The usual suspects for the Milwaukee Bucks have been making headlines after their 131-124 win over the Miami Heat on Tuesday night. It was a hard-fought battle that required Milwaukee’s stars to step it up down the stretch as they held off a valiant effort from an undermanned Heat side.
One man who probably isn’t getting as much attention as he should is Brook Lopez.
Milwaukee Bucks Coach Heaps Praise on Brook Lopez
Lopez did not have an offensive explosion on Tuesday, nor did he put up an eye-popping stat line. However, the former All-Star was as dependable as ever against the Heat.
Head Coach Adrian Griffin just had to sing the big man’s praises after another strong performance:
“Brook is Brook — he does it all,” Griffin said. “On both sides of the floor. Defensively, I know Bam (Adebayo) scored his points, but how he scored them… Brook does a tremendous job of guarding him and then trying to protect the paint. There were times he was out of the three-point line guarding. And then on the offensive end, just coming up with big plays. Down the strecth, just a heady play of grabbing that offensive rebound, finding Dame. That was a critical point in the game there.”
This was the play that Coach Griff was referring to:
This hurt
You get the perfect shot on defense. It's a Giannis 3 with almost 10s on the clock
That's a shot you live with all the time
Unfortunately, they couldn't get the rebound, as you have JJJ fighting with Lopez. He gets it, finds Lillard, open 3 pic.twitter.com/SCVj2qPSD0
— John Jablonka (@JohnJablonka_) November 29, 2023
Lopez did not exactly battle it out for that crucial offensive board, but you can’t fault the man for once again being at the right place at the right time — and dropping a pinpoint bounce pass to a wide-open Damian Lillard, of course.
“He’s just an (integral) part of what we’re trying to do, especially on the defensive end,” Griffin said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “He’s elite on both sides of the ball but his size, his feel for the game – I just think he has great feel. The players trust him. They know he’s back there cleaning it up and making up for any mistakes and breakdowns. He’s invaluable for our defense.”
It goes without saying that Brook Lopez is going to be a key piece for the Bucks and their championship aspirations this season.
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