Despite another strong game from Christian Wood, Bucks get ousted from NBA summer league

The Milwaukee Bucks staged a fierce, fourth-quarter rally to go from trailing the Philadelphia 76ers by eight at the start of the period to leading by eight with under a minute to go.

It looked like Milwaukee was on its way to competing in the quarterfinals of the Las Vegas summer league, but Furkan Korkmaz and the 76ers had other plans. A combination of Bucks turnovers, fouls and missed shots along with Korkmaz scoring eight of his 19 points in the final 40 seconds, sent Milwaukee to a 91-89 loss Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center, ending the team's stay in Las Vegas with a 2-3 record.

Sterling Brown was whistled for a pair of key fouls late, fouling Korkmaz on a three-pointer and giving Korkmaz the go-ahead and-1 with 3.6 seconds left. The Bucks had numerous chances to put the game away, but a blocked layup attempt by Travis Trice, an offensive foul by Trice and a botched inbound pass to Christian Wood after the Korkmaz and-1 all contributed to the loss.

“Just a couple plays here and there," said Taylor Jenkins, a Bucks assistant coach who ran the summer squad. "You’ve got to credit Philadelphia for making some great defensive stops down the stretch. Then a couple learning opportunities for us. … A couple things hopefully you can control better the next time.”

The final game of summer league wasn't one of the better ones for the trio of players on guaranteed contracts with the Bucks. Brown contributed 15 points and eight rebounds in 30 minutes but had a forgettable final minute marred by fouls.

His performance was still more positive than those put forth by D.J. Wilson and Donte DiVincenzo, Milwaukee's last two first-round picks. Wilson, who didn't connect on a shot until the fourth quarter, finished a generally solid summer league with just six points on 2 of 9 shooting and three rebounds in 26 minutes.

DiVincenzo, playing in his second game after missing the first three in Las Vegas due to a right groin strain, failed to make a shot for the second successive contest, going 0 for 5 on five three-point tries in 16 minutes Saturday. He did split a pair of free throws, ending his first summer league with one point on 0 of 8 shooting, including going 0 for 7 on three-pointers.

While he shot poorly, DiVincenzo did collect four rebounds, two steals, two assists and a block, though he also had three turnovers.

“Number one is he plays with a great motor," Jenkins said of DiVincenzo. "Obviously, he’s coming back from not having played in a while. … Just really impressed with his maturity during this process managing his injury. Then when he got his number called he went out there and played his hardest. We don’t worry about the makes and misses, but I feel like he had a couple assists, a couple rebounds, steals, blocks, filling up the stat sheet."

While that trio had an off night, Wood capped his summer-league experience with yet another strong performance. The 6-foot-11 center put up 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting, grabbed 12 rebounds and recorded five blocks in the loss.

In five summer-league games, Wood averaged 20.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.8 blocks over 27.1 minutes per game while shooting 55.4% from the field and 30.8% on three-pointers.

“I think without a doubt he’s an NBA player," Jenkins said. "I think this was a great showing by him. … For his role at the NBA level, he’s got the NBA talent offensively and to have that motor defensively, I was really impressed with him.”

Though he played summer league with the Bucks, Milwaukee has no leg up when it comes to extending a contract offer to Wood. Any team can make him an offer at any point and his performance in Las Vegas has already drawn the attention of several teams.

“I think (summer league) showed teams that I’m a rotation guy and that I can play in the NBA," said Wood, a 22-year-old with 30 games of NBA experience and 95 in the G League following two collegiate seasons at UNLV. "Overall I think I did really well for myself.”

For now, with the Bucks eliminated from contention, Wood is planning on getting back to the grind before figuring out what's next.

“Back to the gym," Wood said when asked what's next for him. "But hopefully my agent can figure something out and we can get this guaranteed contract.”