Paolo Banchero scored 34 points against the Milwaukee Bucks in his first game back after a long layoff, but when he faced them again, Doc Rivers had a plan against him. And it worked.
The Orlando Magic star scored 22 points, slightly less compared to his season averagebut this is a good sign for the Bucks because they learned from the moment they let him go.
The Bucks beat their visitors for the second night in a row, and the key to victory was disrupting the youthful star’s flow.
Banchero shot 21 shots during Friday’s match and converted 11 of them. In Wednesday’s rematch, he took almost the same number of shots, but only connected on eight. He also made just 2 of 7 three-point shots.
The Bucks were out of Magic’s reach throughout the game, and Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t have to play ponderous minutes in the fourth quarter.
Greek freak scored a double-double 26 and 11, and Damian Lillard led everyone with 30 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals.
Dr. Rivers on Paolo Banchero
Banchero is a sturdy striker who can therefore get to the basket. That’s exactly what Rivers was trying to do when it came to defending the one-time All-Star.
Instead of betting on someone as large as him, he put in a more agile player.
“I thought we attacked his dribbling more. That was one of the things because we were changing players a lot and we were going to have a smaller player (on him),” he said.
And we kept giving him pillows and showing them in the video. “Paolo is large, so he won’t dance. He’ll just take up space and now you’re in trouble. And today I thought that whenever he put the ball on the floor, you could see his guys and we were attacking with the dribble.
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