After a blinding start in which they led by 14 early, the Milwaukee Bucks ultimately succumbed to the Boston Celtics, losing 117-97. Put simply, the Celtics were the more physical team, and they dictated the game for most of it. A key reason for this was that Milwaukee’s primary big men were both horrendous, so much so that Jenkins turned to Jericho Sims in the second half over Kel’el Ware. I will say that the C’s made a bunch of tough shots—Paul George in particular—and you can’t really do much about
that. 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
20 minutes, 7 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal, 3 turnovers, 2/4 FG, 2/3 3P, -7
Rollins wasn’t horrible, but like Jakucionis, he just couldn’t find any separation to attack. And when he did try to attack, he was swallowed up and turned the ball over, or he threw a grenade to someone else. I also didn’t feel like Rollins’ point-of-attack defence was any great shakes.
Grade: C-
Tyler Herro
26 minutes, 13 points, 2 assists, 1 turnover, 5/12 FG, 1/5 3P, -3
The Celtics seemed much more prepared for Herro than they were for the last matchup, picking him up higher on the floor and waiting more intently in the gaps. They wanted to squeeze the floor on Herro, make him a passer, and bet they could recover to shooters, which they did for the most part. Again, Herro is not a real number one option, and when he comes up against teams who can send guys in waves at him, this can be the result. Not sure how much the knee injury—which he did come back and play with—impacted his performance.
Grade: C-
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
22 minutes, 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1/3 FG, 0/2 3P , 4/4 FT, -6
Jaquez just made no impact whatsoever. Had no ability even to generate shots, let alone make them. At least he wasn’t just chucking for the hell of it, though. Jaquez was tasked with guarding Paul George and got lit up, but honestly, I thought a lot of PG’s shots were well contested.
Grade: D+
Kyle Kuzma
31 minutes, 27 points, 4 rebounds, 0 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 1 turnover, 10/17 FG, 6/13 3P, -4
Kuzma started like a house on fire with 16 points in the first quarter, then scored 11 for the rest of the game. I liked his shot selection to start the game, which helped him get hot and then make a few tough ones. However, once you miss your second heat check, it’s time to put the cue in the rack and run real offence. Kuzma didn’t do that; he took like three or four horrendous shots in the first quarter while the floor wasn’t set, which is exactly what allowed the Celtics to get back into the game so quickly. To be clear, Kuzma was far from the biggest issue, but his recklessness late in the quarter sullied his terrific start. On the plus side, his defence on Tatum was excellent for majority of the game.
Grade: B
Myles Turner
24 minutes, 3 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 1/8 FG, 0/3 3P, -3
I mean, while he contributed in other areas—including getting four of his seven assists in the first quarter—this was, by and large, another horrendous game from Turner, who once again looked like a boy among men. And it’s not like he was matching up with Hakeem Olajuwon; this was Neemias Queta, who, with all due respect, is a low-end starter. Turner had some truly horrendous sequences where he looked a step late on every decision. I hate to get into these areas, but Turner doesn’t look fit to me; he looks out of shape and is moving worse than he did even last year.
Grade: D-
Kel’el Ware
9 minutes, 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0/2 FG, -15
I’ve seen some online chatter about whether Ware should start over Turner, and honestly, I’m not on board because he’s been even worse! Struggling to catch basic passes, poor drop defence in the pick-and-roll, and no rebounding presence. Didn’t play in the second half, and rightfully so.
Grade: F
Kasparas Jakucionis
7 minutes, 1 point, 2 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 0/1 FG, 0/1 3P, -11
Jakucionis struggled to get anywhere; he looked outmatched by the Celtics’ physical guards, which is exactly what happened when they last played Boston.
Grade: D+
Brayden Burries
28 minutes, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, 5/11 FG, 1/4 3P, -12
As usual, Burries made an impact as a rebounder, with four of his eight boards coming on the offensive glass. Also got to some great mid-range looks against a bevy of tough defenders. Remains a struggle from three, but that will come. Yet again, Burries was one of the biggest cheerleaders from the bench; doesn’t go unnoticed.
Grade: A-
AJ Green
18 minutes, 5 points, 2/6 FG, 1/5 3P, -21
Made a nice up-and-under move, but otherwise nothing all that noteworthy from Green in this one.
Grade: C-
Nate Ament
23 minutes, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, 5/9 FG, 2/4 3P, -14
Another solid game for Ament, who punished the Celtics for helping off him. I said before the season that Ament had to find his niche as an NBA player, and the path of least resistance was to build from the outside in; well, he seems to be doing that. I’ve also noted that I wanted to see Ament make teams feel his presence more, and he’s starting to do that. Showed some great stuff as a rebounder, grabbing two O-boards and putting shots back in around the rim, along with a nice finish in traffic and more great wing defence possessions guarding Tatum.
Grade: B
Ousmane Dieng
15 minutes, 10 points, 3/3 FG, 2/2 3P, -2
A nice get-right game for Dieng, who finally saw the ball go through the hoop in this one. He didn’t show much of the enticing creation ability we saw toward the back end of last season—mainly because the ball wasn’t really in his hands—but it was a nice starting point for Dieng to build confidence.
Grade: B-
Jericho Sims
15 minutes, 2 points, 1/3 FG, -2
I thought Sims gave them a defensive boost; he also set solid screens to get guys open and moving downhill. Shot a three, which was interesting. Other than that, nothing much to report.
Grade: C
Taylor Jenkins
Let’s move off the bigs and talk about the guard rotation. They’ve struggled to get multiple of the four guards—Herro, Burries, Rollins, and Jakucionis—working well together. I understand starting Herro and Burries for a range of reasons, but neither is a true point guard, and there seems to be a weird push-and-pull where neither feels like they can play their natural game. I don’t love the fit, but I also don’t know that I’d mess with it; after all, the team has started great in each of the last two games. That said, I do think that getting Rollins more minutes alongside one or both of these players would have a net positive effect on the team (even if their individual scoring numbers might go down). Of course, they’re also trying to play Jakucionis, whose minutes are dwindling by the game. Honestly, I might sit KJ completely for a few games, give his minutes to Rollins, and see if that works. The other option would be sitting Green, but he’s been largely quite good, so that feels undeserved (plus, I think they’d like to keep Green in the rotation for trade value purposes). In any event, Jenkins needs to find answers for the lack of overall guard production in recent games, even though, yes, there’s no panacea staring him in the face. I would also look at incorporating more sets to get the guards going downhill more and playing one-on-one less; things have felt pretty stagnant at times over the last few games.
Grade: C-
DNP-CD: Caris LeVert,
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance, Bogoljub Markovic, Gary Trent Jr.
What We Learnt
A key reason the Bucks can struggle to rebound—despite being a good rebounding team overall—is personnel. Turner seems to have lost much of his athleticism, Sims is undersized, and Ware’s attitude can wax and wane. When they’re not relying on their team-wide concepts (gang crashing, tagging up), they can get found out.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Jenkins said they will evaluate how Tyler Herro feels today after a Celtics player landed on his knee. They don’t think it’s anything serious, but it sounds like missing a game or two is possible.
- Jenkins was much more subdued at last night’s presser than at the last game’s, highlighting the good things his team did to build the initial lead rather than the bad things they did to give it up.
- Jenkins also backed Turner, pointing out his non-scoring contributions: “He’s just going through a rough patch right now… Two games ago against Boston, he had a heck of a game. He’s just got to stay the course.”
- Jakucionis’ minutes over his last three games: 12, 10, and seven.
- From the end of the first to the start of the second, Boston went on an 18-0 run.
- Interior defence was an issue yet again; the Celtics destroyed the Bucks 44-28 in that area.
Up Next
The Bucks travel to the Big Apple today to face the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. Watch at 6:30 p.m. CST on MY24.
