Milwaukee Bucks played and lost to the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday without Giannis Antetokounmpo but their problem with rebounding was present even if he was there for them.
The Bucks fall to 7-5 and are 1-2 in their last three games and many of their fans are pointing out how their rebounding has been awful. They were out-rebounded by the Hornets, 50 against their 34, something they have been seeing in the past games.
They won against the Dallas Mavericks two days before but they needed up to the last second to do that. In that game, they only managed 44 rebounds against the Mavs’ 52.
The same was the story in the loss to the Houston Rockets 24 hours before the win in Dallas. It was, in fact, more worrying. Rockets had 50 total rebounds against their 27. The offensive rebounding was just as awful as they only got 7 in that game while their visitors had 20. They only had 79 field goal attempts against the Rockets’ 90.
Head coach Doc Rivers previously said that his four big men – Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner, Bobby Portis, and Jericho Sims will have bigger role this season so far, they have been dwarfed by their opponents.
They are currently 27th in the league in team rebounding while the Greek Freak is ranked is in sixth place with 11.9 per game. Turner is averaging 6.3 which is not that far from his season averages in previous seasons.
Milwaukee Bucks’ rebounding problem according to Turner
What’s the problem with the Bucks’ rebounding? Starting center Myles Turner thinks the big men have more responsibility.
“Well, I think it’s not necessarily team-specific, I think it’s the way the league is trending,” Turner said when asked about it via Milwaukee Sports Journal.
“I think guys are trying to get extra possessions. And when you got guys (whose) specific job is to go in there and get rebounds, you gotta know that beforehand.”
He also emphasized giving attention to little details to get the job done.
“It’s a team effort, rebounding and what not. It takes the bigs, you gotta get the guy out the play and then the guards come to grab it or vice versa.
“So, I think we gotta (pay) a little more attention to detail. They were playing a lot of zone as well. I think it’s kind of hard to, at times, rebound out of zones but there’s no excuse in this league. It’s a league trend, everybody’s crashing the glass a lot harder.”
Antetokounmpo is expected to return in the next, which will still be against the Hornets for the NBA Cup.
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