ORLANDO, Fla. — Khris Middleton stood in the left corner of the floor trying to understand what just happened, with his hands out at his sides and his palms facing skyward.
The Milwaukee Bucks star never received a good answer as Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and the Orlando Magic’s leading scorer, teed up an uncontested 3-pointer from the middle of the floor just short of three minutes into the second half. As the shot dropped from the sky and through the rim, Middleton looked around the court at his teammates, hoping one of them would explain the confusion, but nobody did.
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The Bucks suffering a defensive breakdown was not out of place. That’s happened quite a bit this season, as the Bucks have been one of the league’s most porous defensive units. And it wasn’t an unusual sight Saturday in their 112-97 loss to the Magic, considering they gave up 65 points in the first half. But a breakdown in that specific moment was particularly difficult to understand.
After the Bucks gave up seven points in the first two and a half minutes of the third quarter, the Magic built a 21-point lead, their largest of the night. Bucks coach Adrian Griffin took a timeout in hopes of getting the team back on track. On the first play out of the timeout, the Bucks ran an offensive set that allowed Giannis Antetokounmpo to attack off the dribble and find Middleton wide open for a 3-pointer on the right wing.
On the way back down the floor, the Bucks seemed unaware of their defensive assignments.
It’s unclear if the Bucks were meant to be in a man-to-man or zone defense on the possession. As Middleton, Cam Payne and Malik Beasley seemed to match up with Magic players running down the floor, Antetokounmpo ran to the left block as Banchero caught the ball uncovered in the middle of the floor. Bucks center Brook Lopez attempted to cover Banchero and Goga Bitadze for a moment, but that left Banchero open for the 3.
“Just figuring out a way to win games and play together, simple as that,” Middleton said, when asked where he feels the team can improve most. “Teams are working us on the defensive end, and we gotta figure out a way to do the same thing when we have the ball.
“I mean, we have so many talented guys. We’ve shown that we can do it in the past, but right now, I think we’re just trying to figure each other out, learn a new system, learn new schemes and philosophies. But now we have to start putting that knowledge into action.”
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The Bucks are 5-4 through nine games. As of Sunday morning, they have the league’s 13th-best offense, per NBA.com, scoring 113 points per 100 possessions, and the league’s 25th-best defense, giving up 116.5 points per 100 possessions.
To be clear, there are some logical reasons for these relative struggles. The Bucks are trying to learn new systems under a new coach while adjusting to a roster that was shaken up four days before training camp. Their big addition, seven-time All-Star Damian Lillard, has missed the last two games with right calf soreness. Middleton has sat out the front end of both of the Bucks’ back-to-backs and yet to play more than 21 minutes and 11 seconds in a single game. Antetokounmpo was ejected from a game.
Still, things aren’t going as well as anyone would want.
“I think just, for the most part, our camaraderie and chemistry is just not there at all,” forward Bobby Portis said. “I think it’s kind of obvious on the court. I think that will take a minute. We don’t want it to take too long — but we’ll figure it out here soon, hopefully. We’re just trying to figure out one another.
“New things that Coach wants that we’re trying to implement and focus on and things like that, which kind of goes away from how we used to play. We’re trying to figure it out and trying to get to it, trusting in what he wants and then just doing the things that asked of us.”
GO DEEPER
Partnow: Is it too early to be worried about the Bucks' ugly defensive numbers?
In five seasons under Mike Budenholzer, the lowest the Bucks ever finished a season in defensive efficiency was 14th (2021-22), per NBA.com, when Lopez missed 69 games due to injury. That was the only season the Bucks finished outside the top 10. The Bucks’ defensive personnel is worse this season than it was at any point under Budenholzer, but Antetokounmpo, the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in the 2019-20 season, still thinks they should be better.
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“We just gotta do a better job, man,” Antetokounmpo said after putting up 35 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists Saturday. “Right now, I think the individual pride is there, but like, the team defense is not there. We’re not helping each other as much as we should. … I feel like the gaps are wide open. I feel like the guys feel comfortable to be able to come down, attack, go downhill, get an angle, make a play for themselves or for their teammates. Like I wish, you know, I wish we were being guarded that way.”
The third-quarter plays that preceded Griffin’s timeout show exactly what Antetokounmpo was describing. Look at how comfortably Banchero drove to the rim on this possession before Antetokounmpo fouled him at the last second.
One possession later, the Bucks did a better job against the same initial action of rookie Anthony Black screening for Banchero, but things quickly deteriorated once Orlando began moving the ball.
Payne got twisted up as he tried to find Black on his cut after screening for Banchero. Payne’s inability to do so forced Lopez to take Black as he cut to the rim and occupied the right block. With an undersized Payne trying to find Goga Bitadze underneath the rim, Middleton bumped down off the Magic’s second-leading scorer, Franz Wagner, to help out in the paint.
Rather than continuing across the floor to Wagner, Payne occupied the space in the lane in front of Bitadze and Beasley and Middleton ran out at Wagner. It was far too late to take away Wagner’s 3-point attempt. The lack of cohesion in a recovery situation points to a whole roster trying to figure out how to defend in a new scheme.
There were a lot of things the Bucks could have done in that situation that would have worked better than what they did when they got to this point:
If everyone on the floor defended with more conviction, the Bucks could have had Middleton:
- fight to the other side of Bitadze and let Payne fly out to Wagner to take away a wide-open look.
- fight to the other side of Bitadze, have Beasley fly down to Wagner on the pass and let Payne X-out to Jalen Suggs.
- bump Bitadze for a second to let Payne front him and then get back out to Wagner.
It is, of course, much easier to make these suggestions in hindsight when looking at a screenshot. But the best NBA defenses feature five players flying around the floor seemingly connected together on a string. When one player moves to take something away from an offensive player, their four teammates move at the same time in anticipation of the next problem that will arise. At this point, the Bucks are struggling to take away the first options from their opponents.
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“I think just continue to harp on our team defense, helping each other out there and plugging gaps,” Griffin said when asked how this improves moving forward. “It’s hard to guard quick guys one-on-one, and when we’re pressuring the ball, we really need our gaps and our help. And listen, this is new for a lot of our players, but they’ve been great and it’s all about building, getting better each game.
“We’ve shown flashes of how effective we can be turning people over and getting into the ball, but nothing happens overnight. You’ve just got to keep harping on the positives … just teach, be great teachers … be great communicators. And our job as coaches is to tell them the truth as we see it, but we have to be better. I have to be better.”
Wagner ended up missing the shot above, so the Bucks could have escaped a bad defensive possession with a stop, but they were in a poor position to grab the rebound and Bitadze beat Lopez to the miss. From there, the Bucks missed an opportunity for a steal on a silly play by Suggs and eventually gave up an easy bucket.
Again, in a scramble situation, the Bucks struggled to find the players they needed to cover. Because Middleton was late getting in front of Black’s cut to the rim, Lopez needed to follow Black out to the corner, and that put Middleton out of position to cover the lob to Bitadze.
“Defensively, man, like, I feel like we got to take it up a notch,” Antetokounmpo said. “We have to take it up a notch. This is not who we are. This is not the Milwaukee Bucks. We gotta guard people. Like 65 points (in the first half) is too much.
“And it starts from me. It starts from the leader of the team. I gotta be better. But again, it’s not one person (that) can do it alone. Defensively, we gotta show more, make our paint look more crowded, make the lanes look more crowded, don’t allow guys to get comfortable and guys to be able to get downhill.”
The Bucks, in both personnel and tactics, are not the same team they have been over the last five seasons, and they are unlikely to be as good defensively. But they have to be better than they have been through nine games. And Antetokounmpo seems determined to make that happen.
(Top photo: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
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