Milwaukee Bucks Still Struggling To Break Out Of Slump During Early Stretch Of Season

The 2023-24 Milwaukee Bucks probably aren’t a shoe-in to clinch the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed.

Following their latest loss — a convincing 112-97 defeat at the hands of a young Orlando Magic squad — the Bucks are now 5-4 through nine games. It’s hardly the dominant squad people envisioned when they made the trade for All-Star guard Damian Lillard.

In Milwaukee’s defense, they were 5-2 prior to Lillard’s recent two-game absence due to calf soreness. However, they’ve lost the past two games — including a 54-point outburst from Giannis Antetokounmpo against the Indiana Pacers — without Lillard.

That’s concerning considering this team was the No. 1 seed last year without Lillard. Furthermore, they won 58 games despite Khris Middleton playing just 33 games and the duo of Antetokounmpo and Middleton appearing in just 27 combined games together.

In other words, this Bucks squad has been in a slump since the playoffs when they were upset by the No. 8-seeded Miami Heat — a team that needed two play-in games to clinch a playoff spot — in the first round.

It’s clear that this team’s chemistry — despite featuring many of the same core players from last season — isn’t there yet.

Via Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

“I think just for the most part our camaraderie and chemistry is just not there at all,” Bucks veteran forward Bobby Portis said after the game. “I think it’s kind of obvious on the court. I think that will take a minute. We don’t want it to take too long – but we’ll figure it out here soon, hopefully. We’re just trying to figure out one another.”

This is a Bucks team that has struggled to find cohesion and a defensive identity early on in the season. Entering their matchup against the Magic on Saturday, Milwaukee ranked 25th in the league by allowing 120.2 points per game. Their defensive rating (117.8) ranks 26th in the NBA.

While playing against a below-average offensive team in Orlando — the Magic rank 22nd in points per game and 21st in offensive rating — the Magic looked like a well-oiled machine against Milwaukee’s lackluster defensive unit. Orlando scored 66 points in the first half and had 13 second chance points as a result of nine offensive rebounds compared to Milwaukee’s three second chance points off of one offensive rebound.

First-year head coach Adrian Griffin — who replaced Mike Budenholzer in the offseason — explained why the Bucks are struggling so much when it comes to energy stats such as rebounding. Milwaukee ranks 29th in total rebounds and 26th in defensive rebounding.

“I think it just comes down to I would say, leadership, it starts at the top,” Griffin said after the loss to the Magic. “And we’ve got to keep preaching it, got to keep drilling it and boxing out is a fundamental, but you win or lose games on fundamentals. It’s just an area that we’ve got to continue to improve and find more consistency.”

Perhaps most troubling was that the Magic converted on 30 of their 35 free-throw attempts (85.7%) in comparison to the Bucks’ 12-of-25 free-throw attempts (48.0%). Antetokounmpo was the biggest culprit, going 5-of-12 on his free-throw attempts.

When factoring in his late-game struggles against the Pacers from one game prior — he committed two costly turnovers in the last 1:03 of a game the Bucks had led by 10 points in the fourth quarter — it’s starting to bring up flashbacks of his free throw and late-game struggles in last season’s Game 5 loss to the Heat.

The acquisition of Lillard — one of this generation’s best closers — is obviously supposed to prevent those types of late-game struggles from the Bucks.

“It’s hard because you don’t have your guy you can just give the ball and just like, go to your spot and have him make a play for himself or for the team,” Antetokounmpo said regarding the absence of Lillard. “And a guy that can score. He can score the ball for us. Like, Indiana being up 10 in six minutes to go and we have Dame – we don’t lose that game.

It’s obviously early on in the season and no one is going to dismiss the Bucks over their 5-4 start to the year.

However, when one factors in how the James Harden-less Philadelphia 76ers are 7-1 with one established star on the team and how the 7-2 Boston Celtics look dominant as they lead the league in margin of victory, it is concerning that the Bucks look so lost.

Whether it’s simple fundamentals such as boxing out and grabbing rebounds, playing defense or just making basic free throws, the Bucks can’t seem to do any of those things right.

As the season progresses, Milwaukee will hope that their new $176 million star in Lillard can help cover up some of their glaring woes.

If Lillard can’t do so and the Bucks can’t learn how to get simple fundamentals down, they’ll be playing catch-up with the Sixers and Celtics all season long.