When asked if he enjoyed guarding Nikola Jokic after the Milwaukee Bucks' 112-95 win over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, all Brook Lopez could do was laugh.
“He makes it difficult,” the Bucks big man said after three seconds of angry laughter. “He can do it all offensively. He can score whenever he wants to, but he's so great because he makes everyone else on the floor better. He can get the ball to them when and how he wants.”“
Watching just one portion of the defensive possession against Jokic reveals why the idea of having fun may seem so far-fetched. Look at everything Lopez did in just eight seconds against the two-time NBA MVP.
At first, Lopez quickly ran backwards to get into position. Then, once he got to the three-point line, he charged at Jokic. Then he jumped to his left, brought out his left hand and waved it above his head, while at the same time kicking his right foot on the other side of his body, to take passes to the cutters.
As Lopez landed, he continued to hit around different parts of the body to deny Jokic the opportunity to pass to his teammate. As Nuggets backup point guard Reggie Jackson cut Jokic and past Lopez, the Bucks big man kicked his foot to the right side of his body to take a bounce pass and then sprinted to the 3-point line with his hands high. When Jokic started to raise the ball above his head as if he was going to shoot the ball.
When Lopez closed him down and cleared that shot, Jokic kicked the ball to Aaron Gordon trailing the play.
In five seconds, Lopez took five different moves off Jokic. And that was just the beginning of the takeover.
Every second Jokic has the ball in his hands could be the moment he takes advantage of an out-of-position defender. Make a mistake and Jokić will create an easy basket for a teammate or create an advantage for himself. The mental pressure on defending Jokic is enormous, but he eventually admitted that he enjoys it twice per regular season for Lopez, even if it took five minutes of getting him to admit it.
“It definitely is. Yeah, it's fun,” Lopez said of the challenge of defending Jokic. “I mean, that's why we play, that's why I play. So a night like tonight, is a lot of fun.
On Monday night, Jokic had 29 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in a losing effort. While those numbers are still solid, the Bucks have made it work for everything. To go with his 29 points, Jokic hit 25 shots. While he had eight assists, Jokic also committed five turnovers. Lopez was all about those struggles.
“He's a very smart defender, uses his length,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said of Lopez. “He knows what he can't do. I think we understand what he can't do, and we try not to put him in those situations. He plays at that little drop, but not all the way down.”
“(Jokic) is a tougher player, probably the toughest player in the league to drop back against, and yet, Brock stopped the ball and recovered a lot. So these are very good things.”
By slowing down Jokic, the Bucks slowed down the Nuggets and held their opponent to under 100 points for the second straight game. However, it wasn't just Lopez on Monday. The Nuggets ended the night without both Jamal Murray and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in the second half, but the Bucks dominated the defense in the first half due to their return to their old form under former coach Mike Budenholzer.
During Budenholzer's early years, the Bucks had a three-pronged defensive approach. On the ball, Eric Bledsoe battled screens relentlessly. At the rim, Lopez waited in drop coverage for any drivers to try to get to the rim. And everywhere else, Giannis Antetokounmpo was prowling around, waiting for opportunities to pounce on unsuspecting opponents.
On Monday, the Bucks used the same formula.
It started when Rivers had a much better effort from his guard against Nuggets guard Jamal Murray. In Rivers' first game as coach with Milwaukee in Denver two weeks ago, he thought his players faced too many screens. So, in what has become a regular occurrence over the past few weeks, Rivers put together a series of clips and took his guard down during those moments before the team's second attempt on Murray on Monday.
“He killed us that night,” Rivers said of Murray. “We showed pick after pick after pick that we just melted, melted, melted, melted. And Malik and those guys, they've heard that enough. I mean they're tired of it, obviously, but we showed them the game before, last night (against the Hornets) …We're not picked at all. Then we follow that (in the movie) by just getting picked (in the first game against Denver).
“And Murray is going to hit hard shots anyway, but if you're going to face a pick, he's going to do it. I thought we did a great job of beating the picks and fighting for them.
It seems the message got through to Pax's guards. Look at this effort by AJ Green in the second quarter:
With Green fighting over the top of the screens and continuing to fight even when the screen hit him, the Bucks put Murray in a difficult position, and then Antetokounmpo took advantage by stealing the ball.
And that's exactly what Rivers wants Antetokounmpo to do, giving the Bucks the two-time reigning MVP the freedom to roam defensively.
“When we can get away with it, we want Giannis to be a player on the other team so he can roam,” Rivers said. “I think in football, like a free safety, he's going to be an amazing free safety. I mean he does a great job of getting around and he's been able to steal one out of the backfield and he's always on the edge.”
“What it gives us is we always have rim protection, either Brock or Giannis. Now that our guards are on the ball and we're getting guys off the three, getting them off the three while protecting the rim creates in between contested shots. That's what we're trying to do.” “
Antetokounmpo has been causing havoc in this role all night, and his ability to roam allows him to come away with this second quarter steal:
“For many years before Duke, this was my job,” Antetokounmpo said. “And I think I kind of figured it out, and it also allows you to not get in foul trouble, so it allowed me to be in passing lanes and disrupt their offense as much as possible.”
While Antetokounmpo reminded the media that he loves taking on the challenge of guarding the other team's best player and wants to continue to have that opportunity, he understands why using him as a rover is a logical option.
“I just enjoy disrupting people's offense and being in the passing lane, getting my hands on the ball and trying to get rebounds and start the offense,” Antetokounmpo said. “Because when I’m in the paint, I can also rebound the ball and start attacking.”
On Monday, Antetokounmpo grabbed 18 rebounds, a season-high. Under Griffin, the Bucks grabbed 73.2% of their available defensive rebounds, which was good for 12th in the NBA. Since Griffin was fired, they've grabbed 75.9 percent of their available defensive rebounds, which is good for seventh. Those defensive boards turned into offense as Antetokounmpo regularly started breaking down rebounds, allowing him to score 36 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field.
With Lopez playing his part with Jokic, the Bucks looked like the Bucks of old, thwarting an offense led by the two-time MVP with a solid defensive effort with a three-pronged attack. The Bucks will be the first to admit that they are far from perfect and still have a lot of work to do on defense, but the strides they have made in just two weeks have been impressive. This defensive improvement was the main reason much of the roster expressed optimism despite a 1-5 start to Rivers' tenure in Milwaukee.
With two straight wins backed by a dominant defensive performance, perhaps the results are starting to show what the team has been believing internally over the past two weeks.
(Photo of Nikola Jokic and Brook Lopez: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)