PHILADELPHIA — Wesley Matthews hadn’t taken a shot since the third quarter, but, with the game on the line, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer had him on the floor with 32.9 seconds remaining in the Bucks season opener on Thursday night in Philadelphia.
It had been more than 30 minutes of real-time since Matthews had attempted a shot. But there he stood with his hands ready in the left corner as Giannis Antetokounmpo walked alongside the ball rolling up the floor waiting to start the play Budenholzer had drawn up with the Bucks down two in the game’s closing moment. When he finally picked up the basketball near the half-court circle, Antetokounmpo drove to the opposite side of the floor from Matthews and initiated a dribble handoff with Grayson Allen on the right wing.
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Allen turned the corner against 76ers center Joel Embiid and managed to get into the paint. As Allen got to the lane, Matthews’ defender Tobias Harris tried to reach in and strip the ball away, which was a mistake. Matthews moved up the floor the moment Harris went to help and opened himself up for a catch-and-shoot 3 from the top of the key.
Bang. Matthews knocked down the 3 and gave the Bucks a one-point lead, which ultimately ended up being the game-winning basket in the Bucks’ 90-88 victory.
“Been playing this game for a long time, you just gotta find other ways to stay engaged — on the defensive end, crashing the offensive end, talking, whatever it is to keep you engaged and you live for moments like that,” Matthews said. “From being in the backyard, being in the park, playing by yourself, counting down ‘3, 2, 1’, you dream for that moment on a stage like this. Grayson was able to find me and I was able to make a shot.”
Matthews is no stranger to big shots with the Bucks. Last season, on Christmas Day against the Celtics, Matthews hit a 3 that turned into the game-winning basket as well, so his teammates had no doubt he would be ready for the moment.
“That’s what he does,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said after the game. “Those late game 3s, if the ball gets in Wes’ hands, you’re pretty freaking confident it’s going in. If he hasn’t touched it the whole half, it doesn’t matter. He locks up on defense, does his job and if the ball is in his hands, you know it’s going up and you can pretty much count that.”
While Matthews was undeniably clutch with the massive 3 to give the Bucks the lead, they scored just 90 points in the season opener and still managed to win the game because of a strong performance from their defense.
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“This morning, if you would have told us we were going to score 90 points and we’re going to win the game, I’d probably say, ‘No way,'” Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “But at the end of the day, this is our goal. We want to be one of the best defensive teams and we want to go out there and compete together and we did that tonight.”
At the start of the preseason, Bucks associate head coach Charles Lee — filling in for Budenholzer as he recovered from offseason surgery to his right ankle — told reporters that the Bucks wanted to emphasize defending the 3-point line more aggressively this season.
Since the 2018-19 season when Budenholzer took over in Milwaukee, the Bucks’ defensive scheme has focused heavily on keeping teams away from the rim and forcing opponents to shoot contested floaters in the pick-and-roll. With those non-negotiable focuses, the Bucks often surrendered a high volume of 3-point looks to opponents. Even though they often kept an opponent’s best shooter from getting clean looks, the rest of the roster typically found lightly contested catch-and-shoot looks from 3.
This season, Budenholzer decided that was no longer acceptable and made the change to more aggressively contest opponent’s 3-point looks. The changes did not go well in the preseason as the Bucks surrendered far too many good looks at the rim while trying to make teams less dangerous from distance.
In their regular season opener against the 76ers on Thursday, the Bucks’ defensive shot profile looked much better.
| At The Rim | Mid-Range | 3-Point | |
|---|---|---|---|
Frequency | 28/82 (33%) | 30/82 (39%) | 24/82 (28%) |
Accuracy | 53.6% | 50.0% | 20.8% |
As the game progressed, Sixers guard James Harden (31 points, eight rebounds, nine assists) found a groove from the mid-range. His hot shooting fueled a fourth quarter comeback that allowed the 76ers to momentarily take a lead, but the 76ers were still having a poor night offensively overall. And the Bucks dictating the terms in which the 76ers needed to score had a lot to do with that.
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“He’s a great player,” Antetokounmpo said of Harden postgame. “He wants to get to the paint and he wants to shoot a lot of 3s off the dribble. He got going, but he got going with a lot of tough 2s, a lot of tough floaters, a lot off-the-dribble mid-range, which at the end of the day, that’s what we want. We want the other team to shoot a lot tough 2s, long 2s, a lot of floaters.”
With less help off of shooters, Harden ended up taking 24 shots, which turned out to be the same number of shots the 76ers took as a team from behind the 3-point line. It is worth noting that there is a real possibility that the 76ers’ current personnel might be unable to generate considerable 3-point attempts, but for at least one night, the Bucks successfully executed their new defensive priority and that allowed them to play to their strengths.
The Bucks have always tried to take advantage of their size defensively with Lopez and Antetokounmpo patrolling the paint and that becomes particularly important against Joel Embiid and the 76ers. While most teams don’t have a single player large enough to defend Embiid, the Bucks start two players who can give him problems and Lopez played particularly well against Embiid on Thursday. The 76ers big man made just six of his 21 shot attempts and looked frustrated throughout the game.
“You kind of forget how important he is for our defense,” Antetokounmpo said. “This is my year five with him. You kind of take it for granted. But the games he didn’t play last year, you kind of realize the load you have to carry when Brook is not on the floor. Like me and Bobby (Portis), we had to do everything. We had to take the hits from the big man. We had to box out, rebound, try to block shots. Just having Brook there, a big body, he can help us rebound. He can block shots. He can box out … He’s incredible.”
There aren’t many players on the planet that are big and strong enough to make Embiid look like this around the basket.
“It’s tough because he’s so strong and so athletic,” Lopez said of defending Embiid. “And he moves, he’s so mobile for his size too. That combination makes it tough because you have to fight his power. He’s backing you down and then (you have to) be able to react and get up and try to contest him without fouling. He does a great job of it.”
Even when Embiid managed to move Lopez and put him under the rim with a strong move, Lopez still managed to block a dunk attempt.
“Brook is special,” Matthews said. “He is one of the most underrated players in this league and he has been for a long time. A lot of people don’t understand his unselfishness and what he brings to this team and the role that’s asked of him. You know, Brook is the all-time leading scorer in Nets history. That says something for him to be a floor spacer, a rim protector, to sacrifice himself for the greater of this team. I don’t think he gets enough credit for it.”
By the end of the game, Embiid was far less interested in attacking Lopez at the rim and instead wanted to find a comfortable spot for himself in the mid-range.
Embiid has tremendous touch, which he has used to his advantage over the years, but getting him to attempt this shot in a clutch moment is a huge win for the Bucks. By settling for a jump shot, Embiid didn’t put the Bucks at risk of potentially surrendering free throws in a clutch moment or giving up an open shot to one of his teammates by overhelping. That is a credit to Lopez’ size, strength and overall defensive acumen.
Going forward, the Bucks will need to find a much better offensive rhythm, but winning ugly with a strong defensive performance on the road against one of the Eastern Conference’s top teams, in which the Bucks executed their new defensive priorities, is a strong start to the 2022-23 season.