Toronto’s Air Cananda Centre has not been a friendly place to the Milwaukee Bucks for most of the last couple seasons. They did get one iconic playoff win here, but other than that, it’s more like a house of horrors for this team. Last night, Milwaukee had a chance to steal this one in regulation, but a bad defensive play led to overtime. Bucks had zero answer for DeMar DeRozan who went off for 52 points, a career-high and a franchise record. DeRozan exploited some of Milwaukee’s issues with guarding shooting guards.

Let’s talk about the final play of regulation

I would like to know who exactly is expected to rotate on Lowry, under the following conditions:
1. The left side has been cleared
2. Ibaka cuts to the basket drawing Giannis with him
3. It takes 1.9 seconds from the time Middleton leaves his man to the time that Lowry releases pic.twitter.com/qAifSSqXIN

— Dean Maniatt (@AllTheBucks) January 2, 2018

This is one of the worst defensive plays of the season for Milwaukee. They’ve been a mess all year defensively thanks to Jason Kidd running at out-of-date defense for today’s NBA. They do this thing called ‘blitzing’ which is a ton of trapping and fluster the ballhandler. Milwaukee tried to do that the top of the key as DeRozan had the ball. What it led to was a wide open Kyle Lowry three. Bucks can’t have this happen in close, late games. They were a few possessions from closing out Toronto, and instead, the game became tied which led to overtime.

Giannis has to touch the ball more in overtime
There’s a trend that’s bubbling a little bit with Giannis and his usage as it seems like we’re seeing more of Eric Bledsoe and Khris Middleton of late. Giannis did not touch the ball until the final 1:30 of the overtime. That cannot happen especially when Milwaukee is dueling a guy like DeRozan. Giannis needs to be the focal point of the offense even if guys like Eric Bledsoe are cooking.

Delly gives Milwaukee great minutes
Special shoutout to Matthew Dellavedova who played his ass in this game. Delly isn’t a fan favorite, but most should appreciate the way he played out there last night. Dellavedova finished with six points, 10 assists and five rebounds. That’s a helluva stat line for someone off the bench. We’ll see if that translates to the games this week. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Kidd ride him again.

Next up
Bucks head home to play the Indiana Pacers tomorrow night at the Bradley Center. Victor Oladipo’s injury is killing Indiana as they’ve fallen in four straight games. We’ll see if Oladipo can return from injury for this one. You’d figure he would be an issue after what DeRozan did.

Charlie.