The Milwaukee Bucks continued their fantastic start to the season on Sunday night by beating the Denver Nuggets, 121-114. It was just the fourth loss of the season for the Nuggets, which makes the win impressive enough, but that the Bucks did it in Denver on the second night of a back-to-back only made it more so.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton -- the usual suspects -- had strong nights in the win, but the Bucks also got a big boost from Brook Lopez, who poured in 28 points on a career-high eight 3-pointers. It was just the latest in Lopez's late-career renaissance as he's turned himself into a reliable marksman on catch-and-shoot 3s. For the season, Lopez has now hit 39 of his 93 3-point attempts, good for 41.9 percent.
Lopez's ability to space the floor while playing the five opens up plenty of space for the Bucks' creators -- Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Eric Bledsoe -- to operate; that he's shooting this well is just an added bonus. Let's take a look at how Lopez was able to torch the Nuggets, who boast a top-five NBA defense entering Monday, from downtown and help the Bucks to a big win.
With Lopez in the game, the Bucks are able to play five-out, which leaves the paint empty and creates all sorts of driving lanes. If one of the Bucks is able to beat their initial man, this spacing creates a big problem. Help defenders have to travel much further to cut off the drive, which then makes getting back out to the shooters spaced around the floor almost impossible.
Nearly all of Lopez's 3-pointers in this game came from the Bucks getting into the paint, drawing in the defense and kicking it out to an open Lopez on the perimeter. Here's the first example, just a few minutes into the game.
As Giannis Antetokounmpo rolls to the rim after screening for Eric Bledsoe, Nikola Jokic has to drop all the way into the paint to help. He has no chance to get back out to Lopez in the corner.
Now we move on to the second quarter, and the Bucks run the same action, but this time it's Lopez setting the screen instead of standing in the corner.
Again, Jokic has to help all the way down into the paint. He makes a great effort to run Lopez off the line, but Lopez has plenty of time to just pump fake and send him flying by, then hit the shot.
Moving on to the third quarter, we'll see a familiar sight. This time, the Bucks get into the paint with Antetokounmpo simply driving the ball hard from the top of the key.
Again, Jokic sinks in to help -- perhaps he shouldn't have here, given that Antetokounmpo was going to the right, but it's hard to fault him too much -- and is left stranded in the paint. Lopez knocks down the open look.
Later in the third, Middleton drives baseline and at one point draws the attention of all five Nuggets defenders.
As you'll probably guess, that means Jokic was once again dragged into the paint, and unable to recover in time to bother Lopez, who was on fire at this point.
That Lopez was able to get so many of his open looks on simple drive-and-kick plays shows how difficult this Bucks team is to guard. There were no fancy screening actions and no unique sets; they simply spaced the floor, drew in the help defenders and hit an open shooter.
Now, is Lopez going to hit eight 3s every night? No, of course not. But in just 13 games he has already hit five or more 3s on four occasions, so he's more than capable of getting hot. And as Sunday's win showed, it helps when almost all of your attempts are wide open looks.
In short, good luck guarding the Bucks when a suddenly proficient 3-point shooting Lopez is their fifth option on offense.
