Bucks Split Back-to-Back

With five games left in their season, Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks are inching closer to clinching a spot in the postseason.

Milwaukee split its weekend back-to-back, which started Friday night with a road win over a fellow playoff hopeful, the Boston Celtics. However, after that hard-fought 110-101 victory, the Bucks didn’t have enough left in the tank to top the youthful Orlando Magic and fell 97-90 to come up even over the weekend.

After the defeat to the Magic, Coach Kidd talked about the roller coaster trend his young squad has hit of late.

“We’re a young team and this is the process of learning,” Jason said. “We’ve won two, we’ve lost two. Then we won two and now we’ve lost one. We’re a little inconsistent in that aspect, and we’ve got to get better.”

BIG WIN IN BOSTON

O.J. Mayo was scorching early for the Milwaukee Bucks, but they still had to work from behind despite some lights-out shooting from their veteran guard.

Mayo tallied a 20-point first half at Boston’s T.D. Garden, his first breakout performance since returning from injury, knocking down all four three-pointers he attempted in the first 24 minutes.

“It’s a good shooting arena,” Mayo said of TD Garden. “I don’t know if it’s the lighting or the background. I’m just happy they went in. It’s something we drill every day, the extra pass, make the open shots. I thought we did a good job of moving the ball and executing the game plan.”

Despite Mayo’s 20-point first half performance, the Celtics matched him shot-for-shot to take a 52-50 lead into the break.

It was the third quarter where Milwaukee made their push, outscoring Boston 36-23 in the third frame. The Bucks had seven players in double figures and 31 assists as they built a 16-point lead in the third quarter and held off a run by Boston in the fourth quarter.

Although Mayo scored just four points in the second half, his playmaking ability was crucial for other Bucks players to find a rhythm.

“He wasn’t just scoring,” J-Kidd said, “but actually finding guys that were open and they were knocking down shots.”

The Bucks bench scored 50 points, with Jared Dudley and John Henson each adding 10 and Jerryd Bayless notching six.

Boston also benefited from a strong bench effort and was led in scoring by backup point guard Isaiah Thomas, who had 23 points. Jonas Jerebko added 17 and the Celtics reserves scored 56 points. But the Bucks held the Celtics to 33 percent shooting from three-point range (8-of-24) and 44 percent shooting overall (39-of-88).

“They play at a faster pace and they’re looking at threes; they’re going to try to stretch you,” Coach Kidd said. “They’ve got guys who can knock down perimeter shots. For us, our job is to help and also make sure we make them put it on the floor to go to the basket or not shoot that three. Guys did a really good job of that.”

It’s the first time the Bucks have tasted victory on the road in two months, Bucks’ last win away from home was on Feb. 2 when they beat Toronto 82-75.

ORLANDO WINS LATE

The Bucks returned home the following night, and early on they looked poised to build off the momentum of the previous night’s victory.

Mayo built off his strong performance, going 3-of-4 from the floor for seven points in the first, while Ersan Ilyasova went 4-of-7, hit two threes and tallied seven points. Milwaukee shot 4-of-4 from beyond the arc, and notched nine second-chance points off eight offensive rebounds to take a 33-22 lead after one.

However, after that first frame, Orlando battled its way back and into control.

“As a team, we came out and took control early,” Jason said. “After that, give credit to Orlando. Our pace just died after that first quarter, and (the Magic) kept playing and played hard, they found themselves in a game and they ended up winning.”

Milwaukee got 37 points out of their bench, a good figure to have from the reserves, but this time it was the starters that struggled. Giannis Antetokounmpo was 3-for-12 and Michael Carter-Williams was 4-for-14 as they combined for just 16 points on 26 shots in 62 minutes of action.

“We got some wide open looks that we just missed,” J-Kidd explained. “That’s going to happen but we have to get stops on the other end, and we just couldn’t get it done.”

The Bucks took an 88-84 lead on a three-point play by Antetokounmpo with 3:38 remaining, following a steal by Carter-Williams and a pass ahead to his teammate on the break.

But Milwaukee managed just one basket the rest of the way while Victor Oladipo scored eight points and Tobias Harris hit a tiebreaking three-pointer to give Orlando a 91-88 lead. The Magic outscored Milwaukee 25-17 in the final frame—it made the difference.

“We’ve always been a team that tries to protect the corners, and we made some mistakes leaving the corner, starting with the guy with the ball and couldn’t get back in time to contest,” Jason said. “You look at Harris, and he has had a great year for them. When you leave guys open in the corner in this league, they can knock them down. (Elfrid) Payton is not a three-point shooter but we left him open in the first quarter and he knocked one down. Anybody is capable of shooting corner threes in this league.”