Bucks shoot over 50% from deep to hold off a pesky Hornets squad
The scouting report for the Bucks said that you want to force them to shoot from the outside. It said that Mike Dunleavy was the only guy who could hurt you from deep. The Hornets read the scouting report and game planned accordingly, but unfortunately the Bucks felt like hitting their jumpers today. Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings decided that they wanted to be efficient scorers on this night and Tobias Harris and Beno Udrih did their best Toney Douglas impersonations, hitting 4 out of 7 from deep. The Hornets forced them to take the shots that the scouting report said they couldn’t make, but guess what, they made them tonight. So it goes.
Offensively, it was the same old story. The bigs were phoenomenial and the back court was cringe worthy. Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Jason Smith, and Robin Lopez shot 65% from the floor and scored 64 points on just 37 shots. Meanwhile, the Hornets starting back court had as many turnovers as field goals made, as they went just 5 for 18 from the field. They got torched on the defensive end and just made too many mistakes late in quarters to win this game. A Brian Roberts errant pass led to two free throws with 1 second left in the first quarter. A missed rotation by Rivers led to a wide open three at the end of the second quarter, and Vasquez missed an opportunity to get the Hornets a two for one at the end of the fourth when they trailed by five.
Overall, there is a lot to be excited about after this game- namely, the return of Anthony Davis after a two game mini-hiatus. We also have seen the shift that we have all been screaming for as it looks like Monty is giving Anderson starter’s minutes. Lopez was solid in his 19 minutes, but his defensive rotations were way too slow for this up tempo Bucks team. Jason Smith, on the other hand, was fantastic in his rotations but he still doesn’t seem 100% health wise. A loss always hurts but this team is in phase one of a process, and when you look at the big picture, the future still seems incredibly bright.
Notes and Observations
– Al-Farouq Aminu has improved on the defensive end and in transition, but he is still a liability in the half court. He had the ball on the baseline twice and average passes would have led to two Anthony Davis dunks. Instead, he overthrows both and it leads to two turnovers and five points for Milwaukee. Two plays, 9 point swing.
– Teams are sitting on the pick and pop with Ryan Anderson. Monty needs to make a small adjustment. When Anderson rolls, have another player screen Anderson’s man and have him fade out to the corner.
– Schwan mocked me every time I mentioned Larry Sanders in my trade wish list these past few years. And to be fair, he had a right to laugh because Sanders has done nothing his first few seasons in the league. But as you saw tonight, he is now a legit difference maker. That is usually how these things work. 19 and 20 year old guys don’t usually come into a league where 80% of the rotation players are 24 or older and dominate. It takes a while to physically and mentally mature. I say this because it seems that people are frustrated with Austin Rivers play. This is how it should be. Guys 18 months out of high school should be horrible when compared to grown men.
– I am not the type to complain about refs. I have done it myself and it is so difficult. With that being said, have you ever seen a player get less respect than Ryan Anderson? 50-50 block/charge calls always go against him no matter what side of the ball he is on, he attacks the rim and doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt, and guys throw him down while he is tracking a rebound- no call, or call on him. It’s just stupid at this point.
– People argue over Brian Roberts, debating whether he is bad or solid. I will say this- both are right. It all depends on your personal NBA philosophy. If you think making shots is the be all, end all- Roberts is a solid player. If you think a point guards role is to set the offense up for others, then you probably think Roberts is a bad NBA player. Just depends on what you value.
22 responses to “Milwaukee’s Three-Point Shooting Sinks Hornets”
Our perimeter defense is atrocious. We give up a ridiculous amount of wide open dump-off dunks and kick out 3s because our guards can’t stay in front of anybody.
Also, exactly how wide open is Davis required to be on our pick and rolls for our PGs to actually get him the ball going to the rim?
Perimeter defense… for some reason I believe putting Henry in the rotation migh create value there… He just seems to be a nervous player needing a shot in the rotation….. What’s the difference between he and Rivers… Coach Williams…
great game…..wasted a career night by AD……can’t win if our PG has more FG attempts than AD and rhyno…..can’t believe that we did not give the ball to AD in the last 1 minute of play…the guy is so hot he brings us back by himself…overall love the effort…our time will come…
Do we have a PG? Vasquez is a bench guy not worth being a starter.If we don’t bring back CP3 or sign Jennings in the offseason why waste time rebuliding this team.Lets get real Gordon don’t want to be with this team within 30+ days he’ll be with another team.Lets get real talent here.
I think the team needs a SG more than another PG right now. Austin Rivers can be a back up SG/PG as he gains experience, Roberts has covered good minutes as well. Vasquez is solid, altough needs to defend better and not miss easy shots after he leaves the defender behind. Overall he have been a very good PG, especially when he is confident (what a great vision this kid has!). Sometimes he shoots because the lack of a SG like Gordon (US$13 million per year), but where is Gordon? The lack of a established SG unbalance NOLA teamwork, and make other players to force plays.
Perfect. I totally agree.
Brian Roberts should ship back to Germany he sucks
I’m not saying Austin Rivers is our answer but after watching a couple of games I do know that he listens to the coach. It’s very noticeable cause he isn’t playing the same style as in college. If we actually gave him more time at the point he will grow into what we need. I haven’t see any other guard try to find rhyno or ad as much. As a safety blanket, put gv at the 2 and play ball
But then who is our SG?
Right now I would put mason in or start testing Henry for now. Our scoring comes from Lopez and Davis and Anderson with the second unit. Y not have rivers drive and kick to the starters at the point. A lot of people talk about him but he’s playing his role. And the way the offense is ran, he barely touches the ball
Hoops hypes says Alec Burks may be available. I think we should make a run at him. We can not stay with these guards.
I totally agree with Anderson I’ve noticed that in all the games, he gets no calls what so ever! It’s annoying! Also, I think if we didn’t get into foul trouble with half of our players, we definitely would have won. One thing we desperately need to do is stop the 3s. Monty will fix this, I have faith
What happened last night against the Bucks had happened the night before. 3-point shots from all corners of the court and … Swish! Swish! Swish!… and Swish! Our perimeter defense is a joke. Opponents shoot and the defense always comes late. I hope Monty Williams rectify this problem because it is very annoying to sit to watch the Hornets games and and see those bombers in our basket every night. (sorry for my poor English)…
And every time I watch the Bustin Rivers playing, hurt my eyes more and more. That’s right, BUSTin Rivers. There was no typo. To the wise…
I think we’re all still a little spoiled from the exceptional guard play of CP3 when he was here.
This game reminds me of the podcast when Ryan (I think) said the clippers had the lowest Iq cause they were shooting desperation 3s in a close game with 3 minutes left. I think we have a lower IQ after watching last night when we used so much time to get a shot off in the last minute down by 4 and then taking 5-6 seconds to foul.
I was quick to get on Roberts after his previous 2-3 games. Honestly, tonight I saw a much different PG. His decision making was sharper, the ball rarely sat at the top of the arc with him dribbling, and he could actually run the PnR. Unfortunately, his defense was much worse than his previous games.
Roger Mason actually played a really good game tonight.
It was a welcome change to see the Hornets play an uptempo game. Of course, the Bucks wanted to control the tempo and did. Even though the Hornets lost, it was a fun game to watch. Looking ahead to next season, I’d love to see NO get the right PG who can push the pace.
I think last night’s uptempo game was a result of us playing Milwaukee’s style of ball. Is it fun to watch? Yes, but I don’t expect Monty’s too happy about it.
I don’t think we’ll ever push the offensive pace as a defense-first team. Monty’s strategy has historically focused on slowing the game down, using a lot of clock, and limiting the other team’s possessions. It’s often a boring, ugly thing to watch, but theoretically it should work. It often results in limiting the other team to 80-90 points. Our problem is that we have a hard time putting together games where we hold opponents to low point totals yet score enough to win.
It is my opinion that worse teams should play a slower pace. The influence of luck and effort looms larger when the number of possessions is small.
Taking the idea to the extreme, if each team had one possession, team with a 40% of scoring on a single possession would defeat a team who would score on 50% of their possessions at a higher rate than if that game had 2 possessions, and even higher than one with 3, etc.
Until we upgrade our guards, we’re not going to have a very balanced attack, i.e., we’re not going to win a lot. I have no doubt that problem will be addressed. I’m sure Dell’s on it.
Chief did make a few bad plays, but I would rather him than Ariza. His upside is big and he has become much more consistent. Davis was great on O tonight, but on D, he got lost in quite a few rotations and he struggled a little in the zone. I hope those aspects of his game improve in time. Smitty impresses me everytime he touches the floor. Our back court D is terrible. Vasquez is too slow, Rivers is lost, Roberts is too small, Mase was best but even he was too slow. I hate to say it, but Eric could really help there. Overall, I hope we can do a better job getting stops. Our defense is just not clicking lately. Let’s hope for a good showing against the Knicks, we will need it.
Monta Ellis made some ridiculously stupid shots late in the game too. Between this game and Hou, we have had as much wrong place, wrong time, as getting beat.