Without their best, the Milwaukee Bucks beat one of the NBA’s best.
Jason Kidd’s Bucks didn’t have the services of their best player, Giannis Antetokounmpo, but rather than fold on the road Tuesday night against the San Antonio Spurs, they showed their discipline and their depth, beating the No. 2 team in the NBA.
Antetokounmpo played just nine minutes due to illness, so the Bucks looked to Michael Beasley to fill his shoes, and Beasley responded with his best game in a Milwaukee uniform: 28 points, five rebounds, four assists and three blocks in 34 minutes. Jabari Parker was crucial with 22 points, and Malcolm Brogdon was key as well. The rookie turned in 17 points and six assists—one of many terrific performances in Milwaukee’s 109-107 win over Gregg Popovich’s Spurs.
“In the second half you look at Beasley and what he did for us on both the offensive and defensive end, it was a great team effort,” Jason said. “When you look at Moose, Malcolm, Tony, you know you go through the whole list, there were a lot of big plays but I thought keeping our discipline for 48 minutes, that’s the only way you can compete with San Antonio and I thought the guys did a really good job.”
Beasley’s 28 points was a season-high, but his best play of the game might have been an assist to Brogdon for a corner three to give the Bucks the lead with 1:08 left in the game.
“Well I think you ride him until he says he’s had enough or you know that he’s exhausted. But I thought he did a great job of attacking and not settling and then also a big play of getting to the paint and finding Malcolm in the corner for a big three,” Jason said. “I thought his execution offensively was great, but it was more or less the defensive end, rebounding the ball for us too that I thought he was big.”
Brogdon added six rebounds, a block and a plus-6 scoring advantage. The rookie has been on a tear, averaging 14.7 points, 6.8 assists and 5.2 rebounds over the last six games.
“He’s going to make mistakes like anybody else, but for whatever reason we’re very comfortable with him on the floor,” J-Kidd said. “Again, getting the ball to guys and being able to run the offensive sets and then being able to make shots, he made a big three and then he got to the free throw line, so understanding we’ve been in a lot of close games and this is another close game we found ourselves on the other side. Instead of losing we got the stop and we found a way to win on the road.”
Kidd pointed out that a big key to the game was keeping relatively close pace with the Spurs in the second quarter when San Antonio scored 36 points and the Bucks scored 30.
“If you’ve been around San Antonio, they’re going to make a run and that run didn’t go to 20 on us. We were only down six at halftime so we felt we were in a good seat with a lot of basketball to still be played and we had to make sure they didn’t get on another run,” Kidd said. “We talked about being disciplined for 48 minutes and it’s the only way you’re going to be able to stay with San Antonio. I thought guys did a great job with doing that. I thought it was a group effort that helped us win.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks host the Miami Heat on Friday night.
It is unclear if Antetokounmpo will play, but Kidd says his team is ready to play with or without their star.
“We played without him the last game in Washington so right there we had an opportunity to win and didn’t. So the character of this group is they’ll play with anybody who can play, who can go that night,” Kidd said. “It’s always been the next guy up and it just shows and gives them the credit of being ready if someone goes down.”
