The Bucks walked away with a loss at the hands of the Charlotte Hornets. Tyler Herro led all Bucks scorers with 18 points in 23 minutes, followed by Ryan Rollins (12 in 23) and Kyle Kuzma (12 in 22). Brandon Miller, marked as day-to-day before the game, showed out on Sunday, dropping 18 points in 23 minutes. Brayden Burries, Nate Ament, Ousmane Dieng, Kasparas Jakucionis, and new acquisition Johni Broome were all inactive for the Bucks, among others.
NBA.com Box Score
Game Recap
The Bucks started the game on
the right foot, with Herro converting a midrange floater to open the scoring. Soon, led by triples from Rollins and Jaime Jaquez Jr., plus a close-range layup from Kel’el Ware, the Bucks jumped to a 10-2 lead. However, the up-tempo Charlotte offense worked their way back to 13-12 by the end of the TV timeout. Royce O’Neale took the lead with 4:17 remaining in the quarter with a driving layup to make it 19-18, but AJ Green connected on a 28-foot three-pointer to tie it. However, Tidjane Salaun (he can shoot now!) and Sion James’ threes pushed Charlotte’s lead to six. Kevin Porter Jr. rose over Ryan Kalkbrenner and threw down a contact dunk, and Jericho Sims had a nice reverse layup to narrow the lead, but Charlotte held on to end the quarter up 29-26.
Although Kuzma connected early in the second quarter, the Hornets continued to roll over Milwaukee transitionally. A Miller three widened Charlotte’s lead to six points, forcing a Milwaukee timeout. From there, the Hornets began clicking as the Milwaukee offense stalled. Miller had 11 second-quarter points, while key scorers like Herro remained muted. The Bucks also struggled with their ball handling; they had seven first-half turnovers. Milwaukee embarked on a 10-3 run to trim Charlotte’s lead to two with three minutes left in the half, but Charlotte scored 13 unanswered points, led by Naz Reid and Sion James, to close out the half 60-45.
The Bucks struggled to find their footing when it came to long-range shooting, while the Hornets continued to dance around Milwaukee’s defense. Without Ware on the court, Milwaukee’s bigs looked slow to switch or get out to the perimeter. They looked especially vulnerable on screens, where Charlotte could either find an open corner shooter when the defense collapsed on the ball handler or trap the Bucks big in a favorable two-on-one situation. Charlotte’s lead stayed steady, led by their quick, small-ball pairing of Naz Reid and Diabaté. A thunderous Kalkbrenner lob put Charlotte up by 20 with over two minutes remaining in the quarter. The Bucks offense looked unresponsive to anything Charlotte’s defense presented them with; they didn’t shoot well from three, and they weren’t good at banging it out in the post. The Hornets ended the third half on top, 87-67.
The game seemed all but over as the two sides headed into the fourth quarter. Charlotte put in a reserve lineup led by first-round draft pick Hannes Steinbach and two-way center PJ Hall, while Herro, Kuzma, and Porter tried to close the Hornets’ 20-point lead. The Hornets scrapped against the Bucks’ starters, taking charges, grappling for offensive rebounds, and making extra passes to find open teammates on the perimeter. The Bucks eventually threw in the white towel and trotted out Pete Nance, Kam Jones, and John Stephens, who made his preseason debut against Charlotte. Despite Stephens’ late three-pointer to close out the game and the Bucks’ full-court press, it was too little, too late as the Hornets strolled out of Spectrum Center with the win.
Stat That Stood Out
The Bucks shot 3/17 from three-point range during the second quarter. That shooting slump let the Hornets build a large lead and eventually run away with the game. It seemed like no one, the Bucks’ sharpshooters included, could find the net. Frankly, it was a frustrating watch. If the Bucks want to win, they have to cut down on the streaky shooting that often took over games last season.
Obscene Overreaction
Will Kevin Porter Jr. struggle heavily this season? He hasn’t scored double digits in the preseason, and his performance today — six points while shooting 1/6 from the field — was particularly underwhelming. With the abundance of guard depth on the roster, KPJ could quickly fall out of Milwaukee’s rotation. Porter was a below-average long-range shooter (32.2%) last year, and if he doesn’t improve, it could be hard to justify giving him real minutes over Herro, Rollins, and other developing guards like Burries.
