Milwaukee’s west coast road trip ended with a bang, as Jason Kidd’s Bucks defeated the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night 116-98.
The Bucks went 4-2 on the trip and have now won 10 of their last 12 games. Coach Kidd came away pleased with the character his team showed on a tremendous trip away from home.
“I think it starts with our maturity, our growth, our discipline, being able to execute. The trip didn’t start well, but we got to L.A. and we find a way to win two games,” Coach Kidd said. “We had a tough one at Golden State but the guys stayed together. It’s a team effort and we go up to Portland last night and find a way to win and then we end the trip. It’s easy to overlook this game, sometimes they call it a trap game.”
The Bucks took control in the second quarter when they outscored the Kings 44-26.
“Well I thought we talked about the carryover from last night, our defense, and we talk about our defense being our offense and I thought Giannis (Antetokounmpo) being one of the leaders set the tone right off the bat,” Jason said. “We got stops and we got out and ran and we got easy baskets and then once that started to happen I thought guys started sharing the ball and we started getting guys making threes. But it all starts with our defense, I thought the group that started the game got us off to a really good start and the guys coming off the bench just just continued to carry that same energy and effort.”
Antetokounmpo was the game’s leading scorer with 32 points, and he added 13 rebounds and six assists.
It was a tremendous team effort for Milwaukee, who as a team finished with 46 rebounds, 28 assists and 52 bench points.
“When we share the ball, you know the ball was touching the paint and we were working inside-out, even if we weren’t getting the lay up we were getting multiple passes from the paint, around the horn and it was finding the open guy. It was fun to watch and for a player it has to be fun to play in that type of game,” J-Kidd said. “You talk about Moose again, he was great; I think he might have been perfect tonight from the floor. You look at Delly, you look at Jet, I thought Mirza missed a couple shots early but he started to knock ‘em down. But I thought again our bench is something that we’ve counted on all year and they stepped up again tonight but I thought our starters were the ones that got off to a good start and we kept going.”
The Bucks started the road trip on the outside of the playoff picture looking in, but have now sailed into the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference. Kidd said being able to see how the competition fared on the east coast was beneficial.
“Them playing on the east coast you see the scores, so for us I think to start this trip in ninth or maybe eighth, to end this trip in sixth just shows that we’re playing pretty good basketball right now at the right time.”
Now the Bucks return home on Friday night to play the Atlanta Hawks who are just one game ahead in the standings for the fifth seed.
“To think about we’ve been on the road for 10-11 days and we all want to get home, but now the next road game starts and that’s on Friday against Atlanta,” Kidd said. “Being on the road for a long time, understanding we have the experience of seeing it with Portland, they come off the road and they’re a little flat. So we got to understand that we’ve got to be ready Friday against Atlanta.”
