Just over a week ago, the Milwaukee Bucks had won their opener – albeit against an outdated Philadelphia 76ers team without the services of Joel Embiid and Paul George – and Damian Lillard had started the season with a 30-point performance while connecting on six of his 12 three-pointers.
Since then, Lillard has gone from 3 to 6 for 33 and the Bucks have lost four straight games. Thursday night felt like something approaching rock bottom, as Lillard finished 1 of 12 from the floor for four points in a shocking loss to the shorthand Memphis Grizzlies. Take a look at his depressing shot chart from the match.
Somehow, the Bucks actually looked worse than the 122-99 score would suggest. Lifeless It doesn’t even seem like a strong enough word, but I guess it has to be done. This doesn’t look like a team that wants to fight. They don’t even look the way they want play.
“It’s discipline, period,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said after the loss to Memphis. “At some point there has to be consequences. They just ran after us too much today. Over and over again. I mean, big guys running after us for lobs. That just can’t happen. It’s not like we don’t do that.” I don’t work on that every day, but we don’t work on it well enough because if we did, they wouldn’t do it. Again, I keep coming back to me. There’s something they’re not hearing that I’m telling them and I need to do a better job.”
There is no joy. No division. The defense is a bottom 10 unit and only Brook Lopez even holds that together. They rank 26th in assists per game, with just 20 helpers on Thursday, and a handful of those were essentially meaningless in the final minutes of what was already a blowout. Only the 76ers and Utah Jazz have worse three-point shooting teams than Milwaukee’s mark of 30.6%.
This is Ugly with a capital letter, and we’re supposed to believe that when Khris Middleton comes back from ankle surgery, he’ll flip the entire script when he himself is clearly in individual decline? Don’t bet on it. And don’t count on Rivers to be the answer either. The Bucks are 20-27 since he took over from 30-13 Adrian Griffin last season.
Sing all you want about how the Bucks “looked better” under Rivers than they did under Griffin — who admittedly did some weird things, especially on defense — but 20-27 is what it is. CBS Sports N.B.A Insider Bill Reiter reported Thursday that there is growing confidence within the league that Giannis Antetokounmpo could be available for trading if this thing keeps going south. If what we’ve seen so far is any indication, a sudden reversal doesn’t seem all that likely.