Someday the Bucks hope to make the leap into the next stratosphere of NBA quality. In order to get to that level they will need to be able to beat the Chicago Bulls. In a potential playoff matchup (4 vs. 5) the Bucks had an opportunity to show that their progress is no farce. But for most of Saturday night the Bucks played like an inferior, nervous team. They passed without conviction, shot without confidence, and posed little to no low-post competence. Credit Pau Gasol with notching a career-high scoring effort (46)–but this was a game that the Bucks expected to lose, regardless of Pau’s virtuoso display.
In vintage fringe-contender fashion the Bucks were all-too-satisfied with just hanging around the Bulls every time they threatened to take a commanding lead, reeling them in just close enough to be within shouting distance, but not contention. The aggressive, confident Bucks team we’ve seen the past 2 months never gained full confidence but for a brief 4 minute spurt to start the 3rd quarter–a stretch that saw the Bucks take a momentary 1-point lead, 51-50. A quality team plays to the moment, like the Bulls did–but the Bucks (being the Bucks, after all) remembered they should be happy, ecstatic even, to simply hang around with the Bulls. But beating them? Oh, no–they couldn’t do that.
So the Bucks went ahead and failed to score for the next 5 minutes allowing Pau Gasol and the Bulls to grab a 9 point lead–putting the Bucks right back into their comfort zone: threatening, but not controlling. Aggressive, but not assertive. Good, but not great.
In order to be great the Bucks need find a way to score during their cold stretches. They need to be able to find a way to stop a star player from scoring a career-high (you bet your ass they missed Larry Sanders tonight). They need to rebound better, pass better during cold spells, and play defense without fouling.
Most of all the Bucks need to play with the swagger we saw them show against the Hawks (in ATL), 76ers, Knicks, and T-Wolves. Until they are confident in their own identity they will have a difficult time beating higher level Eastern Conference teams.
Five Observations
- Zaza Pachulia’s recent stretch of solid play came to a crashing halt when matched up against the faster, sharper Pau Gasol. Zaza had trouble staying in front of Gasol, defending his jumper, rebounding, and scoring (his 3-12 from the field was a Buck’s low). Keep in mind that John Henson didn’t fare much better against the Bull’s bigs, but did manage to pull in 7 rebounds and protect the rim (4 blocks).
- Was that Giannis Antetokounmpo out there? Because it sure didn’t look like him. The Chicago defense straight up confounded Giannis, who refused to attack Jimmy Butler, shied away from contact near the rim, and never really found his stride in transition but for a swift and-1 against Aaron Brooks. Look, Giannis IS ONLY 20 years old and figures to be able to bulk up significantly over the next few off-seasons–but in the right now he looked undersized and tentative against the bigger, formidable Chicago front line. The fact that Giannis pulled in 6 rebounds despite being diminutive in stature against the likes of Jimmy Butler, Tony Snell and Taj Gibson shows the character that he plays with. That’s something you can’t gain in the weight room or teach in the classroom.
- Brandon Knight turned in a stellar performance going for 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists with only 1 turnover. The common jab that people like to throw at Knight is his tendency to go into “Hero Mode” when the team around him fails to make plays. It’s almost as if his game says “I know no one else is able to break us out of this cold stretch, so I’m going to take a mid-range jumper”. But you know what? He IS the only Buck capable of making a slump breaking shot. We saw that ability tonight when he made an and-1 jumper late in the second quarter with the Bulls threatening to blow the game wide open. We saw him make a 20 footer with 5:15 left in the 4th down 12, then steal the ball on the next possession and find Bayless for an open 3 pointer (which he missed). He doesn’t go into “Hero Mode,” he is the hero. And until Giannis or Jabari Parker develop their clutch genes he will continue being the hero.
- Ersan Ilyasova can’t get healthy soon enough. With Johnny O’Bryant looking all parts rookie and Kenyon Martin looking all parts old the Bucks were ravaged on the glass–getting out-rebounded 51-37. Things were so bad that neither O’Bryant or Martin pulled in a rebound. Yikes! It’s not that Ersan is an elite rebounder, but he does have that “hoover” instinct–an absence that ultimately costed the Bucks a chance at stealing this game.
- It’s great to see O.J. Mayo hit important shots for the Bucks again. After sleeping through the 2nd half of December, Mayo was sent to the bench in favor of Khris Middleton. But he didn’t gripe, complain, or draw negative attention to the team. Instead he’s quietly gone about his business as usual and played the same game we’ve seen this entire season: very assertive defense (seriously), good passing, and streaky shooting. Mayo may never be the superstar he thought he should be early in his career–but he sure is a damn good 6th man. Let’s hope his 3 point shot decides to stay around for a while, he’s shot 6-7 in the last 2 games–a streak that led to this gem of a tweet.
🍊J!!— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 11, 2015
Bango Crossing 