In their first NBA Cup game, the Milwaukee Bucks followed a terrific first half with a disappointing second half and lost to the wounded Toronto Raptors, 121-107. The Bucks led most of the game and at one point were up 15; their first-half defence was great, which let them get out and score easily in transition. However, the second half, in which the Raptors scored 70 points, was what got the home side. Now, it doesn’t take much for me to get invested in the Bucks—whatever stage they’re at—but for whatever reason,
this loss made me feel pretty damn bleak. Against a team without most of its primary offensive engines, Milwaukee should have been able to pull it out, and losing was really disheartening. 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
14 minutes, 10 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 2 steals, 5 turnovers, 3/3 FG, 1/1 3P, -12
Annnnnd we’re back to the bad version of Rollins. The issue in this one was obviously his turnovers; the Raptors like to apply heaps of pressure to the ball handler, so you have to stay composed with the ball. Rollins was rushed and, at times, just plain nonchalant; I mentioned in the Rapid Recap one instance in the fourth where he threw a left-handed whip pass across the middle of the floor that ended up in a layup down the other end. The other problem was Rollins’ defence. There were a few instances where his positioning was off, and he allowed his man to reject the screen and knife into the lane; Jenkins threw his hands up in disgust on one of them.
Grade: D
Tyler Herro
35 minutes, 23 points, 5 rebounds, 10 assists, 3 turnovers, 7/16 FG, 1/5 3P, 0
Herro’s best playmaking game as a Buck, with five assists in the second quarter alone. The team had much more direction and flow when Herro was on the floor—evidenced by him being one of just two Bucks without a negative plus/minus—which they completely lost when he was off the floor.
Grade: B+
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
27 minutes, 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 block, 4/10 FG, 2/7 3P , 4/4 FT, -6
Jaquez started like a house on fire, scoring half of his points in the first few minutes of the game. I liked his use of “stampede cuts” in this one as well, where the player starts moving to the rim before the ball reaches their hands, catching their defender off guard. Jaquez had a few nice instances using stampedes to get into the lane and create. Unfortunately, his three-point shooting failed him for the most part.
Grade: C-
Kyle Kuzma
32 minutes, 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 3 turnovers, 6/9 FG, 1/4 3P, +3
Overall, Kuzma played a solid game and, in particular, a great first half; he scored all 13 of his points on 5/6 shooting in the first, which included some very instinctive tip-ins. I liked how active he was as a screener, sprinting into the screen and getting himself in the right spots to receive the ball and finish around the rim. Additionally, Kuzma was basically their only credible defender for RJ Barrett, and for the most part, he did a good job with that assignment. BUT, as I seem to say every game, Kuzma did some enraging stuff too. He did his nightly drive to the rim with no vision for what else was going on, and most of his turnovers seemed to be live-ball. Moreover, I’ve noticed a trend where he makes a mistake and then gets pissy at his teammates for some reason, as if it were their fault.
Grade: C+
Myles Turner
23 minutes, 0 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers, 0/7 FG, 0/4 3P, -4
Good golly. I don’t know, man, sometimes I want to shake Turner, but as Zac replied to me, “He’d probably break; his hands seem to shatter on every rebound or catch attempt.” Like, why is it so hard for a seven-footer like him to play more physically? The Raptors made Turner look like a child last night, which I was hoping wouldn’t happen because Toronto was meant to be one of the trade suitors for him! Myles, this was your audition, SMH.
Grade: F
Kel’el Ware
13 minutes, 4 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, 2/7 FG, 0/4 3P, 0
Another rough game for Ware, who seemingly can’t hit a three in a Bucks uniform, down to 20% on the year. Also not great to see him throw a fit on the sidelines after getting subbed off.
Grade: D-
Kasparas Jakucionis
10 minutes, 3 points, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover, 1/2 FG, 0/1 3P, -9
Kind of a nothing-y game from Jakucionis. Again, he didn’t do much wrong, but his niche of finding angles and getting into the lane looked harder against a gritty squad like the Raptors. KJ did make a great cut in the first half for his only field goal, though, which I loved.
Grade: C-
Brayden Burries
38 minutes, 21 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block, 1 turnover, 8/14 FG, 1/5 3P, 4/6 FT, -5
Burries had his “I’ve arrived” game. I mean, we can talk about the scoring and athleticism around the rim, but I’m more interested in how he seems to grab every rebound in sight. It’s surreal to watch. Grabbing six boards in the first quarter, Burries had this “I’m not losing tonight, so jump on my back” vibe about him. The kid just has this nose for the ball and a will to pursue it like very few players I’ve seen. Burries is showing he’s a winner, and I can’t wait for him to gain confidence from this game and give us more like it in the future.
Grade: A+
AJ Green
24 minutes, 12 points, 1 block, 2 turnovers, 4/9 FG, 4/8 3P, -19
Whenever the Raptors looked like they were about to get the game out of reach, Green would hit a three. One thing I will always appreciate about Green is that, despite his unassuming nature, he is never scared of the moment. Hit two huge ones in the fourth.
Grade: B
Nate Ament
15 minutes, 7 points, 1 block, 3/5 FG, -11
Ament got two of his three buckets in transition, while the other came on a nice baseline cut where he smartly waited for the defender to jump, then calmly put in the and-one. Not many other notes, other than that I thought Ament’s minutes were generally quite positive.
Grade: B-
Jericho Sims
7 minutes, 0 points, 0/0 FG, -7
Sims was forced into extended minutes because Turner had early foul trouble and Ware looked borderline unplayable at times. He did his job defensively, but you could tell the Raptors were happy to double all on-ball screens Sims set because they didn’t trust his decision-making out of the short roll, which is a strategy we saw from opponents last year too.
Grade: C
Taylor Jenkins
Based on Jenkins’s postgame comments, the team clearly wasn’t doing much of what they had been instructed to do in practice. His decision to close with no centre was the right one, but that then made it tough to rebound. Part of the issue is that the Bucks are leaning on flawed veterans; you don’t want to turn to Kuzma to close as a two-way wing, but there aren’t many other great options, especially when you needed someone beefy enough to deal with Barrett. Jaquez is a fine player, but he’s a seventh man on a good team. Turner is a great locker room guy, but he drives you mad with his lack of physicality. I say this to reiterate that Jenkins is working with a rough set of cards right now, and I struggle to think another coach could have got a different result with this same group of personnel.
Grade: C
DNP-CD: Ousmane Dieng, Caris LeVert, Gary Trent Jr.
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance, Bogoljub Markovic,
What We Learnt
Milwaukee’s centre rotation might be the league’s worst when both play poorly.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Jenkins was hot in his postgame presser, cutting off a reporter’s question about what he saw from his struggling offence in the second half: “We were getting stops in the first half. We were playing fast. We didn’t have to call sets. But then we just gave up second-chance opportunities, fouled them way too much, and they were taking the ball out of the net, so we couldn’t play as fast as we needed to.”
- Jenkins also mentioned that the Bucks didn’t “tag up,” which means that when the shot goes up, all five players get to their man, which, when done right, impedes the opponent’s ability to advance the ball up the floor and score in transition.
- Jenkins said that after the game, Turner owned his bad performance to the group.
- The broadcast showed a stat that over the last three games, Herro had scored 0 points in the first quarter and 62 in all other quarters. Crazy.
- Speaking of Herro, I noticed he subbed back in earlier than usual in the fourth, which resulted in him breaking the ~30-minute pseudo-limit he had seemingly been operating under previously.
Up Next
The Bucks return to Fiserv on Sunday night to face the Boston Celtics. Watch at 7:00 p.m. CST on MY24.
