Eighteen straight shots, and nothing but threes, dunks, and layups.
That is how the Bucks started the game the last time they played the Sixers.
This is how they started the last time the played the Sixers:
MISS Lopez 26' 3PT Jump Shot
MISS Antetokounmpo 3' Driving Layup
MISS Mirotic 3PT Jump Shot
Bledsoe 27' 3PT Jump Shot (3 PTS)
MISS Bledsoe 5' Driving Layup
MISS Mirotic 24' 3PT Jump Shot
MISS Antetokounmpo 26' 3PT Jump Shot
MISS Bledsoe 2' Driving Layup
Antetokounmpo 2' Running Dunk (2 PTS) (Bledsoe 1 AST)
Middleton 27' 3PT Jump Bank Shot (3 PTS) (Bledsoe 2 AST)
MISS Antetokounmpo 2' Driving Layup
MISS Bledsoe 26' 3PT Jump Shot
MISS Middleton 26' 3PT Jump Shot
Antetokounmpo 3' Dunk (4 PTS) (Middleton 1 AST)
Ilyasova 25' 3PT Jump Shot (3 PTS) (Bledsoe 3 AST)
Middleton 1' Running Dunk (5 PTS)
MISS Middleton 27' 3PT Jump Shot
MISS Lopez 28' 3PT Jump Shot
No team in the NBA attempts more shots near the hoop than the Bucks, while only the Rockets have attempted more threes. So by game 70 you might not have even noticed that this was all they were doing against the Sixers.
Anyway, the Bucks trailed by four points after those 18 shots, but that did not deter them from the plan. By the end of the game, this was their shot chart:
Contrast that with what the Sixers went with:
The stylistic differences, the young superstars (Embiid went for 40/15/6 and Giannis went for 52/16/7 in that most recent matchup) full of fire (Embiid motioned to his ear to the Milwaukee crowd after hitting a late three, and umm, Ben Simmons probably does not relish guarding Giannis anymore), the fact that the Bucks and Sixers might have the best title chances outside of Oakland, it is all enough to make you think that these teams have the makings for a little something.
We’ll see. Giannis is like that against every team, any time, which is the special thing about him.
The playoff brackets though are solidifying, and the Bucks and Sixers are on opposite sides, with the Bucks having almost locked up home court throughout, and the Sixers just about set in the three spot.
The last time the Bucks won 50 games (or got out of the first round) before this season was 2000–01, when they (controversially) lost to the Sixers with a chance to go to the Finals. In the 1980s, the Sixers knocked the Bucks out of the playoffs four times.
Before that loss at home to the Sixers, Giannis had not dropped a home game in two and a half months, and he has not lost another one since. The Bucks outscored the Sixers by 12 points in the 36 minutes that Giannis was on the court that night, but the Bucks missed literally twice as many threes as the Sixers, who played a brilliant game, who deserve real praise, who earned the win against a team that leads the league in both wins and process this season.