Blazers Bounce Injury Bitten Bucks

Head coach Jason Kidd’s mantra all season long has been for his young Milwaukee Bucks squad to simply put itself in position to win late in games—and they did just that Wednesday night, taking a two-point lead into the final frame on the road against the Portland Trail Blazers.

However, with two of their top young forwards out of action down the stretch, the Bucks were beaten down low and the Blazers pulled away with a 104-97 victory. Afterward, Jason didn’t have any desire to dwell on the outcome and instead credited his squad for their effort against one of the NBA’s best teams so far,

“The guys played hard for 48 minutes,” J-Kidd said. “They got offensive rebounds at crucial parts of that game to gave them a three or a basket. We gave ourselves a chance to win on the road against a very good team.”

INJURY BUG BITES

J-Kidd and the Bucks had to take the floor Wednesday night against the Trail Blazers after receiving devastating news Tuesday night.

After initially believing that No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker had avoided a serious injury when he went down in the third quarter of the team’s dramatic win over the Phoenix Suns earlier on Monday. Milwaukee found out Tuesday that Parker was lost for the season after suffering a torn ACL. Coach Kidd knows the Bucks will miss the outstanding rookie, but believes his team can move on and compete despite the setback.

“We don’t put a burden on one person carrying the franchise,” Jason said when asked about the unfortunate injury to his young star. “This league can make you smile and also make you cry…You talk about a guy who is a big part of our team…Great kid, on and off the court.”

More bad news came just before halftime on Wednesday. Milwaukee’s other 19-year-old star, Giannis Antetokounmpo drove the lane with the score knotted at 41 and rolled his left ankle.

After spending some time on the floor, Antetokounmpo stood up and walked to the locker room under his own power. The Greek Freak didn’t return and was diagnosed with a sprained ankle, leaving him questionable going forward.

“When you have Jabari go down and then Giannis, you hope it’s not serious. For him to get re-taped then try at halftime, you’re just happy it was just a sprained ankle,” Jason said. “You never want anyone to get hurt. It’s a part of the game. But to see it back-to-back, your two youngest players, it can make you a little nervous.”

DEPLETED IN RIP CITY

After Antetokounmpo’s injury, Milwaukee began to the second half trailing 43-41, and in the short term, they were left depleted against a talented Portland frontcourt.

But Coach Kidd rallied his troops, and they came out focused and fired up in the third quarter. Brandon Knight hit from midrange to open the quarter, tying the scoring and giving himself 12 points for the night. He went on to finish with a team-high 24 on 10-of-19 shooting, eight of which came in the third quarter.

After Knight sparked the fire, reserve forward Khris Middleton fanned the flames. Two nights after banking home a three at the buzzer to beat the Phoenix Suns on the road, Middleton stayed hot.

He went 4-of-4 from three in the third quarter, notching 12 of his 17 points. It was the ninth time in the last 12 games that Middleton has hit double figures and he’s knocked down multiple three pointers five times in that span. As Jason attested after the game, the Bucks are going to need that type of play from the 6’7” Texas A&M product going forward, particularly with Parker and Antetokounmpo out of the lineup.

“Khris played well,” Jason said. “In the last 10 games, he’s been playing at a very high level. I thought he validated his performance in Phoenix, and we’re going to need him to continue to play that way.”

Knight and Middleton combined to knock down six threes in the third quarter, and the Bucks carried a 70-68 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

However, in the final frame, the Blazers took advantage of the obvious mismatch on the floor, pounding the ball down low, where Milwaukee was down of their best frontcourt players and had no answer for Portland’s talented trio.

Rip City’s frontcourt trio of Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Thomas Robinson combined for 20 points in the final frame. That total might have been higher, but Coach Kidd employed an interesting strategy to combat Portland’s paint packing plan: Hack-a-Robinson.

The Bucks targeted the Portland center, who is just a 41.4 percent free-throw shooter. As the Blazers tossed it to Robinson down low, the Blazers sent him to the line for 12 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter alone, and the big man found the net just four times.

“He missed a lot of them but we didn’t capitalize on the other end,” Coach Kidd explained.

A big reason Jason’s ploy didn’t work was an extreme deficit the offensive glass. Portland pulled down four offensive boards and notched six second-chance points in the fourth. On the night, the Blazers outrebounded Milwaukee 52-32—forward tandem Aldridge and Robinson combined for 31 rebounds, just one shy of the Bucks total.

The Blazers scored 16 points in the paint in the fourth. With their frontcourt depth sapped, the Bucks looked beyond the arc to keep up, but went just 1-of-6.

Aldridge finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds, and he knocked down three jumpers in a row in the fourth quarter to stretch the Portland lead to 10, 90-80, with 3:23 left in regulation. Try as they might, the Bucks were never able to chip anything away from that deficit over the closing minutes.

After the game, Jason noted the absence of his two star forwards and how that impacted his team’s chances down the stretch.

“We felt like we had enough guys to get a win tonight and those guys fought tonight.” J-Kidd said. “Anytime you’re small, you have to rebound the ball, and we just couldn’t get it done tonight.”

NEXT UP

The Bucks (13-13) will continue their West Coast road trip, heading south from Portland to Sacramento to face the Kings (11-14).

The Kings just parted ways with head coach Mike Malone earlier this week and former Utah Jazz head coach Ty Corbin is currently at the helm. The Kings have been struggling as of late due to the absence of their star forward and enforcer, DeMarcus Cousins.

Sacramento has won just two of its last 11 games and has lost the last four, most recently a Tuesday night defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder. But Cousins is expected to return to face the Bucks on Thursday, makings things even more difficult for the depleted Bucks, who will may be without Antetokounmpo in Sacramento.

The game is scheduled to tip off at 9 p.m. CST Thursday night at the Sleep Train Arena and can be seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin.