Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had an excellent week and are headed into an even better weekend.
I’ve seen some hemming and hawing online about the Milwaukee Bucks this week.
When you zoom in, you can totally understand why. The Bucks just lost two straight games to the Lakers and Pelicans. Specifically, with the Lakers game, Milwaukee blew a 19-point fourth-quarter lead that looked insurmountable until it wasn’t.
Even when you zoom out, things can look concerning. Looking at raw win-loss totals, the Bucks just don’t seem better under Doc Rivers than they were under Adrian Griffin. Griffin was 30-13 with Milwaukee. After losing two straight, the Bucks are now 14-13 with Rivers. That’s much closer to .500 than anyone expected this team to be.
While that might be mildly concerning, there’s plenty of reason not to worry about this.
You can certainly base your concern on the raw win totals, but I don’t think that tells the full story with the Bucks. First, you’ve got to remember that when Rivers first took the job the Bucks started 1-5 through six games. You don’t just throw those games out, but considering the adjustment period there, it’s understandable that the team didn’t hit the ground running. Since then, that would mean Milwaukee has gone 13-8, which still isn’t world-beating but is much better than 14-13.
The Bucks have improved in some key areas—particularly defensively. Before firing Adrian Griffin, Milwaukee had a 116.8 defensive rating, the ninth-worst mark in the NBA. Since hiring Rivers on January 26, that number is down to 112.4.
One thing that has been concerning is the Bucks’ regression on offense. Overall, it’s floating closer to the middle of the pack since Rivers’ hire. It’s also suffered in crunch time — the Bucks’ net rating in the clutch in the Rivers era is just +3.9. That’s good for 11th best in the league, but it’s nowhere close to elite.
That failure in the clutch allowed Milwaukee to blow that massive lead to the Lakers. Rivers said the loss would be a “good lesson” for Milwaukee, but there’s not much time for the team to learn lessons about each other. The playoffs are in just a few weeks.
Overall, Milwaukee is fine. Yes, some things certainly need to be cleaned up. But the time for doom and gloom is not now. Not even close.
The Celtics’ kryptonite
The Celtics are the best team in the NBA if you ask just about anybody who has been paying attention this season. If you ask Dejounte Murray? Boston is probably just another team.
He’s played a key role in foiling Boston not just once, but twice this week. Our Cory Woodroof has more here:
“The Celtics have now lost two games in Atlanta this week, with Hawks guard Dejounte Murray scoring a career-best 44 points on Thursday night and knocking down (essentially) a buzzer-beater to take down the Celtics in overtime, 123-122.
This falls right after Monday night’s 120-118 victory over Boston, with both games surprisingly won for Atlanta without superstar Trae Young.”
As I wrote in today’s Morning Win, Murray shot the ball 44 times to get 44 points. But the Hawks needed every single one to get this win.
Shoutout to Dejounte Murray, man. Getting the job done.
What I’m watching
This weekend will be choc full of good basketball, but Friday’s Timberwolves-Nuggets game is one of the season’s most important games so far.
A lot is riding on this one. If Minnesota wins it locks up a crucial tiebreaker over Denver with the playoffs just a few weeks away.
Where things stand: The three-team race at the top of the Western Conference is close.
— The Nuggets are the No. 1 seed with Oklahoma City and Minnesota trailing by a half game.
— A win from Minnesota on Friday gives the Timberwolves sole possession of the West’s No. 1 seed.
— The Thunder still come into play depending on the team’s conference record. OKC’s season series with Minnesota is tied.
This is going to be a fun one. You don’t want to miss it.
The timing: Minnesota @ Denver, 9 p.m. ET
Shootaround
— Ime Udoka says the Rockets aren’t more competitive just because Alperen Sengun is out. Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more.
— Here’s a breakdown of where things stand after Glen Taylor pulled the Timberwolves rug from underneath Alex Rodriguez. This will get ugly.
— Bryan Kalbrosky is here with his latest NBA mock draft. It’s still so hard to pinpoint this draft class.
— Prince Grimes has more on Michael Porter Jr. defending Jontay Porter amid an NBA betting investigation. Yikes, man.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for locking in with us today. We’ll chat again next week. Until then! Peace. We out.
— Sykes