It wasn’t pretty, but the Bucks snapped out of their four-game skid last night at Fiserv with a victory over the Jazz. 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
Giannis Antetokounmpo
27 minutes, 27 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, 9/14 FG, 9/15 FT, +23
The kind of staff-stuffing night we haven’t seen in what feels like months. Free throws improved as the game went along too.
Grade: A
Myles Turner
18 minutes, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks, 3/7
FG, 1/4 3P, +10
I get that Sims is playing well lately, but I don’t think Turner has been bad enough to necessitate being benched so often in clutch time. Not by a mile. I did like how they tried to get him involved inside—more of that, please.
Grade: C
Ryan Rollins
40 minutes, 13 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 turnovers, 2 blocks, 5/15 FG, 3/9 3P, +11
Though Rollins had pretty loose handles and couldn’t find his shot, another sneaky near-triple double is nothing to sneeze at. Some pretty nice finishes through traffic and larger defenders.
Grade: B
Ousmane Dieng
32 minutes, 11 points, 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 4/8 FG, 3/6 3P, +11
This was the best I’ve seen Dieng as a playmaker for both himself and others—an even sneakier near-triple double. Nine assists ties a career high. Had another high-release catch-and-shoot three near the top of the arc. Stayed with his man pretty much every time.
Grade: A-
Kyle Kuzma
29 minutes, 18 points, 5 assists, 5 fouls, 6/12 FG, 3/5 3P,+7
Starting again as the Bucks opted for more size. The shooting line is nice, but it hides a rough first half. He biffed two early layups and struggled guarding Keyonte George. Came up big late with an and-one that extended the lead to six. One of his two late threes might have been a dagger, though the second was when the game was well in hand.
Grade: B
AJ Green
21 minutes, 7 points, 4 fouls, 2/8 3P, +0
The first sub after being removed from the starting lineup, Green is shooting just 30% from deep since the All-Star break. Three for his last 17 including this one. Didn’t make his first shot until 2:30 in the third but did get another shortly thereafter. Abused on defense routinely, but finally stopped fouling when bigger guys switched onto him.
Grade: D+
Bobby Portis
18 minutes, 12 points, 5/8 FG, -6
Doc remarked postgame how Portis was too uninvolved towards the end of the first quarter, when the offense first dried up. That was corrected to begin the fourth quarter, when he scored half his points. Also had a flashy spin move on Elijah Harkless during that stint.
Grade: B+
Jericho Sims
30 minutes, 6 points, 5 rebounds, 3/4 FG, -2
Probably would have had a nicer scoring line had a few lobs been better placed. Generally good defensively and on the glass. Doc says he closes because he defends and he’s switchable—also hailing his passing—but I wouldn’t say Turner doesn’t defend and isn’t switchable…
Grade: B+
Pete Nance
14 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 2/5 FG, 1/4 3P, +11
One of several Bucks whose jumper was MIA, though I was impressed by Nance on the other end. He moves his feet so well, and for all people talk about his “lack” of athleticism, you’d never notice it defensively. Doc called him a connector postgame, noting that the ball moved much better in the second unit when Nance was on the floor.
Grade: B-
Doc Rivers
Credit where it’s due for upgauging the starting lineup, benching Green, sliding Dieng to guard, and reinserting Kuz. He mentioned after the Atlanta loss that they just needed more size (Giannis echoed this postgame too) and while I don’t know if this group will be as effective with Orlando or other teams, it’s worth a try. As this was another game the Bucks struggled out of half, I asked him why he thought that was:
“I don’t know why. We’ve talked about it; I have one of my coaches going out now and watching them [while shooting during halftime] to make sure they’re moving. Because this has happened a lot to us. We come out stagnant, slow… I will say this: it wasn’t because we were not playing right. We just didn’t come out and play well… in Chicago—I’ll give you an example—we just didn’t play right. We came out and didn’t play the right way. And so that’s why you could live with it a little bit more tonight. Maybe tht’s why it wasn’t pronounced as much, because once we got out of it, we got some stops. We gotta start the second half thinking defense, though. That’s the culprit, in my opinion. When we get stops, we get out running. It just seems like we ease into the third quarter, and we have to stop doing that.”
Kuzma mentioned that their sense of urgency is gone after they get momentum in the first half. We asked Giannis too, and he didn’t mention defense as much. He took it on himself:
“Today… you could see it. We come down, miss a shot, put our head down. We go the other way, they make a shot, we go to the free throw line, we wait, and we look down… everybody’s in their head… And that’s gotta change, and it starts for me. I gotta be more aggressive with it. I feel like the more aggressive I am, the more I’m [getting] downhill, the more I play with a good pace, it translates to everybody. Everybody follows, right? So sometimes, especially in the third quarter, I’m just warming up. I’m waiting for everybody else to kind of take that step, and maybe that’s a mistake for me. As a leader, I got to be able to come and set the tone, be that engine for our team. And hopefully in the next third quarters moving forward, I can do a better job with that.“
Probably more of a team effort than Giannis is letting on. But whatever that coach is doing at halftime, I guess it’s not working.
Grade: B
Limited Minutes: Cam Thomas, Gary Trent Jr.
DNP-CD: Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Gary Harris, Andre Jackson Jr.
Inactive: Alex Antetokounmpo, Kevin Porter Jr., Taurean Prince, Cormac Ryan
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Oscar Tshiebwe got the assignment on Giannis out of the chute. You’ll recall his first career points from the Ballgate game back in 2023.
- Milwaukee went without a point guard often: at first, Green came in for Rollins, and Giannis predictably ran the offense, and it predictably looked good. They ran this one-guard soon after with Trent, less successfully.
- It took Utah nearly seven minutes to make their first two-point field goal.
- The Bucks missed six free throws in the first, and only two were from Giannis. Sims and surprisingly Thomas also missed back-to-back FTs in this game.
- Trent saw first-half minutes for the first time since February 6 against Indiana. Every appearance he’s had since has been in garbage time.
- Thomas saw six first-half minutes, made a shot, but did not appear in the second half.
- Utah shot only 30.6% from the field in the first half. Yuck. In general, this game had a college feel with the poor shooting on both sides, especially in the first half.
- Milwaukee got outrebounded again (53-48) on both ends (13-7 offensive) and lost the shot battle by five. Most of that damage came in the second half.
- At least the Jazz had only one more free throw. But unlike the Bucks, who missed 12 of them, they only missed four (86.2%).
- 33 assists is tied for third most this season. Sounded like ball movement and advance passes were a big focus of Friday’s practice.
- Rollins eclipsed 1,000 points for the first time in his career.
- Marquette took down UConn earlier in the day at Fiserv, and apparently, that meant Huskie alum Andre Jackson Jr. lost some money to Marquette legend Rivers.
Up Next
The Bucks are immediately back in action tonight vs. the Orlando Magic. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. CDT on FanDuel Sports Wisconsin.
