The gap between the Bucks and Celtics is CLOSING – Perk _ NBA Countdown

the Bucks and the Warriors face off in the second game of our doubleheader. Defense has been Milwaukee's calling card after the All-Star break. They lead the league in opponent scoring average and field goal percentage. Only the Celtics have a better scoring differential than the Milwaukee Bucks. But Sinead Gumike, I know you are keyed in on that two-man game between Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. How can they get the most out of their two stars? It's these two guys right here. When you have a force that is Giannis Antetokounmpo right there, you're going to spend a lot of time watching him work down low. Now, that unfortunately applies to All-Star teammate Damian Lillard. So the Bucks cannot get stagnant. With Giannis on the court, I want you guys to see these numbers. With Giannis on the court, Dame roams the perimeter quite a bit. Nearly half of his shots come from three-point range. Now, with Giannis off of the court, Dame has a better balance of shot selection. He mixes it up inside and out. You can see the differences in the numbers on and off and how it's better balanced when, you know, typically they need these situations when they're both together. Now, watch this breakdown right here. This is Giannis, and this is Dame. This is two-man, and it's quite simple. Usually, you send a double team, but you can't help off of Dame. So that allows Giannis to cook on his own. He does a spin move. Great offense, but it is stagnant. How do you fix this? Well, when you see Dame without Giannis at times, look at how aggressive he gets. He sees the situation. Y'all, that's Kawhi Leonard right here. There's the paint. It doesn't stop him. He attracts so many defenders. He's got so many options open, and instead, he finishes. That is the difference in his mindset. When Giannis is on the floor, he sort of passes and tries to see things. They space the floor, but Malika, they need to find a way for Dame to be aggressive and balance out this offense, and that's why they've been able to do better because of those things. Well, and the chemistry is at an all-time high, it appears at least from the outside, because look at this. The Bucs posted this picture, Dame Lillard giving out watches to all his Milwaukee Bucs teammates. Good teammate, right? That's how you let the group know you're starting off the road trip right, and also saying it's Dame time heading back to his home city, the Bay, tonight. We know Dame Lillard loves to play. Oh, he balls out there. Yeah, he always loves to play there. But what happens, Richard, if Giannis and Dame, the defense is clicking? That's what we're harping on all season long. If all of a sudden their two-man game starts to click, the Bucs can do what? Well, they can be special, but understanding when we compare them to their two-man game to other great two-man games, you have to kind of look at the individuals. Dame Lillard isn't on the ball guard. Steph Curry moves around a ton. Jamal Murray moves around a ton. That's something that Dame is going to have to do more of, right? It can't just be one, two. It's like, no, I'm going to throw it to you. I'm going to cut. Maybe my cut opens up something for somebody else. That's when you see great two-man game. It's not just the pick and roll. It's how that offense works for everyone. And so if they get that two-man game going, you've got the two best players on the team, two of the top 10 players in the world playing. It should work, and they should be figuring it out right now and getting ready for the postseason. And they're going to figure it out, right? Because they're both great players. But I've got to look at Giannis Antetokounmpo and say that he has to sacrifice a little bit. You talk about how aggressive Dame is when Giannis is off the floor. He should have that same mentality when Giannis is on the floor. But that doesn't come from the coach. That got to come from Giannis. And it has to come from a sense of the comfort zone of Giannis saying, you know what, Dame? I need you to go out there and be the best version of you. I'm going to trust you a little bit more. Here, I'm going to go dribble a handoff with you, a quick ball screen, and let you get more involved. So Giannis has to do more of that sacrificing. I always go back to the 2008 days when KG came into the locker room. And he set the tone early. He said, you know what, Doc? Run the offense through Paul and Ray. I get mine on the back end. Now, KG was arguably the best player on that team. There was no argument. So OK, so he was. But just him doing that gave Ray and Paul a level of confidence that they needed. Yeah, but what we also heard recently from Coach Doc Rivers is that Dame, after the game, came and said, they're running more things for me now. I think they see, especially off of the momentum of All-Star, that they've got an all-worldly talent. And we need him to be aggressive. And that's why there's been a difference. But there's also, when we talk about early in the season, it was, what is the Milwaukee Bucks' identity? Because the last couple of years, when they won a championship under Mike Budenholzer, it was defense. Since the All-Star break, they've really turned that around. But now, it still feels like, OK, we're seeing a gap between the Bucks and the Boston Celtics, at least. No, you're not seeing that gap. No, not with me. That gap is small. It's close. It's closer. And it relies, when you talk about the defense, those two guys in Brooke Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo, they have raised their level of defense. And you look at Giannis, think about this. Before Doc Rivers, he was 81st in the league for his gardener pick and roll when he was in the action. After Doc Rivers, he ranked eighth in the league. So his mentality switched. You see Brooke Lopez protecting the basket a lot more. So that allows Damian Lillard, Jake Crowder, and Michael Beasley to get up and pressure up on them guards and get up over the screen. Malik Beasley is huge. I got you. So let me ask you this, though. The Timberwolves are sort of the one healthy, very good team that the Bucks have beaten this stretch. Now, they head down the road. Now, they're playing. And the Clippers, obviously, in the last game. On the road, they face the Warriors. They face the Lakers. They face the Clippers again, the Kings. And then, they are back home. What can you learn about them in this stretch? Well, I think we already know this. I think this is the perfect time for them to tighten up their defense. This was a great thing. And one thing that I think people need to understand, this is coming off that loss right before the All-Star break to Memphis. So it was like, you go home, and you're feeling that. Think about how well they've played since then. So there was a reset of like, hey, this isn't coaching. This isn't this. No, we have to, as individuals, reassess how we're approaching the game. And since the All-Star break, those are what all the numbers are showing. So I think that they have kind of re-centered their focus on defense. They understand that they are going nowhere without defense. And now that allows us, now that the defense seems like it's fixed, it allows us to talk more about their offense. But it starts with their defense. And it's been since the All-Star break. And they're hitting their stride at the right time. Hope reported on Monday that Russell Westbrook, he had surgery on his left hand. How is this going to impact the Clippers in the final stretch of the regular season here? Malika, let's start with a timeline for Russell Westbrook's return. I'm told that there's an expectation that he can be back with this team before the playoffs. April 14th is the final regular season game for the Clippers. And they have a difficult April. They play eight games in 14 days. They have two back-to-backs. The hope is that they can get Westbrook back. He broke his right hand nine years ago in Oklahoma City. 27 days he was back in the lineup. He has been, for the Clippers, a dynamo off their bench. Willingly made that move after the James Harden trade. Now, for the Clips, Bones Highland, who had not been in the rotation, gets a chance, gets an opportunity to pick up some of those Russell Westbrook minutes. But for this Clipper team, certainly they are comforted with the idea that they will have Russell Westbrook back for the playoffs. Woj, thank you so very much. Health has been something that we have talked about with this Los Angeles Clippers team. Really a key factor for them in any pursuit, that they have for a team that has at least Western Conference finals, if not NBA finals hopes. And I mentioned that the Clippers, you know, after slipping in the standings, are hoping they can find some way to end up in that top four, certainly top six, positioning come April when we're really hitting the playoffs here. But since starting 2024 with a 15-3 record, they've gone 5-6 in the last 11 games. How concerning is that for you, Kendrick? I'm torn. I'm caught in between. You look like you're going through it a little bit. Here's the reason why. Because when you get towards this part of the season, do I have trust in Paul George and James Harden? Hell no, OK? But do I have trust in Kawhi Leonard and Ty Lue? Hell yeah. So that balance each other out. So I think they got a quality win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. That was a great win on the road. It went down to the very last play. But when I think about them, I need to see more out of Paul George and James Harden to get me over the little bit of concerns that I do have. Look, I'm right there with you. Malika and I not too long ago said, we're all in on the Clippers. Mind you, we're saying Western Conference Finals. And I still have belief in them. I think missing Paul George was something that destabilized them. They've had some ups and downs post-All-Star. And I think these are the natural course of events when you're playing all your games, right? Players are going to be in and out here and there. But I do think that as long as they are available with the last 10 or so, they hopefully can stay close to the Nuggets in the standing so they can try to get a push at home court. They're still on schedule. My thing is this, Paul George, it's a cohesive unit. The more that James Harden establishes himself as the second best player versus saying that I'm going to set up Paul George and Kawhi, I think that that's when they're in a better spot. When he established that he's a setup man and then he contributes offensively, when he turns on that extra step and says that I am the scorer and then you see Paul George's numbers go down, that's what worries me. I need Paul George at 25 every single night, and I need to see James Harden with 12-plus assists because he's establishing now when he gets the opportunities to score, that's great. I just don't need to see him scoring, outscoring Paul George. He's got to keep lifting them up. That's the best version.