The Milwaukee Bucks got taken down by the Miami Heat in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series on Monday evening. While it was not the kind of emphatic, one-sided defeat that leads to the losing team making gigantic changes — Miami won, 115-104 — the Bucks should probably figure out a better plan of attack with regards to Jimmy Butler. The All-Star wing was magnificent, dropping a playoff career-high 40 points and relentlessly going at the Bucks defense, especially down the stretch.
One thing that Milwaukee decidedly did not do was use Giannis Antetokounmpo to man up Butler. According to NBA.com’s tracking data, the Defensive Player of the Year spent 38 seconds checking Butler in Game 1, while Wesley Matthews and Khris Middleton spent the most time defending him. It led to a whole lot of people asking why Antetokounmpo doesn’t just take Butler on that end of the floor.
When asked about whether he asked to take Butler on in his media availability after the game, Antetokounmpo said no, then said he’d do whatever Mike Budenholzer asked of him.
Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on whether he asked to switch onto Heat’s Jimmy Butler during late-game explosion: “To guard him? No, I didn’t. Why would you ask that? I’ll do whatever coach wants me to do.” pic.twitter.com/IFpR5pk1s1
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) September 1, 2020
One day later and Budenholzer revealed that Antetokounmpo taking on this assignment is something that is on the table, noting that he does believe the team needs to be better defensively against him and one of his Miami teammates, Goran Dragic, who scored 27 points in Game 1.
Mike Budenholzer, on Giannis potentially guarding Jimmy Butler, "It's certainly a consideration and discussion."
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 1, 2020
Mike Budenholzer, "Certainly I think we can be better on Jimmy Butler." Adds, "I think being better on both Butler and Dragic is probably where it starts."
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 1, 2020
That sentiment was shared by Middleton, who said that Milwaukee has to defend Butler better as a five-man unit, because letting him play one-on-one is a recipe for disaster.
Khris Middleton, on stopping Jimmy Butler, "He's a great one-on-one player, and we allowed him to play one-on-one." Said team defense has to be better.
— Ira Winderman (@IraHeatBeat) September 1, 2020
Of course, while the idea of having Antetokounmpo and Butler battle is a fascinating one, there are some inherent issues with it for Milwaukee, mainly that they’ve been able to beat teams this year by making it brutally hard to score at the rim, something that is possible in large part because they have Antetokounmpo patrolling that area of the court. The Bucks are also a team that believe in their system, and seeing as how they were the best team in the league this year, it makes sense they would not want to do a total overhaul of how they defend so Antetokounmpo can guard one player.
Having said this, a major issue that led to Milwaukee’s departure last year was how something the other team did — in this case, Toronto putting Kawhi Leonard on Antetokounmpo — threw them out of sorts and they struggled to respond en route to losing four games in a row. If Butler keeps this up, it will be fascinating to see if the Bucks do decide to play the Antetokounmpo card, even if it would require moving him a little farther away from the basket.
