5 Reasons The Milwaukee Bucks Lost Their 1st Round Series With Toronto
Free Throw Shooting
During the season the Bucks were slightly below average as a free throw shooting team, shooting 76.8 percent on 22.4 attempts per game, both marks ranking between 15 and 20 in the league. Giannis Antetokounmpo lead the team in free throw attempts at 7.7 attempts per game, hitting 77 percent of those shots.
In their playoff series against the Raptors, below-average became an unattainable goal, as Milwaukee struggled in that area of the game more than any other. With a team whose attempts were already weighted towards larger players (generally worse shooters than guards), that disparity became even more pronounced in the playoffs.
For the postseason the Milwaukee Bucks ranked 15th out of the 16 teams, ahead of just the Oklahoma City Thunder — a team weighed down by a 3-for-21 outing by Andre Roberson, the worst performance by any player in a single playoff series since at least 1964. On the team level, it’s a reasonable conclusion that Milwaukee failed at the line more than any other team.
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In the clinching Game 6, the Bucks attempted 28 free throws, including 18 in the final quarter as they made their dramatic comeback from 25 points down. Yet they made just nine of those 18 free throws, points that may have given them the victory and extended the series.
Part of that free throw inaccuracy can and should be chalked up to sheer fatigue, as the Bucks were flying around the court on defense as they shut down the Raptors at the end of the game. Toronto scored just six points in a 14-minute span that saw the Bucks put up 32 points of their own.
But the Bucks were inconsistent at the line all season, and Antetokounmpo is such a dominant force inside that he needs to improve on his ability to score from the line when teams foul him. For a young team seeking to address weaknesses this will be a key one for them to work on.