Playing on the second night of a back-to-back with travel sandwiched between two games, Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks found themselves right where they didn’t want to be: Playing overtime against one of the Eastern Conference’s hottest teams.
After an incredible effort for four quarters, the Bucks just ran out of gas in the extra period and fell 109-103 on the road to the Indiana Pacers, who have now won 13 of their last 14 games. Following the tough loss, Jason was incredibly encouraged by his team’s performance and tenacity in an unenviable situation.
“Our guys fought tonight on a back-to-back,” Coach Kidd said. “Short-handed, guys stepped up. Everybody gave everything they had. There’s a lot of good stuff on the road against a team that is playing extremely well.”
All five starters scored in double-digits Thursday night. Michael Carter-Williams had 28 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Khris Middleton, who finished with 18, had a chance to avoid overtime with a jumper in the lane with about three second left in regulation, but his shot was hard off the back of the iron.
Ersan Illyasova had 19 points and 10 rebounds, and Zaza Pachulia finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds. And Giannis Antetokounmpo went for 12 points, six boards, three assists and a block.
On the other side, Rodney Stuckey scored 25 points for Indiana off the bench, including a 19-foot jumper and two free throws in the overtime period to seal the deal for the Pacers’ seventh straight win.
It didn’t help that Milwaukee struggled to find its collective shot. The Bucks took 12 more shots than the Pacers on the heels of 12 offensive rebounds, but shot just 38.5 percent from the field while Indiana shot 49.4 percent for the game.
The Pacers made nine three-pointers to boot; four of which came from CJ Miles who finished with 14 total points in 30 minutes of action.
The Bucks fought back from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit and had a chance to take the lead with 43.1 seconds left and Ilyasova at the free-throw line. Ilyasova made the first to tie but missed the second attempt badly. Still, the Bucks got a defensive stop on a missed jumper by George Hill, and coach Kidd elected not to call a timeout and let Middleton operate.
The third-year man out of Texas A&M has been on a tremendous tear lately, scoring in double figures for 18 straight games, including two 30-point performances in the previous three games going into Thursday night’s tilt.
“It’s easy to call timeout and set a play,” J-Kidd said. “But when your best player has the ball in the flow of the game, you want it to be natural. I thought Khris did everything to get a great look. It just hit back rim. Our defense gave us the chance there. We got the stop and we went in transition and had a great, great look.”
The Bucks were also playing without their strongest weapon, their bench. OJ Mayo and Jerryd Bayless both sat out, hampered by injury, and so the Pacers outscored the Bucks’ bench 52-10, as the second unit combined to go just 4-of-12 with six turnovers.
Regardless of the under-manned squad, Coach Kidd is always ready for battle with whoever is available, and he is confident that his squad will only grow from this stinging loss.
“We have a group of guys in there that won’t quit,” Kidd said. “They’ve been doing that all season and you could see it tonight. We understand this trip isn’t going to be easy. We’ll be looking at a lot of good things we did tonight and be cleaning some things we made mistakes on.”
A LOOK AHEAD
Milwaukee’s defeat puts them at 34-31 and in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, just 3.5 games ahead of Indiana (30-34). Even though Milwaukee’s playoff hopes are in good shape, the search of a higher seed is dwindling since the All-Star break.
The Bucks have lost seven straight on the road, and are 4-8 since the break after heading into the break winning six out of seven.
Jason Kidd’s ball club will finish off this three-game road trip by traveling to Memphis to face the Grizzlies Saturday night, then take on the hot New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night.
