The Milwaukee Bucks got destroyed at the charity stripe against the Washington Wizards (28-9), a key reason for their 109-99 defeat (despite shooting it more frequently and at a better clip). It was really just more of the same from the Bucks; they are one of the league’s worst teams without Giannis. That said, I thought last night was a step down from how they played against the 76ers. Kyshawn George, who recently shared that he thought the Bucks were going to draft him, went off against Milwaukee. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast, Bucks In Six Minutes, below.
Player Grades
Ryan Rollins
26 minutes, 17 points, 8 assists, 3 rebounds, 4 steals, 1 turnover, 7/13 FG, 3/5 3P, -3
Ryan was great... when he was on the court. The problem was that he was too aggressive on defence early on and had to sit much of the first half with foul trouble; he has to be better than that and know his importance. That said, his game when he did play was excellent. I mean, Ryan made a number of clutch plays on both ends.
Myles Turner
39 minutes, 21 points, 14 rebounds, 6 blocks, 2 turnovers, 8/16 FG, 2/6 3P, +2
Granted, some of Turner’s minutes were played with no opposing centre on the floor—the Wizards’ backup centres Marvin Bagley and Tristan Vukcevic were out—but for him to have six blocks was awesome to see; it shows he’s engaged and has the right mindset. I also loved his rebounding (again, easier in this one than usual, but you still have to grab ‘em).
37 minutes, 2 points, 3 assists, 1/6 FG, 0/4 3P, -10
Yeah, I barely remember AJ doing anything positive in this game (other than a nice read off the pick-and-roll in the first quarter). The reality for him as a shooter is that he needs to make shots. He’d been doing that, but not last night. Green’s defence—and specifically his ability to slide his feet—was less effective because there weren’t many good matchups for him.
Kyle Kuzma
*34 minutes, 19 points, 6 assists, 9 rebounds, 3 turnovers, 8/18 FG, 0/3 3P, -*8
While Kuz did have some nice plays towards the end of the game—both from a passing and scoring standpoint, especially in transition—there were just too many instances throughout the game where he was out of control. Missing 10 shots and turning the ball over three times just isn’t good enough.
Bobby Portis
36 minutes, 19 points, 3 assists, 7 rebounds, 8/17 FG, 2/5 3P, -21
Man, this was such a weird Bobby game. At points, he was the Bucks’ only source of offence and was actually quite effective with his backdowns. He even had an absolute dime to Pete Nance under the hoop at one point. But the fact that Portis had, by far, the worst plus/minus on the team likely indicates that he did a lot wrong on defence. I mean, the next closest was -10.
Pete Nance
20 minutes, 13 points, 6 rebounds, 6/10 FG, 1/3 3P, -1
Just another great game from Nance, who actually got a shot last night over Jericho Sims. He put himself in the right spots to be a receiver and a converter once his teammates made the initial play—something he has a knack for.
Gary Trent Jr.
24 minutes, 3 points, 1/6 FG, 1/5 3P, -1
I mean, GT took the right shots, but he has truly fallen off the map this year. Wow.
Cole Anthony
*17 minutes, 5 points, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 2/11 FG, 1/6 3P, -*9
Cole Anthony. Just the Ultimate tank commander. My guy was throwing up BRICKS.
Doc Rivers
Hmmmm. The everlasting quandary of weighing Doc’s coaching acumen against the crappy talent level of his team. On one hand, I can’t expect Doc to make chicken salad out of chickenb sh*t, respectfully. On the other hand, let’s not act like he’s some technician who makes all the right calls. He played Nance, not Sims. That’s something. He gave AJax some minutes… didn’t do much. I thought BP was appropriately used on offence against a bunch of smaller wings. Rivers can’t control Rollins getting in foul trouble. But at the end of the day, the team should have been more competitive in the first three quarters against a side that, not so subtly, was playing its deep reserves for a suspiciously long time, I thought. Take what you will from that.
Limited minutes: Andre Jackson Jr.
DNP-CD: Amir Coffey, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Pete nance
Inactive: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo, Kevin Porter Jr., Taurean Prince
Bonus Bucks Bits
The Bucks had at least three flagrant fouls where they got into the shooter’s landing space. Might have been four. That’s just clumsy. One of those came on Wizards rookie Tre Johnson, who left the game and did not return. Postgame, Doc was not happy with the amount the Bucks fouled shooters.
Myles had a late block that would have been his seventh of the night. It was clean up top, but there was some incidental lower-body contact, and they called it a foul. The Bucks challenged and lost. Here’s what Doc had to say about that play: “If you start calling the lower body after you block a shot, everybody’s going to be shooting a free throw. To make a call like that at the end of a game, to decide a game, is just absolutely awful.”
I wanted to know why in the world this game was nationally televised (I’m sure casual fans were watching this cellar-dweller matchup with high interest). Then I started putting two and two together that it was a night to celebrate John Wall.
Interesting that, even when they are ostensibly tanking, the Wizards still aren’t giving a load of minutes to AJ Johnson. He had a DNP last night.
Khris was solid, but it feels like they’re limiting his minutes. Maybe that’s good for both parties at this point.
The Bucks have a few days off now before they play in Boston on Sunday afternoon. Catch the game on ESPN and FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 2:30 p.m. CST.