Milwaukee Bucks
The 2021-22 Milwaukee Bucks can be defined by losing in the second round without Khris Middleton to the Boston Celtics in 7 games.
What did we learn?
The defending champions didn’t have the same luck this time around.
Even so, without their second-best player, Giannis and the Bucks almost took out the best team in the league (at the time).
During the regular season, the Bucks started out the year flapping in the breeze due to all of their early season injuries and protocol issues.
Jrue Holiday sprained his ankle out of the gate, missing six of the first eight games.
Brook Lopez suffered a back injury in the first game of the season, leading to eventual back surgery and being out until mid-March.
Khris Middleton missed eight straight games at the beginning of November with Covid.
The Bucks were 6-8 after the first 14 games when Middleton finally returned on Nov. 17. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s scoring increased as soon as Middleton was back in the lineup as defenses couldn’t key all the way in on Giannis, having to deal with Middleton’s well-rounded game. (That would not be the case against the Celtics.)
When the Bucks had all of their Big 3 playing, they were as good as ever, beginning the season 11-0 and 18-3, and finishing the year with a record of 37-11 in games that Giannis, Middleton and Holiday all played.
Holiday sprained his ankle again in January, and the Bucks promptly went on a slide, losing four out of five games. And when Holiday returned? That’s precisely when the Bucks winning ways commenced once again.
Giannis was the reliable one, still out here doing what he does best: Pulverizing the regular season to smithereens, putting up eerily similar stats across the last four seasons, going back to when he was the back-to-back MVP. Many still have him pegged as the best player in the game. From a two-way perspective, it’s really hard to argue against it. Giannis is the most dominate two-way force that we have, dismantling defenses with his otherworldly size, strength and length.
In the 44 games this season that Giannis posted a positive plus-minus, the Bucks went 42-2. In the 23 games that he posted a negative plus-minus? The Bucks went 3-20. And Milwaukee was 6-9 when Giannis did not play.
Giannis got a lot of help this season from T-Shirt All-Star Bobby Portis. The crazy eyed People’s Champ cemented himself as one of the Bucks most important players. Portis averaged a career high in points, and in the 31 games this season that Portis made two or more 3-pointers, the Bucks went 27-4.
Without Brook Lopez, Milwaukee’s defense took a big step back. Holiday was still exemplary, making second-team all-defense, and Giannis of course made first team, but it was when Splash Mountain returned late in the season and in the playoffs that the Bucks defense took a giant step forward to be a stout defense once again.
The Bucks took care of the Bulls in the first round pretty easily in five games, but it was in that fateful Game 5 when Middleton went down with a sprained knee.
It was also in Game 5 of the second round when the Bucks sure had us feeling as though they were about to do the damn thang again anyway. That wild comeback in Boston was the stuff of champions. Down by 6 with less than two minutes left: Giannis hit a 3, Holiday hit a 3, Portis grabbed that massive rebound and put-back, and then Jrue Holiday’s incredible thief-in-the night defense sealed it with a block on Marcus Smart and throwing the ball off Smart’s chest while falling out of bounds. Oh, and then Holiday had the game-ending steal on Smart once again.
Wes Mathews played quite well against Tatum at first, but he didn’t hold up over the full 7-game series. The Bucks could have used P.J. Tucker, but not as much as they could have used Khris Middleton. (Let’s not forget that it was Middleton who hit the back-breaking dagger against the Suns to clinch Game 6 of the 2021 Finals.) Middleton was an All-Star after all, and his 20+ points per game was missed dearly (deerly?) against the #1 defense in the league. Middleton’s length on defense also would have been useful as the Celtics hunted Grayson Allen relentlessly. Lineups with Allen and George Hill bled points profusely.
And yet, the Bucks were still right there. Up 3-2 going back to Milwaukee. Then Tatum went berserk with 46 points, swishing everything he took. Then Grant Williams had the game of his life in Game 7, draining seven 3s en route to a game-high 27 points.
Middleton’s absence from the second round goes down as probably the biggest What If from this season.
But so long as the Bucks have their Big 3 going forward, they should be ready to contend once again as a formidable Beast in the East.
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Additional Notes
The Divencenzo-Serge Ibaka trade ended up being even worse than we thought. It’s understandable to want some insurance for Brook Lopez’s back, but the Bucks could have just kept Boogie! Ibaka was so washed on the Clippers that he sent himself to the G League. He couldn’t sniff the floor in the Celtics series. Milwaukee sure could have used the Big Ragu as an additional ball-mover and capable 3-point shooter.
Due to all of their early-season injuries, Bucks games featured a fair amount of WHO HE?! characters: Justin Robinson, Sandro Mamukelashvili (Mamu!) and even Georgios Kalaitzakis in garbage-time. Not to mention that Thanasis was averaging nearly 20 minutes and started five games.
Milwaukee’s best 4-man lineup was the Bucks Big 3 plus Bobby Portis at +12.8 per 100 possessions in 496 minutes. *whistles*
Milwaukee’s signature wins of the season came in late-March when Giannis dropped 40 and 14 in back-to-back road games vs. the Sixers and Nets, a thorough reminder of what this team is capable of at full strength. It’s a damn shame that we didn’t get to see it against Boston.
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
Putting this one down as a Pure Lock. Over 54.5 wins.
Bucks 2021-22 record: (51-31)
Nope. Not a Pure Lock. It would be easy to blame injuries, so that’s exactly what we’ll do.
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What’s Next?
With the 24th pick in the 2022 NBA draft on Thursday night, the Bucks selected MarJon Beauchamp from the G League Ignite. Beauchamp is labeled as a “physical wing” by KOC, which does sound perfect for the Bucks.
Re-sign Bobby Portis if and when he declines his player option. Pat Connaughton has already opted in to his.
Work on bolstering the bench and getting Middleton healthy.
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Favorite Bucks Highlights of the 2021-22 Season:
About as dominate of a two-game stretch on the road as you’ll see.
