Slightly greater than per week in the past, the Milwaukee Bucks had received their opener — albeit towards a defanged Philadelphia 76ers workforce with out the companies of Joel Embiid and Paul George — and Damian Lillard had begun the season with a 30-point efficiency whereas connecting on six of his 12 3-pointers.
Since then, Lillard has gone 6 for 33 from 3 and the Bucks have misplaced 4 straight video games. Thursday night time felt like one thing fairly near all-time low, when Lillard completed 1 of 12 from the ground for 4 factors in a stunning loss to the shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies. Check out his miserable shot chart from the sport.
Someway, the Bucks truly seemed worse than the 122-99 rating would point out. Lifeless would not even seem to be a robust sufficient phrase, however I suppose it must do. This doesn’t seem like a workforce that desires to battle. Hell, they do not even seem like they wish to play.
“It is self-discipline, interval,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers stated after the loss to Memphis. “Sooner or later there must be penalties for it. Simply too many instances they ran behind us at the moment. Time and again. I imply, bigs working behind us for lobs. That simply cannot occur. It is not like we do not work on that on daily basis, however we’re not engaged on it properly sufficient, as a result of if we had been they would not be doing it. Once more, I preserve going again to me. There’s one thing they are not listening to that I am telling them, and I gotta do a greater job.”
There isn’t any pleasure. No ball-sharing. The protection is a bottom-10 unit and solely Brook Lopez is even holding that collectively. They rank twenty sixth in assists per recreation, tallying simply 20 helpers on Thursday, and a handful of these had been primarily meaningless within the last minutes of what was already a blowout. Solely the 76ers and Utah Jazz have worse workforce 3-point capturing than Milwaukee’s 30.6% mark.
That is capital-U Ugly, and we’re alleged to consider that every time Khris Middleton will get again after ankle surgical procedure he will simply flip the entire script when he is clearly in particular person decline himself? Do not wager on it. And do not wager on Rivers being the reply, both. The Bucks are 20-27 since he took over for the 30-13 Adrian Griffin final season.
Sing as many songs as you need about how the Bucks “seemed higher” beneath Rivers than they did beneath Griffin — who admittedly was performing some bizarre stuff, notably with the protection — however 20-27 is what it’s. CBS Sports activities NBA Insider Invoice Reiter reported on Thursday that there’s a rising confidence across the league that Giannis Antetokounmpo might grow to be out there for commerce if this factor retains going south. If what we have seen to date is any indication, a sudden turnaround would not seem too seemingly.
