The Miami Heat have taken an unlikely 3-1 series lead over the Milwaukee Bucks. While they say it isn’t over until it’s over, most people think that this series is done. Especially with Giannis Antetokounmpo having his share of injury issues. It seems unlikely that Milwaukee can win three more games to overcome a 3-0 playoff deficit. Not that it’s just hard for them, but it is something that has never been done before.
One of the biggest reasons for this surprising playoff mismatch has been the coaching of both teams. Miami is led by Pat Riley disciple Erik Spoelstra, who won two championships as the Heat’s HC in 2012 and 2013. Bucks are led by 2019 Coach of the Year Mike Budenholzer. Both are solid coaches, but Spo is showing that he is the superior coach in this series.
The battle is being fought on the court, but it’s won in the preparation. Spo has clearly found a way to motivate his team to upset the best team in the league, while Budenholzer is repeating patterns we saw in last season’s playoff disappointment. Is the hot-seat the factor that is deciding this series?
Miami Heat vs Milwaukee Bucks: A battle of coaching?
While we have seen what has happened on the court, we haven’t given the credit of creating those plans to the people who deserve it. Spoelstra has set up a defensive system that suppresses Giannis and forces other Bucks to take bad shots due to intense defensive coverage. The Bucks don’t have any obvious special organizational structure for this series. They really have just been playing the exact way they did all season.
Budenholzer is a great regular season coach. It wasn’t that long ago he led the Atlanta Hawks to a number-one seed with Al Horford as his best player. He fails to adjust game-plans as and when the situation calls for it, sticking with his established plans. This has created this 3-0 series deficit. After all, it was his decision to not have Giannis guard Jimmy Butler in game one because the more natural positional fit for him was guarding Bam Adebayo.
Even when Budenholzer finally had Giannis guard Jimmy, Spoelstra devised a pick-and-roll which allowed Butler to continue scoring. The way Spoelstra has ignited Jimmy while forcing the likes of Adebayo to limit Giannis is basically how the Miami Heat are pulling this off. Fourth quarters are the ultimate test for a coach, and game 3 showed who the better coach is.
While Coach Bud deserves the credit for engineering a game four win without Giannis, that loss mainly falls on the Heat players becoming sloppy. Whether he can do it for three more games is something we will see. However, it seems that Spoelstra has his number.
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