Bucks 93, Magic 89: Giannis stars in victory
After taking the Golden State Warriors to the final minute on Saturday night, the Milwaukee Bucks knew they could play with any team in the NBA. It's something head coach Jason Kidd has emphasized, pushing his players to maintain the high level of intensity and learning how to consistently apply it, no matter the opponent.
"We talked about it for the last two days that that's the way we have to play," Kidd said. "We can accept losing if we can play that way; we don't want to lose, we want to win every game, but giving that type of effort every night we can accept that. We can learn from our mistakes and also learn from what we did right."
BOX SCORE: Bucks 93, Magic 89
Against the Orlando Magic on Monday night and the BMO Harris Bradley Center less packed than Saturday, the Bucks sputtered at times and didn't exactly keep the momentum going. But they finished the night with a better result, snapping a three-game losing skid with a 93-89 victory.
Bucks bullish on more concerts with new arena
"You tip your hat to a young team; they didn't panic," Kidd said. "We could have easily panicked and folded the tent. You can probably maybe, expect a little letdown after a high of playing Golden State, and I thought the guys showed a lot of character."
Giannis Antetokounmpo played a starring role, recording his first triple-double of the season with 21 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds along with five steals and three blocks. Jabari Parker contributed 22 points, making a career-high five three-pointers in seven attempts.
"I've been telling him to do that for the whole season, man," Michael Beasley said of Antetokounmpo's triple-double. "He likes people to think he's still human."
According to the Bucks, Antetokounmpo's line was only duplicated two other times in NBA history — by Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordan.
"It was a good one," Antetokounmpo said when asked to compare his triple-double to the five he had last season. "We got the win so it feels even better."
Though it ended well, the night got off to a rocky start for the Bucks. Instead of building off the performance against the Warriors, the Bucks muddled through the first few minutes, listlessly falling into a 16-2 hole. During that stretch, Kidd gave Antetokounmpo, Parker and Matthew Dellavedova, who alone had five first-quarter turnovers, an early hook.
With those three starters on the bench, the Bucks started to pull back into contention thanks to the hot shooting of Beasley. Beasley made his first two shots off the bench and went 5 of 6 with 10 points in the quarter, and Milwaukee trailed by just seven at the end of the period. Beasley finished with 14 points to lead a bench unit that had 34 combined points.
"Beasley was great off the bench, Mirza (Teletovic) was great off the bench for us, Moose (Greg Monroe) was great off the bench for us," Kidd said. "That was something that, again, it was a team effort. Everybody who participated helped us win."
After combining for just two points in the first quarter, Antetokoumpo and Parker broke out in the second, combining for 19 points in the frame. More importantly, Milwaukee's defense forced 10 Orlando turnovers in the quarter and 19 in the half and held the Magic without a field goal for a stretch of more than five minutes. It paid off as the Bucks took a 49-44 advantage into the half.
"We've got to think we're playing the Golden State Warriors every night, the Cavs every night, the Toronto Raptors," Antetokounmpo said. "Not taking anything away from Orlando, but we didn't come out the same way we did against Golden State. Thank God in the second quarter we picked it up."
Parker unleashed his three-point barrage in the third quarter, making four consecutive three-point attempts, most of which coming in catch-and-shoot situations. But the Bucks went cold late in the quarter, surrendering a 12-0 run to end the period and the Magic, who were led by Serge Ibaka's team-high 21 points, took a five-point lead into the fourth.
Milwaukee battled back to tie the score at 76 then embarked on a 9-0 run that began with an Antetokounmpo behind-the-back pass to Mirza Teletovic for a layup. The Magic responded in kind to tie the game back up at 85, but a Dellavedova three-pointer — assisted by Antetokounmpo — followed by Dellavedova returning the favor by dishing to Antetokounmpo for a dunk, essentially put the game away.
The Bucks earned the win in large part by clamping down on defense in the fourth quarter. Using their small-ball lineup with Antetokounmpo at center for much of the quarter, they limited the Magic to just 15 points on 5 for 23 shooting (21.7%).
While the Bucks didn't play with the same consistent energy and effort as they did on Saturday night, Kidd believes that experience did help them on Monday, especially when it came to bending but not breaking on defense in the fourth quarter.
"I think you look to that last game," Kidd said. "We were in that game, you draw from (it), and again, we understand we've got to get stops if we want to win. ... They kept playing and you give a lot of credit to that small group, but it was everybody that participated."
THREE TAKEAWAYS
1. After committing eight turnovers in the first quarter the Bucks had just six for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Milwaukee forced 25 Orlando turnovers leading to 25 points. The Bucks had 16 steals and nine blocks on the night.
2. Despite struggling for much of the night, the Bucks' point guards came up big in the fourth quarter. Matthew Dellavedova had six turnovers through the first three quarters, but he didn't have any giveaways in the final stanza while making a pivotal three-pointer and recording an assist. Malcolm Brogdon, who was 0 of 5 through the first three quarters, started the fourth with a layup through contact and scored five points in the period while recording a pair of assists.
3. Before the game, Kidd mentioned the possibility of continuing to only use two centers. When John Henson and Miles Plumlee got into foul trouble, though, Greg Monroe got 8 1/2 minutes of action and helped the Bucks to a plus-9 mark in that time — the second-best plus/minus mark on the team. For much of the second half, the Bucks opted not to use a traditional center at all after finding success with their small-ball lineup.
UP NEXT
Teams: Milwaukee Bucks (6-7) vs. Toronto Raptors (8-5 entering Monday).
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
Where: BMO Harris Bradley Center.
About the Heat: The Raptors gave 6-foot-7 shooting guard DeMar DeRozan a hefty pay raise this summer, inking him to five-year, $137.5 million deal and thus far he's been worth the expenditure. Entering Monday, DeRozan was the NBA's leading scorer at 31.4 points per game while adding 5.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 37 minutes per game. As a team, the Raptors have been in a bit of a funk after a 7-2 start, losing three of four entering Monday's game at the Los Angeles Clippers.
Charles F. Gardner contributed to this report.