The hand-wringing about how many 3-point shots the Boston Celtics take under head coach Joe Mazzulla is nearly always over-wrought, but those naysayers of Boston’s offensive ratio from beyond the arc might have had a point with how the Milwaukee Bucks were defending them in the Celtics’ 116-101 loss to the Bucks at Fiserv Forum this past Thursday night.
That, the absence of star Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the weird gaps in the schedule created by the NBA Cup created the perfect trap game setup for Boston, and we saw what happened when the Bucks knew Boston’s tendencies, but the reverse did not seem to be true. Milwaukee (and former Boston) coach Doc Rivers weighed in on that dynamic postgame. “There were a few make-miss (shots), but most of the time they were – that’s what we planned for,” said Rivers.
“They take more (above-the-break 3s) than any other team,” he continued. “They don’t actually take a lot of corner 3s, which is unusual.”
“A lot of that is because they ISO, and then you help, and they spray it out,” added the Bucks coach. “And we drilled it for two days … you have to arrive on the pass that’s all we talked about you have to arrive on the pass uh and run them off the shot.”
“I thought our guys did that; I thought Cole (Anthony), defensively, in that offense, he was great offensively, but defensively was phenomenal as well. (Kyle Kuzma) and Bobby (Portis) gave us a huge lift on the offensive end. And Kuz just played a whole floor game. Him and (Kevin Porter Jr.), I thought their floor games were terrific.”
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