MILWAUKEE — Bucks guard Jevon Carter makes NBA defense sound simple.
“We’re just trusting and believing in each other,” Carter told reporters following the Bucks’ 119-108 win over the Knicks on Friday night. “Our job as guards and wings, send them into the paint, send them into the bigs. And the bigs’ job is to protect the rim. And when you’re on the same page, you should be able to get a stop more times than not.”
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If everyone on the floor just executes their role, the other team will not be able to score. Easy.
Except it isn’t easy.
In the first four games of the season, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson averaged 20 points and 8.5 assists in 34.5 minutes per game as the Knicks started 3-1. He made 51.7 percent of his shots from the field, including 41.2 percent from behind the 3-point line, and committed just six total turnovers. Despite his opponents’ best efforts, Brunson scored efficiently, and the Knicks overall scored 116.6 points per 100 possessions, which was good for sixth in offensive rating heading into Friday night’s game in Milwaukee.
As our Knicks beat writer Fred Katz articulated earlier this week, Brunson is not a typical point guard. He uses his strength to post up opposing point guards. He uses a herky-jerky game and hesitation moves to create just enough space to get off a wide variety of shots and creative finishes around the basket. And he can control a game at his own pace.
Unless Carter is around.
Take a look at Brunson’s first shot attempt two minutes into Friday’s game:
Brunson took his time and used his strength to move Carter backward toward the basket. He put Carter on his back and hit the Bucks guard with a couple fakes until he eventually maneuvered Carter into what he thought was a favorable position. But when Brunson went up for the shot, Carter was right there and found a way to strip the ball out of Brunson’s hands.
With Carter hounding him up and down the floor Friday, Brunson never got comfortable. Brunson made just three of the 10 shots he attempted on Friday and committed three turnovers on his way to 13 points, three rebounds and two assists in 33 minutes.
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While making the above play requires incredible skill and an undeniable will, Carter remained humble after the game when describing what he was trying to do against Brunson.
“I’m just trying to make him uncomfortable,” Carter, who had 14 points, said. “Guys in this league are the best of the best. So, my job is just to try to make everything hard. Keep them off balance, make them uncomfortable and play hard.”
There is no doubt about how hard Carter has played as a starter in the Bucks’ first four games. Carter’s tough-nosed defense has been his trademark since the day he arrived on campus at West Virginia University, where he pressed full court relentlessly under coach Bob Huggins and eventually took home the 2018 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award. That same effort was apparent from the moment he arrived in Milwaukee when the Bucks signed him in February after the Nets opted to waive him to make room for veteran point guard Goran Dragić.
“Jevon just gives us an edge and tries to make things difficult on that spot,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said of Carter’s work against opposing point guards.
Just look at Carter’s effort during this first-quarter possession that ends in a Knicks’ shot clock violation.
To start the possession, Carter pressured Brunson as the Knicks guard brought the ball up the floor. Once Brunson gave it up, Carter remained attached and fought through a screen by Mitchell Robinson to make it tougher on Brunson to get a touch.
Because of Carter’s ball pressure, the Knicks abandoned the initial set because Robinson was unable to actually make contact with Carter on a screen before attempting to roll to the basket. That simple act caused the Knicks to waste nearly five seconds to reset their play. To get ready for one final push toward the basket, Brunson dribbled even farther away from the basket to give Robinson one final chance to hit Carter with a screen as the shot clock ticked under 10 seconds remaining.
Despite his best efforts, Robinson just couldn’t seem to get a body on Carter, who went over the top of the initial screen and then under Robinson’s re-screen before going under one final twisting attempt at a screen and meeting Brunson at the exact same spot he blocked his shot five minutes earlier. With Carter on top of him, Brunson dumped it off to Robinson, who then needed to force up a hook shot with Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo on top of him in the lane.
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In the box score, Lopez received credit for a blocked shot on Robinson, and the Bucks received credit for forcing a shot clock violation.
In most cases, shot clock violations getting awarded to an entire team makes sense. They are often the product of all five guys moving and working together to rotate on a string and shut down an opponent. In this case, it was nearly all about Carter. Everyone else did their jobs, but Carter’s sublime individual effort forced the Knicks deep into the shot clock and ultimately set up Lopez for a block against Robinson, who was put in an undesirable position late in the clock.
“He’s not scared of the challenge,” Antetokounmpo (30 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists) said of Carter. “Just having somebody like that out there that’s going to always put his body on the line and give everything for the team, he’s setting the tone for everybody.
“He’s been doing that since Day 1. That’s the way he survives in this league. That’s what he’s all about. He’s all about hard work, all about taking the challenge and defending and having that pride, and we love it. I love it. The team loves it, and it sets the tone for everybody for the rest of us to do the same.”
The Bucks have three different players who have earned All-Defensive honors in Milwaukee. Carter is not one of them, but to open the season, he has set the tone for the league’s best defense.
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(Photo of Jevon Carter: Benny Sieu / USA Today)
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