Opponent Scouting: Milwaukee Bucks (29-17)
Tonight at 7:00pm EST the Detroit Pistons will be hosting the Bucks of Milwaukee in Detroit at the LCA. The Pistons are very rested having played just 1 game in the past week due to that game being in Paris, France. While the Bucks are on just one day of rest after losing to the Cavaliers.
The Them:
The Bucks are obviously good, their record of 29-17 puts them 3rd in the East, and yet after the last few years of complete domination and one title it still feels like something is wrong with the team. They come into tonight with just the 23rd ranked offense in the NBA and the 3rd best defense.
Part of the issues (which once again, is more representative of the regular season dominance the club has enjoyed in previous years) is that they’ve had injury issues. Both Giannis and Jrue Holiday have missed time and Khris Middleton has hardly played at all. The bad news for Detroit is that it is reported both Giannis and Middleton return for tonights game so the Pistons get the full team.
As such, the Bucks are obviously led by Giannis Antetokounmpo who is having a bit of a down year given his own lofty expectations. He’s still the league’s most destructive defender, unstoppable going to the hoop, drawing heaps of fouls, and putting up a stat-line of 31/12/5.3. And yet, he’s seemed to settle for more jumpers this season and is taking nearly three long-guns per game despite shooting just 24% from deep and he’s only shooting 65% from the line which combines for a TS% of 58%, which is perfectly fine but its his lowest in years and 5 points lower than the last two seasons. He’s still an animal, but he has been a step down.
Khris Middleton returns and he’s still lanky, shot maker he’s always been. There may be some amount of rust and the Pistons have some size to defend him with and for once it’s a scoring wing that won’t overwhelm the Pistons’ wings with athleticism. Jrue Holiday is still one of the NBA’s best perimeter defenders and is having a good season of 20 points and 7.5 assists per game. The Bucks probably wish he had been able to pump up his scoring production a bit more with Middleton out but he’s still excellent.
Brook Lopez holds down the middle. Lopez is huge on defense, if immobile, and an excellent shooter and I think Greyson Allen will remain as the 5th starter with Giannis and Middleton back and Allen may be a dirty bastard but he’s also a tough defender, smart passer, and good shooter with some real off the dribble bounce when he needs it.
Bobby Portis is the de-facto bench spark-plug. He’s big, fairly athletic, and can shoot from all over the floor which makes him a problem for the Pistons defensively. Pat Connaughton is a mediocre shooter on the wing but he’s athletic and solid defensively. Joe Ingles came back from injury and is still delightful with his awesome old-man game of whip-smart passing, physical defense, and good three-point shooting. Jevon Carter is a good defender as a backup PG who can also shoot some threes. What’s left of George Hill may or may not still be in the rotation now that they are healthy but he doesn’t seem to have much left in the tank.
One would imagine that the now healthy Bucks will start to get going in a big way, so the best hope for Detroit tonight is that Middleton and Giannis maybe have some rust so they don’t start rolling tonight.
Matchups to watch:
Hayes vs. Holiday: I don’t know how much time they will actually spend guarding each other but if they do it should be fun/interesting to watch each teams point guard who is long and awesome defensively go at each other. Obviously, Jrue is in a different class of player than Hayes but still.
Bucks vs. Rust: As stated before, Middleton has been out for a long time and Giannis has missed a few games. Maybe they just won’t be sharp tonight.
Unleash Hamidou: Yeah. We are here now. I don’t care if he starts or is off the bench but at this point I want Hami playing at least 25 minutes and getting like 15 shots up. He’s earned it and it’s not like it can be much worse than what’s been happening recently anyways.
Pistons vs. Giannis: Obviously there is no team that has a good player to defend Giannis. The Pistons REALLY don’t have a good option. Duren might be the only hope of athletic size on the roster because other than him the good athletes don’t have size and the size isn’t athletic. If Giannis comes out trying to prove a point after missing a few games this could be brutal.
Pistons vs. Cohesion: There have been times when players are visibly frustrated with one another during many games recently. We are not at the Houston Rockets’ level of a problem but you can’t deny that things are not going great. That needs to stop if this team is going to avoid a total death-spiral this season.
Saddiq vs. Fully back on track: A couple of the recent games still are not great but if he has another good performance tonight I think that’s enough of a stretch to at least let up on the panic button for a bit.