Jason Kidd and the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t finish where they hoped in 2015-16, but the season still brought some terrific times for the young squad.
As J-Kidd and Co. work toward owning the future, we’re counting down their Top 5 games from this past season. Topping the list is Milwaukee’s monumental win over the 2015 NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
No. 1: 24-1
The Golden State Warriors finished the 2015-16 regular season with an NBA record 73 wins and just nine losses—and the first of those blemishes came at the hands of none other than Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks.
The Warriors opened the season with 24 consecutive wins—until they rolled into the BMO Harris Bradley Center on Dec. 12. The Bucks limited the Warriors to 22.2 percent from beyond the three-point line, where Golden State had proved to be dangerous all season, en route to a 108-95 win over the defending NBA champions.
Greg Monroe led the Bucks with 28 points and added 11 rebounds, while Giannis Antetokounmpo had his first career triple-double with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Stephen Curry scored 28 points for the Warriors, but was only 2-of-9 from three-point range. Golden State’s Klay Thompson had similar trouble making shots, as he only connected on four of his 14 shot attempts.
Meanwhile O.J. Mayo finished with four treys for the Bucks. His first three-pointer came at the 7:54 mark in the first quarter, which gave the Bucks an early 14-5 lead. The Bucks stretched their lead to 18-9 before the Warriors pulled back within two to make it 18-16.
Milwaukee once again built a solid lead, as a Monroe layup with 2:40 remaining in the first quarter put the Bucks up 28-18. That lead reached 12 before the Warriors ended the quarter on a 10-0 run to cut the Bucks’ lead to 30-28.
In the second quarter, the Bucks regained a double-digit lead. With just over two minutes to play in the second period, Mayo hit another trifecta, this time pulling Milwaukee ahead 53-40. At halftime, the Bucks were in front 59-48.
Late in the third quarter, the Warriors narrowed the gap. Curry slashed his way through the defense to pull the Warriors to within one point, with the Bucks leading 78-77 at the 1:31 mark. Michael Carter-Williams made a short jump shot to give the Bucks an 80-77 lead at the end of the third quarter. MCW finished with 17 points and seven assists off the bench for the Bucks.
While Golden State had nearly evened the score going into the fourth quarter, the Bucks were undeterred.
“We never wavered,” Monroe said. He
[coach Kidd] stuck with it. I was just trying to be aggressive. Obviously, coach thought we had a mismatch. I just tried to make sure I made the right play whether it was attacking or finding my teammates if they came and helped.”Milwaukee opened the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run, giving the Bucks an 87-77 lead with 8:41 remaining in the game. The Warriors had found a way to win for 28 straight games, dating back to the 2015 NBA Finals previous season, but this time the Warriors didn’t have an answer. The Bucks held the Champs off in the waning minutes, pulling off a 13-point victory against a team that only lost nine games all season.
“It starts with our defense,” Jason said. “When you talk about the streak, what’s bigger than the streak is they’re the world champs. And so, for us, we didn’t talk about the streak, it was about playing the world champs.”
