Bucks make waves in first 3 games, but new week brings anticipated challenges – The Athletic
After one week of regular-season action, the Milwaukee Bucks have won two of their first three games, but they have two tests waiting for them at home this week.
The New York Knicks are working through some injuries, but as Giannis Antetokounmpo noted Sunday night, they were one of the Eastern Conference preseason favorites, so the Bucks will have a chance to prove themselves Tuesday night in Fiserv Forum. On Thursday, the Bucks welcome the Golden State Warriors, who have gotten off to a 3-1 start behind strong play from Steph Curry. The Sacramento Kings, Saturday’s opponent, might not have the same cachet as the other two teams, but the Bucks should have a better idea of where they stand by the end of this three-game homestand.
To understand what the Bucks (2-1) did the first week of the season, though, let’s bring back a feature from last season and play some Ones — an in-depth look at the micro and macro trends affecting the team through three games.
One play: AJ Green in Spain
As sharpshooter AJ Green has taken on a more prominent role in Milwaukee the last few seasons, it has become common to see him standing near the top of the key at the end of quarters or in special situations.
When Pat Connaughton’s role decreased, Green moved into the role of designated screener for Antetokounmpo in inverted pick-and-rolls. With strength relative to his position and a willingness to take a hit, Green has excelled as a screen setter, and the play has become a real weapon for the Bucks as Antetokounmpo almost always gets to the rim or finds Green for a 3 when they run the action together.
To end the third quarter in Cleveland on Sunday, Green took his usual position, but this time, Antetokounmpo was watching from the bench. That’s when the Bucks ran one of their favorite special actions from the start of this season: a Spain pick-and-roll with Green as the screener.
As you can see in the video above, a Spain pick-and-roll is when a team screens the defender of a roll man. In most situations, teams use a 3-point shooter (like Green) as the second screener to force defenses to cover as much space as possible and make them pay for any botched coverages.
“It’s really just knowing how they’re guarding,” Green told The Athletic about how he approaches the screen in that action. “If they’re switching down the line and I see that, I can get out early and I don’t need to crack the big. But if they’re in drop, then I try to hit (the big) him, and if you get Myles (Turner), Giannis or Jericho (Sims) with pace rolling down the lane, that’s a lot of gravity. It is either going to be a dunk or backside, it’s going to be a 3.”
To close the third quarter Sunday, both Jarrett Allen and Craig Porter Jr. were overly concerned with Green, and that left Turner wide open underneath the basket. It’s an easy action, but with a great 3-point shooter who is also a willing screener, it can be deadly for the Bucks.
(Note: For those curious minds out there, it is called a Spain pick-and-roll because the concept became popular in NBA circles after the Spanish national team, coached by Sergio Scariolo, used the action regularly during the 2016 Summer Olympics. But don’t call it that around Antetokounmpo. If you do, he will almost certainly remind you that Željko Obradović was running that action at Panathinaikos in the 2000s.)
One player: Ryan Rollins
Midway through the second quarter of the season opener against the Washington Wizards, Ryan Rollins saw what every point guard wants: an open path to the rim. But when it came time to finish, Rollins second-guessed his decision and looked to throw a pass to Antetokounmpo, only to try a double-pump layup that missed off the rim.
Antetokounmpo bailed him out with the offensive rebound and put-back, so Rollins could laugh about it two days later.
“I should have just dunked that one, honestly,” Rollins said at the Bucks’ shootaround in Toronto. “But K-Midd (Khris Middleton), he did a good little pump fake on me, which kind of messed me up in the air. … You just gotta be aggressive, know your shots, and when you get an open shot, just shoot it. Don’t be overthinking it.”
When an opening presented itself later that night, Rollins did not hesitate.
Rollins right to the rack! pic.twitter.com/cWC1F8HXQ9
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) October 25, 2025
And that is the process — get a chance, see something new, make a mistake and learn from it for next time — for Rollins to start this season as the Bucks have given him the largest role of his career.
“You pick up the pace more, you pick up the comfortability more,” Rollins said of getting so many reps early in the season. “Just the pace of the game, where your teammates are going to be at, just the feel of the game.”
After playing 29 or more minutes in a game just seven times in his career — all last season with the Bucks — Rollins has played at least 29 minutes in each of the Bucks’ first three games. The 23-year-old point guard is averaging 12 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.7 steals in 31 minutes per contest. All those numbers would be career highs.
Rollins was already slotted in as a rotation player, but Kevin Porter Jr.’s left ankle sprain and Cole Anthony’s illness have created additional chances for him, and it has been necessary to learn on the fly.
Following Sunday’s game, coach Doc Rivers told reporters that he didn’t think Rollins was doing enough to get downhill during the first half, but he complimented Rollins “phenomenal” adjustment in the second half to get into the paint and create for his teammates.
“The more you play, you just feel the game more. You get more comfortable at making reads and figuring out your spots and your teammates’ spots,” Rollins said. “That’s really all it is to it. Just playing the game, playing with pace and just keeping that comfortability and confidence.”
One trend: Hard early fouls to stop Giannis
Just 20 seconds into Sunday’s game, De’Andre Hunter made his intent clear as a help defender against Antetokounmpo.
There would be no and-1s for Antetokounmpo. Undersized as a help defender, Hunter used both of his hands to grab both of Antetokounmpo’s arms as he caught the ball underneath the basket to ensure that the Bucks superstar forward couldn’t get off a shot attempt.
One quarter later, Hunter did something very similar.
Trailing Antetokounmpo as he was rolling to the basket, Hunter grabbed Antetokounmpo’s arms with both hands again. This time, he did it before the ball had even arrived, so Antetokounmpo tried to turn his catch into a quick flip shot to get to the free-throw line, but the effort was not rewarded by officials.
On both plays, Hunter and Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson can argue that he was trying to make a play on the ball, but anyone who watched either play (and the subsequent replays) knows that is simply not true. Hunter was attempting to foul Antetokounmpo with enough force before he started his shot attempt to ensure Antetokounmpo would not get free throws. And if officials actually gave Antetokounmpo credit for a shot attempt, Hunter’s foul was hard enough to ensure Antetokounmpo didn’t finish with an and-one.
“You should write that; that’s what I would do,” Rivers joked when The Athletic asked if he thought the league could do more to protect Antetokounmpo on such fouls. “I would write that. And then tell all the reporters around the league to write that. That’s what I would do. I’m not saying you should do that.
“But I’m just saying, if I was you, that’s what I would do because it is a dangerous play. I always worry about the shoulder because what happens is they wrap you up, you pull it up and now you tear a shoulder and there’s no flagrant to that.”
In the season opener though, the danger of hard fouls by backside helpers against Antetokounmpo was on full display.
As Antetokounmpo corralled a loose ball underneath the rim and went up for a dunk, Wizards guard Bub Carrington grabbed Antetokounmpo’s arm and pulled him down to the floor. The play was eventually deemed a Flagrant 1, as there was “wind-up, impact, follow-through and the potential for injury,” according to the game officials after replay.
Antetokounmpo is the league’s most imposing physical force. Through three games, he has averaged 36 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists per game. According to play-by-play stats sorted by Basketball Reference, Antetokounmpo has led the league (or tied for the league lead) in and-1s for the last seven seasons.
His ability to finish through contact is one of the things that has made him nearly unstoppable, so hard fouls that try to ensure Antetokounmpo will be unable to finish the play are a major piece of recourse for opposing defenses. But should he need to put himself in danger, like he did by getting in the air trying to finish through the contact from Carrington, just to reap the reward? Or can more be done to protect the Bucks’ best player?
