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MILWAUKEE — The Bucks followed a familiar script in their 132-121 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night.
For the first three and a half quarters, the game went back and forth, with both teams holding the lead for extended periods while scoring with relative ease. The Bucks had strong moments, such as when they scored 42 points, a season-high, in the first quarter. They also had weaker moments, like when they allowed the Hawks to open the second half on a 15-6 run to erase a four-point halftime deficit. Those stretches added up to a 114-114 tie with 5:23 remaining.
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Then, the Bucks, as they so often have this season, saved their best for last.
In that final stretch, they held the Hawks (9-10) to just seven points, forcing them to hit just three of their final 10 field goal attempts while coming up with two turnovers. Conversely, the Bucks (14-6) made eight of their final 11 shots and compiled an 18-7 run to close out the game and win by double figures.
“This seems to be a theme,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said after the game. “In the fourth quarter, we really buckle down, and that’s important. I always say, the fourth quarter has to be your best quarter, especially the last five minutes, and our team has really bought into that.”
Statistically, the Bucks have been the NBA’s best team in the clutch this season.
Per NBA.com, 12 of the Bucks’ 19 games this season have featured stretches when the game’s scoring margin is within five points with five or fewer minutes remaining. Overall, the Bucks have played 54 of those “clutch” minutes, the NBA’s second highest total thus far. In that time, they have outscored opponents by 31.9 points per 100 possessions, which is the NBA’s best net rating in the clutch. While the Bucks’ overall defensive rating is 115.1 points per 100 possessions, that number has dropped to just 97.5 points per 100 possessions in those 54 clutch minutes.
On Saturday, Damian Lillard credited the Bucks’ success in late-game situations, and their defensive improvement in the final five minutes against the Hawks, to the team’s heightened focus level compared to the rest of the game.
“I think part of it is just taking the challenge, communicating with each other better,” Lillard (25 points, six rebounds and nine assists) said. “I think a lot of times, teams take advantage of our missed communications.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo agreed with that assessment.
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“I think the players in the last four, six minutes, we lock in more and we come together and we communicate more because we know what’s at stake,” Antetokounmpo said after putting up 32 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. “The game is at stake. So we gotta do whatever we can do to close out the game.”
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On Saturday, that meant executing the defensive game plan against Trae Young (32 points, 12 assists) and Dejounte Murray (30 points, three assists) at a much higher level. To close the game, the Bucks applied more pressure on the two Hawks guards. They trapped and blitzed their pick-and-rolls when the opportunity presented itself and were more physical in fighting for position in isolation situations.
For example, earlier in the game, Cameron Payne (season-high 18 points) might not have followed Murray down into the corner with Antetokounmpo and fully committed to this trap. But with the game hanging in the balance, Payne turned up the pressure, and the Bucks eventually secured a turnover when Antetokounmpo won the jump ball.
Watch Lillard during this possession against Murray a few minutes later.
Murray has a size advantage over Lillard. But when Murray brought the ball down to the post, Lillard fought back, working to get lower than Murray to push him farther away from the basket. Murray can, of course, make that shot, but Lillard put in the work on that possession to make it harder.
To end the game, the Bucks wanted to do a better job forcing Young off the 3-point line. This possession by Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton is a great example.
Neither player is assigned to Young, but Antetokounmpo understood the threat in transition, so he picked up Young then switched him off to Middleton to keep Young from firing off a 3-pointer. Middleton closed out to the 3-point line and gave Young a little bump on the drive to force him into Brook Lopez’s waiting arms at the rim.
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On the other end of the floor, the Bucks got the job done as a unit, with six different players scoring in their 18-7 run to end the game. Rather than just give one player the ball and have them isolate on a weak defender, the Bucks used the threat of their best players to create the best looks possible for anyone.
Lillard is a spectacular clutch player, but he understands teams are going to do everything in their power to stop him at the end of games. As we’ve seen over the last few weeks, that means that when Lillard trusts his teammates and allows them to make plays, he creates opportunities for the entire team in crunchtime.
Lillard might have been able to split Murray and Clint Capela and make it all the way to the rim on his drive. Instead, he made the simple play by kicking the ball out to Middleton. Then, Middleton showed that same trust by making the extra pass to Malik Beasley in the corner, who used the threat of his teammates to create an open shot for himself on the baseline drive.
One possession later, Lillard’s teammates returned the favor, with Antetokounmpo executing a give-and-go after Lillard was trapped.
In just over a month in Milwaukee, Lillard has shown he is not just getting himself shots in the clutch but also getting good looks for the whole team.
“I think that’s more sustainable, when it’s collective,” Lillard said of six different Bucks scoring in the final five minutes. “Obviously, teams are going to look at who they expect to have the ball in those situations, and they’re gonna try to make it difficult. And with us knowing that, we gotta be willing to trust and make the next play. The more we do that, the more guys will be in situations where we need them to make a big shot or to make a free throw or to finish a high-low pass or whatever, and then the better we’ll be.
“The more we can have those types of situations, guys will be more comfortable and competent when it comes down to it. Ideally that’s how you want to be able to win instead of just having me or Giannis or Khris having to do it. You want everybody to be comfortable in the flow of whatever the defense gives us, we take advantage of it and we live with that quality possession.”
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While bringing the intensity and focus defensively in the final quarter has turned into an early-season trend, as Griffin noted during his postgame news conference on Saturday, Lillard warned that it is not safe to rely solely on late-game heroics long-term.
“I don’t think you want it to be your identity to be that sharp only at the end of the game,” Lillard said. “Obviously you want that to be your best moments. You want to be able to play that way to close out games. But I think we gotta find a little bit more of those moments throughout the other three quarters.”
Antetokounmpo, like Lillard, appreciates his team’s ability to pull out close games but would like to see the Bucks use that focus and intensity in longer stretches.
“I ‘m satisfied right now, to be very honest with you, with guys being on the same page the last eight minutes of the game,” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s hard to be on the same page for 48 minutes, but at least, like in the last eight minutes, I feel like everybody’s on the same page. So I’m not trying to be greedy here. I wish it was 12 minutes. I wish was 24 minutes, but I’ll take those last eight minutes any time.”
Being a great clutch team has allowed the Bucks to stay near the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Their 14-6 record after 20 games has them in a tie for second place with the upstart Orlando Magic and just one and a half games behind the first-place Boston Celtics. But the Bucks’ superstar duo knows their team must find that end-of-game intensity and focus for longer stretches of each game if it wants to make a deep playoff run this season.
(Top photo: Gary Dineen / NBAE via Getty Images)
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