Milwaukee Bucks: 3 takeaways from Game 3 win vs. Celtics
By Ananth Para
3. The Milwaukee Bucks have a decision to make
Confession time: Eric Bledsoe cannot be a starting point guard on an NBA team with championship aspirations.
Now, if you were just looking at his playoff statistics you may disagree, but watching Eric Bledsoe can be an eyesore. More often than not Bledsoe finds himself settling for contested jumpers and succumbs to a wide-spreading disease amongst guards; tunnel vision.
Rather than acting as a cog in the Bucks offense, Bledsoe spent the majority of the first half trying to will himself to score.
Midway through the second quarter as Bledsoe picked up his third foul, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer turned to veteran George Hill to steer the ship while his starting point guard was relegated to the bench and almost instantaneously, the tide of the game shifted towards the Bucks favor.
Hill made it an initiative to get pending free agent Khris Middleton to become the focal point of the offensive attack in the second quarter, leading to in transition 3s from an array of players, most notably Nikola Mirotic and Pat Connaughton.
With the offense firing on all cylinders going into halftime, Hill provided the spark that the reeling Bucks needed in order to test the Celtics on their home floor.
Bud on George Hill: It's hard to quantify what experience means, but it's clear his experience in a ton of big games makes a difference. He's played well, tonight on the road in this environment is a prime example of that.
— Keith Smith (@KeithSmithNBA) May 4, 2019
It should be noted that this is not a one-time occurrence where Hill has outplayed Bledsoe, as he has thoroughly outplayed him throughout this series and sooner rather than later will coach Budenholzer be faced with the decision to put the ultra-talented point guard on the bench for the more natural fitting Hill.