3 Bucks who need more minutes in Game 3 vs. Pacers

After an outstanding Game 1 performance, Game 2 showed the Milwaukee Bucks they still have a lot of things to improve.

The Indiana Pacers exposed some of the team problems and made clear that this series is going to be everything but a clear path, so Doc Rivers will probably need to adjust to try to get a win on the road. And that might mean making a few changes in the rotation.

If we're being real, there's actually not a ton that he can do. With Giannis Antetokounmpo presumably still out, the roster is quite short, and it doesn't look like he can pull off someone off the bench that suddenly solves the team's issues. Yet, there are some players who should at least have a bigger chance to show what they could bring.

Let's discuss them.

Andre Jackson Jr.

Jackson was probably the most requested player to have minutes in Game 3 after Tuesday's loss, and there's a reason for that. The Bucks are being outmatched on a physical level by a younger and more athletic team, so if they want to even that factor, they need a player like him.

Jackson has proven his grit and his defensive capabilities through the regular season, and those are things the team is lacking. Indiana scored 52 points in the paint in Game 2, mostly because they didn't find much resistance when driving the ball in half-court offense and because they were able to outrun the Bucks in transition. These are two elements of the game where Jackson could really be useful.

He could also have a key role in matching the intensity level being played. While the Pacers are putting pressure on the ball full-court and chasing Damian Lillard all 24 seconds of every possession, Milwaukee seems to have a more passive approach to their defense. Bucks players couldn't catch a break on offense and felt really exhausted by the end of Game 2, while Indy's players felt way more comfortable and didn't struggle that much to keep their energy up.

The Bucks are probably going to use brute force this series, but they can't just let the Pacers play however they want. Young players on the roster could be important in this task by having just a few minutes but making them count on a physical level, forcing opponents to work on every single possession and draining their strength so they can't keep flying around when the fourth quarter comes. You can't ask players like Damian Lillard or Khris Middleton to do that because you need them to stay fresh, but if you let Jackson be on the court for 10 minutes, he's going to have an impact.

The risky thing with him is that he could be a liability on offense, but he won't necessarily be. He has shot 37 percent from three this season, and even if the sample is small, he might hit some open ones and help on that end of the floor, too.

And, due to his aggressiveness and athleticism, he can be a pretty good offensive rebounder, to the point where he's tied with Giannis as the best player on the team in offensive rebounding percentage at 7.7 percent. Thanks to it, he could give Milwaukee some free possessions or, at the least, slow down Indiana by not letting them just easily take the ball and run through the court.