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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Few opposing coaches know this yr’s many editions of the Milwaukee Bucks higher than Charlotte Hornets coach Steve Clifford.
Heading into Thursday’s sport, Clifford’s Hornets had performed three distinct variations of the crew. On Nov. 17, Adrian Griffin was Milwaukee’s head coach. On Feb. 9, Doc Rivers was in cost, however nonetheless looking for his footing earlier than the All-Star break. On Tuesday, Clifford and Rivers matched wits once more.
“Watching them on movie, the best way they performed the opposite night time, I might say that they’re a veteran crew with a ton of expertise,” Clifford stated earlier than Thursday’s fourth assembly. “And so they’re in a spot proper now the place they’re beginning to be ok with themselves, even with out (Khris) Middleton, and so they’re saying, ‘Let’s get this going.’ That’s what I see in a common sense.
“Whenever you’re concerned with a type of veteran groups and you recognize you’re good, it’s only a query of when do you need to prepare? To me, I watch them, effectively, they’re preparing proper now. And their confidence degree is excessive.”
On Thursday, Milwaukee confirmed off the urgency and confidence that Clifford described in its 111-99 win over the Hornets, that after a 38-point drubbing of the Hornets on Tuesday. From the opening tip on leap day, the Bucks made it clear that they weren’t going to fiddle.
On their first defensive possession, the Bucks executed effectively. The Hornets ran loads of off-ball motion to attempt to confuse the Bucks, however they executed their switches effectively and Damian Lillard made it robust sufficient on Miles Bridges to hurry up the Hornets ahead on his drive and provides Brook Lopez an opportunity to swat a shot.
Following Lopez’s block, the Bucks confirmed off unbelievable endurance. Giannis Antetokounmpo pushed the ball in transition searching for a shot for a teammate, however after 4 passes, the ball ended up again in his fingers. And that’s when Lopez moved up the ground to set a display screen for Antetokounmpo, which let the two-time MVP assault the basket, which arrange one other sequence of passes that resulted within the first of 5 3-point buckets for Malik Beasley on the night time.
Throughout their four-game win streak for the reason that All-Star break, the Bucks have moved the ball effectively and often discovered open shooters with further passes. Sixth man Bobby Portis believes that the crew’s latest selfless play stems from their new coach’s communication to begin the ultimate third of the season.
“First off, man, shout out Doc,” Bobby Portis (14 factors, 10 rebounds) stated after the sport. “Simply having a man that may sit down with everyone and actually simply inform everyone what he expects from every participant, I feel that form of simply makes you personal your function extra, particularly when a coach particularly simply tells you what he needs from every participant.
“So it’s simple to sacrifice in that. And I feel you simply get extra out of it. The ball finds vitality. We transfer the basketball, play free, drive and kick, I feel the ball simply finds the appropriate man and everyone simply traces it up and shoots it. Miss or make, that’s the shot for that possession.”
All through Thursday’s sport, gamers up and down the roster executed their assigned roles, and that easy execution led to a win.
Earlier than the sport, Rivers spoke in regards to the significance of the Bucks’ wing gamers sprinting down the ground and filling the corners for Antetokounmpo and Lillard mentioning the ball. Within the second quarter, Beasley sprinted to the nook and nonetheless managed to get his ft set to transform a 3 off a cross from Antetokounmpo.
“He’s been unbelievable for the crew,” Antetokounmpo stated of Beasley. “He’s doing his job. However these days, it begins defensively for him. Normally when he will get his ft proper, he will get into gamers, strikes his ft, makes it robust, doesn’t get screened after which when he goes the opposite approach, he areas the ground so effectively. He had the one within the first half that he ran full pace to the nook, catch and shoot, and made that. (That was) one of many hardest ones as we speak.”
Beasley’s job was a little bit simpler to execute on the ultimate bucket of the primary half for the Bucks.
On that possession, his teammates did the selfless work all through the possession whereas Beasley stayed in his spot in the appropriate nook. First, Lillard made the straightforward pocket cross to Antetokounmpo. Then, Antetokounmpo dumped it off to Portis and at last Portis made the additional cross to Beasley within the nook.
Whereas the recent 3-point capturing within the first half (9 of 18) put them in place to coast to a win within the second half, your entire roster nonetheless wanted to execute their roles to shut out a highway victory. Firstly of the fourth quarter, the Bucks seemed considerably listless and the Hornets seemed primed to make a comeback, however then Patrick Beverley introduced vitality off the bench.
To begin the fourth quarter, Beverley repeatedly pushed the tempo and assisted on the Bucks’ first three baskets of the quarter, together with this drive-and-kick look to Lopez that pressured Clifford to take a timeout three and a half minutes into the ultimate body.
“Coach (Rivers) got here in and the very first thing he stated was ‘Nice skilled win,’” Beasley stated postgame. “These video games are lure video games. We simply performed them. We beat them by rather a lot. They arrive residence, they may simply come out and soar on us and we made positive we threw the primary punch.”
On Friday, the Bucks could have a possibility to do it once more on the second night time of a back-to-back, with a nationally televised contest in Chicago. A win in opposition to the Bulls received’t make anybody outdoors of Milwaukee take the Bucks extra significantly as title contenders. That doesn’t matter, nonetheless, because the Bucks know they’ve a job to do. And post-All-Star break, they know they should proceed to get it achieved.
(Photograph of Tre Mann and Giannis Antetokounmpo: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Pictures)
