Wizards 107, Bucks 104: Running out of chances

If you turned off your television during or immediately after the first quarter of Tuesday night's game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards, you made a wise decision given the information available.

The Bucks got behind by two touchdowns — 14-0 — before breaking onto the scoreboard. Before the first quarter came to a close, they trailed by as many as three — touchdowns, that is.

That's not good in football and it's even worse in basketball.

But if you tuned out at that point, you missed what turned out to become a thrilling contest. The Bucks battled back and had chance after chance to tie the game or go ahead. Try as they might, they couldn't break through, fumbling away possessions, missing shots or running into untimely defensive lapses.

Still, they had two cracks at tying the game in the final seconds. Giannis Antetokounmpo had a good look at a jumper in the lane that would have tied the game. Then, after Bradley Beal split a pair of free throws with 0.8 seconds left, Antetokounmpo inbounded to Eric Bledsoe who lost control of the ball as he went up for a shot, sealing a 107-104 loss at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

“If we don’t come out and play hard it’s pointless," Bledsoe said. "We did a great job that second half of playing with effort and pace, giving ourselves a chance to win.”

Considering all the missed chances, that end might have been the most fitting of all for the Bucks. Following that dismal start in the first quarter, the Bucks brought the effort that had been lacking, but only had themselves to blame for failing to fully dig out of that hole.

They had chances.

“You’re just trying to get over the hump, keep the pressure on them," coach Joe Prunty said. "Obviously getting there is one thing, getting over and taking the lead is another. I thought we had several opportunities whether it was shots in transition, layups on cuts where maybe we could have had a basket that could have put even more pressure on them.”

BOX SCORE:Wizards 107, Bucks 104

After trailing by 14 at halftime, the Bucks locked down defensively and used an 18-6 run over the first six minutes of the third quarter to pull within two. Even during that run, Milwaukee could have done more, stringing together three straight turnovers. Two of those came on bad passes by Khris Middleton in transition and the other came via an offensive foul by Antetokounmpo.

But after pulling within two for the first time, the Wizards went on a 4-0 run and held the Bucks at arm's length for most of the remaining minutes of the third quarter. Milwaukee got within a basket again at the end of the third quarter when Jason Terry swished a three and Antetokounmpo concluded the period with an emphatic block, sending the home crowd into a frenzy.

The Bucks then got the margin down to one on five separate occasions in the fourth. Four of those were immediately followed by the Wizards scoring at the opposite end. The other time, when the Bucks were down 94-93 around the midway point of the quarter, they missed three shots at the lead.

“In that second half we were right there," said Middleton, who had 17 points. "Just a couple plays short, a couple loose balls. We’ve got to finish on those fast breaks that we had in that third quarter and then in the fourth quarter we just couldn’t get those stops.”

Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 23 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, six blocks and three steals. Jabari Parker, who played 27 minutes and closed out the game, had 19 points and was the main reason why the Bucks stayed afloat in the first half as he made his first five shots for 14 points in seven minutes.

"Unbelievable, unbelievable job," Antetokounmpo said of Parker, whose status for Wednesday's game is not yet known. He has not played in back-to-back games since returning from his left ACL tear. "He's coming in, he's getting his rhythm. He's the 'JP' that we all know and moving forward he's going to help us a lot."

Beal paced the Wizards with 21 points, including a clutch three-pointer to beat the shot clock with 59.7 seconds left that put Washington ahead by five.

“I think it was great defense," Antetokounmpo said. "He got a shot off with one second left, a quick one. Bledsoe was right there but he made it. He was feeling good and was able to make that shot. That shot hurt us.”

As deflating as that shot was, the Bucks still had chances. John Henson grabbed a Bledsoe shot that missed short and passed to Middleton who nailed a floater through a foul. Antetokounmpo then blocked Tomas Satoransky to force a shot-clock violation and set up his chance to tie the game.

But his 13-footer in the lane with 4.6 seconds left would fall.

“We love the look," Prunty said. "As we were going down the floor we thought, ‘Do we need to take a timeout?’ because we weren’t structured the way we thought we should have been in terms of we had communicated, I thought, what we wanted to run, but still ended up with a quality look .. and that’s something we know we can trust (Giannis) to knock down.”

For Antetokounmpo, he did everything he wanted to in terms of creating a shot that couldn't be blocked. It's a shot's he's made plenty of times before, is comfortable with and will continue to attempt in the future.

The problem on Tuesday night was he felt his balance was off.

“I was happy with space, but I think I could do a better job getting my balance," he said. "I slipped a little bit when I moved my shoulder. I moved my shoulder so I could create space but I slipped a little bit, so I wasn’t able to get my balance the right way that I wanted. It was still a good look.”

That's just how the night went for the Bucks, which concluded the season series with the Wizards with each team claiming a pair of wins on the other's home court. It was a game that felt like a playoff contest and could very well be a first-round matchup come April.

"It's always important to win a series, or tie it, and we did a good job of doing those things," Beal said. "We don't play them anymore, thankfully. That's a tough team."

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE

Shuffling centers: When the Bucks acquired Tyler Zeller from the Brooklyn Nets in early February, it gave Milwaukee three full-time centers for the first time since the team shipped Greg Monroe to Phoenix back in November.

The problem since then, though, has been the Bucks haven't often had all three of their big men healthy at the same time. Henson, the regular starter, missed four of the team's first five games after the trade due to a right hamstring injury.

With the full complement of big men now available, Prunty faces the decision of how to use them. On Sunday, Henson carried the lion's share of minutes while Maker (15) and Zeller (11) each got some chances.

“A lot of it is the flow of the game," Prunty said. "There might be some other things that take place game-plan wise that we have discussions about as a staff. A lot of it is who the matchup is and who we’re playing. The bottom line is to be ready whenever your number is called.”

On Tuesday, Henson logged 25 minutes, scoring four points and grabbing nine rebounds. Maker played just five first-half minutes before bridging the third and fourth quarters and finishing with four points and two rebounds in 13 minutes. Zeller logged eight minutes in the first half and didn't return. He missed both his shots, grabbed one rebound and recorded a block.

Casting a big shadow: Tuesday's game was the Bucks' latest "Classic Night," which included unveiling the top five centers in franchise history as voted on by fans. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar unsurprisingly was listed among them and was on hand at the Bradley Center to soak in a standing ovation in the first quarter.

The other four centers on the all-time team were Bob Lanier, Jack Sikma, Ervin Johnson and Andrew Bogut.

UP NEXT

Teams: Milwaukee Bucks (33-27) at Detroit Pistons (28-32).

When: 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: Little Caesars Arena.

About the Pistons: Detroit made one of the biggest moves this season, trading for forward Blake Griffin on Jan. 29. Griffin, a five-time all-star, has played in all 11 of the Pistons' games in February but hasn't helped Detroit move up in the standings as the Pistons hold a 5-6 record this month. Five of those losses, including Detroit's three defeats in as many games since the all-star break, have come by double digits. The Pistons' five wins have all come at home against teams playing the second game of a back-to-back, which is the situation the Bucks will face Wednesday night. Milwaukee leads the season series, 2-1, with each team protecting its home floor.