Milwaukee Bucks: Brook Lopez Heating Up for the Playoffs

With the NBA playoffs about to begin, offensively, the Milwaukee Bucks are getting a big boost as Brook Lopez’s shooting is heating up.

If we rewind to last season, the addition of Brook Lopez provided the Milwaukee Bucks with a big boost on the defensive side of the court, but also on the offensive side where he had a career year from 3. Overall, Lopez hit 45.2 percent of his field goals, shot 36.5 percent from deep, and averaged 12.5 points with nearly five rebounds per game.

Unfortunately, when the playoffs rolled around, we saw Lopez – and several other members of this Bucks team – struggle from deep. In 15 playoff games, he would make just 29.3 percent of his shots from 3, and ultimately as a team, Milwaukee’s inability to knock down the 3-pointer led to their defeat in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Yet even as the new season began, Lopez’s shooting continued to look like that from the 2018-2019 playoffs, rather than his performances from the regular season. Prior to play restarting in the bubble, Brook was shooting just 29.6 percent from 3, and 42.7 percent overall with 11 points and 4.5 rebounds over 26.6 minutes per game.

Obviously, Lopez hitting more shots is good for the Milwaukee Bucks’ offense, but what it also does is it creates more space in the middle for Giannis Antetokounmpo and his teammates to work. While no one from the Bucks is down in the paint, the video below shows the added space that is created when opponents are worried about Lopez from 3.

This space will lead to more drive opportunities, which will hopefully lead to easier buckets at the rim, or if the defense closes, the chance to find someone wide-open for 3.

The Bucks’ experience in the bubble up to this point has been a bit odd, to say the least. We saw them blow late leads, lose to the Brooklyn Nets, and Giannis was even ejected and eventually suspended for the final regular-season game. But some good news is that Lopez appears to be heating up just in time for the playoffs.

During his time in the bubble, Lopez would average 27.8 minutes per game – about a minute more than his season average – and he shot lights out from deep, hitting 43.9 percent of those shots on nearly six attempts per game. He also saw his overall field goal percentage jump to 48 percent, and he’s averaged 20.4 points per game with 5.7 rebounds—all significantly better than where he’s been for most of the season.

While I don’t expect Lopez to continue hitting shots at his current rate, if he can hang around the 36-37 percent mark from 3 as he did last season, he undoubtedly is going to give this Milwaukee offense a significant boost.

Although the Milwaukee Bucks have Giannis and they were the best team in the NBA for the second straight season, one big question that they have to answer in the playoffs is, can they shoot the ball efficiently enough from deep? Well, if Brook continues to play at this level and regains his old form, that’s certainly a big step in the right direction.