Notes: Kidd managing shortened playoff rotation
ST. FRANCIS - Every player on the 15-man roster is necessary over the course of an NBA season. That's how it is for every team as they deal with the fatigue and injuries that come with the 82-game grind of the regular season.
But with the playoffs, the stakes get higher and the bench shorter as coaches usually ride their best players in the biggest moments based on the combination of a season's worth of data and gut instinct.
For Milwaukee Bucks coach Jason Kidd, that has meant putting forth a fourth-quarter lineup that included big minutes from Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon and Matthew Dellavedova in each of the first two games of their series with the Toronto Raptors. The teams are tied going to Game 3 at 7 p.m. Thursday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The odd man out on the perimeter has been Tony Snell, who has performed well but has played a total of 15 seconds in the fourth quarter over the first two games.
"I think Delly and Malcolm played well together," Kidd said. "Unfortunately, it's just like the bigs, someone has to sit. Tony hasn't done anything wrong; Tony's playing extremely well for us. It was a call that I felt comfortable with. Again, looking at it, we got the looks that we wanted, they just didn't go down for us. We got some stops to get back in the game.
"You know, it could be Malcolm or it could be Delly sitting and Tony in, but it's about a team. It’s not built around one guy. Those guys that were in, we got the looks that we wanted, they just didn’t go down for us.”
Brogdon, Antetokounmpo and Middleton are all starters and have regularly closed games for the Bucks this season. Dellavedova's inclusion is more interesting, especially considering he and Brogdon both missed critical open shots at crunch time in Game 2 on catch-and-shoot three-pointers — shots Snell has often made this series and made at a 42.1% clip this season, the fifth-best mark on the team.
Snell and Dellavedova have played 55 and 54 minutes, respectively, with Snell putting up better numbers across the board, including team highs in three-pointers (seven) as well as the best effective field-goal percentage on the team (69.4%).
"My thing is to go out there and give the best I have," Snell said. "I've got my teammates, I trust my teammates. We trust each other to make the right plays."
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Dellavedova, on the other hand, has made just 6 of 19 shots (31.6%), giving him the team's worst field-goal percentage among the seven Bucks players who have averaged more than 10 minutes per game. However, he does give the Bucks another experienced guard who can run the pick-and-roll — as the screener or the ball-handler — with virtually anyone on the court, most notably with Antetokounmpo.
“It’s been good," Dellavedova said of pairing with Brogdon in the backcourt to close games. "It’s something we really didn’t use too much in the regular season, but when we did it felt like it was pretty effective. We’re both pretty good defenders and it gives you an extra ball-handler out there on the floor.”
When it comes to Milwaukee's bigs, Greg Monroe started the fourth quarter at center in Games 1 and 2, though with the Bucks in a rut Tuesday night, Kidd opted to re-insert Thon Maker. That move helped the Bucks erase a 12-point, fourth-quarter deficit to tie before falling, 106-100, at Air Canada Centre.
Maker and Monroe have alternated strong performances, cutting down the opportunities for backups Spencer Hawes and John Henson. Hawes has been limited to closing out the final minutes of the second quarter — part of a three-center rotation Kidd has often used — while Henson has yet to play.
"It's a team," Kidd said. "No one's guaranteed any minutes. ... The way Thon's playing it's put John out a little bit and hopefully we can get John back in."
Kidd hopes to find a chance for Michael Beasley to get minutes after giving Mirza Teletovic the nod more often in Toronto. With Antetokounmpo and Middleton playing as well as they are — and as much as the Bucks need those two on the court — those opportunities haven't been plentiful.
Outside of those two being on the court in critical situations, though, not much is set in stone as the series shifts to Milwaukee.
"Looking at what Delly and Tony and Malcolm can do, Khris ... a situation will present itself and hopefully we've got the right guys in," Kidd said.
Glove on the court: The Bucks had a visitor at practice Wednesday afternoon as Gary Payton, the father of current player Gary Payton II and a former Buck who was involved in the Ray Allen trade, stopped for a visit.
Kidd, a longtime friend of Payton's with the two of them growing up in California, downplayed the visit as a "family affair" with the elder Payton visiting his son. He expects that to continue with the Bucks at home for the next two games.
However, Payton didn't just pay attention to his son. He walked around the gym and talked to members of the coaching staff and some of the players, including Snell and Jason Terry.
"I have Gary Payton every day because he is my role model and my idol who I have looked up to since I was a little boy in Seattle," Terry said. "I'm constantly in communication with him, but then seeing him here physically definitely gives me a little extra motivation. You know defensively my head will be moving all over the place, I'll be talking and it's all because he's here."
Record ratings: On Wednesday, Fox Sports Wisconsin announced Tuesday's Game 2 was the highest-rated Bucks game on the network. It generated a 7.80 rating.
In the Milwaukee market, one rating point represents 8,868 households, which means 69,170 households tuned in. That record rating follows the Bucks' best regular-season ratings on the network since 2009-'10.
Fox Sports Wisconsin will televise the remaining games of the series in addition to national telecasts.