Milwaukee’s Three-Point Shooting

Last year, three-point shooting was not a major strength of the Milwaukee Bucks, but they made it an emphasis heading into this year to add plenty of perimeter shooting around Giannis Antetokounmpo. Now, heading into the playoffs, the Bucks finished the regular season with the 5th best three-point shooting percentage and had 7 players finish shooting 37% or better (min. 100 attempts). 

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If Milwaukee can get going from beyond-the-arc early on in this series, then they can absolutely take control of the Heat since Miami is not the best three-point shooting team. The Heat ranked 19th in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage during the regular season and if the Bucks are making shots early on, the Heat will likely not be able to catch up to them offensively.

In the past, most of the Bucks’ offense has been played through Giannis, with him putting his head down and driving to the rim, but now, with plenty of perimeter-oriented players and another reliable ball-handler in Jrue Holiday, the Bucks run a lot of “drive-and-kick” actions, leading to wide open three-point attempts for guys like Khris Middleton, Bryn Forbes and Donte DiVincenzo. 

Three-point shooting is going to be a key to success in this series for both teams and whichever team gains the upper-hand early on in the series could be well on their way to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.