Milwaukee vs. Brooklyn Game Review & 3 Takeaways from Nets Beating Bucks

On October 30, 2024By Littum

After a dud on Friday night, the Bucks dropped their second game of the year to the other less talented team as they fell 115-102 to the Nets at the Barclays Center. Cam Thomas led all scorers with 32 for Brooklyn, accompanied by Denis Schröder with 29. Giannis Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 22. Our full recap of the game is here, and you can listen to a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Pants in six minutes under.

What did we learn?

This team struggles with the second half at the beginning of the season. Like last Friday, when Milwaukee took a commanding halftime lead, things were very close at halftime, though both teams struggled mightily on offense. Overall, though, I thought the Bucks played pretty solid defense despite ice-cold shooting. However, they were only able to take the lead twice in the third, and after each bucket that made or kept it a one-possession game, a lapse followed at the other end. I looked up some numbers afterwards, and as you might expect, not a pretty picture:

Bucks second half last two games: 70 points allowed, 63 points allowed. Defensive rating of 129.2 and -19.7 net. Their offensive rating of 109.5 is 6th-worst in the league.

So far they are +5.9 with a 103.9 DRtg (10th-best) before the half, -11.5 after with a 127.6 (5th-worst).

— Van Fayaz (@lohausfan) 28 October 2024

That’s a terrible defensive rating with a poor eye test to match. Some videos to get to that effect below.

But overall, I don’t think the defense is currently the biggest problem with the team, as we’ve seen them have some very good stretches in the first half. The offensive rating in the second half stinks, and it’s not like it was much better in the first after they could only muster 45 points. I’m not the only one who has observed this, but the offense sputters easily when their first action or two goes nowhere. There is very little ball movement or off-ball cutting. Too much portrait and iso. This is something you hope improves when Khris Middleton returns. Last year, the offense looked visibly more dynamic when he was on the floor, and he’s an important connection to any lineup; he’s typically able to create good looks for teammates when a possession might not be going anywhere at first. He can’t come back soon enough.

Three Bucks Bombs

Giannis’ numbers mask some issues with his game.

Free throw shooting aside (which was better last night on 8/11), you’d think Giannis is off to a typically strong start this year by looking at his averages through three games: 28.3 PPG on 66.7% shooting with 12 .3 RPG and 6.3 APG. He previously also had some success in the mid range before going 1/4 between 15-18 feet in this one. But those attempts are emblematic of a trend over the last two games where he’s just… trying to do too much. Whether it’s tunnel vision driving into a wall of defenders like we saw on Friday, or passing teammates who have much better looks, his numbers feel pretty empty in the last two contests. He was the only starter worse than -9 after going -12 against the Bulls. Rarely has the team been outplayed so much with Giannis on the floor after rising to an MVP contender, not to mention against weaker competition. This has a lot to do with his surprising lack of effort on defense and on the boards this weekend.

Bobby Portis was a sieve.

We can give him his flowers for another double-double with sixteen and ten, but man, did he look clueless at times in pick-and-roll coverage. It’s not really anything new from him, unfortunately. What is more worrying is this:

Shades of Malik Beasley from last year. No excuse to zone out like that, and it happened to be the last time the Bucks had the lead. As I mentioned before, every time they had a chance to tie or build a lead, there would be a lapse like this on D, and it wasn’t Portis’ only blunder. It seemed like Brooklyn was targeted Portis on defense and this could continue. Single game plus/minus may be a fruitless stat, but his team-worst -21 fits.

Lady helped, but not enough.

I put Lillard last here for a reason. Although he didn’t shoot well (5/13 from the floor, just 1/7 from deep), he was efficient with 21 thanks to his eleven trips to the line. That’s good! But like the others, the effort in defense and on the boards was sloppy. He couldn’t shut anyone out and got body on screens by a 6’3” Thomas. He doesn’t have to be Jrue Holiday out there and he looked a lot more engaged defensively on Friday, so where was last night? Did Giannis and him save all their energy for SEGABABA tonight? That’s the only reason I can think of for their blasé play in Brooklyn, but you have to take care of business against lesser teams like you did on Wednesday.

Bonus Bucks Bits

This speaks for itself and goes with the video above:

Morgan discussed the differences in turnovers (18-12 in favor of Milwaukee) and offensive rebounding (12-7 in favor of Brooklyn) in the quick, but again Bucks cleaned up the boards problem as the game went on. They allowed six offensive rebounds to Brooklyn in the first quarter, resulting in ten second-chance points, but in the final three quarters those numbers were six and eleven. In all three games already this season, the Bucks have been overworked on the offensive glass, and twice that injury came disproportionately in the opening frame.
That 21-7 advantage Brooklyn had in terms of second-chance points is also a problem. In every game this year, the Bucks have been beaten in that regard, but the margins in the other two games were single digits.
Schroeder hair had some great game against the Bucks in his career (15.3 PPG on .448/.400/.922 shooting in 30 matchups), tormented them with the opponent that employs him, and now he has his first as a Net. He’s off to a blistering start in 2024-25 with 20.7 PPG and is burying 55.6% of his triples and hitting 5/8 of them on Sunday.
Pat Connaughton hit Schröder in the face after a loose ball, a plain foul upgraded to a flagrant after review. For all the times he’s never gotten that call over the years, taking so many hands and even feet to the face… our former manager put it well:

The irony of Pat Connaughton getting an obvious 1 for … punching a guy in the face.

— Mitchell Maurer (@Mitchell_NBA) 28 October 2024

The three new role players (Gary Trent Jr., Taurean Prince and Delon Wright) have all looked good so far, although last night was the weakest outing for each of them with a combined twelve points and not much else on the stat sheet.
Brook Lopez entered last night with a dismal 2/12 mark from behind the arc in his first two outings. He connected three out of five last night, so maybe he’s found his stroke. They went to him a few times low, especially early on, and perhaps should have tried it again in the 26 minutes Nic Claxton didn’t play (Dorian Finney-Smith was their nominal starting five).
Claxton about the only proven name on the Nets bench. and he was excellent. Otherwise, we saw failed lottery pick Ziaire Williams and someone named Jalen Wilson (I didn’t see enough college hoops in 2023) outplay the likes of Connaughton and AJ Green.
Andre Johnson scored his first career points in the waning minutes after joining Tyler Smith, MarJon Beauchamp and Andre Jackson Jr.
The latter is ok after a single car accident in Milwaukee yesterday morning.
Beauchamp threw down a dunk in garbage time, then let out one of those flowing, satisfied screams that made me think “read the room.” He then… left a dunk short on the next touch. Yes, he left his dunk attempt short and missed. His fourth-year option expires on Thursday.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Bucks; in fact, it becomes much more difficult. They take on the defending champion Celtics in Boston tonight at 6:30pm Central on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.