The Whiteboard: Bucks’ additions paying off, Monte Morris steps up

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When the Milwaukee Bucks needed a tough Khris Middleton overtime game-winner to squeak past the Miami Heat in Game 1, familiar fears set in. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo had gone a combined 8-for-37 from the field, Tyler Herro shot 2-for-10 off the bench … and yet, here were the Heat, that same, pesky bunch that rudely escorted these Bucks to the offseason in the second round of last year’s playoffs, pushing to repeat history again in 2021.

There was just one problem: As Game 2 proved, this is not the same Heat team as last time, and this is certainly not the same Bucks squad.

In a 132-98 shellacking on Monday, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 31-13-6-3-1 stat line, Bryn Forbes’ 22 points off the bench and Milwaukee’s 22 made 3-pointers leapt off the stat sheet first. But two games into this potential revenge series, it’s the Bucks’ new additions that are already leaving their stamp on the matchup.

The first is Jrue Holiday, a heralded arrival that signaled the Bucks knew they needed to keep Giannis happy and stop falling short in the postseason. Not only could he create for himself and others in a playoff offense that often sputtered when opponents built a wall in front of Giannis and dared him to shoot, but he was somehow a defensive upgrade over Eric Bledsoe as well.

Through two games, the postseason gap between those two guards couldn’t be more glaring.

On the offensive end, Holiday is averaging a well-rounded 15.5 points, 9.0 assists, 9.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game on 46.7 percent shooting so far. He’s missed eight of his nine 3-pointers, but that hasn’t stopped him from being a team-high plus-47 in his 73 minutes. The next-closest Buck? Middleton, at a very distant plus-28.

Being a key part of a 34-point blowout on Monday obviously helps Holiday in that regard, but it’s striking how often his presence on the court equates to good things for Milwaukee. It was obvious as early as Game 1 that having Holiday over Bledsoe — combined with Miami no longer having Jae Crowder — could be enough to completely swing the outcome of this rematch series. The Bucks don’t win Game 1 without him, and without that Game 1 win, the complexion of the series changes. The narrative flips. The familiar fear sets in.

Instead, it took all of one playoff game for that hefty investment in Holiday to pay off, and the results have shown up all over the place. Aside from posting career highs in about a dozen categories this season, in Game 2, Holiday’s 15 assists made him the fifth player with a 15-assist playoff game in franchise history. And we can’t neglect to mention his multi-positional defense that is giving Miami’s offense fits.

That’s also where P.J. Tucker — the Bucks’ other big addition, this time a midseason pickup — comes into the picture, because he and Holiday have done a phenomenal job making life hell on Butler. Through two games, the Heat’s best player has been limited to a total of 27 points. He’s shooting 25 percent from the floor, has only made 22.2 percent of his 3s and is a team-worst minus-42 in 78 minutes.

In Game 1, Butler was 0-for-6 when Tucker was his primary defender, and Heat players went 1-for-10 overall with Tucker guarding them. Between Holiday, Tucker, Middleton and Giannis, Miami doesn’t have very many options to switch onto Butler and exploit like they enjoyed last year.

This series isn’t over by any means, but it felt like the Bucks exorcised some demons against this Heat team in Game 2. Some will point to the 22 made 3s, but it’s really the new additions of Holiday, Tucker, Forbes, Bobby Portis and the rest that threaten to blow this thing wide open.

Monte Morris stepping up for Nuggets

Similarly to the Bucks, the Denver Nuggets got a double-digit win in Game 2 by virtue of some eye-popping stats that were impossible to ignore: Nikola Jokic put up a 38-8-5 stat line on 15-of-20 shooting to counter Damian Lillard’s 42 points and 10 assists on 9-of-16 shooting from deep. Michael Porter Jr. chipped in 18 points, while Paul Millsap was hyper-productive with his 15 points in 15 minutes off the bench.

But for a team that’s still adjusting to life without Jamal Murray, having a guy like Monte Morris healthy and back to producing has been a godsend.

Morris missed about a month from mid-April to just before the playoffs due to a hamstring strain, and he only got three games in before the start of the postseason. Thankfully, that was enough time for him to get back in a groove, because he’s been a huge plus for the Nuggets whenever he’s seen the floor so far in this series.

It’s not just the highlight-reel plays like cooking CJ McCollum off the dribble; Morris’ ability to provide any discernible threat off the bounce is big for a Denver team that will be relying on him, Facundo Campazzo and Austin Rivers to log significant minutes.

Two games in, Morris is the Nuggets’ fourth-leading scorer at 11.0 points per game, but he’s also their leading assist man at 6.0 per game, and he’s also a team-high plus-12 in his 52 minutes on the floor. As part of a second unit that’s faltered all too many times this season, Morris represents some much-needed stability when the starters need a breather.

He won’t be going toe-to-toe with Damian Lillard or McCollum anytime soon, but if he can help Denver maintain things in the bench minutes, this even series will get even more impossible to predict.

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If you needed more Bucks-Heat takeaways, we’ve got you covered. Similarly, if you were curious about which Heat players need to step up to make it a series again, we’ve got you covered there too.

For first impressions of every first-round series, The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor is all over it.