The Bucks‘ defense performed relatively well in their second-round series vs. Boston, holding a Celtics team that led the NBA with a 122.6 offensive rating after the All-Star break to a 108.8 mark in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. However, Milwaukee’s own offense struggled — the team ranked third in the league with a 114.3 offensive rating in the regular season, but its 99.7 second-round mark ranked last by a wide margin among the eight remaining clubs.
One reason for Milwaukee’s offensive struggles was Khris Middleton‘s absence due to an MCL sprain. The Bucks were left wondering after Sunday’s Game 7 loss whether they’d be the ones advancing to face Miami in the Eastern Finals if their second-leading scorer had been available vs. Boston.
“Obviously, we weren’t trying to make excuses, ‘We don’t have Khris, and oh, it’s going to be tough for us.’ No, no, no,” Giannis Antetokounmpo said on Sunday, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic. “I think everybody went out there and competed, gave everything they had and that’s what we did from Game 3 against Chicago until Game 7 against Boston. But, if we had him, maybe it would have been a different story. But we didn’t.”
“We could’ve used him,” Jrue Holiday said of Middleton. “We definitely could’ve used him. He makes big shots and big plays on both ends, but especially the offensive end. Yeah, we missed him, but we also want him to be OK for the future, too. Yeah, he’s missed.”
Middleton confirmed on Monday that his MCL injury was a Grade 2 sprain and said it will heal on its own in the offseason without any surgical intervention (Twitter links via Eric Nehm of The Athletic and Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Middleton added that he wanted to play in Games 6 and 7 vs. Boston and didn’t experience any setbacks, but team doctors said the risk was too high for him to return so soon (Twitter link via Owczarski).
Here’s more on the Bucks:
- Asked about his upcoming player option decision, Bobby Portis spoke at length about how much he has enjoyed his two years in Milwaukee, but deferred to his agent on his contract situation. “That’s on the organization and my agent to figure that out,” Portis said (Twitter link via Nehm). “I don’t really discuss numbers or contracts or none of that. I love it here. I love being a Buck, but it definitely comes down to them making it work.” The Bucks would have Early Bird rights on Portis, who has certainly outplayed his $4.56MM option.
- In his preview of the Bucks’ offseason, ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link) takes a closer look at Portis’ free agency, noting that the Bucks could offer him up to about $22.6MM over two years using the Early Bird exception. Marks also explores potential new contracts for Pat Connaughton, who can reach free agency by turning down his player option, and Middleton, who is extension-eligible.
- Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype previewed the Bucks’ summer too, examining the upcoming free agent and extension decisions facing the team.
- Veteran wing Wesley Matthews told reporters on Monday that he’ll definitely continue his NBA career and would like be back with the Bucks (Twitter link via Owczarski). The 35-year-old said that he hopes not to have to wait until December to sign his next contract, as he did this past season.
Donte Divincenzo is younger and better than Grayson Allen.
Why did they acquire Grayson Allen?
Grayson Allen and Hill are very weak on defense.
He has injury problems and they’d have to deal with him in restricted free agency. They can’t keep everyone and I think they figured they’d know more of what they’re getting with Ted Cruz
Donte was injured coming into the season and they were looking for at least a stopgap, plus after the trade the year before was scrapped, it seemed inevitable that a split was coming.
In hindsight, it doesn’t look like they made the right choice (I wasn’t a fan of it to begin with, but that’s because Teddy Cruz the Deuce was, is and always will be a toilet brush IMO).
Also, the contract stuff..including my totally unbiased opinion that Allen was going to accept ANY type of guaranteed deal just to stay in the league, whereas if Divo could show he could get and stay healthy they’d have trouble convincing him to stay.
Hill has long been a good defender, he was coming off injury this series.
Donte is not as good at defense as advanced numbers suggest. He’s not that good at man and just jumps passing lanes.
He’s a liability on offense. Allen is very superior to him in that regard. Allen had a bad defensive series but is typically more competent. Boston was a bad matchup for him.
MIL’s offense, without KM, will almost always struggle when they play against a team that defends. Of their 3 stars, KM is the only elite perimeter shooter. Without him, they are reliant on secondary guys to be primary guys. Not a great way to attack a good NBA defense in the playoffs.
Even more so when nobody could make a shot. With how miserable the rest of the roster shot, I don’t know if MKE wins that series with a healthy Middleton.
Nobody does. BOS did look like the clearly better team after Game 1, yet it went 7. Maybe they don’t look as dominant (if MIL has KM) but still win in 7. Or maybe MIL’s role players shoot better with KM on the floor. KM is too significant a piece to MIL’s half court puzzle to assume everything else would have remained the same if he had played.
I’m still trying to grasp the defensive scheme yesterday that allowed a guy to consistently be left open to drill 3-pointers. I get the idea of not allowing Tatum to beat you, but at what point does coach say, “Enough. Time to go to plan B?”
I’m tired of coach Bud and his Plan As.
I mean the guy won a chip last year with Plan A sooooooo
Not so much the scheme as the guys were tired. To be fair, Williams missed 11 threes to 7 makes. They weren’t leaving Tatum or Brown open. Having Williams open was the cost to that, plus fatigue.
Jrue’s usage went up without Khris which he clearly couldn’t handle and his off. efficiency went down. The bench other than Portis and Pat is weak and will only get weaker if they lose one or both of them. Allen, Ibaka, and the rest were not up to the task although Carter needs more opportunity to prove himself.
For Ibaka, it’s tough to be up to the task when he only played in garbage time. Doubtful he would have made a difference though.
Pay Portis!!! He has more than earned it.