Please excuse my tardiness on this week’s column! It will hopefully make for good Saturday reading and the reduced basketball content in general (at least in terms of games that matter) for the next week.
Remember when third quarters were the Bucks’ bugaboo a few weeks ago? Around that time, second quarters weren’t much better, and now their defensive troubles are even more pronounced leading up to half. Their points allowed in second quarters this week (hold your nose): 40, 36, 45. It looks even worse with advanced metrics, with a 151.3 defensive rating and a -36.4 net rating.