DETROIT — After a terrible 2-8 start to the season, the Milwaukee Bucks have been playing much better. The Bucks had won six straight games and eight of their last nine heading into their group play finale of the 2024 NBA Cup in Detroit.
But while the vibes have been high and the chemistry has been incredible, multiple players had commented recently about their desire for the team to do one more thing: put together a full 48-minute performance.
Some might quibble with declaring the Bucks played a “full 48” in Tuesday’s 128-107 victory, their seventh consecutive, over the Detroit Pistons as the Bucks were outscored by a point in a fourth, a quarter that featured the deep reserves playing for both teams. Yet, there is no denying the Bucks brought their most complete performance of the season to Tuesday’s win to clinch East Group B and a spot in the knockout round of the 2024 NBA Cup.
“I loved how we approached the game today,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought both teams, you could see that they took this game very seriously and I just loved how locked in (we were). I thought that was our best defense, maybe of the year, overall. And then I thought our ball movement was unbelievable. We just kept finding open guys, played unselfish basketball.”
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The Bucks have scored more than 128 points in one other game this season and held multiple opponents to fewer than 107, but the Bucks (11-9) haven’t so far consistently competed on both ends as they did on Tuesday.
Giannis Antetokounmpo put up a near triple-double — 28 points, seven rebounds, eight assists — in 28 minutes and Damian Lillard recorded 27 points, four rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes on Tuesday. Their Tuesday night effort was much more about the team finding exactly what it needed to get in front and stay in front for the final 43 minutes of the game while consistently holding a double-digit lead.
“At shootaround, there was a level of seriousness and focus and it didn’t seem like forced or like everybody was trying to overly be focused, we just knew what we were here to do,” Lillard said. “And I think it carried over into the start of the game. Obviously, they made some shots. They had some moments, but I think we sustained it pretty much for the whole game.”
Offensively, the Bucks tallied 26 assists and made a season-high 23 3-pointers, which included an absurd 15-of-21 3-point shooting performance in the first half. Some of those 3s were individual efforts by Lillard, but for the most part, those makes were built on the interplay of teammates and great ball movement as a team, like this second quarter triple by AJ Green (11 points, 3-of-3 from 3):
But it wasn’t just the ball movement and 3-point shooting. The Bucks had made all but one of their first-half 3-point baskets by the time Rivers called a timeout with a 14-point lead and 2:44 left in the second quarter. To build up their halftime lead, the Bucks turned up the pressure and closed out the half strong with a great defensive effort.
“The ball movement just stood out to me, 26 assists, but it was our defense,” Rivers said. “Where we got our hands, we got a lot of deflections. I thought Gary Trent and TP (Taurean Prince) and Dre (Andre Jackson Jr.) — those three guys — they just had their hands everywhere and that’s just fantastic for us.”
On the first play out of the timeout, Trent forced a turnover and then got fouled as he tried to finish the possession he helped create:
On the next play, the Bucks put together everything that made their strong first-half performance by forcing a turnover, making a few extra passes and then knocking down an open corner 3:
To build their lead up to 20 points, the Bucks forced a third straight turnover on the next possession:
The team’s ridiculous first-half 3-point shooting would have been enough to build a comfortable halftime lead, but pairing their high-level shooting with a tenacious defensive effort led to a demoralizing first-half for the Pistons, who were playing in one of their biggest games of the last five seasons.
But the Bucks have built plenty of halftime leads this season, only to watch those leads quickly evaporate through sloppy offensive execution or poor defensive effort in the first five minutes of the second half. On Tuesday though, the Bucks made it a priority to avoid one of their most common pitfalls.
“It was funny,” Rivers said after the game. “They were talking about it when I was walking in the locker room (at halftime), about getting off to a good third quarter and we did that.”
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Lillard got the Bucks started with a 3-pointer on the Bucks’ first offensive possession of the second half, but then Antetokounmpo took over the game, scoring 17 of his 28 points in the third quarter. After the game, Antetokounmpo credited his running mate for the motivation to take the game over in the third quarter.
“Dame, Dame, Dame, it’s Dame again,” Antetokounmpo said, when asked how they put together a strong third quarter. “I heard him multiple times in the third quarter saying like, ‘This is where we assert ourselves. This is where we put teams away. Stay locked in.’ He kept saying it over and over and over again.
“I think Dame did a great job just having us in that mindset that we gotta put the game away. This is where we become the team that we’re trying to become. And I loved it. I loved it when he said that. I was just locked in. I was locked in even more.”
A 17-point quarter to hold the Pistons at bay would have been impressive on its own, but the way in which Antetokounmpo scored those points made the effort stand out even more.
Antetokounmpo scored 16 of his 17 third-quarter points in the first seven minutes of the period and he scored those 17 points with this shot chart:
In fact, Antetokounmpo shot the ball so well from mid-range in the third quarter that Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart fouled him twice on jump shots (green boxes above), including biting on a 3-point pump fake four minutes into the period:
That foul resulted in three free throws and Antetokounmpo made all three.
While it might seem overwhelmingly foolish to bite on a pump-faked 3 by a player who has only made three 3-point field goals the entire season, Stewart’s two shooting fouls against Antetokounmpo on attempts from 20-plus feet from the basket speak to just how well the eight-time All-NBA forward is shooting this season. After Tuesday’s game, per Cleaning the Glass, Antetokounmpo is knocking down a career-high 49.3 percent (36-of-73) of his two-point shots from further than 14 feet from the rim, as well as a career-high 45.3 percent on mid-range attempts overall.
Making opponents pay as a jump shooter is not something Antetokounmpo is only doing on nights when he is feeling good though. Through 20 games, it has been a consistent part of the two-time MVP’s offensive arsenal.
“Now, I feel like if the guy’s backing up, I feel like I can make them,” Antetokounmpo said. “So, it’s not a thought anymore, I feel like I can make them. I feel like before, maybe last year or a couple years ago, I’m letting them off the hook. I don’t feel like I’m letting them off the hook. I feel like I can make them, so it’s part of my game now.”
After consistently getting downhill and breaking down the Pistons defense with the threat of attacking the rim in the first half, Antetokounmpo kept Detroit at a comfortable distance in the third quarter by knocking down jumpers. Then the Bucks closed out what turned into an easy win with a vanilla fourth-quarter effort.
The Bucks took care of business and finished group play in the 2024 NBA Cup with a perfect 4-0 record. With their pristine record and plus-50 point differential, the Bucks earned the East’s No. 1 seed and a home game against the Orlando Magic at 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
But most importantly, in a game with the highest stakes thus far this season, the Bucks put together their most complete performance, an effort that, after a rough start to the season, feels like the strongest indicator the team has stabilized at the season’s first-quarter mark.
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(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)
