Game 3 adjustments

[TheNorthCydeRises]

So the Bucks blew the game open in the 2nd quarter, with that 20 - 0 run.  Turnovers were an issue, especially by Trae.  And the Hawks offense in general looked all out of sorts.  The main thing they were doing was really packing the paint, while also pressuring the ball.  So what can we do to prevent what we saw in Game 2?

 

1) Start Danillo Gallinari and stay big as much as possible

The facts are that this matchup is similar to what we saw vs Philly, from a size standpoint.   On the frontline, the Bucks go Lopez at 7 ft . . Giannis at 6-11 .  . Middleton at 6 - 7 . . then they go Tucker 6 - 5 and Holiday at 6 - 3.  When they bring in Bobby Portis, he stands at 6 - 10.

The way to counteract their size, is to go big on our own.  Our "big" lineup sees Capela at 6 - 10 . . Gallo at 6 - 10 . . Collins at 6 - 9.  This has given us proper defensive balance throughout the playoffs.  It also helps tremendously from a rebounding standpoint.   When we go with the 3 guard lineup of Trae - Huerter - Bogi, those guys MUST shoot the basketball well enough to justify all 3 of them to be on the floor at the same time.  And when you opt to start Solomon HIll, who is only 6 - 6, that hurts your size defensively, despite him being a decent on the ball defender, and kills you offensively, because he can't make people pay when he's left open.  Solo's presence on the court puts even more pressure on the guards to score and create offense for others.

So the adjustment I make is to insert Gallo into the lineup.  On defense, you now have another big person to rotate into the paint to help stop Giannis, and even give a bigger guy for Middleton to shoot over.  On offense, you not only keep 3 point shooting out on the floor, but also put another player to throw the ball to in the post.   Gallo looked real good at the end of the 1st quarter, with his play in the post, as well as his perimeter shot making.   We all commend Bogi on helping us become an elite team, but if he is only 70% out on the court, his role should be coming off the bench, not starting games.  Gallo is a much more versatile scorer than Bogi.

 

2) The 3 point taker, or the furthest guy from the basket, MUST get back on defense.

After Trae's 4th 3 point attempt, Holiday started to release into the backcourt as soon as Trae shot the ball.  At that point, it is either the responsibility of the guard on the other side of the floor, or Trae's responsibility, to get back on defense.  Trae took 8 threes in the game, made 1.  Holiday released on 4 of Trae's 3's.  Holiday would also do this in the 2nd and 3rd quarter on two of Huerter's 3s.  Now he didn't receive an outlet pass every time he released, but he's definitely looking to get easy offensive scores by doing this.

The Bucks are doing this because we normally only have 1 guy around the rim to try to grab an offensive rebound.  They know that they're more than likely going to secure the defensive rebound.  This encourages their guards to release up the court even before they gain possession, and "snowbird".  Some of you call this "cherry picking".  When I played ball in high school, we called this "Bill Hall".  Bill Hall was the weatherman who did the SnowBird report, that reported school closings because of snow.

 

3) Attack Giannis when he has the ball with double teams

Most coaches are deathly afraid of Giannis' dribble drive, so they sag back and entice him to take the jumpshot.  Here's the problem.  If he's not going to take the jumper, you're better off just trying to crowd the dude and have him work just a little bit harder to get his shot or make a play for others.  Things were a little too easy for Giannis in Game 2.  To beat a team in the playoffs, you must cut off the head of the snake.  You can't let the other teams best player just do whatever he wants, because his supporting cast is going to feed off of that.  Our team does it when Trae has it going too.  The Bucks have made that adjustment against Trae to limit his offensive production.  It's now time we make the same adjustment against Giannis.

If Cam Reddish is ready to receive extended minutes, have his job to be the weak side attack person on Giannis.  I'm fine with Capela and Collins alternating guarding Giannis.  I also want Gallo to be the weakside help guy when he's in the game.  But they need to send hard double teams toward Giannis to disrupt his rhythm.  Turn him into a facilitator.  Cam, with his length and ball hawking ability, is the perfect guy to have double Giannis.  I would mix up where the double teams are coming from, but while he's in the game, Cam would be the guy I'd send toward Giannis.

 

4) Make Brook Lopez and PJ Tucker beat you from outside.

Yes, they can make the 3 point shot.  But they're not prolific 3 point shooters.  Brook Lopez's season high in threes made is 4.  For Tucker, it's 3 threes made, and that came in the playoffs.  Both have had a few good shooting games in the playoffs, but nothing ground breaking.  I say have the Hawks get overly aggressive in trying to limit the scoring of not only GIannis, but also rotate off of Tucker and Lopez to help protect the paint against Holiday drives.  Turn Holiday into a facilitator, and see if we can direct his passes to Tucker and Lopez.  Once again, these guys tend to make timely 3s when the Bucks are on runs, and not a volume number of 3s.  And they tend to miss when the Bucks are losing.

 

5) Shoot the ball, Trae

Of the 9 turnovers he had in Game 2, I count opportunities in which he could've opted to shoot the ball on 6 of those occasions.  Instead, he tried to make tough passes in traffic and turned the ball over.  All 6 would've been tough shots off the dribble.  But to me, a Trae shot attempt and miss, is far less destructive than one of his turnovers that can lead to fast breaks.  Even if he's cold from the field, he must keep shooting if he's the only one available to take a shot.

Remember the narratives surrounding Trae and the Hawks:

• Hawks are now 21 - 2 whenever he scores 32 points or more  ( 5 - 1 in the playoffs )
• Hawks are now 15 - 0 whenever he scores 35 points or more  ( 4 - 0 in the playoffs )

The Bucks and their coaching staff know this.  This is why they've directed all of their attention into stopping him.  No one else on the Hawks, other than Huerter, have proven that they can be a volume shooter and be successful.  So Trae, if he has the shot, should take it.  This includes the 3 point bombs that everyone hates.  Because if he makes a few of those, it loosens the middle up.

What he can't do, is be indecisive.  That's when the turnovers start to come.  He needs to stay aggressive and look to score whenever possible.  Once he does that, the passing lanes will open up for others.

 

[Peoriabird]

Agree with most except Cam needs to defend the point of attack meaning Jrue Holiday and when Giannis receives the ball at the top of the key, pressure him immediately. See whether or not he has point guard ball handling skills

[TheNorthCydeRises]

46 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Agree with most except Cam needs to defend the point of attack meaning Jrue Holiday and when Giannis receives the ball at the top of the key, pressure him immediately. See whether or not he has point guard ball handling skills

 

If we do that, I'm afraid Cam will pick up quick cheap fouls.  I'd rather he be the guy that comes over for the double team, but I'm not opposed to Cam being on the ball.

[Peoriabird]

34 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

If we do that, I'm afraid Cam will pick up quick cheap fouls.  I'd rather he be the guy that comes over for the double team, but I'm not opposed to Cam being on the ball.

If not Cam, who?

[JeffS17]

Our biggest problem is they were like 70% from 3 at one point in the first half.  I feel like we started to panic.  You have to trust they will not keep hitting at that kind of clip, I'd much rather lose to them raining 3s than watching them get 75 easy points in the paint, or or Holiday cherry picking.  

Edited June 26, 2021 by JeffS17

[RandomFan]

 

[TheNorthCydeRises]

2 hours ago, Peoriabird said:

If not Cam, who?

 

I think it would have to be Capela or Collins.  He'll try to drive around those guys, which is why I'd have another big in the vicinity to rotate over.  I would purposely rotate off of Lopez and Tucker, and dare those guys to make shots, just to keep Giannis out of scoring in the paint.  Make him give the ball up.

[Peoriabird]

13 minutes ago, TheNorthCydeRises said:

 

I think it would have to be Capela or Collins.  He'll try to drive around those guys, which is why I'd have another big in the vicinity to rotate over.  I would purposely rotate off of Lopez and Tucker, and dare those guys to make shots, just to keep Giannis out of scoring in the paint.  Make him give the ball up.

The offense mainly starts with Jrue Holiday not Giannis. They probably ran the Giannis top of the key set 25% of the time. Most of time the point of attack started with Holiday. Cam should be on Holiday.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

1 hour ago, JeffS17 said:

Our biggest problem is they were like 70% from 3 at one point in the first half.  I feel like we started to panic.  You have to trust they will not keep hitting at that kind of clip, I'd much rather lose to them raining 3s than watching them get 75 easy points in the paint, or or Holiday cherry picking.  

 

There's certain guys you can't leave out on the perimeter.  Holiday, Middleton, Connaughton, Forbes are guys you cannot leave open most of the time.  Bobby Portis, who shot 47% from 3 in the regular season, is getting to that point as well.

But if PJ Tucker and Brook Lopez are going to knock down 8 threes between them in a game, I want to see if they can do it.

[Spud2nique]

Untighten those sphincter’s. 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Spud2nique

[ATLHawks3]

Also, we didn't do a good job of establishing a wall against Giannis last game. We spent to much time picking him up at the 3 point line instead of establishing that wall in the paint.

[ATLHawks3]

Another thing I noticed is that when we try to force Giannis left, he almost always tries to spin back right. I know it sounds easier said than done, but if we could have our guys that are defending him to anticipate the spin and beat him to the spot, he'll more likely than not pick up his dribble and try to hit a tough shot. We want more of those possessions than we want of him having a runway to the rim.

Edited June 27, 2021 by ATLHawks3

[NBASupes]

Hope Cam can defend the PGs more like he did in the regular season than in the last game

[NBASupes]

2 hours ago, RandomFan said:

 

NC was right about going big in the Philly series but he's been getting killed by Milwaukee 

[RedDawg#8]

Honestly, there is a feeling out process that takes place each series. Teams make adjustments, rotations change due to injuries. There is a punch-counterpunch element to every matchup. 

We didn't find our footing right away with the Knicks. We started that series focused on Randle and ended up realizing Rose was the biggest threat.

Against the Sixers we had a stretch of 12 straight quarters from the 2nd half of game 1 to halftime of game 4 where we had no answers for what they were doing. Curry, Embiid, Harris, they all looked 2 steps ahead of us. It took time to get our footing and realize that Lou and Trae would work together against them, and that Gallo could work alongside Collin and Capela. Not to mention we had to adjust on the fly Dre's injury and then to Bogi's injury.

Here we are again. A tough opponent, matchup issues everywhere. What worked last series wont work this series. We just have to find our footing and make adjustments. Stealing game 1 has helped us weather the feeling out process in each series. We may not have it all figured out by tomorrow but we have the benefit of homecourt to aide us while we do. We are still a young team, we have never been here before. It takes us a little longer to process what teams are doing to us. But Nate continues to find out and stick to what works. Maybe that ends up being Cam, maybe that means John gets to eat more this series. Who knows.

But it's very very early in the series. Nothing is set in stone

[agentorange90]

Good analysis; now comes the hard part to execute a game plan.  I have been impressed with Coach Bud.  I really liked him as the Hawks coach.  I thought if Ferry staid they would have had more success.  I think if the Hawks don't win tomorrow this may be over in 5. 

[RedDawg#8]

Let's not forget either, that before the playoffs started and seedings were being finalized... most of us would have preferred the Bucks instead of the Knicks based on what we knew at the time. We were willing to slide to 6 just to get a piece of Milwaukee and avoid the Knicks.

One bad game shouldn't scare us when we know that we can beat these guys.

 

[Lurker]

32 minutes ago, RedDawg#8 said:

Let's not forget either, that before the playoffs started and seedings were being finalized... most of us would have preferred the Bucks instead of the Knicks based on what we knew at the time. We were willing to slide to 6 just to get a piece of Milwaukee and avoid the Knicks.

One bad game shouldn't scare us when we know that we can beat these guys.

 

meh...if anybody was seriously in the camp of the Bucks being a better matchup for the Hawks than the Knicks...then they were way way off from the start...yes, the Knicks had swept the Hawks in the regular season and had given the team trouble in recent history, but you can easily argue the same thing with the Bucks...in which I remember a game during Trae's rookie year where they rested most of their starters and the Hawks still had to mount a major comeback to win, which had me extremely frustrated.

 

Shoot, my dad knows nothing about basketball (although he decided to pick up watching the Hawks again this season for a sports fix and said they were good "before" Pierce was fired) and he randomly guessed Hawks in 5 before that Knicks series.

This could easily be over honestly...I really "don't" think this is a good matchup at all, especially without this team at full strength. The Hawks were just better than the Knicks (and records+regular season head to head didn't reflect it) and in the case of Philly, recent history (besides this season)+Doc Rivers being the coach made for it to be an interesting upset special series from the start, but in the case of the Bucks, none of the above was the case.

In case you're wondering, I wasn't that shook by getting blown out by Philly in game 2 because the Hawks had recovered well before Milton went nuclear (I was in game 3 and with the first half of 4 though). I very much am here however and without a statement in game 3, there probably isn't much chance at much here...

[MaceCase]

They need to figure out the press.  It gunked up the offense and forced guys into exerting a lot of energy just getting the ball into the halfcourt to speak nothing of running a good play after that.  It did a lot to both frustrate guys and keep them from getting any rhythm even when Nate tried to switch the ball-handler.  Nate tried another counter by bringing bigs to set picks even all the way in the backcourt but that just allowed the Bucks to build their own wall on the perimeter behind the ball-handle pressure because there's no need to guard their man that far from the basket.

There has to be either quicker outlet passes or decisions being made with the ball after an inbounds.  May have to go with some Gallo bringing the ball up, maybe even at the 5 because he's the only big with a handle and Lopez isn't going to pressure him or sag off because of his shot.

[NBASupes]

5 hours ago, MaceCase said:

They need to figure out the press.  It gunked up the offense and forced guys into exerting a lot of energy just getting the ball into the halfcourt to speak nothing of running a good play after that.  It did a lot to both frustrate guys and keep them from getting any rhythm even when Nate tried to switch the ball-handler.  Nate tried another counter by bringing bigs to set picks even all the way in the backcourt but that just allowed the Bucks to build their own wall on the perimeter behind the ball-handle pressure because there's no need to guard their man that far from the basket.

There has to be either quicker outlet passes or decisions being made with the ball after an inbounds.  May have to go with some Gallo bringing the ball up, maybe even at the 5 because he's the only big with a handle and Lopez isn't going to pressure him or sag off because of his shot.

You bring up some excellent points. Nate's adjustments simply weren't good enough in game 2. Bucks countered them well. I still think fatigued played a bigger role in this than people think