For the second time in three games, the energy, intensity and execution by his Milwaukee Bucks in the final seconds sent Coach Jason Kidd jumping off the bench in joy, as another West Coast nail-biter produced an enormous and emotional road victory for the Bucks on Thursday night in Sacramento.
This time, the recipient of Coach Kidd’s embrace was big man Zaza Pachulia after the 7-footer from the country of Georgia hit the go-ahead free throw with 6.3 seconds left. The Bucks then maintained the lead with fantastic, suffocating defense on the other end to force an errant shot from Kings star DeMarcus Cousins at the buzzer to steal the victory.
Playing in his first game since November 26th, Cousins had an All-Star caliber night with 27 points and 10 rebounds, and it looked like he might emerge as the hero on the final play. But the Bucks forced the dominant big man out of his comfort zone to the perimeter, where he tossed up a shot that fell well short of its mark.
“We’re happy he didn’t get to the basket,” J-Kidd said of Cousins on Sacramento’s final play. “You contest the jump shot and in this league guys can make it. We got lucky he missed.”
Heading into their tilt with the Kings, the outlook was grim for Milwaukee. Earlier in the week, the Bucks had lost rookie sensation Jabari Parker for the season to a knee injury. Two nights later, sophomore standout Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered a minor ankle sprain that left him questionable to play Thursday. Then center Larry Sanders was suspended for the game. Meanwhile, Sacramento was welcoming back its star big man Cousins, creating a perfect storm for a blowout of the Bucks.
But as they have all season long, Milwaukee just looked to the next Buck up, and came away with an 108-107 win. Afterward Coach Kidd lauded the incredible team effort that produced their latest victory.
“Everybody had something to do with it tonight, offensively and defensively,” Jason said. “It just showed us what we’ve been saying all along, that we’re a team. We play hard. The guys did that on the road, and they’ve been giving us a chance to win.”
Due to the various maladies befalling their roster, Milwaukee dressed just nine players for Thursday’s game and the shorthanded roster forced Coach Kidd to start rookie Johnny O’Bryant. The rookie played just 17 minutes and tallied just six points on the night, but his defensive play earned high praise from J-Kidd.
“I thought Johnny was big for us,” Kidd said. “He got us going, being able to guard Cousins. He did everything we asked him to do and on the offensive end he knocked down some shots.”
Additionally, the Bucks again started veteran guard O.J. Mayo, who began the season coming off the bench as a catalyst for the reserve unit. But Mayo has adjusted well to any role Coach Kidd has put him in this season, and Thursday night was no different.
Starting for the 13th straight game, Mayo erupted out of the gate and connected on 7-of-9 attempts from the field in the first, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc to account for 17 of Milwaukee’s 25 first quarter points. Thanks to his efforts, the Bucks survived a big early punch from the Kings, who took a 16-4 in the games’ first four minutes, thanks to a 12-0 run after Mayo’s first two buckets of the evening.
Mayo broke the run with a jumper off a feed from Pachulia, then hit back-to-back threes to pull Milwaukee within six just over halfway through the opening frame. After Mayo scored the team’s first 12 points, Antetokounmpo, who played 37 minutes in the game despite dealing with soreness in his ankle, tallied the next three.
Later, Mayo and Jared Dudley hit back-to-back threes to once again make it a six-point game. Mayo then added a long jumper with just over a minute left in the quarter to reduce the deficit to four, 29-25 after one quarter.
“It was just knocking down shots and being aggressive,” Mayo, who finished with 19 points, said afterward. “We’re very confident in our offense.”
Darren Collison opened the second quarter with a trey to put the Kings up by seven, but the Bucks answered back and the game went back and forth for several minutes from there. Milwaukee finally pulled ahead on a three by Jerryd Bayless, but Sacramento quickly answered with a post move by Cousins that got him to the free throw line where he sank both of his attempts. However just moments later, point guard Brandon Knight hit a mid-range jumper to give the Bucks the lead back.
Like Mayo in the first, Knight was red-hot in the second, where he tallied 16 of his team-high 20 in the second frame. After his bucket gave the Bucks their first lead since 2-0, Knight’s fingerprints were all over Milwaukee’s surge to a halftime lead. He dished to Kendall Marshall for a trey that sent the lead to four, then answered a pair of Ramon Sessions free throws with two of his own to push the advantage back to four.
After Sacramento scored the next six points to take the lead back, Knight buried a triple to make it 49-48 with 4:25 left in the half. The Bucks had the lead up to five with under two minutes left in the half, but Rudy Gay followed a Collison bucket with a trey to tie the game at 54-54. But Knight got the last word with a three of his own to make it 57-54 Milwaukee at halftime.
After the halftime break, the teams continued to jockey back and forth with neither side able to establish a lead of more than two possession. Sacramento eventually pulled ahead by six with 4:44 to go in the third, but the Bucks’ reserves brought them back.
Jerryd Bayless hit a three to cut the deficit in half and then Dudley answered a three by Derrick Williams with a long jumper to make it a four-point game. After four straight points from Antetokounmpo, Dudley and Bayless again went back-to-back.
First it was Dudley with a deuce to make it a one-point game and then Bayless followed with a trey to briefly put the Bucks ahead. Williams again hit a three to grab the lead back for the Kings, but a late dunk by Antetokounmpo sent the game to the fourth knotted at 81.
In the final quarter, the ability of the Milwaukee reserves like Dudley, who scored 19 points in 33 minutes off the bench and Bayless, who tallied 17 in 29 minutes as a reserve proved pivotal for the undermanned Milwaukee team. Another set of back-t0-back scores by the reserve duo got the Bucks out to a lead early in the frame and kicked off a 11-1 Bucks run.
Marshall had a layup during the run and O’Bryant tallied two free throws, but it was Dudley who capped it with a try to make it 92-84 Milwuakee with 8:40 to go. Dudley had 11 points in the fourth quarter alone to help seal the win.
“It was a big win. I don’t know (how we were able to pull it out),” Dudley said. “We were shorthanded; I was playing backup center. Cousins was an animal. It was hard to stop him all night. But we just stuck with the game plan. This is big for us to go to 2-1 on this trip. It shows you the will of this team.”
But the win wasn’t without a late-game run by the opponent that required a little late-game magic to survive, as has become a staple of this season for the Bucks. When Dudley completed on a conventional three-point play at the free throw line to put the, up 101-91 with 6:41 to go, it appeared Milwaukee would cruise to the win.
The Kings slowly chipped away at the lead over the next five minutes and back-to-back buckets by Gay with under 90 seconds to play tied the score at 105-105. Pachulia answered with a layup to put the Bucks up by two, but a pair of Ben McLemore free throws again tied the game with 30 seconds left. After a miss by Dudley, Pachulia grabbed the rebound and was fouled by McLemore on a putback attempt, sending him to the line to make it a two-point game with just 6.8 seconds left.
But he hit just one of his two attempts, giving the Kings a chance to win with any bucket. However, Pachulia made up for his miss at the line with the way he guarded the inbounds play to finish the game. The 7-footer stuck with Cousins and denied his move toward the basket, forcing him to settle instead for a fade-away jumper from just inside the arc that missed the mark, giving the Bucks another big win.
“I kind of got pushed out a little further; ZaZa kind of played me to my right,” Cousins said. “I tried to go left, but Knight helped, so I crossed over and tried to take the best shot available with time running out. I think I got a good look, but it just didn’t fall.”
The Bucks are now 3-3 in their stretch of seven consecutive games against Western Conference foes, which ends Saturday at the Staples Center against the Clippers. Though the West has dominated the East overall this season, Milwaukee has been an exception to that rule and holds a 6-5 overall record against opponents from outside their conference, an encouraging sign for their development as the season rolls along.
“Our guys are playing hard,” Jason said. “The trip started in Phoenix with a hard-fought game, down to the last play. Guys are getting better, so we’ll see.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks finish their road trip with a rematch against the Clippers (16-7), whom they defeated 111-106 last Saturday in Milwaukee behind 22 points from Knight and 20 from Antetokounmpo.
Though their defense allowed 106 points to Los Angeles in that win, they were stout inside, limiting the Clippers frontcourt combo of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin to just 17 total points on 7-of-18 from the field. They’ll try to do the same in LA on Saturday.
Tip off from Staples Center is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. CST and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin.
RELATED ARTICLES
- Short-handed Bucks hold off Kings (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Dec. 18, 2014)
- Bucks spoil Cousins’ return, beat Kings (Associated Press, Dec. 18, 2014)
- Milwaukee’s royally-hot shooting night pushes them past Kings (Brew Hoop, Dec. 19, 2014)
- Road Reaction: Bucks 108, Kings 107 (Fox Sports Wisconsin, Dec. 18, 2014)
