The day after Giannis Antetokounmpo’s reassuring statements about his future and his wish to spend his entire career in Milwaukee, he and his teammates achieved a small feat by winning on the Lakers’ floor. This is the 5th victory in seven matches, at the heart of a formative “road trip”.
“We’re playing well, really well. But we can’t afford to get comfortable. We can’t relax.” warns Giannis. “That said, we’re going in the right direction. We had four road games, we won two of them. We were very competitive against the Warriors. I’m very, very proud. Really proud. Obviously, you can’t put yourself in situations like that. We didn’t execute very well offensively. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. They’re a very, very good team up front. We managed to win the game, so I’m happy.”
The refusal of insulation
For Doc Rivers, everything is not perfect, and there are still passages where the offense stagnates, and that is a problem. “I found us a little messy. We had a lot of good movements, but if you look closely at the match, out of 48 minutes, there were 36 minutes of very good movement and 12 minutes where we remained static, playing iso. That’s not our identity” insists the Bucks coach. “We see it right away: when we play in isolation, our 3-point attempts disappear. When we move the ball, we get open 3-point shots. We took fewer in the second half because of that. The good news is that we won. The best news is that we can watch the video and correct what we didn’t do well tonight.”
What Rivers shouldn’t fix is his starting five. For 10 matches, he has lined up the same five with interesting efficiency: 7 victories for 3 defeats. It consists of Kevin Porter Jr., Ryan Rollins, AJ Green, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Myles Turner. Which allows us to use Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis in the 6th and 7th men, but also to use a shooter (Green) to create space for Giannis.
More spacing, more defense
“I have the impression that in attack, we are more and more on the same wavelength. We are more looking to create an advantage in attack, and we do it together” notes Green, author of a big first quarter against the Lakers. “Whether it’s after a single screen that gives us an immediate advantage and a shot, with a single pass, or after five passes… The important thing is to understand what we’re trying to achieve, and we’re getting there more and more collectively. This comes through our spacing, our rhythm, our multiple actions. Defensively, I think we play harder and we trust each other more. And we must continue to maintain this collective effort.”
