1 Question for every Milwaukee Bucks player ahead of the 2024 NBA Playoffs
By Rudy LB
Damian Lillard
Can Damian Lillard score consistently?
After the win against the Brooklyn Nets and season sweep at Fiserv Forum, you’d have to say “Yes!” Yet, that is the NBA regular season. That does not always mean much.
Lillard has not played in the playoffs since the 2020-2021 season. In that series, he did “go off” in Game 1, scoring 34 points on 10-of-25 shooting.
If Lillard could score like that consistently in a playoff series, it might be game-set-match.
Jae Crowder
What kind of scoring can the Milwaukee Bucks expect from Jae Crowder?
Milwaukee Bucks fans will never forget Crowder’s lack of usage in the abrupt first-round playoff loss to the Miami Heat last year.
Is Crowder someone who the team can count on to score in a playoff series?
Malik Beasley
Can he keep knocking down 3-pointers?
GM Jon Horst may have had a “steal of the off-season” in getting Beasley on the one year deal he signed him on this past free agency.
Beasley leads the team in 3-point shooting percentage (43 percent). The promise of Beasley buckets in an NBA playoff series has to be exciting for Milwaukee Bucks fans, but can he actually do it? It will be worth monitoring.
Speaking of excitement, let's get to "Big Bob."
Bobby Portis
Can Bobby Portis keep up his recently-improved play?
Can Portis drop a few 25-point games and awesome performances (think his recent effort against the Phoenix Suns) to help “will” the Bucks to a playoff series win?
Not trading Bobby Portis might have been the best trade-deadline move Horst made. Could Milwaukee have gotten P.J. Washington or another forward for him? Maybe? But right now, Bobby Portis is a better player than Washington, so it was a good move to keep him.
Portis is another engine that makes this team go. When he is scoring with post moves and 3-pointers, the team almost seems invincible. Could Portis score like he has at times in the playoffs? Bucks fans certainly hope so!