Sixers Look to Bag Some Bucks

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Everybody’s favorite now-5-win NBA team is back in action Wednesday night, with the Sixers playing host to a Milwaukee team on the tail-end of a back-to-back, after the Bucks lost at home to Phoenix yesterday evening. The old back-to-back bugaboo represents the biggest reason for optimism about the Sixers earning their second winning streak of the season, but the Bucks have also been playing without a number of key players recently. Of course, they’re missing star rookie Jabari Parker after losing him for the season three weeks ago to a torn ACL, but stretch four Ersan Ilyasova has also missed time recently due to concussion symptoms. Plus, starting center Larry Sanders has sat out the last two weeks, with reports originally saying he was tired of playing basketball, but now stating he’s working through some personal issues (so I’m going to avoid any obvious jokes on that front).

Still, after trying and failing to pull a power move in Brooklyn this past offseason, now-Milwaukee Coach Jason Kidd has the team playing well, currently sitting firmly at .500, which in the Eastern Conference practically has you thinking about home court advantage in the playoffs. The strength of the team has been on the defensive end, where Kidd has utilized the size, length, and youthful quickness up and down the roster to guide the Bucks to the 7th-best defensive rating in the NBA. Kidd will legitimately play 10 players per night, with the majority of the roster fluctuating between anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes. The lone exceptions in terms of receiving steady minutes have been the starting backcourt of Brandon Knight and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Knight leads the team at 18.3 ppg and 5.1 apg, with career-best efficiency numbers across the board of 44.8%/39.3%/90.1%. The jury’s still out on whether he’s a true point guard or more of a combo guard, but there’s no mistaking Knight as a legitimate NBA player on both ends of the floor. Standing at 6’3″, Knight is one of the few opposing point guards where Michael Carter-Williams won’t have as a clear size advantage, which the Sixers guard generally utilizes to work open those shots in the painted area. Like MCW, Knight has struggled with turnovers at over 3 per contest, and as I’ll discuss later on, whichever point guard takes better care of the ball may well decide the outcome.

Alongside Knight in the backcourt is last year’s first-round pick, Antetokounmpo a.k.a. the Greek Freak. Despite standing at 6’11” (and reportedly still growing), the Bucks have him playing shooting guard (periodic stints at point!), with promising returns continue to pour in as the young man learns more and more about the nuances of the game of basketball. Antetokounmpo has recorded exactly 16 points and 12 rebounds in each of the last two games, and well, just watch him take 1 dribble from the three-point line and dunk in last night’s Suns game. That is simply not fair.

Someone else the Sixers will have to watch from the outside along with Knight is Jared Dudley, who was originally seen as a poison pill this past offseason as the Clippers tried to free up cap space (the Bucks received a future first-round pick by taking him on. Instead, the former Boston College star has put up some big lines over the past month or so, and is the team’s best three-point shooter on the year at 41.8%. Guys like Khris Middleton and O.J. Mayo also can get hot on a given night, so there are plenty of players for whom the Sixers’ perimeter defenders should be mindful.

Nevertheless, this game should ultimately come down to whoever wins the turnover battle. It’s no secret that when the Sixers get up around 20 or more turnovers in a given night is when we see those lopsided blowouts, but things will be magnified in that area against Milwaukee. The Bucks force the second-highest percentage of opponent’s turnovers, while they personally are third-worst in the league in turnover ratio (the Sixers are first/last in both areas). Similar to Philadelphia, the Bucks struggle taking care of the ball with a number of young guys receiving big minutes, and as mentioned, Knight is by no means a polished point guard. Kidd has instituted a gambling defensive which has suited the roster well, and like in the fourth quarter against Cleveland, the Sixers will need to hold on to the ball to come out on top.