Star players issuing ominous warnings on the one hand, team meetings on the other.
Critical vets are counted on to hit the floor running on one hand, MVPs are unreliable on the other.
A coach fined for criticizing referees after they missed game-changing calls in Milwaukee, a player put his hands on media in the locker room in Philadelphia.
It’s really hard to be out of the play-in tournament mix in the Eastern Conference, but the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers are making it look really easy in the opening month of the NBA season.
Both teams were expected to challenge the Boston Celtics, but instead of dominating a weak conference, they are bringing up the rear – with a combined 7-20 record.
The Bucks escaped by the skin of their chin-chin-chin on Monday when Houston’s Alperen Sengun couldn’t catch a pass cleanly after Giannis Antetokounmpo left him wide open under the rim, and time expired to give the Bucks a win they felt good about . just because they were so desperate.
Sengun might have been spooked because Antetokounmpo blocked his high-arching floater on the previous possession, which led to Damian Lillard splitting the defense for an acrobatic layup that gave the Bucks the lead with 3.9 seconds left.
That was supposed to be the formula for Bucks wins this season — and last season, if we’re being honest. Antetokounmpo making these game-saving, do-it-alls and Lillard using his veteran know-how and big-game experience to push the Bucks over the top when it counts.
It wasn’t like that this year, at least not yet. Lillard missed time with a concussion and Monday was his return, while Khris Middleton is still recovering from double ankle surgery. The Bucks can only wish for the kind of things that led them to fire Adrian Griffin after a 30-13 mark, because at least the shooting was connected to many of the processes and not necessarily an eye-popping record.
They didn’t age overnight, but the edges are getting thinner and thinner as you look around. Brook Lopez, who seems to have had four different careers at this point, is 36. Lillard is 34, Taurean Prince is 30, Antetokounmpo will be 30 in a few weeks and Bobby Portis will be 30 before the All-Star break. Middleton, who the Bucks are really counting on here, is 33 years old with a slew of surgical procedures on his jacket.
Youth are served until now. Orlando, Cleveland and even Detroit are in the top six, mostly due to having the horses that can make Milwaukee uncomfortable. Lillard is hunted in the pick-and-roll on defense, and it’s not like age is catching up to him on the other end. He’s performing better than last season, when he couldn’t be in great shape due to his pending trade from Portland — and he’s always struggled defensively, especially lately because of his size and age.
The Bucks don’t have the athletes to keep up, and counting on Antetokounmpo to clean up all the mess defensively will only leave him out of mind and body before too long. Losing eight of nine after a season-opening win against Philadelphia was something he hadn’t experienced since his third season, when the Bucks had a 3-10 stretch to close the 2015-16 season. That was a year the Bucks thought their future was in the hands of Jabari Parker, not Antetokounmpo.
Try telling Doc Rivers he’ll get some much-needed recovery Monday against Houston after a terrible miss in Charlotte when Antetokounmpo was called for a foul on LaMelo Ball in the waning seconds of a loss, sending Ball to the line for crucial free throws when it. it was clear Ball tripped over his own feet — you’d probably have to duck because a shoe or a flying object would be headed your way if you dared to point at Rivers. replay of Antetokounmpo’s foot being out of bounds following his block on Sengun.
It’s because despite the overwhelming narrative that 82 games means nothing, every game is precious to the Bucks, and losing any more ground feels like death by a thousand cuts.
But that’s far better than the turmoil in Philadelphia, the franchise that wrote, licensed and published the book titled, “The regular season means nothing, just ask us.”
Maybe that’s what Nick Nurse discussed in the locker room with his players an hour after Monday’s loss to the Miami Heat, when usually coaches talk to the media 10 minutes after the buzzer.
Instead, the night drowned before the doors to the locker room were opened for a team meeting – surely a sign problem is behind those walls. A 19-point, second-quarter lead turned into a 17-point loss in Miami, dropping Philadelphia’s record to a conference-worst 2-11 — and that was with Joel Embiid and Paul George in uniform against a Heat team that is far from vintage. .
Their injuries this season mean the struggles aren’t unexpected, but New York and Orlando are also dealing with tilts for various reasons — the Knicks haven’t figured out how to work around Karl-Anthony Towns’ defensive weaknesses, and the Magic have had to deal with the unexpected Paolo Banchero’s injury, but they adapt by staying above water, winning enough to prevent panic.
That is not the case in Philadelphia.
“I mean, we can only ever find out until we play another game,” Nurse said of whether the team meeting would have an impact. “We can only find out until we start practice and see what the level of focus and energy is, and then when we get to the next game. But, yeah, I think they were very attentive and very communicative.”
Jared McCain is a revelation, looking every bit like a draft steal and rookie of the year candidate, but that’s the only good news so far. Tyrese Maxey — who led the league in minutes per game (39.7) before predictably injuring his right hamstring two weeks ago — carried the load with Embiid sidelined since training camp and George suffering a hyperextended knee in the preseason.
Their offense has been terrible, and they can’t generate easy shots, extra possessions or get out on the break. Their field goal percentage is last, last in efficiency, second to last from the 3-point line, second to last in rebounding and while their defense was surprisingly decent (17th), the offense was too anemic to stay competitive.
George is shooting 40 percent in seven games and Maxey has been overloaded, taking 24 shots at just 41 percent.
Embiid is such a big piece to everything Philadelphia does, it’s hard to completely write them off, especially considering the 76ers are just four games out of sixth place. But it seems difficult for a franchise to change course midstream when their stated goal of training camp was to slow down this entire process in order to have Embiid healthy enough to be ready for a long playoff run.
At this point, the process they use prepares them to run at Cooper Flagg in the lottery. Realistically, though, we won’t have the full picture until Embiid starts playing regularly — he previously stated he wouldn’t play both ends of back-to-back games — and Maxey returns.
It seems early enough to come back and be successful, but it looks like time is running out fast for both franchises – and no one could have expected this two months ago.
