Coach Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks aren’t the average NBA team and they continued to prove as much on Wednesday by dominating a team that mirrors them in many ways.
With one of the league’s youngest coaches and youngest rosters, the Bucks are a lot like Wednesday night’s opponent, the Philadelphia 76ers. In fact, the teams had the two worst records in the NBA last season.
But while Philadelphia (5-29) again dwells near the basement of the Eastern Conference, Milwaukee (19-18) has battled into contention in the East through some unorthodox methods, including one of the league’s deepest benches, despite the youth on their roster.
They showed off their progress on Wednesday night and won their fifth straight game away from home by dominating the 76ers, 97-77. The win was Milwaukee’s 12th on the road this season, a necessity for a squad that has struggled at home and lost their fourth straight game in their own friendly confines one night prior.
But as Coach Kidd explained after the game, the way the Bucks won was with some normal, fundamental basketball.
“I think it was the guys taking care of the ball offensively, and getting stops defensively,” Jason said of the win. “We didn’t turn it over. We got good looks and defensive plays.”
With Ersan Ilyasova out with a concussion, in addition to the absences of Jabari Parker, Larry Sanders and others, J-Kidd was limited to just 11 players, but those 11 made sure the depleted roster wouldn’t be a problem.
Milwaukee shot 53.9 percent from the field, including 47.1 percent from beyond the arc, and never trailed while holding the Sixers to 30.1 percent shooting. The Bucks led by 16 after one quarter, allowing Jason to spread the minutes out across the board and keep his guys fresh.
“You’ve got to find times if you get lucky during the season to give them rest when you think you have a game in control,” Jason said. “(We knew) the Sixers could easily come back, but being able to get guys rest and at the same time give them a little time on the floor to keep their rhythm was big.”
With the exception of John Henson who played 16 minutes, every player on the bench saw over 21 minutes of action, paced by the 24-minute effort of O.J. Mayo, who scored 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting and tallied six assists.
Mayo started hot and went 2-of-2 for five points, including a trey in the first. Khris Middleton led the way in the opening frame with eight points and the Bucks shot 57.1 percent, while holding the Sixers to 20.8 percent from the floor. Thanks to that stark contrast, Milwaukee closed the first quarter on a 17-2 run to lead 27-11 after 12 minutes.
From there, the rout was on, and the Bucks rotated through those 11 players and nursed that advantage for the remaining 36 minutes. Jason sat Giannis Antetokounmpo for the entire second half, as the Bucks look forward to taking on the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors in between a long trip to London over the next week.
“The game, we felt, was in control.” J-Kidd said. “And that was a good time to give them a rest.”
Before checking out, The Greek Freak provided his customary highlight dunk.
After being trapped by the Philly defense, he ran a give-and-go with Zaza Pachulia and cut through the lane to finish with a monstrous leaping dunk.
But Milwaukee’s contributions came from all over the court. Brandon Knight was true on 4-of-7 three-pointers and glided to 18 points in the win. Middleton paced the Bucks through the first three quarters, dropping 18 points while adding five steals and three assists before sitting out the entire fourth frame.
Milwaukee’s tenacious defense resulted in 24 turnovers for the Sixers, which the visiting Bucks turned into 16 points. That allowed Milwaukee to overcome 26 turnovers of their own that gave the Sixers 24 easy points.
However Milwaukee balanced that out with some fantastic ball movement, resulting in 32 assists, compared to just 14 by Philly.
“We’re a team that can complete assists, and we’re a team that can turn it over with the best of them,” J-Kidd said afterward, bluntly addressing how the strength of his team, ball movement, can quickly become a weakness.
Zaza Pachulia turned in a double-double during his 32 minutes, with 11 points and 12 rebounds to go along with seven assists. Jerryd Bayless played the whole fourth quarter and shot a perfect 6-for-6 from the field for 12 points in 26 minutes.
NEXT UP
The Bucks will face off with the Minnesota Timberwolves (5-29) Friday night at home as they try and crack a four-game losing skid on the BMO Harris Bradley Center parquet.
The two teams last met on November 26th in Minnesota, a game the Bucks won 103-86 behind a balanced effort that saw seven players score in double digits for Milwaukee. Friday marks their second and final meeting of the season.
To complete the season sweep, the Bucks will have to slow down one of the league’s budding young stars, Minnesota rookie Andrew Wiggins. In the last meeting, Milwaukee held Wiggins to just 14 points on 4-of-14 with six turnovers in the win.
But the Wolves rookie has been in top form over the past 10 games, averaging 18.2 points and shooting a much more efficient 48 percent from the field. Wiggins’ 14.3 points per game on the season lead the team, but despite the efforts of the rookie standout, Minnesota is in the midst of a 13-game losing streak.
Tip off of Friday’s game is set for 7:30 p.m. CST and it can be seen on FS-Wisconsin.
