Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks found themselves in a troublesome late-game situation on Wednesday night—a scenario that, early in the season, would’ve likely resulted in a heartbreaking loss on their home floor.
But for these new-look, burgeoning Bucks, things went differently, and they pulled out a 113-105 overtime victory over the Los Angeles Lakers to extend their winning streak to five games. Afterward, Coach Kidd lauded the efforts of his players to learn and adapt to any situation and persevere through adversity to come out on top.
“This is a new group all the way from top to bottom,” Jason said. “We as a whole have to learn who we are, but I think we’ve learned quickly. We were giving games away in the last three minutes of halves and the last six minutes of games, but I think this group has learned pretty fast what’s important.”
Milwaukee was backed into a corner after Lakers point guard Jeremy Lin knocked down a high arcing three-pointer to put Los Angeles up six with just 36 seconds left in regulation. But the Bucks never wavered.
As the shot went through the net, Milwaukee took it out quickly, and just five seconds later Brandon Knight jogged down and sank a trey from 26-feet out to cut the deficit to three, 94-91. The Bucks followed with a stop on defense and Coach Kidd called a timeout to draw up a play to give his team a chance to force overtime. One of the first options on the play was O.J. Mayo, who seemed to circuit the entire arena before he finally got open in the corner for a handoff from Khris Middleton.
With clock ticking down, Mayo launched a shot as he was fading into the first row of baseline spectators, and the shot splashed the net forcing overtime at Milwaukee’s BMO Harris Bradley Center.
“We were looking for Juice,” Jason said. “He had just made a big three to cut the lead to three. He was the hottest player for us, so we wanted to give it a different look. I thought Khris did a heck of a job of getting the ball to him with the traffic. Then Juice does the hardest part. We executed late on both ends. That just shows our growth.”
Knight then came through with 10 points in the overtime period, including two threes from beyond 25 feet to carry Milwaukee to their season-best fifth straight win.
“We’re just grinding,” Mayo said. “Even if our energy isn’t there, our heart and effort is there. We found a way to get that win tonight.”
Knight and Mayo certainly finished the game for the Bucks, but Giannis Antetokounmpo kept them in it throughout. The talented second-year man hit 10-of-14 shots for a career-high 25 points and also grabbed six rebounds.
Giannis’ efficiency was contagious, as the Bucks shot 50 percent from the field, including an 11-of-26 performance from beyond the arc. They also missed just two free throws all night (20-of-22).
“I don’t think this will be his career-high for long,” J-Kidd said of the 25-point night.” He’s getting comfortable shooting the ball and making plays for his teammates. He’s a guy that fills up the stat sheet. He put a lot of pressure on their defense by driving the ball and getting into the paint.”
Antetokounmpo was one of four 20+ point scorers for the Bucks on Wednesday. Milwaukee also got 21 points from Mayo off the bench, 24 points from Knight and 21 more from Khris Middleton, who not only scored in bulk, but stuffed the stat sheet, scoring in bulk, with an effort that also included seven rebounds and seven assists.
Milwaukee needed every bit of it to contend with a Lakers team operating on all cylinders, particularly off the bench. LA’s reserves combined to score a season-high 69 points on Wednesday night, including 28 points and nine rebounds from veteran forward Carlos Boozer. Nick Young also scored 16 points off the bench, while Wayne Ellington had 19 of his own, including five threes. The performance of their second unit helped Lakers a 54-46 carry a lead into halftime.
But Milwaukee turned it on in the third. Antetokounmpo and Middleton led a 17-0 run that made it seem that no late-game heroics would be necessary. At the end of the surge, Milwaukee carried a 74-68 lead into the fourth quarter.
However, the Bucks went cold through the middle of the fourth, and their nearly four-minute scoring drought allowed Los Angeles to make a comeback. An Ellington jumper gave the Lakers an 83-82 lead with 4:26 to go. Then Lin’s triple pushed that lead six with just 36 seconds left, sending Knight and Mayo into action to force OT.
Knight, who sat out Milwaukee’s road win on the road over Toronto on Monday with a quad injury, continued to perform at a level that has led many to call for his selection to the All-Star team.
“B-Knight was great first game back,” Jason said. “We’re starting to finish halves and finish games. Earlier in the season we weren’t able to do that, and tonight was a perfect example of being able to finish, being able to comeback in overtime and execute.”
That was particularly true in the extra session. Knight opened the overtime period by draining a deep three and after a stop by the defense he scored on a transition layup to put Milwaukee up five. Later, Boozer made a layup off a Lin pass to cut the Bucks lead to just one, 103-104.
But Knight came down and stuck another three, driving a stake into the heart of Laker Nation as the shot clock was winding down to put Milwaukee back up four with under a minute left. Middleton and Knight then each sank free throws to preserve the lead and Mayo put the icing on the win with a layup off a Knight steal right before the buzzer. Afterward, Knight noted that the Bucks entered the game treating it like a must win, an attitude Milwaukee never had before Coach Kidd arrived.
“We were talking about it earlier, and we thought this was a win we had to have,” Knight said. “Last year we never approached any game saying, ‘We’ve got to have this win; we can’t lose this game.’ You could just tell the entire attitude of our team has changed.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks (27-22) will ride their season best five-game winning streak into Houston for a showdown with James Harden and the Rockets (34-15) on Friday night at the Toyota Center.
The teams last met on Nov. 29 when Harden scored 34 points to lead Houston to a 117-103 victory. The Rockets have continued to roll since and currently sit third in the Western Conference. They enter the rematch with wins in seven of their last 10 games despite the prolonged absence of star big man Dwight Howard.
Friday’s game will end a long yo-yo portion of the Bucks schedule which has given them just brief stops at home between road trips in the last few weeks. After their game in Houston on Friday night, the Bucks will return home for five straight games at BMO Harris Bradley Center against Boston, Brooklyn, Sacramento, Denver and Atlanta.
Tip off from Houston is scheduled for 7 p.m. CST and the game can be seen on Fox Sports Wisconsin.
