Giannis Antetokounmpo does not take three point shots that much so there should be no drastic change in the Milwaukee Bucks’ three ball attempt volume in his absence, right?
The opposite happened in the team’s loss against the Golden State Warriors.
Head coach Doc Rivers’ squad took just 33 attempts from the arc, around 17 less than the amount they hoisted the ball from the arc in their past two games.
Against Charlotte Hornets, the first game Giannis sat out, they went 18/42 or 47.9 percent. They shot 50 times from the three point line against the Atlanta Hawks.
They again reached the 50-attempt mark again in the win against the Philadelphia 76ers, shooting 24 out of 55 or 43.6 percent.
On a night when Taurean Prince exploded from the long range with his 5 out of 7 shooting, the others just went cold.
Damian Lillard had 38 points but 11 of them were from the three point line. He converted just three of his nine attempts from beyond the arc. Gary Trent Jr. who went off against the 76ers (7 out of 15), only had five attempts from long distance and converted just one.
Milwaukee Bucks 3-point problem is not for lack of aggressiveness
Warriors coach Steve Kerr came to the game knowing how crazy the Bucks are when it comes to three point shots.
He carried that thought coming to the Monday game and used that against their hosts.
“Watching (Sunday vs. Philadelphia) they were filling it up. So, it’s a different challenge. Obviously they’re not as good without Giannis, that goes without saying, but they’re different and they spread the floor more in some cases and put a lot of pressure on you,” he said post game.
New Milwaukee Bucks recruit Kyle Kuzma noticed that, too. He said it felt like they were forced to take more two-point shots instead of three.
“They wanted us to score in the two-point range and it affected us,” Kuzma said. “Obviously if you watched our past two games at least, we shot the ball really well from three, especially (Sunday) as well and they took that away, making us play a lot in two-point range. Ball was really stagnant tonight. We didn’t really necessarily move it as well as we have for stretches.”
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