The Milwaukee Bucks bounced back nicely on Saturday night with a 141-135 road win over the Detroit Pistons. The Bucks were absolutely decimated by the Cleveland Cavaliers during their last game, losing out by 40 points, and it was tantamount for them to secure a win against the league-worst Pistons.
Ultimately, the Bucks got the job done. However, it wasn’t until the Pistons gave them a real dog fight — one that nearly resulted in Detroit pulling off one of the biggest upsets in the season thus far.
Damian Lillard Comments on Milwaukee Bucks’ Defense Vs. Pistons
The fact that the Pistons dropped 135 points on the Bucks — their second-highest scoring output all season long — is a testament to Milwaukee’s struggles on the defensive end.
Currently, Detroit is averaging just 112.4 points per game, which ranks 24th in the NBA. The way that they went beyond that mark by more than 20 points on Saturday further speaks volumes of the Bucks’ defensive woes.
“It was just too easy for ‘em,” Milwaukee superstar Damian Lillard said after the game, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “In this league, guys see the ball go in, they start to believe, they start to play faster and start to play with more confidence. And anybody can do it if you allow them to get going. They started shooting the ball well, they started feeling good about themselves, the ball started moving, they was getting to the line. I thought their pace caused some miscommunications in our coverages and when you come out slow and you don’t kind of have that urgency from the jump a team can do that to you.”
To be fair, you can’t really pin all the blame on the Bucks. The Pistons shot the lights out from distance in this game, going 21-of-37 from reinbow territory for 56.8 percent. While this is also a reflection of Milwaukee’s coverage from deep — or the apparent lack thereof — there’s also no denying that, like Lillard said, their shots were just falling.
The law of averages is likely to catch up on the Pistons come Monday in their rematch against the Bucks. Detroit is averaging 35.3 percent from distance this season, which is a more realistic mark for them.
To a certain extent, I guess you could also credit the Bucks for still being able to escape with a win despite the fact that the Pistons went crazy from distance on Saturday.
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