The Bucks tag team of Bogut and Mbah a Moute: “Twice the mayhem!”
It’s easy to credit Andrew Bogut with the success of the Bucks defense. In the way that we give quarterbacks or point guards credit for wins, we often attribute the success of an NBA team’s defense to its center. He’s the quarterback of the defense. Maybe he’s like the middle linebacker then. If that’s the case, Bogut has been the Bucks version of Ray Lewis over the past two seasons.
When healthy, he’s blocked shots, rotated and taken charges as well as any center in the league not named Dwight Howard. There are numbers to back that up too. We see the big block numbers and the impressive charge totals and we can see that he’s doing things very few centers in the league do very plainly.
The numbers don’t paint such a clear picture when it comes to Luc Mbah a Moute.
He doesn’t have big block or steal numbers. He’s more like a corner back that doesn’t get thrown at. Those guys don’t pile up interception totals, but the guy they were covering all game ended up with just two catches for 17 yards. There isn’t a statistical category that makes it plain for us to see how much Mbah a Moute matters, so he doesn’t get quite as much credit for Milwaukee’s defensive success over the past few seasons, even if he is acknowledged across the league as a standout perimeter defender. The perimeter defender is viewed as a one-on-one stopper, not as someone who brings his teammates to a higher level defensively.
But that Bogut and Mbah a Moute tag team absolutely drags everyone on the Bucks up a couple of notches on the defensive side.
If you only have been watching Bucks games this season, you’re certainly aware of the three-point shot, but you may not have known how quickly it can turn a game around.
Now you know.
The simple way to explain Milwaukee’s improbable comeback from down 11 points to begin the fourth quarter is like this: they got hot. Hot enough to outscore the Atlanta Hawks by 19 points in the fourth quarter on their way to a 98-90 victory in Milwaukee Wednesday night.
It started with Carlos Delfino. Having struggled miserably in his first three games back from injury, some were calling for reduced minutes, or at least reduced shots for Delfino. At least until he started making shots again. Things can turn quickly in basketball though and Delfino appeared to have found his form early Wednesday night. Delfino had made two of four threes heading into the fourth quarter. He then hit another on Milwaukee’s first possession of the fourth quarter to cut Atlanta’s lead to eight and by the time he made his third and final three in the period, he was putting the Bucks up five.
He didn’t do it all by himself though.
Former D-Leaguer Garrett Temple sprinkled in a pair of timely threes and Earl Boykins went on one of his patented shot-making sprees to key a Bucks offense that had been lifeless throughout the game. Defensively the Bucks kept after the Hawks and Atlanta did little to put pressure back onto a surging Milwaukee team. The Hawks had been moving the ball well enough to get good looks and got solid play inside from Al Horford for three quarters. But when things fell apart in the fourth quarter, the team started relying on Josh Smith jump-shots to get them back into the game. Predictably, that failed miserably.
And on every miss the Bucks had a little more energy and countered with the plays they needed to make.
We’ve been over this a time or two. Dooling: defense. Bibby: offense. Fortunately for Milwaukee, Dooling’s a better offensive player than Bibby is a defensive player. Especially lately. Dooling’s connected on 43.2% of his threes this month and 41.6% of his shots overall. Injuries to Brandon Jennings and John Salmons have forced Dooling into a much bigger role over the past month and a half and for the most part, he’s responded well. Defensively there are some players he matches up with better than others, but he’s always competitive at that end. Earlier in the season his shooting was an adventure, but he’s normalized over the past month. Dooling’s had plenty of criticism come his way this season, but he’s been more than adequate as Milwaukee’s number two point guard.
UPDATE: Tonight’s game has been postponed due to weather conditions in Atlanta. It will be made up March 15th. Tomorrow’s Bucks game at home against San Antonio will be played as scheduled.
Dooling has far more freedom to impact games than Bibby. It seems as though if it were practical, Atlanta would replace their starting point guard with some sort of machine that never ventured inside of the arc and only shot 3-pointers. Milwaukee’s point guards, on the contrary, are heavily involved with the Bucks offense and have a significant hand in figuring who is getting what shots. Dooling has only twice had fewer than five assists since stepping in for the injured Brandon Jennings. I wouldn’t expect Tuesday night to differ any for him. In the last meeting between these teams, Dooling had 15 points and nine assists.
At any level of basketball, superior talent and athletic ability does not always win out. At some levels it does, grade school, middle school and high school come to mind, but this is the NBA you’re reading about. If gathering athleticism were all it took to win games, the league would look drastically different. It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the physical edge though. In terms of athletic ability, their was a significant difference between the Bucks and Hawks Monday night.
Those glaring differences were evident late in the second quarter. Milwaukee’s unit of Andrew Bogut, Jon Brockman, John Salmons, Earl Boykins and Keyon Dooling repeatedly looked to make entry passes or get open on cuts but found Hawks defenders poking away passes and staying with them. In particular, Josh Smith’s long reach and incredible jumping skill seemed paired with a rare high motor for him Monday night. When he and his Hawk teammates are tuned in against a Bucks lineup that physically isn’t capable of the same feats, things can look pretty ugly for extended stretches.
At no point though, was the Hawks athletic superiority more on display than with 9:22 left in the game. Milwaukee hadn’t had a lot to get excited about Monday, but after a Bogut hook shot cut Atlanta’s lead to eight, Boykins corralled an errant pass from Jeff Teague and found Brockman streaking down the court. Brockman caught the pass in the paint and all that was left for Milwaukee’s backup center was make a layup. Brockman stopped, gathered and began his ascent. But Jeff Teague was not wasting his time pouting over a bad pass. Teauge had sprinted down the court and rose up to block Brockman’s layup. Atlanta recovered the loose ball, converted on the other end and rarely saw their lead slip under 10 the rest of the way.
It was one of those nights when Milwaukee’s opposition appeared quicker to every loose ball, but it was also one of those nights when the opposition was jumping higher and running faster too. Add all of that up and it was another one of those nights in which the Bucks come out on the losing end.
Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter. Then become a fan on Facebook (in the sidebar).
