The Milwaukee Bucks entered the All-Star break on a tear, but have since hit a midseason slump, which continued over the weekend.
Milwaukee fell in a pair of close games to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz, but the Bucks, who still remain as the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference, aren’t about to hit the panic button.
As coach Jason Kidd said over thee weekend, the defeats all come down to the little things.
“Sometimes we feel sorry for ourselves offensively when the ball doesn’t go in,” Jason said. “We’re getting some good looks. We’ve kind of forgotten that’s how we’ve built this, on doing the little things. We’re giving up too many offensive rebounds where they’re converting. If we send them to the line and if we don’t box out, it’s hard to win.”
STOPPED AT STAPLES
Coach Kidd’s response to the 101-93 loss in Los Angeles was that his team “got out of character.” It was a 36-point fourth quarter by the Lakers that broke Milwaukee’s back Friday night at the Staples Center after holding the Lakers to just 65 points through the first 36 minutes.
Ersan Ilyasova led the Bucks with 17 points and 12 rebounds, but Coach Kidd felt that the team failed to communicate defensively on certain assignments, especially on Laker’s guard Wayne Ellington who scored 14 points, including 11 points in the final stretch of the fourth quarter to edge J-Kidd’s ball club.
“We’ve got to know tendencies,” J-Kidd said. “Ers (Ilyasova) gave him a dare shot and he kind of got going after that. If we’re going to get switched off on little guys we’ve got to make them drive the ball, and we just didn’t do that.”
In Michael Carter-William’s second game for Milwaukee he matched his debut output with just eight points on 3-of-6 shooting, he also had four assists and four turnovers. But what may have been the largest issue was the lack of defense on Laker point guards. Jeremy Lin had 14 points and a game-high six assists, while Jordan Clarkson had 16 points, five assists and four rebounds.
“He’s a guy who can get the ball into the paint,” Kidd said Lin. “With two guys on the ball, he found open guys and he got to the free throw line. He played a great fourth quarter.”
Lin is known for his ability to penetrate, last season he was second to only LeBron James in paint touches with the ball, a very impressive stat.
Ellington’s first three-pointer trimmed the Bucks’ lead to 77-76 and forced a timeout by Coach Kidd, but Milwaukee could not slow him down. Ellington’s 11-point surge for the Lakers helped take a 92-86 lead and held off the Bucks in the final minutes.
Khris Middleton had 10 points and eight rebounds but said the Bucks’ defense must get better.
“They scored way too much, especially late in the game, just off pick and rolls,” Middleton said. “We were playing our regular defense and they took advantage of us. Lin was able to find guys and get himself going. Ellington got hot. We had him under control most of the game and we let go of him.”
With no O.J. Mayo for a second straight game, the Bucks shot just 39.1 percent from the floor and 4-of-17 from the three-point line.
COLD IN SALT LAKE
After losing to Los Angeles, the Bucks had to travel to Salt Lake City to battle the Utah Jazz where they looked to re-establish the rhythm they had lost the past three games.
Unfortunately, they ran into a Jazz squad that is playing some of the best defense in the NBA, and went cold in an 82-75 loss.
The Jazz grabbed 13 offensive rebounds on the way to a 46-39 rebounding edge while Milwaukee turned the ball over 23 times.
A stout defensive effort kept Milwaukee in the game until the final minute, but Utah forward Derrick Favors scored on a putback with 56 seconds left and moments later blocked a shot by Bucks guard Michael Carter-Williams.
The team is still adjusting to life without Brandon Knight, and his replacement, Carter-Williams, came through with his best effort in a Bucks uniform, posting 16 points, five rebounds and three assists in his third game with Milwaukee.
“I thought he let the game come to him,” Kidd said. “He played 30 minutes and he’s building on not playing for three weeks (due to a toe injury). I think he is trying to find his spots, too. As a point guard in this league you set the table for your teammates and you’re also looking to get to the basket. I thought he had a fine balance of that tonight.”
Khris Middleton led the Bucks with 18 points and Ersan Ilyasova added 12, but only three Milwaukee players were in double-digit scoring territory.
Milwaukee got after it defensively in the third quarter and went on a 14-4 run to take a 54-51 lead. But Trey Burke, who finished with 23 points off the bench, responded with a three-pointer and a drive for a basket to regain the lead for Utah, 56-54.
The Bucks outscored the Jazz, 15-11, in the third quarter to cut into the Jazz lead, 58-55, entering the final quarter.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Middleton and O.J. Mayo pulled the Bucks to within two early in the fourth quarter, but the Jazz had an answer.
A turnover by Carter-Williams led to a fast break and a three-point play by Jazz center, Rudy Gobert, who converted off a Burke pass for a 69-63 Jazz advantage with 7:36 remaining. Milwaukee never cut its deficit to fewer than three points the rest of regulation.
It has been a string of tough, close losses for Milwaukee, showing that it certainly isn’t far from where it needs to be. And as its top new addition noted, it’ll all be about developing that chemistry going into the postseason.
“We’re still trying to improve and get used to each other and build chemistry,” Carter-Williams said. “We’ve just got to be patient. I’m just trying to ease my way in and do the little things and do the best I can. Each game I want to be a little more assertive, whether it’s driving to the hoop or passing the ball and creating for my teammates.”
NEXT UP
Milwaukee is 0-2 on its four-game western trip and will play at Denver on Tuesday night before heading to northern California to face the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night.
NBA veteran Zaza Pachulia feels that the big pieces are there, but the team needs just a little more time to tweak the little things.
“It’s going to come,” Pachulia said. “We are a hard-working group and we have a smart coaching staff, so we’re going to figure it out. This is just the third game that MCW (Carter-Williams) has played. We had a good defensive game. We had some slippage with offensive rebounds, but we still held a team to 82 points. We trust each other. We’re talking to each other to get on the same page and have a comfort zone playing with each other.”
Milwaukee will face Denver on Tuesday night at 9 p.m. ET.
