Milwaukee vs. Memphis: Sloppy Play Dooms Bucks in Finale

I for one am glad Milwaukee’s regular season restart is complete...the playoffs cannot come soon enough.

The Bucks seeding game finale was pretty much doomed from the start - Milwaukee was missing everything...while Memphis was hitting everything. The Bucks’s defensive effort was very lackadaisical for the majority of the defeat. Ending with 39.4/31.7/65.2 shooting splits won’t help either!

Three Observations

It was encouraging to see Donte DiVincenzo find a rhythm offensively and hit some jump shots. He has struggled mightily since the season restarted and it looked like he lost the edge he was playing with before COVID-19 halted the NBA season. Who knows? Maybe ending the finale on a “high” might be all he needs to get going again. Donte finished with 17 points on 7-of-13 shots while adding three makes from three-point territory. The Bucks are going to need big things from him next week when the playoffs begin...

Is there anything more annoying than getting torched by Dillion Brooks and Jonas Valanciunas? Brooks has not had the best shooting performances since the bubble began - but still finished with 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting and was knocking down everything. Valanciunas finished with a triple-double (26, 19, 12) and it looked like the days where he was on the Raptors and would constantly kill the Bucks. Granted, the Bucks played with their C- team yesterday...but it was still frustrating to watch those guys toss in everything they threw at the basket.

Eric Bledsoe :( He is rusty from the layoff and delayed training due to a positive COVID-19 test, but his play yesterday in the loss was very discouraging. He has had some moments, mostly defensively, where it looks like he gained his step back...but certainly not offensively. He finished the loss with three points on 1-of-8 shooting in 20 minutes. The Bucks do play the Orlando Magic in the first round, so that will be great practice for Bledsoe to get back into game speed.

Bonus Bucks

• Brook Lopez did his part, finishing with 19 points.
• Khris Middleton will not finish with a 50/40/90 season, but bigger things will be accomplished. He played 21 minutes and scored 14 points.
• I can’t wait until D.J. Wilson is off the roster.
• I like how Frank Mason III plays, always fast and looking to push the tempo. He finished his regular season with an 18 points, eight assist performance.