After escaping on Monday with a two-point win over the Hawks, the Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t build momentum and lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s the fourth straight loss for the Bucks against defending
NBA champions. Giannis led the way for the Bucks with 19 points and 14 rebounds, while seldom-used guard Cole Anthony had 17 points on 77.8% shooing from the floor. Reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all players with 40 points on a hyper-efficient 16/19 shooting, while also dishing out 11 assists.
Game Recap
During his pre-game remarks, Doc Rivers mentioned that in order to beat a team like OKC, even shorthanded, they couldn’t turn the ball over. That didn’t translate on the court, as the Bucks committed three turnovers in the first four minutes. That allowed the Thunder to grab a big lead early, and they continued to add onto it. Milwaukee didn’t even hit double-digits on the scoreboard until the 3:09 mark, courtesy of a Pete Nance three-pointer. At one point, Ajay Mitchell outscored the Bucks by himself (12 to 11). By the time the first was over, the Bucks fell behind by 20, 38-18.
Milwaukee seemed to find their footing early in the second from three-point range. They went 3/5 in the first 4:28 of the frame, but the problem was that they couldn’t get a stop on defense. SGA didn’t have to do much to break down Milwaukee’s defense: there were a few stretches where the Bucks tried to hang around, cutting the lead down to 14 points a couple of times, but OKC always had a response. SGA hit a three with 38 seconds left with Kyle Kuzma all over him to put the Thunder back up by 19, and the score at halftime was 69-51 in favor of OKC.
The Bucks tried to mount a comeback, but the Thunder were having none of it. SGA scored or assisted on eight of the first 14 OKC points in the first half of the quarter to keep the Bucks at bay. Milwaukee did try to creep into the game again, cutting the deficit to 16 points with 4:03 to go in the quarter thanks to an Andre Jackson Jr. three-point basket. Yet, as they did throughout the night at Fiserv Forum, the Thunder responded with a 9-0 run to go up by 27 points. The Bucks were able to shave down the deficit a bit heading into the fourth quarter, down 99-77.
The first two possessions of the fourth quarter typified what the game had been all night long. Pete Nance hit a three-pointer to get the deficit under 20. On the Thunder’s first offensive possession, the Bucks forced Kenrich Williams into a fadeaway three at the end of the shot clock, but he drilled it anyway. The two teams traded baskets for much of the quarter, but after two straight dunks from Giannis, Oklahoma City called timeout. But with the Bucks down by 18 points and just under five miuntes to go, Doc Rivers subbed out Giannis for the rest of the game. Then, with 2:28 left, Rivers subbed in end-of-the-bench players, as OKC coasted to an easy victory.
Stat That Stood Out
One key to this one was not turning the ball over. Milwaukee couldn’t do that at all in the first quarter, as they turned the ball over eight times. The Thunder were able to turn that into 11 points, en route to their 20-point first-quarter lead.
