Milwaukee Bucks: 3 observations from Game One loss
By Kenny Jilek
Substitutions and Lineups
Sometimes stubbornness is an endearing trait, and sometimes it’s just extremely frustrating. Coach Budenholzer refuses to tighten his rotations and include fewer bench players in the playoffs. The concerning part is that he did the same thing in Atlanta with the Hawks and in last season’s playoffs with the Bucks.
For me, this is the most worrying part of the game one loss. Defense on Jimmy Butler can be improved by the players on the court, guys can shoot the ball better, and turnovers can be cleaned up, but Budenholzer’s love of having a deep bench will probably not be going away any time soon.
Playing a guy like Connaughton who was basically a non-factor, going 1-5 from the field and 0-3 on threes, for 25 minutes makes absolutely no sense. He had six rebounds tonight, but they were all on the defensive end and usually, his rebounds are him jumping over his teammates, not his opponents, to grab the board. This is especially true when Wesley Matthews, who plays essentially the same position as Connaughton, played just 24 minutes.
Matthews was a bright spot for the Milwaukee Bucks, knocking down two of his three attempts from long range, recording two blocks, and playing all around solid defense on Jimmy Butler all night. It’s a head-scratcher for sure thinking about why he would play fewer minutes than Connaughton, and I don’t expect this to change much in the coming games.
Mike Budenholzer has developed a phenomenal reputation in the regular season as one of the best at getting his team to win games while conserving his star players’ energy by not playing them tons of minutes. However, he has never been able to have the playoff success that should go with seasons he’s put together and things like that are the reason why.