TORONTO — Giannis Antetokounmpo extended his outrageous arms to the ceiling. It might have been intimidating if he wasn’t smiling. The Milwaukee Bucks forward was describing how his team shuts others down.
“It’s hard for the opposing team to execute because we are so long, everybody on our team is so long,” Antetokounmpo said. “We’ve just got to raise our hands up. Grg [Tim Grgurich] is always getting on us: ‘High hands, high hands!’”
The Bucks staff charts how often their players hold those hands high, general manager John Hammond told Grantland earlier this season. When guys like Antetokounmpo and John Henson, with 7-4 and 7-5 wingspans, do that, the court shrinks quickly. They can feel the passing lanes disappearing, they see players forcing up contested shots and turning the ball over.
On Saturday against the Portland Trail Blazers, Antetokounmpo and Henson trapped LaMarcus Aldridge. The All-Star power forward had to back up from the left block to the left corner. To get rid of the ball, he had to loft it so high over the two of them that it sailed way out of bounds. That’s the kind of disruption head coach Jason Kidd wants, and he’s been seeing it. Milwaukee’s finding ways to flummox some of the best offenses in the league. Kidd likes the trust and communication his players are displaying, and the fact they’re having fun.
The Blazers haven’t shot worse from the field this season than the 37.1 percent mark they recorded in that loss. The Bucks followed that up with a gritty 82-75 win over the Toronto Raptors on Monday, holding them to a season-low 32.1 percent shooting night and improving to 26-22, comfortably in sixth place in the East. The organization is looking long-term, trying to build something special and sustainable. Considering where Milwaukee was last year and what it’s been through in the last few months, the success at this stage is staggering.
In 2013-2014, only the Utah Jazz had a worse defensive rating than the 15-67 Bucks. Now only the Golden State Warriors have a better one. Kidd and Sean Sweeney, the assistant coach designated as the defensive coordinator, installed a demanding scheme that puts pressure on ballhandlers. There’s a whole lot of helping, recovering and flailing arms.
“It takes a lot of effort, but I’m used to it now,” Henson said. “Being out there, helping the guards, kind of slowing down the guards. I need to crash a little more, but sometimes I’m running around so much, it’s hard. But it’s part of it. We’re one of the best defensive teams in the NBA, so we gotta keep doing what we’re doing.”
Milwaukee eclipsed last season’s league-worst win total before the start of the 2015 calendar year. In mid-December, though, it lost prized rookie Jabari Parker for the rest of the season due to a torn ACL. Shortly thereafter, center Larry Sanders stepped away from the team to deal with personal issues, and then was suspended a minimum of 10 games for violating the league’s drug policy. The Bucks went to London in mid-January as a part of NBA Global Games, and point guard Kendall Marshall tore his ACL there. Several other rotation players have missed significant time, but none of it has sapped their spirit. Kidd called the adversity a great learning experience.
In Toronto, big men Ersan Ilyasova and Zaza Pachulia sat out with groin and calf injuries, respectively. Leading scorer Brandon Knight was unexpectedly pulled from the lineup before tipoff because of quad soreness. Kidd inserted Jorge Gutierrez, who is on a 10-day contract, into the starting point guard spot. Shooting guard O.J. Mayo was ejected before the end of the first half, leaving Milwaukee with eight bodies.
There’s no way that version of the Bucks should have been expected to hang with the Raptors, and there’s no way they should have been able to survive scoring just nine points in the final frame. They did, though, with swingman Jared Dudley, guard Jerryd Bayless and Antetokounmpo making key plays late in the game. More important, they survived a Toronto rally and got the stops they needed.
“We’re starting to kind of figure it out and get a little swag with our defense,” Henson said. “That’s kind of what we hang our hats on.”
“We know that’s our identity,” Dudley said. “Once you know you have an identity, it’s easier.”
Forward Khris Middleton led Milwaukee with 25 points, and he’s been shooting extremely well all year. Dudley, Henson and Bayless registered season highs in playing time. Knight is the only Buck who averages 30 minutes or more per game, as Kidd has chosen to take advantage of the lineup flexibility he has at his disposal and give everyone an opportunity to play. This has made Milwaukee unpredictable, and it has forced everyone to stay ready and engaged.
“We have depth,” Dudley said. “We have a lot of people that, if you look at our roster, you say, ‘Man, he’s not that good.’ Or, ‘I didn’t know. How is this team playing so well?’ I just think that when you look at it, we’re very similar to the Hawks, where we play team basketball, we’re unselfish, we know our roles now. We don’t have an All-Star, so that’s why we’re not a 1-, 2-seed yet, but we’re right there fighting.”
To Antetokounmpo, the future franchise player who had the ball in his hands late in the fourth quarter, the shorthanded win at the Air Canada Centre said a lot about his resilient team. He credited his teammates for giving everything they had. A reporter informed him it was the first four-game winning streak of his career. He could get used to this.
“It’s a great feeling, it’s a dream come true,” Antetokounmpo said, grinning. “No, no, it’s just, if we keep playing hard like this and keep listening to our coaches and playing unselfish basketball, more things are gonna come.”
