Lately, when Brook Lopez has been having good games, it’s because he’s perfectly filling the stretch-five role the Bucks want him to play. He takes a lot of threes, he hits a good percentage of them, and nobody is surprised by it anymore because that’s who Blopez is now.
That’s not what he did this game. Instead of chilling at the three-point line, waiting for the opportunity to take contested stepbacks over smaller defenders, Blopez threw his meat around closer to the paint, begging for the ball in post-up situations and then dominating the weaklings who were assigned the unenviable task of trying to stop him. Not only did Blopez throw his meat around, but he made defenders taste it. Defenders tasted his meat. All of it. So much meat that they were practically gagging on it.
The end result was a lot of free throws for Blopez as defenders realized the only way they could stop his meaty post moves was to foul him. I’m not sure I’d want Blopez to do this all the time in every game, but there are certain specific situations where having a post-uppable center is a big plus for the team. Such as when Frank Kaminsky is on the court and you need to abuse him.