The Milwaukee Bucks got routed by the Boston Celtics 133-101 in a contest that was never really a contest at all. The Celtics got off to a hot start in the paint and from three and never looked back, clinching the season series 3-1. 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
30 minutes, 15 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, 3 turnovers, 5/9 FG, 5/9 3P, -23
Dairy Bird hit some shots that breathed some life into an otherwise
dead game. He also kept the ball moving, racking up five assists off mostly extra swing passes. Three turnovers are never ideal for his role, though.
Grade: B-
Kyle Kuzma
24 minutes, 14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 6/14 FG, 2/5 3P, -31
Kuz was one of Milwaukee’s more aggressive and effective scorers. Going 2/5 from deep isn’t bad for a guy who’s been slumping from out there lately. Still, he wasn’t efficient and ultimately didn’t make much of a difference.
Grade: C+
Pete Nance
33 minutes, 14 points, 10 rebounds, 1 assist, 5/11 FG, 4/9 3P, -19
Doc talked pregame about how he’s continuing to emphasize crashing the glass with Nance. Last night, the big man grabbed a career-high 10 boards. Love that he got up nine threes too. Why not let it fly?
Grade: B
Myles Turner
18 minutes, 4 points, 1 rebound, 2 blocks, 1/4 FG, 1/3 3P, -32
Ugh. To be fair to Myles, you can’t expect much from a play finisher like him in a game where there are zero on-ball playmakers in the lineup. But he somehow sank well below the tempered expectations offensively. To make matters worse, Boston ran through the Bucks in the paint, and Mr. Turner is supposed to be a rim protector.
Grade: F
Ousmane Dieng
24 minutes, 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 4/15 FG, 1/4 3P, -32
Ous gets a bit of a pass here because he went down with an injury in the third quarter, but before that, he was on track for a disaster game. Slow processing and questionable decision-making were the story of his night. The on-ball stuff is very much still a work in progress for Dieng.
Grade: D
Cormac Ryan
32 minutes, 11 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 1 block, 2/7 FG, 2/4 3P, 5/5 FT, -19
The rookie competed as hard as anybody, even earning himself some stitches after shouldering a hard foul from Jaylen Brown that sent him flying into the first row. He also looked solid on defense and hit his jumpers.
Grade: C+
Jericho Sims
16 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 0/0 FG, 3/4 FT, +3
Sims is never going to do much scoring in a game with no playmakers (similar to Turner). That said, he still found ways to contribute, running the offense from the top of the key on his way to posting a career-high six assists and the only positive plus/minus on the team.
Grade: C-
Taurean Prince
24 minutes, 18 points, 2 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 7/8 FG, 4/5 3P, +/- 0
Prince got hot in relatively few minutes. Nice night for him, easily one of the few bright spots from a dreary game.
Grade: B
Gary Harris
14 minutes, 5 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, 1 steal, 2/4 FG, 1/2 3P, -2
Harris very quietly returned from injury and made little fanfare on the floor.
Grade: D+
Doc Rivers
It’s tough to imagine any coach doing much more with what Doc has to work with right now, especially against the Celtics. Like, anyone expecting a win here or even a close loss was kidding themselves, so all you can look at is the process, which was fine last night. Getting an offense going with zero creators is so tough at the NBA level, but the Bucks overall had a passable night on that end, hitting 21 threes. It was the defense that really killed the team and tanked Doc’s grade.
Grade: C
Limited Minutes: Andre Jackson Jr., Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Alex Antetokounmpo
Inactive: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kevin Porter Jr., Bobby Portis, Ryan Rollins, Gary Trent Jr.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Doc Rivers on unexpected wrinkles/skills we may see from players down the stretch:
- “I mean, Rylo (Ryan Rollins), we just wanna try to keep healthy, for the most part. But anytime he makes a play without the shot is big for us, that’s great. Pete (Nance), rebounding, still being confident shooting. We had to remind him in the Cleveland game to shoot the ball again and then to start shooting it and making it. So, a lot of the guys, the other guys, we’re just learning, we’re still trying to figure out.”
- Doc on the biggest joys of what’s been an overall tough season:
- “This has not been a fun year for anybody. But watching some of our young guys develop, it has been fun. Watching Ryan and watching AJ, Jericho Sims, I mean, you think about guys, when you look at our roster, we’re playing a lot of guys with minimum contracts and trying to win games. And that’s hard to do. It really is. There’s two sayings, with our young guys, they’re minimum, not for a reason, they’re minimum because no one knows ‘em, we’ve developed them, and I’m proud of that.”
- Thanasis *almost* (okay, not really almost) completed an alley-oop to Alex in the fourth quarter. How sick would that have been?
- AJ Green named 27 types of fish in 30 seconds to beat a fan in a giveaway game run during a timeout.
- Here’s the address of the Giannis-sized elephant in the room.
Up Next
The Bucks will take on the (skeleton crew) Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday at home in an epic tank-off. Catch that one at 2:30 p.m. CDT on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin. Be warned, though: unless you’re a genuine sicko, you will probably recognize zero players on Memphis’ roster. Some teaser names: Lucas Williamson, Adama Bal, and Toby Okani. Insert the Snoop Dogg “who?” GIF here.
