We are less than a month into the season, but with a rare degree of certainty we can say that we have already seen the game of the year. The Brooklyn Nets hosted the Milwaukee Bucks Monday in a heavyweight showdown, and in a game that was consistently close, the Nets walked away with an exciting 125-123 victory after Khris Middleton made a three-point winning effort at the gonser missed.
Kyrie Irving may have missed the festivities, but the stars that were available put on a show. Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant-James Harden tandem gave the Nets 64 points, 18 assists and 15 rebounds, while Milwaukee’s three-headed monster from Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday gave the Bucks 81 points of their own. In the end, the role players were the difference. Beats the Nets as they score 34 points from Joe Harris and Jeff Green is almost impossible, and the Bucks certainly just came.
It was the first time we’ve seen these two juggernauts go head to head, but this will not be the last time. Apart from a few more regular season dates on the program, these two are the most important to reach the final of the Eastern Conference and strive for the championship. Here are four things you should take away from tonight’s thriller before the possible playoff game.
1. Milwaukee could not take advantage of Brooklyn’s weaknesses
The Nets may have the most perimeter talent of any team in NBA history, but the price to secure that was depth everywhere. Jeff Green makes the minimum, but he started at the power supply tonight. DeAndre Jordan has been a negative player so far this season and stole even before Jarrett Allen’s retirement in the Harden Agreement, but he is the only legal NBA center on the rankings.
This gave the Bucks a fairly simple blueprint for defeating the Nets: killing them inside. Milwaukee was the NBA’s best rebounding team last season. They allowed the fewest shot attempts in the restricted area and produced a recurring MVP winner who has shot more than 82 percent from within three feet of the basket so far this season. Brooklyn is going to win the battle behind the arc most nights. Milwaukee could have disappeared with the proper domestic domination.
Still, the Nets outscored the Bucks, 49 to 41. They also scored more points in the paint, 52 to 50. If passed in the post-season, it’s over. The Nets go to the finals. Their shooting and shot-creation are too good to lose if they win inside as well.
Give credit where it is payable. Jordan, who struggled most of the season, gave the Nets 38 minutes on Monday. Brooklyn won those minutes by five points, and he tied Antetokounmpo for the lead of the game with 12 rebounds. More so, he turns out to be a real deterrent for Giannis as a driver, forcing him to take six three-pointers and a few middle-distance jumpers. It makes sense. The general strategy against Giannis is to build a wall of defenders on the edge. Well, Jordan has very limited mobility at this stage of his career. Certain great men, like Anthony Davis, will eat him alive. But given his size and solidity, he is virtually a human wall, and that made life very difficult for Giannis and the Bucks in this game.
2. The Bucks finally found an offense
Milwaukee should be encouraged on a few fronts, but nothing more than their clutch offense. Tonight, the Bucks finished 12th in the cup game per 100 possessions. They were 11th last season and eighth last year, and in both cases they collapsed in the post-season when Giannis could not create shots. But in the last five minutes of this game? They scored 13 points.
Some of the points were now vague. Two of them, for example, came down from Durant on the assumption that a ball goes off limits rather than actively bouncing back. The core problem of Giannis as an inadequate creator for late games still exists.
But Middleton’s continued improvement, coupled with Holiday’s presence as a secondary creator, gives Milwaukee enough alternatives to find credible points. By having two complementary stars of their quality, it is easier to find out-of-use purposes for Giannis, such as becoming in the selection. The Bucks are not going to have an elite offense, but they proved tonight that they can get points against the team they actually have to beat to reach the finals.
Their real offensive issues come from the bench, shooting 7-out-23 from the field and scoring just 19 points. The Bucks need a great creator when one or more of their stars are on the bench. It does not have to be a star, but someone in the Lou Williams-Derrick Rose class of ‘older point guard who can score 20 on a random night’ would be very, very helpful. They sign DJ Augustin and think he could be the player. In a match of this magnitude, it turns out he could not be.
3. Mike Budenholzer still makes the same mistake
Milwaukee lost to Miami in the playoffs for a number of reasons, but Mike Budenholzer’s dogmatic commitment to the same old defense scheme was great. He persisted all year with the cover and the Miami shooters destroyed it. He refused to increase the workload of his best players, and his bench could not compensate. But quite damningly, he refused to let his defensive player of the year approach Miami. Jimmy Butler killed the Bucks in fourth quarter while Giannis watched helplessly from his spot as a shot putter.
Give Budenholzer some credit: he at least appreciated the scope of the moment. Giannis played 40 minutes against the Nets, the first time he has done so in any non-overtime game under Budenholzer. But once again, his coach refused to let him go on the opponent’s best player. Giannis did not guard Durant when it was counted, and sure enough, Durant nailed the match-winning dagger with 36 seconds left. Antetokounmmpo was on the corner on Jeff Green.
Durant was guarded for most of the match by Middleton and Holiday. Middleton are a good defender and Holiday is an excellent player, but they are not big enough to fight with a seven-foot shooter like Durant. Antetokounmpo and his team of 7-4. The charity reading about the situation is that Budenholzer keeps the weapon in his back pocket for a playoff game, but after the Miami series last season, it’s pretty hard to believe. Could Giannis have changed Durant’s dagger enough to give the Bucks the game? We will never know, but for the sake of Milwaukee, Budenholzer will hopefully not repeat the mistake if it counts.
Luckily for the Bucks, he may not have a choice. Irving’s return makes the Nets offensively even more dangerous, but it also brings the games back in a way that could force Budenholzer to keep Giannis on Durant. Who else is he going to take care of? He can ‘t chase Joe Harris around the screens all night. Their two star guards are too small for him to defend a whole night credibly. If he defends the Brooklyn center, what does Brook Lopez do? We might just see this game.
4. Not much is going to keep up with this game
It may seem counterproductive in a story meant to describe the takeaways from tonight’s game … but taking a lot away from this single game would probably not be helpful. The absence of Irving obviously makes a huge difference, but that’s really the difference in this great game.
At the end of Brooklyn, the Nets lost the turnover battle 17-5. This is pretty explicable. Harden is still adapting to new teammates. Jordan, fairly prone to strokes, played more minutes than ever and coughed the ball himself five times. They missed their starting point guard. Milwaukee should win the turnover battle in this series, but not nearly as much.
Where the Bucks can rest easy is knowing that Brooklyn will never outsmart them so badly again. The Nets scored 15 of their 31 three-pointers, accounting for more than 48 percent. The Bucks scored 11-out-37 for about 29 percent. The Bucks make up 41.1 percent of their three-pointers on Monday. It was not sustainable, but no team should ever expect to lose an entire series, thanks to an 18 percent margin in three-point shooting. The Nets are a better shooting team than the Bucks, but not as much.
How much will this regression matter on each side? Well, we do not know. The truth is that happiness tends to play a much bigger role in the post-season than anyone would want to admit. The Bucks might get hot and hit half of their three-pointers in four games and sweep the Nets. They might hit a cold series like last season against Miami and let themselves be swept away. Both teams are engaged on the deadline and in the buyout market despite their limited resources.
That makes Monday more of an opening salvo. The Nets took round 1. Round 2 is not scheduled yet, but will come later in the season. And then comes the big ones in June. The Nets should benefit from their victory tonight, but a lot can change between now and then. The Eastern Conference is still at stake.