Milwaukee Bucks notebook: Mismatches, Beauchamp minutes, and more

The Milwaukee Bucks finally got into the swing of the regular season with a full slate of games this week.

After playing only two contests in the opening week, they had three days off until they hosted the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night. That gave them three games in the first eight days of the regular season. Following a day off against Brooklyn, Milwaukee was scheduled for three games in four nights, including a back-to-back.

That was a very bizarre scheduling sequence to begin the season with many fans scratching their heads. It would’ve been more evenly spread out in a perfect world. Nonetheless, the Bucks accomplished what they needed to and have a perfect 5-0 record heading into Week 3.

Here are more takeaways from the busy week.

The Milwaukee Bucks were hunting mismatches, MarJon Beauchamp got his first real minutes, elite ball-screen navigation, and more takeaways from last week.

Undefeated

The Bucks are the only undefeated team left in the NBA at 5-0. They beat a pair of one-loss teams (at the time) on Friday (the New York Knicks) and Saturday (the Atlanta Hawks). Their victory over the Nets was their other one this week. The Cleveland Cavaliers is the only one-loss team remaining in the Eastern Conference with the Portland Trail Blazers (5-1) and Phoenix Suns (4-1) atop the Western Conference standings.

Hunting Trae Young

Mike Budenholzer usually saves his matchup-specific gameplans for the postseason, but we’ve seen bits and pieces of that in the first couple of weeks. A great example is when the Bucks’ mercilessly attacked Trae Young on Saturday night.

With Young lighting it up on offense, Milwaukee needed to find a way to exploit his major weaknesses at the other end of the court. They often did this by using the man he was guarding as the ball-screener and forcing him to engage directly in on-ball defense.

Young is matched up with Wes Matthews on this play, but Matthews brings him directly into the action and sets a pick on Jrue Holiday’s man. Holiday comes off the screen and immediately engages Young near the elbow. This puts the rest of the Hawks’ defense on high alert, as they understand their point guard’s defensive limitations. Holiday spins right by him like a breeze in the wind, sucks in three Hawks’ defenders and whips the pass to a wide-open Brook Lopez in the corner. Yak Yak.

The Bucks had tremendous success attacking this mismatch in the first half. Their offense flowed as a result. We’ll see if Budenholzer continues to implement mismatching hunting in this manner.

MarJon Beauchamp Minutes

Bucks’ rookie first-round pick got the first real action of his NBA career. Yes, he played 2 minutes and 14 seconds against the Houston Rockets, but that was garbage time cleanup. He was inserted into the rotation for nearly seven consecutive minutes in the second quarter against the Hawks.

Beauchamp entered and immediately turned the ball over. He had another travel he was called for toward the end of his run. The good news is he knocked down a corner three that barely tickled the net. In between those events, he was relegated to standing on the perimeter (mostly in the corners) and spacing the floor. The Bucks weren’t very interested in engaging him on that end.

He was active on the defensive end. He had a couple of nice shot contests that forced misses. That’s where he’s going to make his money in the NBA. In one instance, he turned and watched an opponent’s shot, allowing his man to slither around him and grab the offensive rebound.

Ball-Screen Navigation

Jevon Carter and Jrue Holiday are masters of the ball screen. By that I mean, they refuse to be screened. One way to play successful pick-and-roll defense is to avoid getting screened altogether. Why don’t more teams employ this strategy?

Carter and Holiday fight over, fight through, flash under, stiff-arm potential screeners, spin around them, spin back over them, and whatever else they need to do to navigate picks. I’m tired typing all of that out. The Bucks have the NBA’s best defensive rating and lowest opponent effective field goal percentage due largely to Carter and Holiday’s ball-screen navigation. It all begins at the point of attack.

Free Throw Rate

When you think of the Bucks, you might think of a team that gets to the free throw line a ton. How can they not? Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most physically dominant player in the NBA and imposes his will on opposing teams.

The truth is the Bucks have never been great at getting to the line. Other than Antetokounmpo, they don’t have a player who consistently draws shooting fouls. Of the 120 free throws the Bucks have shot as a team this year, Antetokounmpo has taken 62 of them. As a team, they rank 25th in free throw rate according to Cleaning the Glass.

What’s Next?

The Bucks continue their busy schedule with four games next week. They tip off on Monday with a home contest against the Detroit Pistons before hosting them again on Wednesday. Their six-game home stand ends with a quick road trip on Friday to play the Minnesota Timberwolves before sprinting back to Milwaukee to play the Oklahoma City Thunder the very next day.