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[Non-recap] Notes on: Milwaukee Bucks (34-12) 116 - 106 Dallas Mavericks (20-26)

First published January 21st 2019
Thoughts during the game:
  • Pretty fun pace to it, though the game seemed to slow down in the 4th. Both teams were running like crazy from misses. The Bucks area simply the better team at taking advantage of those situations though. Either by a Giannis drive or a great team discipline to find the open three.
  • Brunson is legit. (i'll never stop praising him and saying that i wanted him for the Warriors in the following breath. I'm yet to see Jacob Evans play non-garbage minutes). And this is a particularly bad matchup because of general size and how physical Bledsoe is. He had to work for every play but he's crafty, smart and has a good stroke.
  • Powell at center is an open lane; Before this game we're talking -8.6 Net Rating on the minutes where he plays without Kleber or DJ.
  • Luka's shot wasn't going in and he was struggling with the amount of size that collapsed on him in the paint, though he's still pulling off good dishes to the corner. It's just hard for him to try and finish when Lopez is in front of him and Giannis is coming to help.
  • I'm not sure why they didn't try more often having someone like DJ roll hard to the rim after screening for Luka. Lopez can't stop that consistently. They did look for it eventually, in the fourth. And it was a big part of that 11-0 run that brought the game back. (not really related but DJ misses seemingly every tip in.)
  • First half, Giannis was doing his thing - that is being a monster - and also creating the open looks for three but the team was just missing everything. Lopez had those 3 threes early but the Bucks get to halftime shooting 4-15. Those same shots started to fall in the third and the lead flipped. Sterling Brown couldn't miss anything.
  • On the other side, Wes was making some crazy shots and they were 9-19 as a team from three. So being down by two was actually a decent sign for the Bucks. Besides his crazy shooting night, Wes also did a good job getting strips. Particularly when they tried to get Lopez to attack him in the post, he poked the ball out from the pass at least a couple of times. Really disappeared a lot on the third quarter though.
  • The Mavericks defense looks clearly so much better with Finney-Smith and Kleber out there. Speaking of which, the Bucks showed how they can crack down on that early 4th, even if the Mavs lack good shot creation without Luka atm.
  • On the more negative side of the night for both sides side: Middleton was struggling bad and trying to force himself to any kind of form. And to steal u/Tron_Maker [+1] 's comment, "Barnes is playing like it's the Finals". That's some PTSD for me... He was abysmal.
  • For most of the second half, the regression to normal of the more extreme aspects of the first half got a nice consistent lead for the Bucks. Then that 11-0 run came... Luka took over the offense, they were trying hard on D (i really am starting to like Finney-Smith) and it's not like they were punished for the times they left Middleton open. That bank shot by Luka was madness. Still, the Bucks did enough to see the game through. Giannis had a couple of standout play on both sides of the court.
  • No Kostas :'(

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