The Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t match the Cleveland Cavaliers’ star duo, LeBron James and Kevin Love—but as a team, the Cavs couldn’t match Jason Kidd’s young Bucks.
James and Love combined for 61 points and 26 rebounds, but the Bucks had all five starters and two players off the bench in double figures. As strong as the Cavs twosome was, seven was better than two at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, and Milwaukee pulled out a spectacular 108-105 double-overtime upset.
“Understand this is the best team in the East and also one of the best teams in the league,” Coach Kidd said of the Cavs. “We had our opportunities there to win it. But, they kept playing. There’s a lot of guys who take credit but we talk about as a team, we win and lose as a team, so the team gets the W.”
The game went back and forth throughout with 12 lead changes and eight ties. The action heated up in the second quarter, where Giannis Antetokounmpo scored eight points and Jerryd Bayless had seven to push Milwaukee out to a 50-44 lead at the break. Giannis and Bayless were both excellent throughout. Antetokounmpo finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, often contending with James on both ends of the floor. Bayless chipped in a team-high 17 points and five assists off the bench.
The second quarter also brought a big moment for second-year star Jabari Parker. He played 30 minutes on the night and had 12 points, including an explosive driving dunk through the lane in the second frame. Coach Kidd felt that move gave him confidence, and it showed later when he fooled Love with a crossover and finished with another thunderous slam.
“He’s doing well,” Jason said of Jabari. “Once he took the ball to the basket and had that dunk, you could see that his confidence grew about having contact and being able to d the things that he did before the injury. After a serious injury like that, you have to regain confidence, it just doesn’t happen overnight. I thought he played a great game for us tonight.”
Aside from the noise made by Parker, the third quarter was relatively quite for both teams. Neither team scored more than 20 points, and Milwaukee led by nine, 70-61, going into the fourth.
At the end of regulation, the Bucks led by two with 20 seconds to go. Defensively, they played to disallow a three-point opportunity, which left James open for a bucket off the drive. Milwaukee had one last possession in regulation but Bayless missed what would’ve been the game-winning shot. Jason explained his team’s strategy as they looked to avoid giving up a three, while also trying to keep the final possession of the game.
“You’re going to give up something. And, we didn’t want to give up a three at that point. Being the basketball player he is, he saw that, and he took advantage of getting to the basket and laying it in,” J-Kidd told reporters. “Just understanding that the three hurts us and the two doesn’t. For us, trying to win the game on the offensive end, having the ball last was what we wanted, and we got that, and we just couldn’t connect. But, we had good looks.”
Since Milwaukee would connect, the game carried on. Greg Monroe kicked things off with a bucket underneath. He added three rebounds to his two points in the first overtime, and he finished with 16 points, 17 boards, three assists and a block.
“You look at Moose, I thought he did a great job. Playing on the perimeter defensively, because Love is on the perimeter, I thought he did a great job there. Then you look at what he did for us offensively, being able to get the ball to him to score and make plays for his teammates. He found Khris there late for a backdoor layup. They talked about it and they executed it.”
As Jason explained, Monroe helped to free Khris Middleton, who had 11 points on the night, for a layup to break a 94-94 tie with 1:13 to go in the first overtime session. Moose came up with a big block on Love on the next possession, but another key late play by James tied the game at 96 and scheduled a second overtime.
James and Middleton traded trifectas to start the second extra period, but it was reserve guard Greivis Vasquez who came up big later. The man who joined the Bucks in a trade on draft night buried a triple off a setup from Bayless to put the Bucks up with 1:53 to go.
“We all believe in him. Not just myself but his teammates. I thought tonight, he gave us a lift. Being able to make big shots, finding the open guys, he’s a floor general. He’s not afraid of the moment and he stepped up again for us tonight.”
Vasquez was in double figures with 13 points, as was Michael Carter-Williams. The young point guard corralled a James miss and hit two critical free throws to put Milwaukee up six and ice the game with a minute left. He tied Bayless for a team-high 17 and stuffed the stat sheet with five boards, four dimes, two steals and two blocks.
After seeing his team battle until the end but fall just short in its previous night out against the Denver Nuggets, Jason was glad to see his team do the same, but come out with a win over one of the best teams in basketball this time around.
“I think when you talk about the length of this game and for them to compete from the start to the finish just shows that we kind of carried it over from the last game. Hopefully, we can build on this because at the Denver game we had to make a stand, again we have the ball to win the game and unfortunately we missed it. But, we fought,” J-Kidd told reporters. “And, tonight we fought for not just for 48 minutes but for the two overtimes.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks (5-5) will ride the momentum of defeating the best team in the Eastern Conference into their next contest at the Verizon Center against the Washington Wizards (4-4).
The Wiz are yet to find their stride this year, though they topped the Bucks 118-113 in the second game of the season on Oct. 30. Milwaukee will aim to slow down guard Bradley Beal, who had 26 points and went 5-of-6 from three in that game.
Tipoff is set for at 6 p.m. CT and will air on NBA TV from the Verizon Center.
