When the Milwaukee Bucks first emerged as one of basketball’s best teams, their identity was anchored on the defensive end and they prided themselves in getting stops. In recent years, though, they’ve moved away from that, instead becoming more offensively orientated. Part of the reason behind the switch is loss of personnel. Guys like Jrue Holiday, Eric Bledsoe, and Wesley Matthews were cornerstones of Milwaukee’s defense and none of them are still with the team. The other big reason that the Bucks don’t have the same defensive magic is a lack of effort. The players who are currently on the team simply just care less than the old guard did. The two biggest culprits of this crime are Damian Lillard and Bobby Portis. Neither have the reputation or history of being a good defender, but things have looked especially bad for them at times as the rest of the team’s defense isn’t good enough to hide them. If Milwaukee wants to win another championship, they need their players to start giving a crap about defense, and that culture shift starts with locker room leaders like Lillard and Portis.
Thankfully, in recent games, we’ve seen some really positive signs from those two. In what was a huge game against Boston last week, Lillard really seemed to be trying his best out there. Let’s dig into the tape.
Here, we see reigning Finals MVP Jaylen Brown force the Bucks to switch Lillard onto him, hoping for some easy pickings. Instead, Lillard does an excellent job of flipping his hips, containing the ball, and forcing Brown to take a really tough pullup. Brown cashes in on it, but sometimes all you can do against superstars is make them earn their buckets and he certainly had to earn this one.
On this play, Lillard’s man goes to set a screen for early Sixth Man of the Year favorite Payton Pritchard. Knowing that Pritchard is on fire this year and can’t be allowed to get an easy look from outside, Lillard steps up to the level of the screen and aggressively switches, forcing a brick. Switching is an extremely common coverage in today’s NBA but it’s often botched because players aren’t quick and assertive enough in stepping up to switch. Dame didn’t make that mistake here.
Finally, watch here as the Celtics once again hunt Dame, this time by forcing him to guard the much bigger Al Horford. Lillard does a solid job of fronting the post-up, making the catch tough for the big fella. He then walls up and when Horford turns around to launch a hook shot, he quickly swipes down and gets the steal.
Overall, what we saw from Damian Lillard in Boston was the type of defensive effort we should see from him every night. His stature won’t ever allow him to be elite on D, but players like Darius Garland have proven that it’s possible for little guards to not be total weak links if they work hard. Dame was far from a weak link in Beantown.
Moving on now to Bobby Portis, it’s safe to say he had one of his best defensive outings as a Buck against the Nets last game. He finished with three blocks and two turnovers forced and came up huge with the biggest defensive play of the game late in the fourth. Roll the tape.
This play starts with Portis quickly recovering to the dunker spot and making a real rim protector block. Jalen Wilson then grabs the board and takes the ball back out to the perimeter before blowing by Portis (an unfortunate trend for the fan favorite). When Brook Lopez slides in to help on the drive, Portis makes the right rotation and gets a good contest on the Claxton floater. The Bucks’ backup big has struggled with help D this year so this is what you want to see from him more often.
Next, an awesome on-ball stand against Cam Johnson. Portis gets his puppies movin’ and guards with his feet instead of his hands, ultimately blocking off Johnson’s driving avenue. Johnson, usually a heady decision maker, panics and makes an errant pass. Clamps!
Finally, the aforementioned clutch stop. Rather than getting dusted by a faster player like usual, Portis is able to stick with Schroder and block his floater. This was a huge momentum play for Milwaukee and one that will go down as one of vet’s best of the season.
Bottom line: the defensive flashes we’ve seen from Damian Lillard and Bobby Portis recently are super encouraging. If they can keep operating at this level or even continue to improve, it’ll add massively to Milwaukee’s playoff chances.
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