Christmas Day win against the Boston Celtics, when they went switch-heavy after playing a couple of different defensive coverages throughout the game.

Per NBA.com/stats, in those eight games, Bucks opponents have shot nearly 69 percent at the rim (sixth-worst) and 50 percent on non-restricted area paint attempts (third-worst), which goes to show you how much they missed Antetokounmpo.

However, even in their last game, the Bucks still allowed the Magic to shoot 12-of-16 at the rim and committed eight shooting fouls. That’s certainly something that a Mike Budenholzer coached team would like to tighten up as they pride themselves on not allowing points in the paint as well as not fouling.

It’s not something to worry about too much at the moment, but it’s something to keep an eye on in this game and going forward is how they sharpen up on defense considering how good their personnel is at that end of the floor.