The Milwaukee Bucks took down the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder 110-93 in what might have been their best team performance of the year. Granted, this was nowhere near OKC’s best team, missing a bunch of guys, including their two initiators in SGA and Jalen Williams, but the Thunder are tough to beat with whoever they’ve got. Having seven Bucks reach double-digit scoring just shows how well the team moved the ball and played off each other. Brilliant stuff. Read our full summary of the game
here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast, Bucks In Six Minutes, below.
Player Grades
AJ Green
38 minutes, 17 points, 3 assists, 6/14 FG, 5/11 3P, +17
If you watch closely, you can see how much AJ’s game has evolved this season—last night was a prime example. At Green’s size, getting his shot off is half the battle, and his trigger has gotten so much quicker, whether that be off the dribble or off the catch, but he keeps getting more and more off. His passing game—and particularly his ability to manipulate in the pick-and-roll—has also improved leaps and bounds. He had a play last night where he came hard off the pick, probed the drop big to the point where they slightly committed to him, which forced the corner defender to tag the roller, opening up the wing shooter, whom AJ promptly hit with his left hand. Scrumdiddlyumptious!
Grade: A
Kevin Porter Jr.
31 minutes, 12 points, 7 assists, 3 steals, 3 turnovers, 6/15 FG, 0/1 3P, +12
A solid passing game from KPJ, but you hope for better efficiency and less turnovers (like he showed in the previous games).
Grade: C+
Bobby Portis
29 minutes, 15 points, 3 assists, 12 rebounds, 6/11 FG, 3/6 3P, +19
After a few down games, Bobby played much better in this one. He took advantage of his size against the smaller OKC lineup, making the right play more often than not. Love the rebounding as well.
Grade: B
Ousmane Dieng
36 minutes, 19 points, 6 assists, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks, 1 steal, 0 turnovers, 7/12 FG, 3/6 3P, +16
Dieng continues to impress. He’s obviously shot the ball really well thus far, which is notable because he’s a career 30% three-point shooter. However, the part of his offensive game that impressed me the most last night was his ability to mix it up and take what the defence gave him. He drove with purpose off hand-offs, scoring once for himself and lobbing to the roller on the other. He curled hard off an off-ball screen and nailed a movement three. There was even a play where he got the rebound and immediately pushed it coast-to-coast before finishing at the rim with a nice Euro-step. I wrote in the preview that I wanted to see if he could “get places” against an elite defence, and he did exactly that. Oh, and then there’s the five stocks on defense. Whew!
Grade: A+
Kyle Kuzma
28 minutes, 14 points, 5/15 FG, 2/6 3P, +8
Not the greatest offensive showing from Kuz, but he did hit some big shots at crucial moments. I also liked his defence; thought his physicality was great.
Grade: C
Cam Thomas
20 minutes, 12 points, 2 assists, 5/13 FG, 1/6 3P, +15
This is the difference between what happens when Cam tries to score (in the iso-heavy way that he does) against a good defence vs. a mediocre one. Somewhat like KPJ, I suspect it’ll be a roller coaster ride this year watching Thomas. There will be high highs and low lows.
Grade: C-
Jericho Sims
20 minutes, 8 points, 5 rebounds, 4/5 FG, +6
As Zac wrote in the player grades for the last game, Sims just looks so much more confident out there. Dare I say, it even looks like he’s having fun! Sure, the box score isn’t as spectacular as last game, but the way he’s attacking the glass and playing with physicality has been awesome to watch.
Grade: B+
Pete Nance
24 minutes, 11 points, 7 rebounds, 4/6 FG, 3/5 3P, +4
Just another awesome game from Nance. I guess he’s just a capital-S shooter now!? He’s letting that thing go with confidence, man. I also love the way he’s playing with quick instincts. There was a play last night where he flashed high to receive the cross-court pass, flipped it to AJ Green (who was moving at speed before Nance even caught it), and screened for him. Green then threw it back on the short roll, and Nance had the wherewithal to quickly toss it to the corner before the help arrived.
Grade: A-
Darvin Ham
Hey man, credit where it’s due. Ham (and Doc in previous games) managed the lineups really well. I’ve noticed, in general, they seem to be moving away from specialists like Gary Trent Jr., Taurean Prince, and (to an extent) Gary Harris in favour of “basketball players.” Meaning guys who can pass, dribble, shoot, and defend at a decent level, even if they aren’t elite at one of those skills. Ousmane Dieng is a good example of this sort of player. He’s probably not the standstill shooter that Trent is, but he’s a lot more playable in different contexts. And to be clear, Dieng still has to prove himself over the season, but speaking just as a conceptual matter. This is where basketball is heading; specialists will go by the wayside soon enough, if they haven’t already. Off the top of my head, think about Corey Kispert and Luke Kennard; these dudes just aren’t coveted the way they used to be.
Grade: A-
Garbage time: Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Andre Jackson Jr., Gary Trent Jr.
DNP-CD: Gary Harris
Inactive: Alex Antetokounmpo, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Taurean Prince, Myles Turner, Ryan Rollins
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Mark Daigneault on Ousmane Dieng: “He was great. He was great last night too. We want guys to leave here and do well. We’re rooting for him. And he deserves that. He’s got a lot of good basketball ahead.” (Credit to Brandon Rahbar on Twitter for the quote).
- An underrated element of being tall and able to handle the ball is that you don’t have to be super explosive to get places on the court. Dieng can make simple reads well because he can pass over people. That said, I still think he needs to work on that part of his game to reach another level.
- If the Bucks keep winning, there’s going to come a point where I’m off “team tank.” I’m not there yet, but legit wins against quality teams will get me there. It’ll be hard to do “better” than 10th anyway; Chicago is playing like 13 guards and two centres right now. I’m joking, but seriously, that might actually be true!
- I found some of the OKC bench’s reactions to Dieng’s shotmaking throughout the game quite amusing.
- The Bucks were going at Jared McCain a lot, both as an on-ball and off-ball defender. They tried to hide him on AJ Green, which did not work.
- Nikola Topic. Welcome back, young fella.
Up Next
Now all the teams get a long break with All-Star weekend coming up. The Bucks are back on February 20 against the New Orleans Pelicans; it’s a road game. Catch the action on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin at 7:00 p.m. Central.
