The Milwaukee Bucks leaned heavily on Greg Monroe in their monumental weekend win over the Golden State Warriors, but on Tuesday, Jason Kidd’s squad was without Moose, and it showed.
The star big man knocked knees with a teammate during Tuesday’s shootaround at the Staples Center and was a late scratch for that night’s meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers. Without Monroe, the Bucks fell 113-95.
“I think we missed Moose tonight. Understand, a guy that we can go to in the post, on the block and slow things down. And then, they had their ways on the rebound offensively. Anytime we got a miss, they came up with the loose ball or the rebound and converted,” J-Kidd told the media. “If I recall, I think it’s like 30 second-chance points, no matter who you play you’re not going to win.”
The Bucks were outrebounded 52-38 and gave up 18 offensive boards, leading to 29 second-chance points.
Another issue of the night for Milwaukee was Kobe Bryant. The Bucks allowed the future Hall of Famer to heat up early. He went 4-of-6 from the field and hit two threes, tallying 10 points in the first quarter to get the Lakers out to a 30-25 lead. Bryant finished with 22 points in 27 minutes.
“Kobe is Kobe. You can’t expect anything less no matter what his shooting percentage is,” Coach Kidd said. “We talked about that today. He is one of the best to ever play this game. Given the opportunity, he can embarrass you and he did that tonight.”
The Bucks started off pretty well on the offensive end. Khris Middleton led the way with seven points, while Jabari Parker and John Henson, who replaced Monroe in the starting lineup, each had six.
But as Jason explained after the game, Milwaukee’s offense lost its rhythm and tempo after the first. After garnering 25 shots in the first quarter, the Bucks notched only 19 field goals in the second and faced a nine-point deficit at the half.
“I thought in the first quarter our pace was pretty good and then all of a sudden we started making subs and our pace just dropped. When you look at it, in that first half 40 shots, 42 shots, that’s too slow of a pace,” J-Kidd told reporters. “Again, you’ve got to give the Lakers credit, they controlled the pace on their end.”
That pace didn’t improve at all in the third period. Meanwhile, the Lakers hit 63.2 percent of their shots, guided by another 11 points by Bryant, and amassed a commanding 88-68 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Michael Carter-Williams and Middleton provided a bit of a spark in the final frame. The two combined to shoot 7-of-10 for 16 points, but they never could do much to diminish the deficit they faced at the start of the period.
MCW finished with a game-high 19 points, Middleton was next with 16, while Giannis Antetokounmpo added 15 with six points and five rebounds. Jason updated the media on Monroe’s status, saying that, while the injury is not serious, his availability is still unclear going forward.
“He’ll get evaluated and we’ll see what the doctors say,” J-Kidd told reporters. “He knocked knees and he just felt discomfort this evening so we’ll have the doctors look at it and we’ll see what happens.”
While Milwaukee certainly missed its star big man, Jason isn’t blaming the defeat entirely on the absence of Monroe.
“We’re not putting this on Moose being out,” Jason said. “This is about the guys who had the uniform tonight didn’t give any effort. We got misses, we just couldn’t get a rebound. When you look at what they did, they converted each rebound that they got and that can put you down, which it did.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks (10-16) stay at the Staples Center to play the Los Angeles Clippers (15-10) on Wednesday night.
The Clippers are 1-0 against Milwaukee after shooting guard J.J. Redick went off against J-Kidd’s group in a 109-95 Bucks loss. The Clips will also be on the second night of a back-to-back. They edged the Detroit Pistons 105-103 in overtime on Tuesday night.
Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. CT and will air on FOX Sports Wisconsin.
