East Semis Game 1: (0-1) Milwaukee Bucks 104 v 115 Miami Heat (1-0)

1st Half

Lopez is meeting Bam a bit higher up on the court than standard for the Bucks and Miami is looking to exploit that with cutting [  ] - especially a player like Robinson that they are focused on top locking because of the threat posed by the handoff with Bam. And if Lopez tries to sag off they do act on it as expected.

One thing that first clip displays is something I can’t help but think as I watch the game unfold… If Butler hadn’t lost his jump shot completely this offense would be so freaking awesome. (How prophetic...)

A nice little chess match happened halfway through the 1st:

- Lopez sits down and Giannis slide into the 5. The Heat try to take advantage of a smaller opposition to attack the inside from a small-small pick and roll. However, Giannis isn’t afraid of a Bam jumper in a kick out so he stays and protects the rim.

- Immediately, Spo increases the spacing by having Kelly-O subbed in for Bam. Now, Bud wastes no time putting Lopez back in the game despite having just taken him out. Giannis is even visibly caught off guard by getting his rest so early but they seem to want to match up the Olynik minutes with Brook.

- But Olynik’s spacing is an actual threat and so the small-small pick and roll has all the space in the world. Butler would spend most of the quarter relentlsyy attacking the rim, losing for whatever happened between a layup or a trip to the line.

The Bucks were hitting all they jumpers at will, a good sign for Middleton in particular after a rough 1st round. His hot shooting (10 points in que quarter) was the main force behind the lead the Bucks found as the 1st went along.

For the final 4 minutes, with most of the Miami bench in, the Bucks bring Giannis back in to the lineup where he plays the 5 alongside Marvin Williams. Bam comes back to guard the MVP. Him also being back also immediately resulted in a Tyler Herro 3 coming from and handoff.

The game started going the Bucks way though. Giannis was now the one pushing the ball as Milwaukee was running from stops and the transition game was unstoppable. Williams was awesome in that play both containing the handoff and then collecting Herro’s shot. A lot fo stuff was run for Herro this quarter but his shot was very off.

Brook finished the quarter with 11 3s after a Hail Mary of a buzzer beater and the Bucks are up 11, as the bench unit couldn’t get anything from Herro’s and Iguodala’s jumpers.

AS the 2nd begins, Miami’s defense starts to tighten up in transition. The wall is now formed early enough to be steady once Giannis reaches them instead of them backpedaling like in a previous play. They also produced a few turnovers from Milwaukee as the switching defense neutralised the Giannis-Middleton PnR in particular. Giannis also can have streaks of turnovers and offensive fouls when he tries to bulldoze his way inside. Giannis sat with his 3rd foul and only 9 points at the half - mostly on jumpers that connected but will always be allowed by the defense.

The Bucks kept around a 5-point lead for large part of the 2nd quarter, kept afloat by Lopez and Middleton basically not missing any shot and a renewed attention to close the paint after a very soft 1st quarter allowed them to create stops to build momentum. 

In a 3 point lead to end the half, Kris with 21 points in 9-14 shooting and Lopez with 19, shooting 6-7. Dragic continues to be the best offensive player of his team, with 19 points and 6-8. Now, it is not the most promising sign to be shooting 60.5% from he field and 53% from deep and still only lead by 3.

2nd Half

Brook caught his 4th foul very early in the 3rd so with around 5 minutes left we see a rare Bucks lineup without Giannis or Brook on the court.

Butler’s ability to draw himself some free throws continues without any impediments. He had 12-point quarter with 5 Fas as he added a 3 point make and took advantage of the smaller Milwaukee lineups inside.

While it was somewhat predictable that some of the Bucks interior defense would be compromised by Miami’s offense, I am mostly shocked by how much the Heat have managed to seal the paint. 36-18 in points in the paint by the end of the 3rd and Miami leads by 6 as the Bucks shoot 4 out fo 11 from 2 in the quarter. This amount of inside points allowed and 25 trips to the line for Miami showed that Spo’s team dictated the style of game played in their favour.

The Bucks started the 4th with the starting lineup but switching up Matthews for Korver for some extra offensive punch but the start of the quarter was a slog fest as the Bucks turned up the intensity and both teams were folding under the pressure and turnovers were galore. 

The Bucks attempts to make up ground as we entered crunch time ended up devolving into a Kris Middleton jumper. Kris was doing well abasing Adebayo 1v1, being able to get some space on him off the drible but otherwise the shots were well contested and the shot was off. I mean, this is just fantastic defense. Dragic is outstanding, pushing back Giannis enough on his stunt to give Crowder time to recover, then seals off the pass to the cutting guard and he’s the one to grab the rebound at the end.

Wanna see real panic in a man’s body language? Look at Pat here as he realizes that he doesn’t see anyone he should be on only to spin his head around and see Tyler Herro with the most open 3 in the history of sport.

Butler continues to be on hell of a force in late game situations. He hasn’t had a jump shot all year… no matter. Totally sealing the game in these plays as he was hunting the switch on George Hill; He score 15 out of the teams last 20 points!!! Finished up with 40 points, 13-20 from the field.

The Bucks shot 45.7% from 3 but the Heat were able to stop them scoring inside and in transition. In fact, Miami was the only team truly shrinking the floor, as the Bucks were much more spread out than usual. Giannis was 4-12 from the free throw line with 6 turnovers. They defend him as well as anyone could and honestly, the Bucks were thoroughly outplayed. 

Milwaukee lost a game where they shot 60% eFG%, hitting every midranges and 3 under the sun. The heat simply had a fantastic free throw rate, something that is part of their identity and succeed at destroying the oppositions transition game - a fuel for their efficiency. The thing that the Bucks more surprisingly failed at was hustle in the boards, somehow giving up a 31.8% OReb%, good for 87th percentile on the season. And these boards weren’t just to Bam but to Butler, Dragic and Iguodala. Brook Lopez had 1… 1! rebound the entire game.

Notes

Kendrick Nuno and Tyler Herro look bothered by the size. They aren’t able to generate any good looks off the dribble. Though Nuno couldn’t by a bucket his defense on Middleton and overall effort on hustle plays was pretty solid all game.

Bam had a couple of instances where he just physically overpowered Giannis. That is a sight to behold.

The amount of crazy runners and high arching floaters Dragic can make is absurd.

I thought that having Marvin Williams guard Bam when Giannis was playing the 5 just meant they could have crowder run some acton on the weak side (or threat that they might) to bring Giannis away from helping at the rim and it was easy for the Miami guards to find points in the paint (Giannis turns his head to watch crowder this exact moment Dragic enters the paint wide open, therefore missing his help window.). They need to adjust better to those scenarios.

Every once in a while, Miami would double Giannis’ attempt to bully his way inside, forcing him towards being trapped near the corner, and this was mostly pretty effective. They are pretty good scrambling and forcing the players to put the ball on the floor and make quick decisions. 

Iguodala, Bam, Butler, Crowder…. Miami has a ton of guys that can be pests on Giannis and swipe a bunch of balls at the first opportunity. Part of how they make life difficult inside is just all these arms flailing around.

In a game that was contested to the very end, Giannis shouldn't be playing only 36 minutes.