The Milwaukee Bucks fall out of NBA Cup contention, losing 107-99 against the Orlando Magic in an improved effort. The Bucks allowed the Magic to build a double-digit lead after a poor first half, but they kept battling and won the final two quarters. Yet again, the Bucks went on multiple long stretches where they couldn’t score, which wasn’t helped by their 58% combined shooting from the charity stripe. Overall, there were some positives to take from this game, but it was another incomplete effort. 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
29 minutes, 8 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 3/8 FG, 0/4 3P, -4
It wasn’t the offensive night Rollins wanted, but his rebounding made up for that. The way he stuck his nose in there and finished possessions was a huge reason the Bucks were able to stay in the game. I thought his defence was really solid too. Also, Rollins played nearly 30 minutes. Yay!
Grade: C+
Tyler Herro
34 minutes, 18 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 5/17 FG, 2/7 3P, 6/7 FT, -1
The Magic’s big, physical guards did an excellent job making Herro work for absolutely everything, and he looked really worn down as the game went on. Fair or unfair, the Bucks need more from Herro to have a chance to win; 5/17 isn’t good enough. I do want to credit him for his impact on the defensive end, though; don’t get me wrong, the Magic still went at Herro, but he found a way to make a difference with three stocks.
Grade: C-
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
28 minutes, 22 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 turnovers, 8/15 FG, 5/7 3P, 1/3 FT, -3
Another great game off the bench for Jaquez. It really feels like he’s come into this season realising that, to get to the next level, he has to take and make threes at a higher clip; he’s currently shooting 40.4% on 4.3 attempts per game—both career highs by a mile. Eight of Jaquez’s five makes against the Magic were from three, so he could have really gone crazy if his middle game was working.
Grade: A
Kyle Kuzma
30 minutes, 14 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, 3 turnovers, 3/9 FG, 1/5 3P, 7/15 FT, -2
I’m sorry, he did some good things, but this was way too much Kuzma. Like, the amount of time he spent dominating the ball was excruciating to watch. And as always, it’s the moments he chooses to think it’s his time that do my head in: Bucks down eight with 50 seconds to go, he tries to go it alone, and gets stripped. Don’t even get me started on the free throw shooting; like, good job getting there that many times, but man, how an established NBA wing can shoot that poorly from the stripe is beyond me. Had nothing for Franz Wagner as his primary defender.
Grade: D
Myles Turner
31 minutes, 14 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 4 turnovers, 5 PF, 5/9 FG, 4/7 3P, -3
I’m trying not to reduce my analysis to “Turner made shots, so he played well,” even though there is a lot of truth to that. I did think the big man competed more on the interior than in previous games, and he pulled down some highly contested defensive rebounds because of that. Also, Turner’s tap-outs on the offensive glass were great; he had four O-boards, and I reckon most, if not all, would’ve come via tap-outs. Too many turnovers, though.
Grade: B-
Kel’el Ware
17 minutes, 10 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 4/6 FG, 2/3 3P, -5
Steady progression for Ware, who was solid yet again. The three-ball finally dropped, and he was engaged on defence. I really liked his positioning and ability to play two in the drop, especially on Franz Wagner, whom he deterred from shooting at least a few times while also not giving up the lob.
Grade: B-
Brayden Burries
19 minutes, 3 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1/4 FG, 1/2 3P, -4
Burries made a nice pull-up three, but is really struggling to find ways to score. Granted, Burries’ role is a bit harder than Ament’s because they are asking him to be a creator, while Ament is playing more as a converter.
Grade: C-
Nate Ament
22 minutes, 9 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, 0 turnovers, 3/8 FG, 2/5 3P, -1
Setting the shooting stats aside, most of the shots Ament took in his 1/6 first half were good shots, coming off dribble penetration or driving the closeout. The one iffy shot was the dribble-up three off no passes. Then in the second half, those same shots began to fall. Ament was mostly a help defender against the Magic, and while I thought he was largely fine, he did have a few more moments where he spaced out off the ball; namely, an important possession late where he overhelped on the driver, leaving Trisatn da Silva in the corner, who pumped and drove to the rim for the easy jam.
Grade: C
Gary Trent Jr.
16 minutes, 1 point, 0/4 FG, 0/2 3P, 1/3 FT, -8
Trent took the right shots, but none of them dropped. He really has no chance on defence, but we already knew that.
Grade: C-
Taylor Jenkins
Jenkins certainly raised some eyebrows by starting Dieng, playing him for five minutes, and then never putting him back on. Not sure what the point of that was, but I do want to note that I was looking for Dieng’s bright orange shoes on the bench and couldn’t see them, so maybe he was sick or something? The Bucks didn’t put anything out, as far as I can tell, so I have to assume he was available. I also didn’t entirely understand the Trent minutes, assuming that was, in fact, a basketball decision. Otherwise, I found the constant Kuzma usage down the stretch nauseating, but how much of the blame for that should go to Jenkins? I’m not sure. As for Jenkins’ game plan for Orlando’s offence, Milwaukee restricted them to 107 points, which, given the Bucks’ recent defensive struggles, is a great outcome (though the Magic definitely missed a fair few open shots).
Grade: C-
Limited Minutes: AJ Green, Ousmane Dieng
DNP-CD: Caris LeVert, Bogoljub Markovic, Kasparas Jakucionis, Jericho Sims
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance
What We Learnt
The Bucks need to spend entire practice sessions shooting free throws. Kuzma can stay in there until sundown.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Jenkins on Ryan Rollins: “I thought Ryan was great. He was disruptive. I ended up playing him a super long stretch there in the second half just because of his impact. He was rebounding the ball well and impacting drives… I thought he was making winning plays.”
- Jenkins on Franz Wagner: “He’s a stud of a player. He can finish at the rim, hit floaters. He was hitting threes tonight, finding his teammates. We just didn’t execute our coverages on him, and he made us pay. Heck of a player.”
- The Bucks got smashed in paint points (44-26); I’d bet a lot of those came on lobs. Major disparity in fast break points too (19-4). On the other hand, Milwaukee’s bench destroyed Orlando’s (50-22).
- The Bucks got six three-pointers from their centres.
Up Next
The Bucks are back in action at home on Sunday night against the Atlanta Hawks. Catch the game at 7:00 p.m. CST on MY24.
