Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t slow down the Portland Trail Blazers’ dynamic guard duo on Tuesday night.
C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard combined for 44 points and 18 assists as the Blazers topped the Bucks 107-95. As Jason explained afterward, Portland just did what it does best, and Milwaukee couldn’t stop it.
“They were them. They came out and they were in character,” Jason said of the Blazer backcourt. “They put a lot of pressure on our defense for 48 minutes tonight.”
The Blazer guards, along with a 10-point opening frame from Al-Farouq Aminu, had Portland out to a 27-19 lead after 12 minutes. Milwaukee battled its way back from there.
Jerryd Bayless came off the bench and went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field for 11 points in the second. The Bucks shot 68.4 percent in the second quarter, but they shaved just one point off the Portland lead, entering the break in a 56-49 hole.
On the whole, Jason liked his team’s performance offensively. The Bucks had four players—Khris Middleton (21), Giannis Antetokounmpo (19), Greg Monroe (17) and Bayless (16)—in double figures. But the Blazers held a 46-38 advantage in the paint. And Coach Kidd saw his team’s missed opportunities down low as a major downfall.
“Offensively, I thought guys were sharing the ball,” Jason said. “We had some misses in that paint that caused—they come out, they miss a lay-up or two and they come get an and-one and get a three pointer off of a missed lay-up. Those are things that can’t happen. We’ve got to be able to score those points in the paint.”
The Bucks nearly took control in the third quarter, but those missed opportunities on the offensive end stung them. Milwaukee brought the deficit to just one possession several times throughout the frame but were never able to get over the hump.
Late in the quarter, a Bayless three made it just a four-point Portland lead. Lillard missed a layup on the other end, but he pulled down his own miss, which earned him a pair of free throws. He sunk both to make it a six-point lead, 79-73, going into the fourth.
“We just couldn’t get a stop. We gave up a wide-open three or we give up an offensive rebound or it was a dunk or a back door lay-up,” Jason recalled. “We’re close, we’ve just got to make some plays defensively.”
From that play, the Bucks never recovered. Portland owned the final quarter behind a combined 21 points from McCollum and Gerald Henderson to saddle Milwaukee with its fourth straight defeat.
“We just need to find a way to win these games coming up,” Middleton said. “It’s slipping away but it’s not gone yet. We still have a lot of games left, but these next couple ones in front of us, we’ve got to focus on these first.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks (20-31) travel to Utah to take on the Jazz (22-25) on Friday to close out their three-game road trip.
Utah is riding a three-game win streak, which it will look to extend on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets. This will be the first of two meetings between the Bucks and Jazz this season.
