After two consecutive blowouts, the Milwaukee Bucks stayed in this game until the final minutes against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but ultimately lost 112-100. Obviously, the headline of the night was Brayden Burries’ insertion into the starting lineup for Ryan Rollins, but overall, it was a gutsy effort from the squad never to let go of the rope. I really enjoyed watching them fight and problem-solve throughout the 48 minutes. 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
Ryan Rollins
17 minutes, 10 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 4/11 FG, 1/5 3P, -2
Ughhhhh. Am I starting to worry? A little bit. Look, I liked Rollins’ defence and thought he and Brayden Burries did a good job guarding LaMelo Ball, but the shots—even the wide-open ones—just aren’t falling. I still think Rollins will come good sooner rather than later—and as I mention below, the Wolves are not fun to try to score on—but man, you wonder whether the outside noise is starting to get to him. Only 17 minutes. Yikes.
Grade: D
Tyler Herro
30 minutes, 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 2 turnovers, 8/18 FG, 4/11 3P, -10
Overall, Herro played an OK game. My main takeaway, though—and I can almost guarantee this will be the case all year long—is that he’s not a first option, and when he plays that role against great teams, he gets the top defender on those teams, whom he can really struggle against. Moreover, because Herro isn’t really a one-on-one scorer and needs a screener, he often brings elite defensive bigs into the action, making it even harder to score. That was the case all night against the Wolves, as Herro struggled even to get a look at the rim against the McDaniels-Gobert duo. He got his stats in the end—along with playing some solid defence, I must say—but it all looked like incredibly hard work.
Grade: C+
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
28 minutes, 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 8/17 FG, 2/4 3P , -14
Jaquez played a fine game. He was a calming presence early, scoring the Bucks’ first seven points as the Wolves got off to a hot start, but he also struggled to handle their size at times. On the plus side, Jaquez had another efficient shooting night from three; now up to 6/12 over the last three games.
Grade: C+
Kyle Kuzma
22 minutes, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1/6 FG, 0/4 3P, -22
Yeah, just a dud game from Kuzma. Without his jumper working, he had no way of attacking the Wolves. I’m not sure why 4-6 of his minutes couldn’t have gone to Ament, quite honestly. These are the games where you might as well just go in another direction. Kuzma isn’t like Turner, for example, whom you have to showcase for a trade; Kuz is on an expiring deal, and teams know who he is.
Grade: D-
Myles Turner
31 minutes, 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 blocks, 1 turnover, 5/10 FG, 3/6 3P, -14
Turner was about as good as you could have expected in this one. I thought he played well, especially on defence, which has been the theme lately after a disappointing start to the year on that end. Turner’s rim protection and timing were elite, highlighted by a come-from-behind block on Gobert. Also, efficient shooting from three! This is the kind of play the Bucks need from MT.
Grade: B+
Kel’el Ware
17 minutes, 2 points, 9 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1/6 FG, 0/1 3P, +2
What do you know? Ware was mostly ineffective against physical, upper-echelon bigs; unfortunately, it’s the same old story. That said, I do want to credit Ware with 1) having some great blocks and 2) setting solid screens, an ability of his that I have been pleasantly surprised by.
Grade: D+
Kasparas Jakucionis
22 minutes, 7 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 turnovers, 2/7 FG, 0/3 3P, -8
Still a few too many instances of trying to do too much, but I continue to be impressed with Jakucionis’ ability to get downhill and make things happen. He had some terrific finds in this one, including a play where he rejected the empty-side pick-and-roll, drew the weak-side help, and patiently found Herro in the deep corner for three. Those are the plays I love, as opposed to the “I’ve been dribbling for six seconds, and things are getting a bit hairy” plays.
Grade: C+
Brayden Burries
26 minutes, 9 points, 9 rebounds, 4/15 FG, 1/7 3P, 5/6 FT, -4
This was an odd game to evaluate because I thought Burries played quite well, even though his shot didn’t fall (which is a sign of a good player). Sure, LaMelo Ball went off, but I still think Burries—as his primary defender—did a great job of navigating screens, staying connected, and generally making him work throughout the game. Burries’ rebounding as a guard was also impressive, with four of his nine rebounds being O-boards! Finally, we should acknowledge that getting your first start against the freaking Timberwolves is no easy introduction; like, I’m going to give Burries some grace for not shooting it well.
Grade: C+
AJ Green
23 minutes, 13 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 4/8 FG, 4/8 3P, +12
Green was excellent in this one, hitting three of his five triples in the first half. His teammates—the creators—did a great job getting into the paint and locating Green, and then it was just up to him to let ‘em rip. And man, some of those shots had a high level of difficulty. The shot in the third quarter where he caught it on the right wing, gave an exaggerated pump fake, took a step to the side, and nailed the three was so smooth. Also, more pick-and-roll reps = more great passes!
Grade: A-
Nate Ament
7 minutes, 4 points, 1/1 FG, -2
Not all that much to talk about with Ament. As I mentioned, I felt like he could have gotten 4-6 more minutes, but he was mostly fine in the minutes he got. That said, there were a few defensive lapses. I’ve spoken previously about how Ament’s best defensive quality right now is his one-on-one wing defence—when all he has to focus on is using his long, T-rex-like arms to contest shots—but he still needs a lot of work on his perimeter defence and off-ball awareness. Well, Ament got burned once failing to get around a ball screen on a Bones Hyland three, and again on a flare screen for a Trey Lyles triple. I’d like to see Ament climb into the ball more and dictate where his man goes when he’s guarding one-on-one, not the other way around, but hopefully that will come with time.
Grade: C-
Jericho Sims
14 minutes, 0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 0/0 FG, +2
If you just looked at the box score, you would think Sims played a largely inconsequential game. Oh no—he was solid in this one. Firstly, the switchability remains freakish; I mean, dudes just can’t get past him (see Bonus Bucks Bits). And then the physical screen-setting; when Sims isn’t setting illegal picks, I’d wager he’s the best screener on the team. Sims is good, man. If the Bucks aren’t going to play him—and I totally get why they haven’t—they ought to trade him for something.
Grade: C+
Taylor Jenkins
You could tell that once the Bucks were in with a sniff, Jenkins was going to set development aside and lean on the vets, which I totally get. Milwaukee was outrebounded by just six, so a tick on that. Also, although you could say it didn’t “work,” I totally get the logic of bringing Rollins off the bench, if only to split him up from Herro and let him play more on the ball; I think they should explore that more. Now, LaMelo Ball obviously torched the Bucks, so maybe Jenkins could have instructed his team to get it out of his hands via doubles, both in the pick-and-roll and general play; but sometimes you need to make someone beat you one way and cut off their water in other areas. Ball had only three assists, so from that standpoint, mission accomplished. Moreover, 13 of Ball’s 21 shots were threes, and I recall most of those being tough shots. Finally, the team played well in the second quarter—yay! Overall, I thought it was a solidly coached game.
Grade: B
DNP-CD: Ousmane Dieng, Bogoljub Markovic, Caris LeVert, Gary Trent Jr.
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance
What We Learnt
Jenkins is not going to be scared to try stuff. He benched an established player and even employed hack-a-Rudy, which I doubt many of the players had done before. I think it’s cool that, even amid lots of losing, the players will be put in plenty of unfamiliar positions and have to figure it out.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Brayden Burries on his first start: “It was definitely a good opportunity for me and the guys to showcase, but we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. We’ll see how we can get better from that.”
- Burries on his rebounding: “Finding other ways to impact winning outside of scoring. My shot wasn’t falling today—that happens. So just figuring out how else to impact the game.”
- Myles Turner tied former Buck Samuel Dalembert for the 38th-most blocks in NBA history with 1,546.
- As mentioned, the Bucks corrected their second-quarter woes, winning the period 29-19.
- Brayden Burries started on LaMelo Ball, playing the same role Ryan Rollins ordinarily would. Unfortunately, Ball scored 11 of the Wolves’ first 15 points.
- Smartly, Tyler Herro baited Jaden McDaniels into fouling him twice in the opening minute of the third quarter, forcing McDaniels to the bench and giving Herro a rest.
- Y’all, this is incredibly impressive defence from Jericho Sims, the likes of which you simply cannot teach:
Up Next
Milwaukee’s two-game road trip concludes in Bean Town, where they face the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night. Catch the game at 6:30 p.m. CST on MY24.
