NBA stretch-run musings: Death lineups missing; Tom Thibodeau's mark on Knicks' offense; Nuggets' new duo

A wide-ranging notebook, with the playoffs approaching

The 2020-21 NBA regular season wraps up on May 16 and the play-in tournament starts a couple of days later, so we're in the thick of the stretch run. This means it's a good time to take a look around the league -- what follows is a check-in of sorts, a mix of big-picture storylines and small observations, tilted toward teams that have a chance to still be playing in two weeks.    When the Milwaukee Bucks traded for P.J. Tucker, they unlocked new lineup possibilities. He could play smallball 5, help them switch and close games when necessary. If there was one look that seemed most promising, it was a five-man unit featuring Jrue Holiday, Donte DiVincenzo, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Tucker. That group was on the court at the end of the Bucks' wins against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday and Tuesday, but it has only appeared in four games for a total of eight minutes, as pointed out by Nekias Duncan on the latest episode of Basketball News' "The Dunker Spot" podcast. This is strange, as is the fact that Tucker has rarely played center in Milwaukee. Of the 275 minutes he's logged for the Bucks, 225 of them (i.e. 81.8 percent) have come next to either Brook Lopez or Bobby Portis.