Mavericks 111, Bucks 79: Embarrassed in Big D

DALLAS - One team entered the American Airlines Center riding a four-game win streak. The other came in with just two wins on the season.

The Milwaukee Bucks were the former but played like the latter. Actually, they played worse than the latter as they were embarrassed by the Dallas Mavericks in a 111-79 loss on Saturday night. The 32-point blowout was Milwaukee's largest margin of defeat this season.

“I thought our offense dictated our defense," head coach Jason Kidd said. "We didn’t make shots and then we didn’t guard. Coming into the game we had talked about how they are second in the league in (three-point) attempts, they just haven’t made them. Tonight they made up for those misses. ...

“This was one of our worst games, but it happens. We just have to learn from it.”

Dallas didn't just make a lot of three-pointers. They made more than any Bucks opponent in the franchises' 50-year history.

The Mavericks knocked down 19 three-pointers on 38 attempts, making one more than the previous record against the Bucks, which was set by the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 5, 2016. Many of those triples came as a result of Milwaukee's defensive breakdowns, as all the Bucks' progress on that end during their four-game win streak seemed like a distant memory.

But even when the Bucks weren't committing defensive miscues, the Mavericks just couldn't seem to miss.

BOX SCORES:Mavericks 111, Bucks 79

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Wesley Matthews, who had a season-high 22 points, rattled in a three-pointer from the corner to beat the shot clock while falling out of bounds and John Henson draped all over him for one of his 6 three-pointers.

J.J. Barea, who had 20 points and 4 three-pointers, had a rare miss from downtown, airballing an attempt in the second half, but Dirk Nowitzki saved it back to him and Barea chucked up another try late in the shot clock that caught nothing but net.

"That's what happens when you give a team confidence," said Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe, who had six points on 2 of 10 shooting and a team-high four assists. "They've still got good players over there even though their record don't show it. They've got a great coach. We've just got to be disciplined and just play our game."

While everything was falling for the Mavericks, the Bucks never got into any offensive flow. They went 28 of 74 from the field for a season-low 38.4% shooting percentage. Milwaukee couldn't buy a bucket from behind the arc, going 6 of 25 (24%).

Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA's leader in player efficiency rating, had 24 points and 15 rebounds in the loss, but had his second-worst shooting game of the season at 7 of 20 from the floor. Khris Middleton had 23 points on 9 of 12 shooting, but no other Bucks player scored in double figures.

"No one made a shot tonight," Kidd said. "I think Khris might be the only one that was over 50%. Our bench was awful. We've got to do better and we just didn't do it tonight."

The consensus in the locker room was that the ball just didn't move, a belief that's backed up by the Bucks recording a season-low 13 assists. Milwaukee knew going into the game that Dallas was going to try to entice certain shots. The Bucks took the bait but didn't knock those looks down.

"We settled sometimes we shouldn't have settled," Middleton said. "Move the ball, attack the paint, get the best shot. Some of the shots we shot, I mean, we can make them but we don't need to take them right away. We can get them later in the shot clock."

After the game, there were few sounds breaking the silence in the Bucks locker room. Antetokounmpo and Middleton quietly went over defensive assignments while icing their legs. A common refrain, including from one loud, reassuring voice from the shower, was that the loss — as lopsided as it was — represented just one game.

"They just outplayed us," Bledsoe said. "It wasn't our defense scheme or anything like that, that's it. They just outplayed us."

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE

Jet landing: With 2:42 left and the Mavericks leading by 32 points, most fans remaining in the arena rose to their feet to welcome Bucks gaurd Jason Terry, who was checking in for the first time of the night and possibly his last time at American Airlines Center.

Terry drew that warm welcome after spending eight seasons with the Mavericks, winning a championship with them in 2011. On his first opportunity, Terry put up a 12-footer and knocked it down, drawing further recognition from the crowd.

Getting minutes: With the result decided, Kidd emptied his bench. That included giving two-way players Gary Payton II and Joel Bolomboy some minutes, with that playing time representing Bolomboy's Bucks debut. 

Bolomboy made his only shot but missed a pair of free throws in 3:10 of action and Payton missed his only shot attempt and grabbed two rebounds in 4:48.

Each two-way player can only spend up to 45 days with his parent club before he must be signed to an NBA contract. Payton and Bolomboy have spent about a quarter of that time up with the team already but haven't seen much action in games.

“To have those guys up, to practice here, to participate and to also be ready to play there’s no pressure (to play them)," Kidd said this week. “I think it’s all about the experience. To go against the guys in practice and to have game time — GP’s had game time — so to have game time is valuable. For those guys to be able to get that experience, to go back down and take that experience and get better, I think it’s important and so far it’s worked for us.”

UP NEXT

Teams: Washington Wizards (9-6) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (8-7).

When: 7 p.m. Monday.

Where: BMO Harris Bradley Center.

About the Wizards: Washington will be playing its second of three straight road games when it visits the Bradley Center on Monday, just one day removed from taking on the Toronto Raptors at the Air Canada Centre. The Wizards have been one of the most solid teams in the league this season, entering Saturday ranked eighth in both offensive (107.1 points per 100 possessions) and defensive rating (102.5 points allowed per 100 possessions) and sixth in net rating (4.6). Washington's success hinges largely on its dangerous backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal. Beal leads the Wizards with 24.1 points per game and Wall averages 19.9 points and 9.3 assists per game. Wall struggled through Friday's loss to the Miami Heat with a sore left knee and his status for the Toronto-Milwaukee back-to-back games remains in doubt.