Bucks' defensive breakdowns, slow starts have Doc Rivers mulling lineup changes

New York Times

23-04-2025

INDIANAPOLIS — After missing a shot at the rim on the opening possession of Game 2, Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma crashed to the floor. He picked himself up and sprinted back on defense, but he was too late.
The Indiana Pacers were already two passes into their five-on-four transition possession. Kuzma managed to get back into the play and find a Pacer to cover, but as Kuzma backpedaled towards the lane, Tyrese Haliburton sprinted to the top of the key to receive the next pass. As Haliburton caught the ball, Kuzma attempted a closeout, but he was too late.
Haliburton sprinted past Kuzma and toward the rim, where Giannis Antetokounmpo was waiting for Haliburton after leaving his assignment, Aaron Nesmith, in the right corner. Taurean Prince sprinted out to contest Nesmith's shot, but it was too late.
Nesmith knocked down the catch-and-shoot look from the corner and the Pacers took the lead, one that they would hold onto for all 48 minutes on Tuesday in their 123-115 win to take a 2-0 lead in the first-round series. The opening sequence was a good example of what happened repeatedly to the Bucks to start Tuesday's game. Milwaukee was too late, and Indiana remained a step ahead.
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'We don't want to put ourselves in a hole early in the game,' Antetokounmpo said. 'I think we've done it in two games. We also did it in the third quarter. It's hard to play from behind. We just gotta be smarter the way we play, be more urgent when we start the game; hopefully we can be the one to set the tone and not them.'
Not only have the Bucks put themselves in a hole at the start of each of the first two games of this series, but they've also done it at the start of all four halves.
In the first and third quarters of Games 1 and 2, Doc Rivers has been the coach to call the first timeout, and the Bucks have been at a deficit in the preceding time period in each instance:
• The Bucks trailed 16-8 on Tuesday when Rivers called a timeout with seven minutes, 59 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
• The Pacers opened the second half on a 10-2 run before Rivers called a timeout with 9:30 left in the third quarter of Game 2.
• The Bucks trailed 15-8 on Saturday when Rivers called a timeout with 7:50 remaining in the first quarter of Game 1.
• The Pacers opened the second half with a 7-4 run before Rivers called a timeout with 8:41 left in the third quarter of Game 1.
On Tuesday, the Bucks swapped out Ryan Rollins for nine-time All-Star Damian Lillard, who made his return to action after missing over a month with a deep vein thrombosis (DVT) blood clot in his right calf, but the starters struggled in much the same way they did on Saturday. In more than 17 minutes together on Saturday, Milwaukee's starting lineup was outscored by 15 points. On Tuesday, the starters were outscored by nine points in a little more than 16 minutes.
Rivers told reporters he'll explore a change to avoid another poor start in Game 3.
'We've gotten off to two poor starts, and we've got to make an adjustment there, for sure,' Rivers said. 'We'll just see. We have time. We have 48 hours. I'm not gonna tell you what I'm doing right now because I don't know, but we'll figure it out, I'm very confident about this series. Very.'
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While no one told him that only 28 teams that have gone down 0-2 in a best-of-seven playoff series in NBA history have rallied to win it, Rivers made a callback to a scene in Cleveland from November during his postgame news conference.
After the Bucks dropped to 1-6 on the season with a 116-114 loss to the Cavaliers on Nov. 4, Rivers was informed that only 12 of the 150 teams that had ever started 1-6 made the playoffs that season. Similarly to how he confidently said the Bucks would come back in this series after Tuesday's loss in Indianapolis, Rivers told reporters in Cleveland that night that his team would make the playoffs.
If the Bucks are going to turn Rivers' confidence into a comeback in this series, something they haven't pulled off since they went down 2-0 to start the 2021 NBA Finals, they are going to need to improve significantly on defense. After two games, Milwaukee is sporting a 121.8 defensive rating, and plays like its first defensive possession of the game have been commonplace all series long.
Look at the Bucks' second defensive possession of the game:
With only one action, Haliburton broke down Milwaukee's defense and created an advantage for Pascal Siakam by forcing a late switch and late recovery.
'We just gotta contain the ball better,' Antetokounmpo said. 'I feel like they're taking us a lot off the dribble.'
Everything starts with not getting beat off the dribble. But if Indiana creates an advantage off the bounce, Milwaukee has to do a better job of recovering with discipline. A breakdown cannot turn into a five-alarm fire with players running from all over the floor to put it out. Instead, the right players have to help from the right positions to maintain the integrity of the Bucks' defense.
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'I think our biggest thing is getting off to a good start,' said Bobby Portis, who had 28 points and 12 rebounds. 'We get off to a good start, we wouldn't even be talking about an offensive rebound. We follow the game plan and not give up strong-side corner for two 3s to start the first two minutes of the game, we wouldn't be talking offensive rebounds. That's six points right there we gave up for no reason helping strong side corner.'
To get a better understanding of what Portis was referencing, let's take a closer look at the third defensive possession of the game:
The Bucks switched five different actions to start this possession before Brook Lopez ended up on Haliburton. Eventually, Lopez gets beat off the dribble by Haliburton, but Portis' comment about not helping out of the strong-side corner means Antetokounmpo should not have helped at all and instead left Lopez on that island with Haliburton.
The Pacers' All-Star point guard would have likely scored on that possession as he had gotten past Lopez, but the play brings about an interesting question that the Bucks have seemingly been unable to answer thus far: Is it better to give up a Haliburton look inside the paint or a catch-and-shoot 3 elsewhere on the floor?
Whatever the Bucks decide, they will have to consistently execute their answer, because not consistently executing a game plan will create even more questions for the players on the court and even more defensive confusion.
'Communicate better, communicate early, so we know where the pick-and-roll, where the screen's coming from,' Antetokounmpo said. 'And help defense gotta be early. And what I mean, early, you gotta be in position early. You cannot see the play happening and then run in, because when you run in, you kinda commit late, and then they swing the ball for an open 3. And then you're playing on your heels.
'When they swing the ball for an open 3, they either can shoot it, drive it, they can swing to the corner two against one, and now we're just in scramble mode a lot. This team is like a really good team in making you play in scramble mode. They know how to drive a kick. They know to get in the paint and find the open man.'
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Despite their poor starts to both halves, the Bucks managed to get back into the game. Antetokounmpo was dominant with 34 points, 18 rebounds and seven assists, and Portis hit big shots throughout the fourth quarter to chip away at Indiana's lead. The Bucks also found a switch-heavy defensive strategy that worked, as they held the Pacers to only 24 points in the fourth quarter.
With a 3-pointer from 31 feet by Lillard, who put up 14 points and seven assists in 37 minutes in his first game in over a month, Milwaukee cut the deficit to two with 2:33 remaining. But then came one last back-breaking defensive breakdown:
As the Bucks switched assignments for the first 20 seconds of the possession, they got caught looking at Andrew Nembhard driving to the rim and lost track of Siakam, who made them pay with a catch-and-shoot 3 from the right wing to effectively close the game.
'We didn't contain the ball much at all tonight,' Rivers said. 'They believe they have guys that can beat our guys off the dribble, so we have to do a better job.'
If they cannot, their summer vacation will start a lot earlier than anyone would like.
(Photo of Andrew Nembhard shooting over Giannis Antetokounmpo: Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)