NBA Playoffs must-follow storylines: Milwaukee Bucks vs Orlando Magic

Can the Magic make enough threes?

One of the more interesting aspects of ever-evolving NBA defense is that elite defenses like the Milwaukee Bucks have been allowing more attempts from the long line than ever before. For years, it was believed that the best defenses had to be great at limiting 3-point attempts.

Yet this year’s Bucks defense was as elite as can be but allowed a league-high 39.1 attempts per game. From a frequency standpoint, they were only slightly better, conceding the third-highest deep shots as a percentage of total attempts. And opponents were around league average in terms of both shooting percentage and corner three attempts.

Undoubtedly, a portion of the 3-point defense comes from opponents being so far down that they jacked up as many threes as possible.  But, there’s certainly something to the high number of deep attempts allowed.

The Magic, however, isn’t the team best situated to take advantage of that defensive quirk.

Orlando was the fifth-worst shooting team in the league from behind the arc during the regular season and they were below-average in both attempts per game and frequency.

For Orlando to make the series remotely competitive, that will have to change.

Terrence Ross and Evan Fournier are the two most likely Magic players to have a real effect from behind the arc. Both are high-volume shooters and adept at making buckets in waves. If they can make a lot of threes, they can loosen up the dominant Milwaukee defense and provide other opportunities for their teammates.

But perhaps the biggest key comes in the form of Nikola Vucevic.

The Orlando big man has become a solid shooter and his ability to make shots would force rim protectors like Brook Lopez and Giannis to abandon the paint, opening it up for the quick Magic guards to force some scrambling by the Bucks defense.

If the Magic can’t make those shots, though, their path to a competitive series becomes overwhelmingly difficult.