The Milwaukee Bucks took a setback on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, but on Wednesday, Jason Kidd’s team made major progress in their return to the Staples Center—even though it did come in a loss to the Clippers.
The young Bucks, once again playing without star center Greg Monroe, fought hard with one of the Western Conference’s top teams. However, they came up short in a 103-90 defeat. But even still, Coach Kidd was proud of his team’s effort on the second night of a back-to-back.
“The fight, the intent was right,” Jason said. “The night before was the opposite so for us to learn from that and now we’ve got to build on what we did tonight.”
Even with their top inside scoring threat in Monroe out of commission, the Bucks attacked the paint for 14 points in the first quarter. It was a decent offensive start for Milwaukee, but its defense couldn’t hold off the hot-shooting Clippers. Led by a combined 12 points from J.J. Redick and Chris Paul, the Clips shot 62.5 percent and led 29-21 after one.
The Bucks battled their way back in the second. John Henson heated up, going 3-for-3 for six points off the bench. Jabari Parker matched those six points, including four straight to cut the L.A. lead to four. Then O.J. Mayo dropped two of his five points to make it just a two-point deficit.
However, the Clips went on a run late in the first half, capped by a conventional three-point play by Blake Griffin that made it an 11-point lead once again going into the third quarter. The Clippers were 6-of-7 at the line in the second quarter and amassed 20 points at the stripe on the night. Milwaukee fouled 21 times on the night—a number J-Kidd wants to see reduced going forward.
“We have to learn how to play without fouling and understanding keeping them off the free throw line,” Coach Kidd said. “When you give a veteran ballclub like the Clippers easy points at the free throw line it will come back to haunt you.”
The third and fourth quarters were much of the same for Milwaukee: They came close, but could never complete the rally. A layup from Mayo again cut the Clipper lead down to six with just over a minute to go in the third quarter, but two three-pointers by Josh Smith in that final minute made it a 12-point lead once again.
Early in the fourth, the Bucks were still fighting. A nice drive and score by Michael Carter-Williams made it a seven-point deficit for Milwaukee, 82-75. After a Paul Pierce miss on the other end, the Bucks had a look at a layup by MCW—but it just didn’t fall. Jason saw that sequence as the turning point in the game.
“We had some plays there in the second half, the guys played hard, they tried, and the ball just didn’t fall for us,” Jason said. “(Carter-Williams) was playing well. The ball just didn’t fall for us. We had a good look, the right play and then on the other end we couldn’t get a stop, we give up a layup. So, seven doesn’t go to five, it goes to nine and then we’re playing from behind.”
After that crippling sequence, Milwaukee still kept battling. Giannis Antetokounmpo came through with three straight buckets for the Bucks. The young Greek star had a tremendous fourth quarter, going 4-of-5 for nine points, but for all his efforts, Milwaukee couldn’t get a stop on the other end, and the deficit never fell below nine.
“We made some shots late which helped us,” Jason said. “(Giannis) missed some shots early on, but for him to stay with the game and keep taking the shots when they presented themselves, again rebounding the ball, he was big in that area for us tonight…The effort was extremely high. We just couldn’t make the plays when we needed to.”
Milwaukee had the deficit still at just eight points with four minutes to play, when the Bucks made a critical error, fouling Redick on a three-point attempt. He knocked down all three from the stripe to make it an 11-point lead. Shortly thereafter, Paul went back-to-back from three, and Redick added one final trifecta with 36.6 to go to drive the final nail in the coffin.
Jason was critical of his team fouling on that late three-pointer, which has been a thorn in the team’s side this season. But he was also very complimentary of the play of the two Los Angeles guards, CP3 in particular.
“I don’t know if there’s a stat but we probably lead the league in fouling three-point shooters. We’ve got to do a better job with that,” J-Kidd said. “Chris Paul hits another three, again we’ve got to guard the three point but Chris Paul’s a vet, he knows how to play. He did a really good job tonight.”
NEXT UP
The Bucks (10-17) now have a big rematch with the Golden State Warriors (25-1) Friday at Oracle Arena in Oakland.
Jason will return to his hometown for a game where the Warriors will be out for revenge. The only blemish on their record came last week at the hands of J-Kidd’s Bucks. The defending champions have played just once since then: a 128-103 offensive explosion in a victory over the Phoenix Suns.
Tipoff is slated for 9:30 p.m. CT and will air on FOX Sports Wisconsin.
