The Milwaukee Bucks made changes this season in order to be better prepared for the playoffs.
Those two years in which the Bucks had the best record in the league were about dominance at the rim.
The final tally was 46-14, and that was with three of the Hawks’ seven restricted-area buckets coming in the garbage-time fourth quarter.
But the low defender is also serving the same purpose by sinking off his man in the corner and “tagging” Capela’s roll to the rim.
In that initial Young-Capela pick-and-roll in Game 2, Holiday was able to both prevent the lob and recover out to block John Collin’s corner 3.
One way to make it more difficult to tag the roll man is running a pick-and-roll from the side of the floor with an empty corner.
The Hawks’ defensive issues in Game 2 started with their offense, where 14 of their 20 turnovers were live balls.
In the half-court, the Hawks just didn’t do what the Bucks did, which was prioritize rim protection and help off shooters if that’s what it takes.
Bringing more help to Antetokounmpo will open some other things up, but the Bucks have shot just 30.9% from 3-point range in the playoffs.
The Hawks should be prepared for the Bucks to suffocate more drives in Game 3 on Sunday .
The Bucks will switch those, but if Collins can get underneath Young’s defender, he can roll all the way to the rim or draw help and kick to an open shooter.
Young could also reject screens or isolate, so that he’s not driving into the same kind of crowd.
On the other end of the floor, Atlanta will need to build a stronger wall against Antetokounmpo to limit his shots at the rim.
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