Vucevic’s Magic Trick: Bucks vs. Magic Game One (August 18, 2020)
The one seeded Milwaukee Bucks took on the eighth seeded Orlando Magic in game one of their first round matchup. Coming into the game, almost everyone expected to see the Bucks dominate the Magic in what was projected to be a sweep. Well at least for me, this game completely changed that mindset.
Orlando came out ready to play. The one word I kept hearing over and over again was “intensity”. The Magic were playing with it, and the Bucks without it. Early on it almost felt like the Bucks came in expecting to win, so they weren’t playing with their max amount of energy. The Magic realized this and went to work.
Nikola Vucevic (35 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists) had an amazing first quarter where he looked like he had the number of every player that was guarding him. He was posting up, hitting the mid range shot, and driving to the paint with ease. Some nice secondary production from young point guard Markelle Fultz (15 points, 6 assists) meant the Magic finished the first quarter with a 33-23 lead.
As for the Bucks, it was almost like no one came to play in the first half. Giannis Antetokounmpo (31 points, 17 rebounds, 7 assists) was the only player who could do anything offensively in the first half. Khris Middleton (14 points, 4-12 from the field) struggled, Brook Lopez (5 points, 2-9 from the field) struggled, and everyone else was pretty much irrelevant. Antetokounmpo brought some much needed energy to the floor, but whenever he was on the bench, the Magic started bullying the Bucks.
Someone else who I was super impressed with was Gary Clark (15 points, 6 rebounds). He not only gave the Magic a huge boost on offense, but ended up having to guard Antetokounmpo a lot of the time. While it was more of a team effort, he was always hustling to keep the reigning MVP out of the paint. Antetokounmpo ended up scoring a lot of his points out of the paint, and if I’m Steve Clifford, that’s all I can hope for. I’d rather force Antetokounmpo to beat you everywhere else but the paint, because once he’s there, he’s unstoppable.
The Magic held an impressive 62-52 lead going into halftime, but the majority of the work was still ahead of them.
Coach Mike Budenholzer and Antetokounmpo must have done something right in the locker room, because the energy was definitely up for the Bucks to start the third quarter. That being said, the Magic were not letting up. Vucevic continued his dominance and Milwaukee’s supporting cast continued to struggle shooting the ball. The energy was there, but the production wasn’t.
To give credit where it’s due, though, the Magic played really solid defense. They’ve been known as one of the top defensive teams in the league, and that was really on display in this game.
The Magic were the definition of an irritant on the defensive end, being seemingly everywhere on D. They kept Antetokounmpo out of the paint a fair amount and did a great job contesting every three the Bucks took. If they can continue to do all of that effectively, the Bucks are going to have to reevaluate their usual offensive game plan.
Luckily for the Bucks, things started to click a little in the fourth. The Magic’s hot streak cooled off a bit and Milwaukee’s uptick in energy finally resulted in some production. Early in the fourth it was looking like the Bucks would finally catch up again and show why they’re the one seed. Then Steven Clifford gave a Red Bull to all of his players again and the Magic re-upped their energy.
The fourth was close throughout, but the Bucks always just seemed one step behind. They would make a run and then Orlando would pull ahead once again. This kept happening over and over again, and it must have been super deflating for Milwaukee.
Terrence Ross (18 points, 6 rebounds) and Evan Fournier (9 points, 5 assists) finally came alive after not doing too much the whole game and gave the Magic yet another spark to propel them ahead further. Those two, along with Vucevic, had the Magic rolling in the fourth quarter, but the Bucks were not going to go down without a fight.
In the end, however, the constant storm of energy from the Magic was just too much for the Bucks in this one. They played elite defense, made it a point to slow down Antetokounmpo, and executed their offense to near perfection. Contrary to popular belief, Antetokounmpo can’t do everything, and that was very clear in this game.
We saw the Magic upset the Raptors in game one of the first round last year and it didn’t amount to much, but this one feels different. Last year was a close game. This one was a dominating performance. The Magic made a statement in this one, and if things don’t drastically change for Milwaukee going forward, the Bucks will be in some hot water.
The eighth seeded Magic took game one with a convincing 122-110 win. Tune in on Thursday, August 20th at 6:00 PM EST to see if they can keep it up.
