Bucks ease early season concerns, launch into NBA Cup Round of 16 with dominant win over Pistons (Video)

DETROIT — The Milwaukee Bucks’ top executives insist there was no panic or rush to call the fire department after a dreadful and alarming 2-8 start.

Well, at least two of them say so.

“Like, no. Zero,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers told Yahoo Sports Tuesday night. “Our panic meter and everyone here was reading zero and that’s where it’s always been.”

“Frustration, but not panic,” Bucks guard Damian Lillard said. “We had a good camp. Everyone arrived in good shape. We were ready, but it didn’t click right away. There was frustration but there was no worry.

The most important man in the Bucks organization, which is why both decorated men reside in Wisconsin and not elsewhere, has a unique perspective on the situation.

“People panicked. I know they did it,” Giannis Antetokounmpo told Yahoo Sports with a big smile that somewhat belies the severity of the Bucks’ situation a few weeks ago. “That’s what I’m saying, people panicked. Me? Brace your back, lift a little more weight, pull down, drive your lats forward. Tie your shoes and let’s go. We are here now.

“Here” advances to the round of 16 of the NBA Cup with a convincing 128-107 victory over the previously undefeated Detroit Pistons in the Cup. Here are two games above .500 for the first time this season.

Here’s a steady field, dampening the noise, finding reliability among some role players and launching 3-point shots at the sharpest rate over the past three weeks. The Bucks aren’t in comparable volume to the Celtics, but they are closer than expected. (The Celtics made three more per game than the Bucks during this 9-1 Bucks streak.)

They stormed into this position, one game away from heading to Las Vegas for the second year in a row, by relying on what makes sense, led by the maturity of their leaders. Tuesday night, they entered Detroit knowing that this was probably the biggest game this franchise has played in the last five years.

For the Pistons, it was a chance to become relevant after years of blatant defeat and misdirection. For the Bucks, the goal is still June, but it’s a chance to reintroduce themselves — not just as a former champion worthy of respect, but as a reinvented team ready to take a long, steady climb.

“They gave us a tournament, and we want to win it, and we said that from the beginning,” Rivers said.

Unsurprisingly to anyone with a sense of realism, the Bucks jumped out early and gave the Pistons no life. At one point, the Bucks had a shooting split of 71-69-74 in the third quarter while leading by 26 points – with Taurean Prince, Bobby Portis, Gary Trent Jr. and AJ Green throwing at will (14 combined shots to 3 points).

It was Lillard who was the vocal leader, and Antetokounmpo asserting himself with an effective, impactful but forceless performance.

“Lady, Lady, Lady, again. Lady, again,” Antetokounmpo said during the postgame media scrum. “I heard it several times in the third quarter: ‘This is where we assert ourselves. This is where we put the teams. Stay locked in. When your leader and the guy who has the ball most of the time and continues to set the tone and continues to tell us to play the right way, you have to follow his lead.

Lillard scored 12 of his 27 points in the first quarter, hitting five triples – which totals 18 in his last three games. This makes tracking easier.

“We struggled to find answers, like ‘what should we do?’ “We had to compete harder collectively, we had to be more on the defensive end and trust what we were doing,” Lillard said. “Play more together, give up at certain moments so that our attack has more quality possessions. And now we are seeing success.

That happened because Rivers deployed Green and Andre Jackson Jr. while awaiting the season debut of Khris Middleton, who underwent double ankle surgery this offseason. Green is a dead-eye shooter (48 percent from 3 on 92 attempts) while Jackson is more defensive-minded, although Rivers wishes he used his springy athleticism more on the offensive end.

But their short- and long-term success relies on chemistry — and, more importantly, the health of the two cornerstones, Antetokounmpo and Lillard. Middleton will certainly be useful, but the Bucks are expected to deliberately ensure he’s ready for the long haul.

“It takes time,” Lillard told Yahoo Sports. “And we had a lot of success (in the regular season) last year. You know, people don’t want to talk about that. We were seeded all year, injuries. We had injuries. There was a lot going on and we still managed to have a very good season. »

Antetokounmpo’s aforementioned comments suggest he’s following Lillard. The fantasy of the two involved in the same action has finally come to fruition, with Antetokounmpo as a handler and Lillard reversing the pick-and-roll, appearing as a shooter.

“But I think for him and I, you know, it took a while,” Lillard said. “Now our communication is different. Our understanding of each other is different, you know, working in partnership and the situations are different, and that’s normal, you know, it takes time.

Antetokounmpo had a resounding dunk on his 10 field goals, where he made his first nine. But many of them came from the mid-range. Comfortable jump shots that saved his worn body from the wear and tear that kept him from being at full strength in the playoffs – he missed the entire first-round series against Indiana and played only three of five Bucks games in their shocking first-round loss to Miami in 2023.

He said he made 39 mid-range jumpers last season in 73 games, while already surpassing that number, hitting 40 in 16 games.

“I’m changing my game,” Antetokounmpo told reporters. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. You take a lot of hits, and now, like my body today, I feel great today. I feel like I haven’t been touched.