Another bad loss where the Milwaukee Bucks had immense trouble scoring in the second half, but against the Atlanta Hawks—who have now tied their season series at a game apiece—defense was probably the larger issue. With 21 games remaining, the Bucks fall to five games back of the Hawks for the East’s 10th seed. 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
26 minutes, 24 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 10/15 FG, 4/8 FT, -24
Looked great early, having little difficulty slicing his way through Atlanta’s interior, and even got a middie to fall. But as we’ve seen throughout the year, he got frustrated with the way he was being officiated again, throwing the ball off the stanchion in the fourth and receiving a tech. Defensive engagement was just ok. Postgame, Rivers talked about how he’s forcing things a bit during his early-half shifts, knowing he has 0nly five minutes on the floor due to his minute restriction.
Grade: B
Myles Turner
22 minutes, 8 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, 0 blocks, 3/6 FG, 2/5 3P, -18
Again, Turner isn’t getting minutes commensurate with his contract and talent level, though Jericho Sims is outplaying him on defense and on the boards right now. The offensive scheme just sends him to the corner every time, so he’s neither in the best position to succeed in terms of physical location on the floor, nor in an appropriate role, being relegated to a spot-up shooter only.
Grade: D+
Ryan Rollins
35 minutes, 13 points, 8 rebounds, 12 assists, 1 turnover, 3 steals, 4 fouls, 4/11 FG, 2/7 3P, -22
Resuming his starting backcourt spot with KPJ out, Rylo had nine first-half assists and no turnovers, the latter a welcome sign after recent issues. Sneakily close to a triple-double and had some good on-ball moments when the game was still close.
Grade: B-
AJ Green
24 minutes, 7 points, 3/9 FG, 1/6 3P, -21
Kept getting switched onto larger Hawks, and even if he stayed with them, they had no trouble scoring over him. Beyond the bad three-point shooting, Green drove to the rim multiple times for some reason, resulting in missed layups and a turnover. He oddly clogged up the floor near the nail a couple times too.
Grade: F
Ousmane Dieng
28 minutes, 14 points, 4 rebounds, 0 assists, 3 turnovers, 6/14 FG, 2/7 3P, -25
10 of those points came in Dieng’s opening shift with the starters before picking up an early second foul. The jumper looked good again, but he was pretty anonymous as the game wore on.
Grade: C
Bobby Portis
24 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 4/8 FG, 3/6 3P, +0
BP provided some desperately needed scoring punch in the second and third as the Bucks tried to claw back into the game. Across this losing streak, he’s surprisingly been a life preserver from the bench after the starters struggle (and struggle they have).
Grade: B–
Kyle Kuzma
22 minutes, 16 points, 7/8 FG, +2
After his first career DNP-CD on Monday, Kuz threw down a nice driving one-handed jam for his first points. He also made hay inside, but few of his buckets felt helpful, if I’m being honest.
Grade: B
Cam Thomas
18 minutes, 11 points, 3 assists, 3/9 FG, 4/4 FT, +10
Got to the line and made a tough three, but foul-baited a little bit too. Not a terrible game by any means, though.
Grade: C+
Jericho Sims
23 minutes, 4 points, 11 rebounds, 2/2 FG, -1
Great on the glass during his first-half shift on his way to his fourth double-digit rebounding night in his last six outings. Five of those were offensive boards. But Doc Rivers highlighted one of his defensive miscues in the second half which led to an open Atlanta three:
“Jericho had a young moment. He got switched on McCollum and went to trap off of McCollum.That’s just a young big learning the game.”
Grade: B-
Pete Nance
14 minutes, 3 points, 1/1 3PA, +1
Saw first-half minutes after a nice second-half showing on Monday as Rivers went 10 deep, but didn’t do much with them.
Grade: C-
Doc Rivers
Two things stuck out from Rivers’ postgame comments: first, when acknowledging all the open threes the Bucks allowed in the second half, he thought they simply needed to play bigger players. Rotation changes ahead, perhaps? Speaking of changes, he also mentioned they’ve changed defensive schemes five times this season. Seems like a lot.
Grade: D
DNP-CD: Gary Harris
Garbage Time: Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Andre Jackson Jr., Gary Trent Jr.
Inactive: Alex Antetokounmpo, Kevin Porter Jr., Taurean Prince, Cormac Ryan
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Kevin Porter Jr. was a late scratch this afternoon with right knee swelling. That’s the knee in which he underwent meniscus surgery earlier this season, and it sounds like it could keep him out again. Here’s what Doc said pregame:
“They’re gonna do more stuff tomorrow to check, but it’s a lot of swelling and then you have concerns… it’s been bothering him the last couple of weeks… but it just hadn’t swollen up the way it has, so there’s some concern there.“
- Jonathan Kuminga missed with left knee inflammation for Atlanta. He’d been averaging 21.3 PPG across his first three appearances with his new squad.
- I don’t even think Fiserv Forum was half full. That’s what happens when you schedule a game at 8:30 on a school night. Thanks, Adam Silver.
- Here are the Bucks’ scoring totals in their last four second halves, coinciding with this four-game losing streak: 41, 31, 38, 42. Teams average about 56 second-half points this season.
- CJ McCollum has played the Bucks five times this year (thrice with the Wizards) and still has one more appearance on the docket next weekend.
- Many of Atlanta’s three-point looks after halftime were room service, but it was more than just hot shooting. On consecutive possessions in the third, they got wide-open looks from the far corner and cashed them in. They were 3/7 from that area in the period; postgame, Doc blamed overhelping for how easy those looks were, and also the clean looks Atlanta got from the top of the arc:
“You remember the two wide-open threes from the weak side top? And that was a no-help situation. And somehow our bigs got overlapped twice, you know?… But the corner threes we don’t give up, we gave up. And then the top threes where the big had no reason to help we gave up.”
- The Hawks scored 26 points off the Bucks’ 15 turnovers, while the Bucks only managed 15 points off the Hawks’ 11.
- Atlanta outshot Milwaukee from deep, 20/45 versus 13/39. Might be the difference right there.
- Ball movement has been a problem of late, but the Bucks had 18 assists on 28 made shots in the first half and nine on 15 in the second. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in, I guess.
- Maybe the only plus this game was that the boards weren’t an issue. Milwaukee won the rebounding battle 41-40, also grabbing 12 on the offensive glass, one more than Atlanta.
- About the only thing fans had to cheer about after half was a Thanasis block at the rim during the final minute, but the already sparse crowd had emptied out even further by then.
Up Next
The Bucks get two days off at home before facing the Utah Jazz for the first time this season on Saturday evening at Fiserv. Tip is 7 p.m. Central on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin and the following local stations:
WMLW & WYTU (Milwaukee)
WISC (Madison)
WMEI (Green Bay)
WECX (Eau Claire/La Crosse)
WYOW (Wausau)
WQAD (Davenport, IA, Rock Island/Moline, IL)
