The Milwaukee Bucks torched the Dallas Mavericks 123-99 at home tonight, spoiling Khris Middleton, Tyler Smith, and AJ Johnson’s hopes of revenge. The Bucks were led by Ryan Rollins (24 points) and Kyle Kuzma (20 points), while Cooper Flagg paced the Mavs with 19 points. Milwaukee completed a 2-0 season series sweep over Dallas with this win.
Game Recap
Kyle Kuzma and Khris Middleton, ironically, traded the first buckets of this game for their respective teams. Kuzma was heavily involved in the offense
off the rip, taking a quick four shots in three minutes and setting up Jericho Sims for a few easy ones inside. The Bucks got off to an early 15-7 lead in large part due to the duo of Kuz and Sims. Milwaukee continued to ride their hot hands, but Doc Rivers needed his first timeout of the night at the 3:46 tick after Dallas’ lefty rookie John Poulakidas drained a pair of triples that cut their edge to four. Some AJ Green free throws and a Pete Nance putback dunk helped the home team escape the opening quarter with a 38-31 advantage.
Two threes from Ryan Rollins at the beginning of the second stanza increased the Bucks’ lead to double digits for the first time, and things didn’t slip from there. Milwaukee was pushing the pace (and playing random, in Budenholzerese), which created great looks from beyond the arc that they kept converting on. They were hot, and the Mavs were not—simple as that. All told, the Bucks went 22/44 from the field in the half (50.0%) while Dallas registered an ugly 17/50 (34.0%). The efficiency canyon fueled Milwaukee’s 65-51 lead at intermission.
Milwaukee’s offensive aggression didn’t wane coming out of the locker room. Kuzma was still cooking, and two buckets from him plus a Gary Trent Jr. trey forced a Jason Kidd timeout less than three minutes into the second half. The Mavericks, especially Brandon Williams and Cooper Flagg, weren’t completely folding over, but the Bucks extended their cushion to 20 points by the 6:13 mark. The difference was still exactly 20 heading into the final frame, with a score of 90-70.
Rollins and Taurean Prince both knocked down a long ball to kick off the fourth, and after those shots, any dwindling chance of a Mavericks comeback felt finally extinguished. Green, who was already having a solid outing, banged a couple more jumpers that got Fiserv Forum as close to rocking as possible on a Tuesday night in a tanking season. With under three minutes on the clock, Alex Antetokounmpo checked in for his NBA debut, and he booked his first career points at the charity stripe.
Stat That Stood Out
There were only two lead changes in the entire game. The Bucks genuinely dominated this one, which hasn’t been the case in a long time.
