Jason Kidd built his Milwaukee Bucks squad on a foundation of defense, and that philosophy is starting to pay major dividends.
The Bucks held their fifth straight opponent under 100 points on Tuesday night and got their second consecutive win, an 85-78 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. After the contest, Coach Kidd talked about that ideology and how it has led his team to rank third in the NBA in points allowed early in the season.
“We’re trying to defend home court; we’re learning how to win,” J-Kidd said. “We rebounded the ball, but I thought our defense gave us a chance to win. That’s why we won.”
Milwaukee’s stubborn and active defense limited OKC to just 33.3 percent shooting from the field, and on the other end of the floor, O.J. Mayo, Brandon Knight and Giannis Antetokounmpo supplied the firepower. Mayo poured in a team-high 19 points off the bench, Knight tallied 16 and The Greek Freak notched 14 with nine rebounds from his reserve role.
The Bucks bench combined for 53 points to outscore Oklahoma City’s reserves by 31 points. Coach Kidd has consistently used one of the deepest rotations in the league this season to great success.
“That’s the nice thing about our bench,” Jason explained. “We can rely on someone coming off…they give us a spark. That’s the nice thing about being a deep team, a young team—being able to call on those guys when we are flat, and those guys responded.”
The game didn’t get off to a great start for the Bucks. Despite coming off their most thrilling win of the season over the Grizzlies, a 93-92 victory over Memphis on Saturday night in Milwaukee, Coach Kidd’s starting unit came out flat and the Thunder jumped out to a 22-15 lead, while the Bucks shot just 35 percent from the floor.
But Milwaukee’s second unit ate up big minutes in the second quarter and it was their intensity and commitment on the defensive that helped turn the game toward the Bucks.
At the outset of the second quarter, OKC’s Reggie Jackson punched a three-ball to inflate the lead to 10, but soon the bench began to make its mark. The squad was fantastic defensively, allowing just four field goals and 21.1 percent shooting from the floor.
“Tonight we had a lot of open looks that didn’t go down,” Jason said. “But it didn’t take away from our defensive play.”
A pair of reserves also got the offense rolling.
Center Zaza Pachulia came up big on that end, tallying six points and six boards. He stuffed the stat sheet throughout the game for eight points, 10 boards, four assists, two steals and a block in 22 minutes.
Giannis Antetokounmpo provided the highlight of the quarter when he slashed through the OKC defense and finished with a two-handed slam.
Thanks to Zaza, Giannis and some great defensive effort, the Bucks chipped their way back and took a 41-38 lead at the half.
“We talk about energy and effort and trust,” Jason said. “We’ve relied on that second group to give us that energy.”
That energy boost carried through to the third quarter, where Mayo and Knight combined for 16 points off 6-of-11 shooting, including one trifecta each.
The highlight of the night came with under two minutes left in the quarter when Mayo came up with a loose ball and threw it up court to Pachulia. The center then flicked it behind his back to a trailing Jerryd Bayless, who threw it down with two hands and gave the Bucks a five-point lead, 67-62.
Bayless was also key off the bench, notching six points, four boards and a steal. His efforts, and the big frame from Mayo and Knight stretched the Milwaukee lead to five going into the fourth.
“We aren’t built around one guy,” Coach Kidd said. “This is not a one man team. This is the Milwaukee Bucks, so everybody pitches in.”
It was more of a community effort in the fourth, but more importantly, it was more staunch defense that carried Jason’s squad to victory. Milwaukee shot just 26.3 percent in the final frame, but it held OKC to 25 percent shooting, including a 1-of-7 mark from three.
Coming down the stretch, Mayo knocked down a nice 17-foot pull-up jump shot off a feed from Knight to push the Bucks lead to 11, 79-68, with about eight minutes to play in regulation.
OKC brought it to within four points with about 30 seconds left to play behind Jackson and a big triple from Ish Smith, but Knight and Mayo iced the game with three free throws in the waning seconds.
Milwaukee notched back-to-back wins for the first time since March 2013, breaking the longest active streak in the NBA. The win was a major benchmark for Jason’s young team.
At 4-4, the Bucks have doubled their win total from the first eight games last year and are just 11 wins shy of the 15 they had all season.
In addition to ranking third in the league in scoring defense, they’re also top 10 in rebounding (43.8 RPG).
But despite his team’s promising start, Coach Kidd is keeping them focused on the present and continuing the process of improvement.
“As much as the
[media] may talk about the future, we have to stay in the present,” said Jason. “I think the confidence, the work ethic, coming into the gym to get extra work, and even just talking about basketball are big.”UP NEXT
Jason’s squad will have a few days to polish up before they’re back in action for a two-game weekend road trip in the Sunshine State.
They’ll take on the Orlando Magic (2-6) Friday night before squaring off with the defending Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat (5-3) on Sunday.
Like the Bucks, the Magic are a young but talented squad. They’ll present a unique challenge down low with their big man Nikola Vucevic. The fourth-year player out of USC is averaging 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game this season.
Tipoff from the Amway Center is set for 7 p.m. ET Friday night.
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