Challenges continue to come the way of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Coach Jason Kidd’s squad continues to knock them down.
After shutting down one of the Western Conference’s best teams, the Portland Trail Blazers, at home on Saturday night, the Bucks hit the road and did the same against one of the Eastern Conference’s best, the Raptors, in Toronto on Monday.
Despite being down to just nine active players entering the game and seeing that number drop to seven when O.J. Mayo was ejected in the second quarter, Milwaukee continued their remarkable hot streak with an 82-75 victory over the Raptors. The victory was No. 4 in a row for Milwaukee, their first winning streak of at least four games this season.
Afterward, Coach Kidd lauded his troops for the effort they put in despite being shorthanded on the road in a hostile environment against one of the league’s best teams.
“Just enough (energy left) to get back on the airplane and get home, I think,” Jason said. “By the time we get to the airport, the guys that played will be out of gas. Those guys gave their hearts. They found a way. Toronto is a very talented team.”
The undermanned Bucks were led by a standout performance from Khris Middleton, who poured in 25 points on 10-of-17 from the field and also hauled in nine rebounds, both season highs for the third year player. In addition to his near double-double, Middleton also tallied three steals and an assist.
“Khris was great,” Jason said. “He’s been great. He’s been playing at a really high level offensively and defensively.”
Coach Kidd also praised his team’s tenacity in the win. The Bucks put forth incredible effort on both ends of the floor, holding the high-flying Raps to just 32.1 percent shooting at the Air Canada Centre.
Most important to that task was containing Raptors All-Star guard Kyle Lowry and Milwaukee had to do so with their own All-Star caliber point man, Brandon Knight, out of the lineup with a sore right quad.
In stepped Jorge Gutierrez, who the Bucks signed to a 10-day contract last week after guard Kendall Marshall was lost for the season with a torn ACL. Gutierrez — a California-Berkeley product like Jason — played under Coach Kidd in Brooklyn last season and got the start for Milwaukee on Monday in just his third game as a member of the Bucks.
And although Gutierrez went scoreless, his contributions were crucial. He dished out five assists, pulled down four rebounds and logged one steal while silencing Lowry, who finished 1-of-7 with just two points.
“His teammates trusted him,” J-Kidd said of Gutierrez. “That just shows the team unity and that the guys believe they’re doing the right thing.”
Knight wasn’t the only Buck whose role needed to be filled. Zaza Pachulia and Ersan Ilyasova were also out of action on Monday and Giannis Antetokounmpo picked up his play in their stead. The Greek Freak notched his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds, dished out three dimes and blocked two Toronto shots.
“Another double-double,” Jason said of his versatile second-year player. “I think he’s shown that each time he’s taking the floor he’s getting better.”
As if the absence of Knight, Ilyasova and Pachulia wasn’t enough, the Bucks lost O.J. Mayo to an ejection in the second quarter, leaving Jason just eight active players to contain Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Co. But Milwaukee’s ‘next Buck up’ philosophy was in full effect, and Jared Dudley, John Henson and Jerryd Bayless picked up the slack.
Dudley scored 14 points in the win, marking the sixth time in seven games that the Milwaukee swingman has scored in double figures. Henson added 12 points and Bayless tallied eight points and nine assists.
“That’s emotion,” Kidd said of Mayo’s ejection. “That’s part of the game. We’ve all been there before. You would like not to have that happen with us being short-handed. We were joking that if he didn’t want to play minutes tonight, tonight was not the game to get kicked out.
[O.J.] felt bad because he let his teammates down, but the nice thing is his teammates picked him up and found a way to win on the road.”Milwaukee did it by building a nice lead behind sweet shooting from Middleton, who had nine points in the first quarter. But it was the Bucks’ tenacious play on the defensive end, totally shutting down the Raptors offense that carried them early. Toronto shot just 25 percent in the first and the Bucks led 23-14 after one.
The pace picked up in the second, as the Raptors found some rhythm on the offensive end. Terrence Ross hit a pair of threes and DeRozan had 10 points for the Raptors as the jumped back into the game. But on the other side, seven Bucks combined to score 24 points and force seven Toronto turnovers, allowing the home team to cut just three points off the lead before halftime.
In the third, the Bucks used ball movement to create opportunities along the perimeter. Dudley and Middleton combined to hit four shots from beyond the arc for 18 points. Milwaukee’s teamwork and communication on offense carried over to the defensive end, where they held Toronto to just 35.3 percent shooting to construct a 13-point lead, 73-60, heading into the final frame.
Milwaukee pushed the lead to 15 early in the fourth quarter, only to be silenced for over eight minutes, which allowed Toronto to storm right back. Behind Lou Williams, who shot 1-for-12 on the night, but 9-for-10 from the free throw line, the Raptors went on a 15-0 run to tie the game at 75-75 with 3:32 left in regulation.
With only eight active players leaving substitutions at a minimum and no one able to get going as Toronto hit their stride —the perfect recipe for a blown lead — it appeared the Bucks were in for a rough finish to their third three-game win streak of the season. But according to Coach Kidd, no one on the Milwaukee side wavered, and eventually they found the shots and stops they needed.
“No one panicked on our side, we just kept playing,” Jason said.
Antetokounmpo broke the seal on the Toronto run with a free throw then Dudley then followed that up with a 3-point dagger to put Milwaukee up four with just over two minutes left. Although Dudley’s three was a shot that sucked all the air out of the Air Canada Centre, the veteran swingman felt that Giannis’ aggressiveness saved the game.
“I think the play of the day was Giannis getting to the free-throw line that one time, even though he got one point,” Dudley said of the foul shot that boosted the Bucks to a 76-75 lead.
The Bucks clung to the lead from there. After Dudley’s trey Tyler Hansbrough turned the ball over on the ensuing possession and Antetokounmpo tacked on another free throw. Then Bayless buried a jumper with under 30 seconds to go to push Milwaukee’s lead to seven and put the finishing touches on the win.
The win was a momentous won for the Bucks, not only extending their longest winning streak of the season, but proving with a hard fought victory on the road over a tough Eastern foe that this Bucks squad is the real deal in the East playoff race.
“We’re getting better,” Dudley said. “Slowly but surely, we are turning the corner. We knew we had to get after them. Any time an opposing team goes on a long road trip the first game back is the toughest game. We jumped them early. We do it by committee every night. It was total team win. We are gaining confidence, and that’s scary.”
BY THE NUMBERS
4 — Milwaukee’s stellar defense has them ranked fourth in the league in points allowed.
5 — At 15-12, the Bucks own the fifth best road record in the East.
6 — At 26-22, the Bucks currently hold the No. 6 seed in the East and are 13.5 games behind the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks.
7 — Seven players are injured or suspended right now: Besides Knight, the Bucks are also without rookie Jabari Parker (left knee), Ersan Ilyasova (right groin), Zaza Pachulia (right calf), Damien Inglis (right ankle) and Kendall Marshall (right knee). C Larry Sanders is serving a 10-game suspension.
9 — Bucks have played 48 games, only nine times has a team shot 50% or higher against them.
13 — John Henson, a man whose arms are as long as the day, has recorded at least one block in each of the past 13 games and 18 of his last 19.
23.6 — Sharing is caring: The Bucks are 7th in the NBA in Assists Per Game (23.6), and have recorded 30 or more assists six times this year.
90 — The Bucks are 17-0 when holding opponents under 90 points.NEXT UP
Milwaukee (26-22) will have a day to rest and regain some of their health before welcoming the Los Angeles Lakers (13-35) to town Wednesday night.
This will be the first of two meetings between the two squads this season. The Bucks will head to the Staples Center at the end of this month. The Lakers have fallen into a rut recently, dropping 10 of their last 11 games, most recently a 92-80 defeat to the New York Knicks on Sunday night.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. MT and Fox Sports Wisconsin will have the local broadcast.
RELATED LINKS
- Bucks at Raptors: Gameday (Bucks.com, Feb. 2, 2015)
- Bucks at Raptors: Game Book (NBA.com, Feb. 2, 2015)
- Bucks snap six-game losing streak in series with win in Toronto (AP, Feb. 2, 2015)
- Short-handed bucks use stout defense to win in Toronto (Milwaukee JS, Feb. 2, 2015)
- Road reaction: Bucks 82, Raptors 75 (Fox Sports Wisconsin, Feb. 2, 2015)
