Milwaukee — during a timeout late in the fourth quarter of the February 24 game Miami Heat, junior holiday Picked up an orange Gatorade bottle and channeled my inner Backstreet Boy.
Holliday went to the bench for the last time with 4:30 remaining and milwaukee bucks leading 124-89 their 13th consecutive winSo it was time for the holiday to enjoy the moment.
“Don’t want to listen to you.”
Holliday lip-synced to his Gatorade bottle as the sold-out crowd of 17,676 at Fisher Forum jumped out of their seats as “Crowd Karaoke” played on the Bucks’ video board above the court.
“Nothing but heartache.”
Milwaukee has had plenty of moments to enjoy as of late, winning 21 of the last 23 games. enters his showdown with the Bucks Golden State Warriors (Saturday, 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC) — The last two NBA champions meet — As the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, up 2.5 games Boston Celtics For the best record in the NBA.
An Eastern Conference scout told ESPN, “Sometimes in this league, timing matters.” “He is finally healthy and making progress at the right time.”
There have been four instances of a team winning at least 15 straight games in the past five seasons, and the Bucks are responsible for two of them. before philadelphia 76ers beat the Bucks 133-130 Last week, Milwaukee had won 16 games in a row, the third longest such streak in franchise history.
two time mvp giannis antetocampo is on track to become the first player since Wilt Chamberlain Averaged 30 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while shooting 50%. Center Brooke Lopez is a leading contender for Defensive Player of the Year, as is Holiday, who made the All-Star team for the first time since 2012-13, and is enjoying his best season in a Bucks uniform. chris middleton is finally healthy and huggable his recent role as the sixth manleading a bench unit that has become one of the deepest in the league, especially after trade deadline acquisition Of Jay Crowder,
After losing in seven games in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals last season, the Bucks brought back their entire rotation for another shot at the championship. With one month left in the regular season, the Bucks’ offense is clicking, their defense is dominant and they’ve built a deeper rotation than last year as they look to reclaim the title they won in 2021 but lost last year. Couldn’t defend the season.
“When you’ve won and you stick together, they just know how to win,” Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers said last week before a game in Milwaukee. “You can see it in their play. They have been able to bring other people in and buy into the same chemistry and culture as they have done it and their core people are in the promised land.
“Every team that hasn’t won or been to the Finals, there are times you reach out to them; you’re not reaching out to the Bucks. You just aren’t. There’s nothing you can do that’s going to shake them.” Going to do “
when the box Playing well early in the season, they were using a dominant defense that has ranked at or near the top of the league since the start of the year. However, Milwaukee’s offense has been a work in progress. The Bucks have spent most of the year ranked in the bottom half of the league in offensive efficiency and currently rank 17th in points per 100 possessions.
But before they reeled off 16 consecutive wins — the longest winning streak by any team in the NBA this season — the Bucks made a subtle change to their game plan. Goal: Play with speed.
The Bucks are playing faster, not just by creating more transition opportunities but by setting more quickly in their half-court. Antetokounmpo said the team has become very methodical in terms of how it wants to break down the defense early in the season, hunting mismatches and moving the ball to half-court rather than playing within the flow of the offense.
During their winning streak, the Bucks played at the fastest pace in the NBA, with an average possession length of 14.7 seconds on half-court sets, second fastest in the league according to Spectrum and 1.2 seconds longer than their average possession before the streak. Sharp, who finished 18th in the NBA. The Bucks shot the ball within the first 12 seconds of the shot clock for 58% of the half-court set, the highest mark in the NBA during that period.
In 20 games through January 23 (the day Middleton returned and began his 16-game winning streak), the Bucks averaged 123.9 points, the most in the NBA.
“At the end of the day, we do our best when we play fast,” Antetokounmpo said after a win last week.
While their offense improved, the Bucks didn’t have to sacrifice anything on defense. Milwaukee ranked third in the league in defensive efficiency for the entire season and has led the league in that category since January 23.
So when Antetokounmpo noted the offensive moves the team has made in recent weeks, he made sure to reiterate that the defense was still the backbone of this team.
“The year we won and that’s when we play at our best, that’s when we defend,” Antetokounmpo said. “This league is so talented, you can’t trade baskets. … We have to be one of the best defensive teams in the league. And I think that’s going to help us be at our best. Some days we’re not We’re going to score the ball. We’ve got to know that our defense is going to be there and we can count on that at all times.”
on the final The day after the 2021-22 regular season, the Bucks decided to rest.
With receiving a top-three seed, the Bucks sat with Antetokounmpo, Middleton, Lopez and Bobby Portis for their regular season finale against cleveland cavaliers, Holliday ended up securing the contract bonus, but played just eight seconds before sitting out the rest of the game. Milwaukee used just six other players – mostly lesser-used reserves such as Sandro Mamukeshvili And Rayson Tucker – in a 133–115 loss to CA.
The Bucks finished as the No. 3 seed in the East, helping them avoid a first-round series. Kevin Durant And this Brooklyn NetsWhich took Milwaukee to seven games during the previous conference semifinals and kept them within a toe of Durant going home early.
But the decision to essentially hand the Celtics the No. 2 seed came back to haunt the Bucks. Boston held home-court advantage for the teams’ second-round series, meaning the deciding Game 7 was played at TD Garden, where the Celtics won 109–81. The Bucks regret how the regular season ended, team sources told ESPN, and keeping healthy will be their priority this season, with the Bucks looking to enter the playoffs as the top seed and sweep the East through Milwaukee. want to go
The Bucks have the depth to achieve that goal, even if some of their best players have missed the game. Antetokounmpo left with an injury in back-to-back games in the first quarter and missed another after the All-Star break—the Bucks won all three of those games. On Tuesday night, Milwaukee was missing both its 2023 All-Stars in Antetokounmpo and Holiday and still pulled off a 134-122 win over Orlando thanks to a combined 50 points from Lopez and Middleton.
“The depth is really helping us,” Bucks coach mike budenholzer Said. “There’s a lot of good players, a lot of different directions we can go in, there’s versatility with the roster.”
Milwaukee was able to trade for Crowder without giving up any of their top nine rotation players. he signed joe ingles As a free agent coming off a torn ACL and he returned in December earlier than expected. Milwaukee also recently beefed up the back-end of its bench, Adding Experienced Guards goran dragic and Signature Center Meyers Leonard For 10 day contract. Both Crowder and Dragic have previous experience in the Finals.
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Ingles goes 5-for-6 in win over Magic
Bucks veteran Joe Ingles tallied an efficient 12 points and six assists versus the Magic.
Middleton played 30 minutes on Tuesday for the first time since returning from injury and finished with 24 points and 11 assists. He looked like he was starting to regain his All-Star form after missing the last 10 playoff games in 2022 and 39 of the first 46 games this season. When he plays, the Bucks are 19–4, a 67-win streak for the entire season.
Still, playing without Middleton for such an extended stretch forced the Bucks to make adjustments and let Holley room more offensively. His 19.7 points per game is his highest since 2018-19 New Orleans Pelicans And he’s taking 15.6 shots per night, more shots than he did in his first two seasons in Milwaukee.
“We had a lot of different lineups at the start of the season, with a lot of guys injured and out of the lineup, so it was honestly a bit of a blessing,” Lopez said. “A lot of guys got a chance to play, to figure things out. We got a chance to play with different lineups, build relationships on the court. And now that we’re back, for the most part Very healthy, I think we’re getting bitten.” benefits.”