The Bucks have finally unleashed the Lillard-Giannis pick-and-roll،
GO DOWN BY ONE With 2:31 left in the fourth quarter on March 8 against the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena, the Milwaukee Bucks' star duo went to work. Giannis Antetokounmpo handed the ball to Damian Lillard and followed him down the court.
Lillard began driving toward the basket and Antetokounmpo set a screen just short of the 3-point line, forcing Lakers star Anthony Davis to turn his attention to Lillard, who responded with a bounce pass to Antetokounmpo. When Milwaukee's two-time MVP stepped into the paint, the Lakers defense began to mob him and Antetokounmpo made a pass to the corner, where a wide-open Pat Connaughton knocked down a 3 to give the lead to Milwaukee.
On the next possession, Antetokounmpo received the ball from Connaughton, turned and launched a hard dribble toward Lillard, who charged toward him from the corner. Antetokounmpo threw the ball to Lillard and set a screen to give him enough space to launch a 3-pointer. Lillard knocked him down and was fouled by D'Angelo Russell, who was struggling to recover. The four-point play gave Milwaukee a six-point lead.
The lead didn't hold that night — Russell scored eight of his career-high 44 points in the final 1:13 to lead Los Angeles to a victory without LeBron James. It was part of a disappointing 1-3 West Coast road trip for Milwaukee earlier this month that included blowout losses to the Warriors and Kings.
But in that Lakers game, Antetokounmpo and Lillard became the first teammates in NBA history to finish with 25 points and 12 assists in the same game. They scored or assisted on 111 of Milwaukee's 122 points, including every basket in the fourth quarter.
And together, ultimately, they looked like one of the best pick-and-roll combinations in the league. Antetokounmpo set 23 ball screens while Lillard was the ball handler, according to Second Spectrum, their third-highest total in a game together this season.
After the game, Bucks coach Doc Rivers seemed encouraged by what he saw: the blossoming chemistry between Antetokounmpo and Lillard. It’s a connection he’s pushed since the beginning of his coaching tenure in Milwaukee.
“Listen, you want to win all these games, but that's what we're going to keep doing more and more until it becomes us,” Rivers said after the loss to the Lakers. “There was a moment where Dame and Giannis were playing a two-man game and it was unstoppable.”
Two days later, his premonition came true. Against the Clippers, who were missing Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Bucks stepped up even more — 29 ball screens Antetokounmpo set for Lillard, their most in a game together this season and the most Antetokounmpo has established for a match. only player in a game of his career, according to a study by ESPN Stats & Information. The Bucks won 124-117.
“We’re just trying to encourage it more,” Rivers said. “This is what we need to get to.”
The Bucks are 12-10 since Rivers became head coach, but the longtime coach says he's tried not to focus as much on individual results as the process of preparing for the playoffs per team. If his most pressing concern was improving the Bucks' defense — Milwaukee gave up 113.5 points per possession under Rivers (14th), compared to 116.3 before Rivers' arrival (19th) — the next item on his coaching checklist was: establish the on-court chemistry of his two best players. He told ESPN in an interview after the All-Star break that he planned to make an “artificial connection on the floor. Just so they can see it and get it.”
Now, after emphasizing it in practice for weeks, the Bucks are finally starting to see it pay off.
“Things take time,” Bucks forward Bobby Portis told ESPN. “S…it doesn't happen overnight. The chemistry just isn't great from day one. You have to keep building it. You have to have a system in place that works for the team . and you have to have a coach who tells you what he wants.
“There is another level [Dame and Giannis] can actually make it happen, just make it happen…you can put anyone [else] in a different place and it still flows. “
The rivers began to sow the seeds of a stronger bond between Antetokounmpo and Lillard even before he officially took over as head coach. He attended the penalty shootout in Milwaukee on Jan. 26, three days before his first game leading the bench, and he emphasized the need for a stronger connection between the Bucks' two best players on the court.
When Rivers conducted his first shootaround in Denver a few days later, five players took the court: three players on one side, Antetokounmpo and Lillard on the other. Then, Rivers ran the two pick-and-rolls together.
“We laughed about it in practice,” Lillard said. “[He’ll] say 'Alright, Giannis fixed the screen.' Throw it away. Now redirect it to Lady. Lady, throw it away. And we just go back and forth for 15 seconds.
“Then he says, 'All right, someone's shooting.' Then we shoot and everyone starts laughing.”
These sessions, even if they seemed excessive at first, have now become routine.
“Because he's done it so many times in practice and in shootouts, it's gone from a joke to now…we've reached a point where we're playing the game, but let's do the next action with each other in mind,” Lillard said.
Antetokounmpo has expressed his desire to develop more of a two-man game with Lillard. Before Rivers arrived, Lillard was the ball handler averaging 10.1 ball screens per game with Antetokounmpo as controller, which ranked outside the top 35 combinations per second spectrum.
The increased emphasis on developing these plays — and the chemistry with Lillard that goes with them — has been one of the biggest changes for Antetokounmpo under Rivers.
“Now we're working on it. Sometimes he hits me in the pocket, I look, there's nothing there. Come right back, and now what [is the defense] “We’re going to do it,” Antetokounmpo said after a win over the Clippers. “Now we are more patient, we have to play more. But again, we don't just talk about it, we practice it.”
General manager Jon Horst said after firing Adrian Griffin in January that he believed the Bucks team was not playing to its full potential. Horst brought in Rivers, who has experience coaching star players, in part to help strengthen the connection between Lillard and Antetokounmpo.
“To start the season, a lot of people wanted it to happen right away,” Lillard said. “But any time you put two guys together who have always been the decision-makers, who have always had the ball in their hands for years and years, it's going to take time for us to learn how to play with each other and how to learn to play together. play against each other.”
And so that the rest of the team learns to play with them.
Antetokounmpo and Lillard knew from the beginning that they would be able to create plans themselves with their actions together. There is now an increasing emphasis on using these actions to set up the rest of the team.
“Doc did a great job talking about our spacing after they gave us that attention,” Lillard said. “We cut guys, so they have to account for a guy under the rim, and then we have two shooters, a defender and we make extra passes a lot more often.”
In those two games in Los Angeles, Lillard and Antetokounmpo scored or assisted at least 105 points in consecutive games, becoming the only duo to do so in the last 25 seasons, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. “The fact that they continue to improve sets the stage for everyone else on the field,” Portis said.
WITH 14 GAMES Staying in the regular season, the Bucks are introducing one more new thing into the mix: reincorporating three-time All-Star forward Khris Middleton.
Middleton played Sunday for the first time since Feb. 6 after missing the previous 16 games with an ankle injury. Despite a month-long break, he scored 22 points and made seven assists in 25 minutes, helping Lillard lead the Bucks to a victory over the Phoenix Suns without Antetokounmpo, who missed the game to rest from an injury stubborn hamstrings.
“You're just starting to see how good our team can be,” Lillard said after Sunday's win. “[Middleton] to come back, his first game just happened and get 20 and make plays, that's a luxury for us to have there. “
It was only the fifth game Middleton had played since Rivers took over as coach, but Rivers received rave reviews for Middleton's ability to organize the team on the field and add some extra play. to reserve units when Antetokounmpo and/or Lillard are resting. . So Rivers doesn't want the development of the Lillard and Antetokounmpo pick-and-roll connection to come at the expense of Middleton.
“You have to keep all three guys in rhythm at the same time,” Rivers said Sunday. “It's hard to do. Often in the history of basketball, the third guy is the one who gets the fewest shots – Chris Bosh, Klay Thompson with Golden State, Ray Allen with the Celtics – but you have to when even find a way to do it. keep that third guy involved and aggressive. That'll be the thing.”
When the Bucks have had their three stars on the court together this season, their results have been dominant. Milwaukee has a plus-18.2 net rating with Antetokounmpo, Lillard and Middleton on the court, the best for any three-man unit in the NBA with at least 600 minutes played together.
While Rivers acknowledges he'll need to find the right balance, he doesn't think it will be a difficult challenge, especially if Antetokounmpo and Lillard can continue to develop their chemistry.
As Rivers has already emphasized to his star duo, how they compete will elevate the rest of the team.
“That’s what matters to us, making sure we continue to grow,” Lillard said. “And when it's supposed to, we'll win games that way. We can build on that.”
