The Milwaukee Bucks sent the struggling Dallas Mavericks to another loss, winning 132-117. Giannis was the Bucks’ top performer with a 29-9-9 near triple-double, plus two blocks to boot. Additionally, Damian Lillard was stellar with 28 points, six assists, six rebounds, and two steals; Gary Trent Jr. chipped in 20 points of his own. With Anthony Davis out, it was a one-man show for the Mavs; Kyrie Irving dropped 31 points on 9/23 shooting. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.

What Did We Learn?

Maybe this is just me, but something I have worried about with the Bucks throughout the years they’ve been competing for championships is that it’s felt like there hasn’t been as much of “a plan” to what they’ve wanted to do from night to night as I’d have liked. I still feel that way sometimes, but last night was the opposite for me. Milwaukee was strategic and smart in their gameplan for most of the night. For example, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that with Davis, Gafford, and Lively out, there would be opportunities for Giannis to score on the inside. Even so, the way Doc made that objective easier for Giannis was simple, yet very effective. Let’s go through a new set (at least from what I could tell) they ran a fair few times throughout the game:

As you can see, they run the guard (works best if they command lots of gravity, like Dame) off what’s called an “Iverson cut,” where the player cuts diagonally off two screens at the top, clearing space in the area they just vacated. Then, the first screener (in this case Brook) just turns and sets another screen in the opposite direction for Giannis to get a head of steam towards a backpedalling, inexperienced big in Moses Brown. Simple, yet effective! Doc praised the team’s focus on execution postgame:

“We’ve been preaching this all year: if you find a set [that works], you stay on the set; do not go away from it. I thought we did that three different times in the game in a different set and scored on every option… That’s a good lesson for us: you don’t need to go to anything else if that’s working.”

Three Observations

Giannis played well out of the doubles Dallas threw at him all game.

Dallas had a clear plan of throwing immediate double-teams at Antetokounmpo when he caught it in the post. His willingness to get off it quick was a big reason they got high-quality looks elsewhere. Giannis said that “he has to” enjoy the double teams postgame:

“Either you’re going to get frustrated and try to keep on fighting the double team, or you’ve got to try to bait [the opponent] as much as you can. We have great players out there; if you put everybody in the right position, when the double comes you can pick them apart.”

I’ve been crying out for a Jericho Sims-type for so long.

Ever since I became a supporter of the Bucks, I’ve wanted a big who pursues rebounds with everything they’ve got. Love ‘em, but Giannis and Bobby are two guys who are often, in my opinion, way “too cool” about rebounding. Feels like they sometimes assume rebounds are just going to land in their lap—and don’t get me started on not boxing out (the guards are not blameless in the boxing out category either, to be clear). Whereas Sims sees the ball, boxes out, explodes up, and grabs the damn thing. Jericho, you know the way to my heart!

Just a few more notes on Sims: firstly, He had some awesome one-on-one possessions on defence. Secondly, I assume the Mavs were purposely blitzing the ball-handler in Jericho’s screening actions and leaving him on the short roll because they obviously didn’t trust his four-on-three decision-making. And to Sims’ credit, he made the correct pass on the few plays in which he was put in that situation, such as this one:

The team did an admirable job defending Kyrie Irving.

As was laid out in the intro, Irving finished the night with 31 points on 9/23 from the field and 2/9 from three. Probably too many free throws (11 attempts), but by and large, you take those numbers. I flagged in the game preview that it didn’t feel like the Bucks had a great matchup for Irving, but they kind of defended him by committee and stuck to the plan. The point-of-attack defender forced Kyrie into a crowd by not letting him reject screens; the dropping big was up a step or two higher than usual, understanding that they can give up the short-roll pass to Brown or Powell and rotate from there. It was just impressive execution of a plan to defend Irving that takes five guys, not one.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• He didn’t really fit into my segments above, but Dame was just terrific as a calming presence. His defensive effort also does not go unnoticed.
• Gary Trent Jr. looked set for a big night until he missed a fair few threes in the end. Still, his shot-making was crucial in the competitive portion of the game.
• Weird Kuz game. Probably the first game I’d say he definitively did not play well. Maybe the ankle injury bothered him. Also, his rim finishing is an adventure; goodness me.
• I’m sorry, but AJ Green must do something about his fouling. Dude plays great defence just to reach in at the final seconds way too often.
• Seems minor, but KPJ is one of the liveliest guys on the bench from what I observe. He has spoken about bringing energy to the group, and this is a great example of him doing just that—even when he’s not playing.
• Dallas had just eight O boards, compared to Milwaukee’s 14. This tracks, considering the size mismatch.
• Moses Brown was actually pretty good for the Mavs. I heard on the broadcast that last night had to be Brown’s final game with them because he was at the end of his second 10-day contract and they couldn’t sign him due to their proximity to their hard cap.

Up Next

The Bucks now get two days off, with their next game coming on Tuesday. Watch at 6:30 p.m. Central on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.

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