Second To One
When the Bucks coasted to a win against the Timberwolves a couple weeks ago, they lost three out of the four quarters. That is not the normal blowout recipe.
This begs questions: How is this possible, and why have three extraneous quarters?
Second Team
Over the weekend, the Bucks dropped 40 points on the Pistons in the second quarter.
The bench played most of that quarter, and scored most of those points (25). Jerryd Bayless started and ended the quarter by making a technical free throw and O.J. Mayo went on a personal 9-0 run right in the middle. The current-Bucks had their way with the ex-Bucks who started the second quarter, including Brandon Jennings, Jodie Meeks and Caron Butler.
To start the quarter, the Pistons had two starters (Jennings and Andre Drummond) in the game while the Bucks had one (Khris Middleton).
Plenty of teams begin the second period in a similar way. Starters will often play the first 10 or 12 minutes, and then much of the second line comes in. The two leading second quarter scorers for the Pistons this season are reserves: Jodie Meeks and D.J. Augustin.
Precisely, this is where the Bucks have an edge against just about every basketball team on earth. They have the top-scoring bench unit in the NBA, and zero teams have given more minutes to their bench in the last 17 years.
Seconds
In Bucks fashion, not a single player on the team ranks among the top-50 in the league in points per game in the second quarter, even as they are the second best team in the league during that timeframe.
Just about everyone on the team is very, very good in the second quarter:
- John Henson is shooting 68.6 percent from the field (third-best in NBA)
- Khris Middleton is shooting 55.6 percent on threes (third-best in NBA)
- Jared Dudley is shooting 55.2 percent on threes (fourth-best in NBA) and has a 71.3 eFG% (second-best in NBA)
- Kendall Marshall is shooting 53.8 percent on threes (seventh-best in NBA)
- Jerryd Bayless has the seventh-best individual Offensive Rating (117.8) in the NBA. To put that into perspective, the Warriors have an overall offensive rating of 111.1 this season… which means the Bucks make basketballs orange spherical fires when Bayless is on the court in the second quarter, which is often.
Not surprisingly, based on those numbers, the Bucks are the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA in the second quarter, at 43.0 percent. The team is the seventh-most efficient offense in the league during the second quarter, much better than their 22nd overall rating.
Pretty Good Seconds
But defense is their strongest suit, as they rank (again) behind only the Warriors in defensive efficiency in the second quarter. They force tons of turnovers (second-most), don’t allow fast-break points (best in league), and make opponents miss threes (28.3 percent) while they are making them at league-best accuracy.
Of course, those numbers mirror many of the most important overall (not just second quarter) strengths of the team this season. The bench, the team defense, the turnovers forced, the transition defense, the 3-point defense. All of this just happens to emerge most intensely and brightly in the second quarter.
And so: If there are still people who say the only interesting part of an NBA game is the final 10 minutes…then those people are missing some pretty good seconds.
(Thanks to stats.nba.com and basketball-reference.com for the statistical magic.)
