At Barclays Center on Monday night, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Brooklyn Nets 129-125 to win their second straight game. The Bucks held on late in a back-and-forth game that included six lead changes, 11 ties, and crucial points from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

With 36 points and 12 rebounds, Antetokounmpo led the club. Lillard scored 21 points and converted 9 of his 10 free throw attempts. At 17 of 33, Cam Thomas scored 45 points to lead the Nets.

The Nets slipped to 3-4 as the Bucks advanced to 4-2.

Antetokounmpo stated, “I hope we can be better defensively.” “It didn’t seem like our gaps were too big. Guys were at ease getting to the rim and drawing fouls when they went one-on-one. We need to improve our assistance defense. The second unit performed admirably offensively, moving the ball quickly and creating open looks. In the last moments of the game, I had the impression that Dame, myself, Khris (Middleton), and our shooters were prepared to finish the match. Thus, while we accomplished a lot of wonderful things, there were also a lot of problems we needed to improve on.”

Bucks maneuver to keep the Nets at bay.

Since taking over as head coach of the Bucks, Adrian Griffin has insisted that he merely intended to improve on the foundation set by the previous five seasons. His ability to highlight the edges he could polish was one of the front office’s selling points. You could see what he was trying to achieve on that end through the first four games of the season with increased ball pressure, increased switching, and some zone concepts. However, a few of lopsided losses to Toronto and Atlanta led some veterans to persuade him that it would be best to play their more conventional drop defense against New York, positioning 7-foot center Brook Lopez back deep against the basket.The Knicks had a strong forward in Julius Randle and a respectable center in Mitchell Robinson who could draw Giannis Antetokounmpo’s attention, thus it worked in a victory last Friday.

BOX SCORE: Nets 125, Bucks 129.

Griffin would not go so far as to suggest that the Bucks’ dip is permanent following practice on Sunday and Monday’s warmup, instead emphasizing the team’s need to be proficient against a variety of defenses. In all four areas, the Nets would be difficult since they were missing 6-foot-11-inch center Nic Claxton due to injury.

Even though Ben Simmons (6-10) was a player for Brooklyn, Vaughn, the head coach of the Nets, was unsure whether the Bucks would keep Lopez deep in the paint or start him at the top of the defense. Simmons was the biggest player Vaughn planned to use extensively in the paint.

As in the two games against the Hawks and Raptors, the Nets found success from behind the three-point line and found themselves uncontested at the rim when there was a breakdown. The Bucks countered the smaller Nets lineups with a variety of tactics.

The forward for the Bucks, Jae Crowder, commented, “They did a good job of mixing their lineups.” “They went small a lot, tryin to counter us with Brook and I think we did a good job with Giannis protecting the rim late, rebounds on the defensive end and getting to the rim on the offensive end.”

But the Bucks defense became more rigid in the final minutes of play.

With the Bucks leading 117-115, Middleton joined the game in the last 4 minutes and 22 seconds alongside Lopez, Antetokounmpo, Lillard, and Crowder.

From there, Griffin changed the lineup to offset Brooklyn’s speed:

3:21 remaining, Milwaukee leads 119-117: Lopez is substituted by Bobby Portis.Griffin: It’s difficult because I was trying to keep Brook in the game because he was so excellent on the offensive boards in the closing minutes, but I felt that we needed to go smaller so that we could start switching. Bobby played so brilliantly in the first half, and I wanted to give him the first opportunity because of how amazing he was in the third quarter. Then, it came to the moment where we had to defend the three-point line, so I decided to go small—or rather, smaller.

Milwaukee leads with 23.7 seconds remaining, 126-123: Portis replaced by Pat Connaughton.Lillard: Excellent coaching there. Brook is undoubtedly a vital member of our squad, but in the most recent game, I believe we placed him in a position that is familiar to him and comfortable for him. He demonstrated the value of that by recording eight blocks. I believe that we are playing against a team that switches around a lot on defense tonight. Teams switching things up frequently cause disruptions to your attack since it forces you to play iso(lation), pull players out of their sets, and muck up the execution. Ben Simmons, who isn’t a shooter, is the only player on the other end who can shoot, though.

We were able to keep Brook in the drop when he was on the floor, but I believe that toward the conclusion of the game, Jacque noticed that and said, “You know, it’s a back-and-forth game. I’m going to put Royce (O’Neale) back in and try to stretch the floor.” It clearly makes sense to send a player out there who can be on the perimeter at that moment. It would be unwise to place Brook in a position where he has to chase after people who are frantically making three-pointers. When they switched around their lineup, it was the right move.

As Griffin reduced his starting lineup, the Bucks were able to put more pressure on the Nets, and with Connaughton in the lineup, they were able to switch all over the perimeter and help force difficult shots from Royce O’Neale, Cam Thomas, and Dorian Finney-Smith in the closing seconds.

“The versatility, I think, its what’s going to make us dangerous in the long run,” Connaughton stated. Additionally, it’s something that clearly makes us a little bit, uh, unreliable right now. However, our goal is to, as it were, expand our armament. Our goal is to have a large assortment of tools in the toolbox. Making sure we can multitask is a component of that for us, particularly when it comes to defense. In the long term, I believe it will help us just improve our communication skills, which is really what playoff basketball is all about.”

In the final 28 seconds, Antetokounmpo, known as the “five,” emerged as the strongest defender, finishing possessions with two enormous blocks and defensive rebounds. He was also a potent offensive screen-setter for Middleton and Lillard.

Antetokounmpo remarked, “I was just trying to play basketball; I wasn’t thinking I was the big out there.” “I was lucky to acquire those blocks at the right time and to be in the right place down the stretch. Coach “Griff” did a great job offensively by slowing down and letting our two best players, Dame and Khris, run the offense and create a shot for themselves or a good play for us. We were able to shuffle and maintain guys in front of us defensively in the closing moments. The guys did a wonderful job of containing as much as they could, but we understood they wanted to play one-on-one and attempt to get to the hoop or shoot an open three.”In the end, the Bucks win at the line.

A little bit less than his career-high 9.6 attempts per game from a year ago, Lillard entered the game averaging 9.4 attempts per game. He averaged 6.2 attempts per game between 2012 and 2012. Lillard’s ability to get to the line has helped the Bucks win close games over Philadelphia and New York, even though his outside shooting hasn’t yet reached his average.With an average of 10.4 attempts per game, Antetokounmpo is leading the Bucks to the top in the NBA in both free throw attempts per game (30.4) and free throws made (22.2). However, their 73% free throw shooting percentage ranked them at 22nd in the league.

Milwaukee was only able to shoot 6 of 7 from the charity stripe in the first half as the Nets played a tough game but mostly kept them off it. It contributed to the Nets’ 67-63 halftime advantage.Milwaukee would lead late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, but they would have to work harder to regularly make jumpers because they were not getting to the line as frequently. Even though it wasn’t always simple, they were able to get by with their half-court offense before having to put themselves on the line to win it.

Prior to the last twenty-three seconds, during which the Bucks made six free throws, they had only tried sixteen. In the final seconds, Lillard shot 3-for-4 and Jae Crowder went 1-for-2. Antetokounmpo had five of six.Milwaukee was 21 of 24 from the free throw line and hit 87.5% of them, leading to a 10-point lead over Brooklyn (11 of 13).

Three Nets guards provide a problem for the Bucks

The Nets started the season as one of the top 10 offenses in terms of rating (No. 8, 115.9 points per 100 possessions) and points per game (No. 7, 116.3), despite the limited sample sizes at this point in the season. Their impressive three-point shooting, which they had been hitting 39.1% of the time going into Monday’s game, has played a major role in that. In the league, it was the third-best score. Additionally, they are hitting 48.1% of their shots, ranking ninth in the NBA.

After six games, Nets guards Cam Thomas (26.0) and Mikal Bridges (20.3) had proven to be a potent scoring combination in the backcourt on volume shots, putting the Bucks’ top defense under further strain.Thomas scored a season-high 45 points on 33 shots on Monday, which did not lessen that. After Bridges shot 12-for-21 for 31 points, Lonnie Walker IV scored 19 points on 8 of 14 shots after entering the game off the bench. Ten three-pointers were made by the trio in total.

“They’re a difficult team to stop,” Griffin remarked. “Each of their guards is quick, explosive, and a three-point threat. We had some trouble matching up with it because of its size and speed alone. These kinds of matches help shape character, and I felt that our lads really came through.”

5 digits

The Nets have had little success at home this season. At the Barclays Center, they are currently 0-3.

With two tenths of a second left in the third quarter, Cam Payne’s lob to Antetokounmpo was waived off by officials for offensive basket interference. Griffin was obliged to argue the call, which he won, because the Bucks were enraged. The Bucks led 96-94 entering the fourth quarter after the basket was recognized as a basket.

Lillard (Portland), Lopez (Brooklyn), and Antetokounmpo (Milwaukee) are the three franchise scoring leaders with the Bucks. The Nets annually honor Lopez’s nine-year tenure, which encompassed the team’s final years in New Jersey and its first in New York, on his yearly excursions back to Brooklyn. On TVs across the stadium, a highlight video of Lopez’s stint with the Nets was playing.

For Bucks star Khris Middleton, it took 21 minutes. On Friday, he took the court against the New York Knicks in 21. Middleton finished with 15 points on 6 of 10 shots against the Nets. He played the last 4:22 of the game to end it.Middleton: It feels fantastic to be in the game, winning time, even when it’s close. Every baseball player aspires to achieve that.

The Bucks scored 50 bench points, with Jae Crowder scoring 15. Cameron Payne (10), Bobby Portis (11), and MarJon Beauchamp (11), all achieved double figures.

Did you observe?

One of the highlights of the Nets’ 17-5 run that ended the first half and turned the game around came when Royce O’Neale blocked Antetokounmpo’s attempt at a two-handed slam. The Nets took a 63-59 lead when Brooklyn grabbed the ball and pushed it up court, where Bridges found Dorian Finney-Smith for a basket.