Milwaukee finally got their offense to click
Heading back to Milwaukee down 0-2 to the Suns, the Bucks had a lot of questions to answer about their offense. Giannis Antetokounmpo had seemed to be the only guy to show up for the Bucks to begin this NBA Finals series and both of their other two All-Star caliber players in Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday really were not contributing much.
This was not the case though in Game 3 as both Middleton and Holiday really stepped up not only scoring on offense, but doing a bunch of the little things to help their team win as well. Khris Middleton finished the game with 18 points (6-14 FG), 7 rebounds and 6 assists, doing a little bit of everything on both ends of the court to help the Bucks stay ahead.
Jrue Holiday was the second-leading scorer on the Bucks with 21 points and did a lot of his damage from beyond-the-arc in the third quarter. Holiday went 4-5 from deep in this quarter alone and finished the game with 21 points, 5 rebounds and 9 assists.
In the first-half of Game 3, Khris Middleton had scored 15 points, which was more than he had scored in all of Game 2 (11). Milwaukee also outscored the Suns 34-5 on uncontested FGs in the first-half of Game 3 and had twice as many assists in the first-half than the Suns (18 to 9), according to ESPN Stats and Info.
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Moving the ball and getting everybody involved on offense, even though Giannis Antetokounmpo looked to drive to the rim everytime he got the ball, really helped the Bucks control the pace of play in Game 3 and for once in this series, they did not really play from behind. Everybody in the Bucks’ starting unit, including both Brook Lopez and P.J. Tucker played great, but so did Bobby Portis off-the-bench.
Portis finished the game with 11 points and 8 rebounds, but the energy he created for his team off-the-bench was the “spark” they needed to maintain their lead when the Suns were coming back in the second-half. He was one of the biggest reasons why they were able to dominate the Suns in the paint and will likely be a factor once again in Game 4 on Wednesday.
Perhaps the biggest successful adjustment Milwaukee made in Game 3 was the fact that they stayed aggressive and attacked the paint every chance they got. Maybe they did not score on every layup or dunk attempt, but attacking the paint hard allowed them to convert on a lot of opportunities and go to the free-throw line much more than Phoenix.
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The Bucks shot a total of 26 free-throws in Game 3, converting on 20 of these attempts. Much like how the Suns took advantage of the Bucks at the free-throw line in Game 1 of this series, Milwaukee returned the favor here in Game 3 by getting 10 more free-throw attempts than Phoenix.
Moving the ball and picking up assists was also huge for the Bucks and they controlled this category over the Suns as well. A total of 65% of Milwaukee’s made shots in Game 3 came off of an assist and their assist-to-turnover ratio was 3.1:1 for the game, a big improvement from 1.8:1 over the course of the first two games in this series.
Everything about the Bucks offense was great in Game 3, which is a big reason why they won this game and are still alive in this series. You have to give head coach Mike Budenholzer a lot of credit, as he made the necessary adjustments on offense after Games 1 and 2 in Phoenix, but we will see how he plans to attack the Suns in Game 4 knowing that they will be making adjustments to their defense.
Game 4 on Wednesday night has now become the most important game of the Milwaukee Bucks season and as stated earlier, “a series never really begins until a team loses at home.” Will the Bucks once again take advantage of their home court or will the Suns, the best road team in the entire league this year, come back and win Game 4 in Milwaukee to head home just one game shy of their first championship?
