Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks played a strong first half against the Indiana Pacers, but they just couldn’t sustain it through four quarters.
The Bucks trailed by just four points going into the locker room, but they turned it over 11 times and were outscored 68-35 in the second half of the 123-86 loss. Since topping the Cleveland Cavaliers last Saturday, the Bucks just haven’t been able to put together a full four quarters of basketball.
“We played one half and that was the first half,” Coach Kidd told reporters. “The last two games we played in the second half and we were down by 20 so it just flip-flopped tonight.”
Milwaukee scored 25 in the first quarter and 26 in the second quarter. In the final two periods, they only mustered 16 and 19 points respectively. After leading 55-51 at halftime, the Pacers outpaced the Bucks 35-16 in the third quarter and Indiana went on a 10-2 run to begin the fourth quarter.
One theme that J-Kidd mentioned in the postgame was the Bucks missing shots and not getting back on defense. He talked about how his team must make a concerted mental effort to not allow offensive struggles to impact their play of the defensive end.
“They came out in the second half and made shots, and we could not get them stopped,” Kidd said. “We would miss a shot and then not get back on defense. In the last two games, we played pretty well in the second half, but that didn’t happen tonight.”
“It’s a four-point game at halftime and anytime we have to handle a situation of adversity we kind of crumble. We crumbled tonight,” J-Kidd told reporters. “In that second half, we just did not execute defensively and then offensively we felt that we missed some easy shots in that first half. That kind of dictated us to stop playing defense in that second half.”
The Bucks defense allowed six Pacers players to score in double figures including three 20 plus-point performances, led by small forward Paul George’s 20, seven rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Forward C.J. Miles scored 20 and center Jordan Hill put in 20 and 11 rebounds off of the bench. The Pacers shot 51.6 percent from the field, nailing half of the 30 three-point baskets for the game.
Center Greg Monroe led the way for Milwaukee with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Forward Jabari Parker and shooting guard O.J. Mayo were the only other Bucks in double figures with 10 points apiece. All 13 Bucks to enter the game scored.
Coach Kidd emphasized that the young Bucks need to keep working in order to come together and realize their full potential. There have been some growing pains for this new-look group, but he’s confident that just a few little things are missing from the equation.
“I think there could be a little frustration but I think one of the biggest things is that we’re a young team. This is a new team and it doesn’t happen because of the back of the jersey, it happens because we have to spend some time to put in the work. It doesn’t come easy,” J-Kidd told the media. “There’s a lot of talented teams in this league. The East has gotten better and we’re going through that right now. We’ve just got to stick together and keep working through some of the things that we’re not doing, and that’s rebounding the ball and getting back on defense.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks (5-8) host the Detroit Pistons (7-6) Monday night. It will be a rumble between Monroe and Pistons big man Andre Drummond.
Milwaukee fell to Detroit in the preseason, though Monroe had 18 points and eight rebounds against his former team. The Bucks went 3-1 against the Pistons a year ago, losing the first game before winning the next three.
The Pistons are coming off a two-point loss to the Washington Wizards over the weekend, which snapped a two-game win streak.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT from the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
