Milwaukee Bucks: 3 burning questions after 3 games against the Nets

Question No. 3 for the Milwaukee Bucks: Are they ever going to get anything from their role players?

In Game 3, the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Brooklyn Nets in spite of the fact that only Giannis and Khris Middleton scored over nine points. This duo combined for 68 points, and their other three starters (P.J. Tucker, Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday) combined for 12 points on 5-of-25 shooting.

Their reserves provided even less, as Bobby Portis, Pat Connaughton and Bryn Forbes combined for six points on 3-of-9 shooting. The Bucks have only one double-digit scorer off the bench in this series, and that was Bryn Forbes with 10 points in a Game 2 that was almost all garbage time as they trailed by as many as 49 points.

The Bucks didn’t trade for Tucker for his offense, but he’s averaging just 3.0 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists in this series. Brook Lopez had a solid Game 1, scoring 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting, but he’s disappeared since then and scored three points on 1-of-7 shooting in Game 3.

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton are splendid players, but they’re not going to come back against the Nets all by themselves. The role players are going to have to step up at some point before this series goes on much longer if the Milwaukee Bucks have any hope of drawing even.