3 keys for the Milwaukee Bucks to keep their season alive in Game 7

The Milwaukee Bucks need to hope and pray the Boston Celtics don’t get hot from 3 in Game 7

This isn’t really anything that the Bucks can control. I mean, they can contest hard and force the Celtics into difficult shots but sometimes that’s not enough and guys just beat good defense.

We’ve seen it twice in big moments in this series. In the first half of Game 2 where Brown went scorched Earth on the Bucks’ defense with 25 points on nearly 115 percent true shooting was the first instance. It led to the worst deficit in this series for either team and there wasn’t much the Bucks could do against him in that game.

And then, of course, Tatum going berserk all night in Game 6 but primarily in the second half. He scored 28 points on 75 percent true shooting and at a certain point was just firing over the top of whoever was in front of him.

Whether it was Portis, Hill, Connaughton, or Holiday, it didn’t matter. Tatum was on one and there wasn’t much they could do to slow him down.

Milwaukee has done a good job of adjusting their defensive coverages in the last few games to get Boston’s offense to be more isolation-heavy and fewer drive and kick opportunities. The problem is that Tatum and Brown can simply get hot and knock down whatever shot they want it feels like.

The good news for the Bucks is that they got the Smart-can’t-miss-from-3 game out of the way in Game 6 as he went 5-of-9 from deep. He’s good for one of those a series and it’s nice that it likely won’t be in Game 7!

It may sound reductive but that’s all it comes down to in basketball sometimes. They don’t call it a make-or-miss league for no reason.

Perhaps the Milwaukee Bucks can be the ones to get hot from 3 today and keep their season alive in Game 7.