In basketball, very often, it is said that defense influences attack. If we make stops, we steal balls, we can run, score easy baskets in transition. For the Bucks, it seems to be the opposite. Doc Rivers had already mentioned this tendency in his first match against Denver and he did it again after the slap in Golden State.
“This may sound strange, even shocking, but I don’t think that’s our defense. I think it’s our attack,” analysis the Milwaukee coach faced with the performance of his players in the first half. “We didn't attack well all evening. They scored 21 points on our loose balls, blocked 13 shots, so they played transition throughout the game thanks to our poor offense. »
The Bucks finished with 95 points at 38% shooting success, 28% 3-point shooting and 15 lost balls. A difficult return to reality after six victories in a row.
“It’s the first night in a while where we haven’t played together, we haven’t passed the ball around. We forced things”continues Doc Rivers. “We had absences in defense, of course, but it was mainly in transition and our collective balance was not good. We took so many bad shots, had bad possessions. »
Seven minutes to give yourself hope
Giannis Antetokounmpo makes the same observation as his coach. “They scored like 20 points with our lost balls. We can't let our offense dictate our defense. We have to be better. They scored 125 points and 78 in the first half”regrets the Greek, since he and his teammates had not conceded as many points before the break this season.
To conclude and support his demonstration, Doc Rivers takes the best sequence of the Bucks’ evening as an example.
“For the first seven minutes of the third quarter, our ball movement was perfect. We scored every time and, as we did that, we could then set up our defense. And we defended well,” he sayswhile his players were trailing by 20 points and, seven minutes later, were only six lengths behind Stephen Curry and his gang. “The next few minutes, we fell back into our mistakes, with lost balls and forced shots. The match was over. »
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| Giannis Antetokounmpo | 59 | 34.9 | 61.9 | 30.1 | 66.1 | 2.6 | 8.7 | 11.3 | 6.3 | 3.4 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 2.9 | 30.8 |
| Damian Lillard | 57 | 34.9 | 42.3 | 34.7 | 92.6 | 0.5 | 3.8 | 4.4 | 6.7 | 2.6 | 1.1 | 0.2 | 1.8 | 24.5 |
| Khris Middleton | 43 | 26.3 | 48.7 | 37.8 | 83.2 | 0.6 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 5.0 | 2.1 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 14.8 |
| Bobby Portis | 62 | 24.0 | 49.9 | 38.4 | 78.6 | 1.6 | 5.5 | 7.1 | 1.2 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 13.1 |
| Brook Lopez | 59 | 31.2 | 47.8 | 34.7 | 82.2 | 1.5 | 3.9 | 5.4 | 1.7 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.7 | 2.5 | 12.6 |
| Malik Beasley | 60 | 29.5 | 46.3 | 44.2 | 63.0 | 0.6 | 3.3 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 2.1 | 11.4 |
| Patrick Beverly | 10 | 18.4 | 39.7 | 38.7 | 85.7 | 1.0 | 2.5 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.5 | 6.4 |
| Jae Crowder | 31 | 24.7 | 42.8 | 35.2 | 66.7 | 0.5 | 3.1 | 3.6 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 6.3 |
| Cameron Payne | 47 | 14.9 | 45.5 | 39.7 | 84.1 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 6.2 |
| Pat Connaughton | 56 | 21.4 | 45.6 | 37.3 | 72.2 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 3.2 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 5.4 |
| Marjon Beauchamp | 44 | 13.3 | 48.7 | 40.0 | 67.9 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 2.2 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.2 | 4.4 |
| Aj Green | 41 | 9.5 | 44.4 | 42.7 | 90.9 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 4.4 |
| Andre Jackson, Jr. | 47 | 10.6 | 52.9 | 37.5 | 72.7 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.7 | 2.4 |
| Danilo Gallinari | 6 | 10.7 | 28.6 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 1.2 | 2.3 |
| Lindell Wigginton | 3 | 2.5 | 40.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 2.0 |
| Robin Lopez | 16 | 4.0 | 36.8 | 25.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
| Chris Livingston | 16 | 4.3 | 43.8 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 1.1 |
| Thanasis Antetokounmpo | 26 | 4.7 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
| Tyty Washington, Jr. | 5 | 4.1 | 14.3 | 33.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| Bolden Brands | 2 | 1.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
