Big nights from the Juniors cap off a 3-0 road trip, even without Giannis
Without Giannis Antetokounmpo on the second night of a back-to-back, five Bucks scored at least 14 points to edge past a very depleted Pelicans squad in the Crescent City, a back-and-forth battle with 18 lead changes and 17 ties. Gary Trent Jr. poured in a game-high 29 while Brook Lopez and Kevin Porter Jr. each had 20 for Milwaukee. Antonio Reeves led New Orleans with 23. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.
What Did We Learn?
The last time Giannis missed was a week and a half ago in Denver, and for that one, Doc Rivers swapped Porter for Ryan Rollins in the starting lineup. He did the same thing last night as Rollins entered for Trent just over seven minutes in. Makes sense: Rollins has played very well alongside Giannis this year. But interestingly, Porter then remained on the floor with Rollins on Sunday; since Damian Lillard’s DVT diagnosis, those two have usually tag-teamed the point guard minutes. In fact, they’ve only shared the court for just eight minutes over 12 games since Dame’s last appearance, and they were a putrid -15 during that action.
Last night they almost doubled that minute total and the results were actually quite good. In the first half, in about three and a half minutes together they were -1, but in the second, they were +8 in just over ten minutes. They made up the closing backcourt as RR played the entire fourth quarter and KPJ joined for the final seven minutes. After the latter subbed in, Milwaukee immediately made a 6-0 run into 13-0, grabbing the first double-digit advantage for either team. The 20-8 extended run pretty much iced the game, girding the Bucks for the 8-0 Pelican run during the final minute.
While +7 in just over 14 minutes of gameplay together isn’t anything too special, especially against this New Orleans team, it’s a pairing that intrigues me. When they were out there with Lopez, Taurean Prince, and either Trent or AJ Green, the Bucks were +11. It’s not hard to see swapping Giannis in for either bigger guy resulting in a very solid defensive lineup with a lot of ball-handling and creation. I’d like to see how this two-point guard backcourt does against tougher competition; even with Dame out, it could be a group that holds serve or maybe even cuts into/builds a lead during key moments, especially against teams with high-octane guards like Indiana and Cleveland.
Three Bucks
Gary Trent Jr. moved the scoreboard big time.
Joining the starting lineup for just the second time since November 4th—the other time was also that Denver game Giannis missed—GTJ had his best scoring output of the year with 29 on 10/17 shooting. He missed just one shot in the first half and was a perfect 4/4 from the field in the second with 10 points, leading all scorers with 18 through the opening 24 minutes. His threes stopped falling as the game wore on, but he still finished 4/10 from distance. When Trent signed last summer, this was exactly the kind of game I had in mind when I thought of how useful he’d be. For regular-season games when one or more of their stars are missing, his track record in Toronto suggested he could be the high-volume scorer Milwaukee would need. That’s exactly what he was last night.
Brook Lopez’s offense was quietly effective, but his defense was loud.
While Lopez connected on his first three looks, including his only two triples, he faded into the background a bit in the second and third quarters, shooting just 2/8. Not to worry, though, he stormed back into the game with eight fourth-quarter points, taking advantage of several mismatches. Prince, Rollins, and Porter found him multiple times down low for easy buckets after he entered with eight minutes remaining. That’s when the 13-0 Bucks run began. But his four blocks were all massive, thwarting Bruce Brown and Karlo Matkovic at the rim twice in the closing six minutes as Milwaukee took command of the game. Plus, on a night when Milwaukee was a bit small and they needed the help, his dozen rebounds were one short of a season high. In some fun role-reversal, I even saw Bucks boxing out for Lopez.
Ryan Rollins: NBA point guard?
Look past his 5/15 mark from the field and you’ll note Rollins’ career-high 10 assists, four of which came in the closing frame. With his 14 points, that’s his first career double-double, plus seven boards to boot. As I discussed up top, he was a big part of winning time and finished +11, which looked even better before New Orleans briefly made it a one-possession game with five seconds remaining. His defense was typically strong, but this was easily the best point guard performance I’ve seen from him all year. As Doc has said, he’s still learning how to be an NBA point guard, and as we’ve seen, he’s still more of a combo guard. He hasn’t always made the right reads and sometimes turns the ball over a bit too often. But last night he kept finding guys at the right time and in the right place, like Pete Nance in the dunker spot or Lopez cutting through the lane. He also didn’t commit a single turnover in NOLA, came up with four steals off bad New Orleans backcourt turnovers, drew three shooting fouls, and even threw down a dunk on the break.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Can’t overlook KPJ in this one either: after starting 2/8 from the field, he hit six of his next ten attempts and stepped into a couple tough threes that lifted the Bucks when the Pels looked to be gaining momentum. He also had four dunks on the evening, and three of them were on the break off those aforementioned New Orleans turnovers. He did all this despite being whacked above the neck multiple times: to the eye and to the temple by Pelican limbs (neither were called) and even on a screen set by Rollins.
- Giannis was downgraded to doubtful this afternoon with left shoulder tendinopathy and didn’t go through his typical warmup before being ruled out. So this might not have been simply a case of resting your star on a SEGABABA against a tanking team. Pre-game, Doc did say that playing 43 minutes the previous evening played a role in that decision, but also that he didn’t have any long-term concern over the shoulder injury.
- Pat Connaughton also went from probable to questionable with a right ankle sprain, ultimately sitting as well.
- Andre Jackson Jr. saw six minutes in the first half. While he had an assist and two boards, Milwaukee saw a six-point lead become a one-point deficit. He did not appear in the second half.
- During that AJax shift, there was a hot second (as Morgan put it) where the Bucks had him out there with Nance, Green, Rollins, and Porter. After they allowed a Keion Brooks (no, I don’t know who that is either) tip-in, Doc wisely called timeout to pull the plug after 34 seconds of that group. 34 seconds too many, if you ask me!
- In Miami on Saturday night, the Bucks needed overtime in part because of their 12-3 deficit on the offensive glass, resulting in 15 fewer shot attempts. They outrebounded New Orleans 51-48 in this one, with 10 offensive rebounds to their opponent’s nine. Still, second-chance points (16-7 in favor of the Pels) hurt them a little, particularly in the third as they lost the lead.
- Kyle Kuzma had a bit of a bounceback from an abysmal Saturday with 17 on 8/13 shooting, and his touch around the rim was actually very good! He was 2/3 in the restricted area and 6/8 overall in the paint. However, he was the only Buck outside of Nance and AJax with a negative plus-minus. That one miss at the rim came as he took it one-on-three in transition, and it allowed New Orleans to quickly get the ball up the floor for a Reeves corner three before Milwaukee’s defense was set. That made it 91-88 Pelicans, and Kuzma was yanked for nearly six minutes of game time. While he was out, the Bucks outscored the Pels 18-8, and when he reentered, they were outscored 8-3 over the final 2:14.
- Pete Nance saw his most significant run since signing with Milwaukee in late February. He didn’t look great in those 14 minutes, clanking an open corner three perhaps in part due to his janky shooting stroke. But he grabbed a couple offensive rebounds and even had two assists. With Bobby Portis back from suspension soon, this was probably his last shot at real rotation minutes this year.
- Even with Giannis out, Milwaukee shot just 63.6% (14/22) at the line, but New Orleans was just 0.7% better at 9/14.
- The Bucks are 25th leaguewide (Boston is last) in terms of transition frequency on offense, getting out on the break just 14.1% of the time per Cleaning The Glass. They aren’t super efficient either (123.9 ORtg in transition, 17th), especially off steals (137.5, 20th). But they made the most of 12 Pelicans turnovers last night, with fastbreak opportunities on nine of the Bucks’ 10 steals and a 24-13 scoring edge.
- I was frankly gobsmacked to see Porter throw Rollins a lob on one of their many fastbreaks, and while the pass was there, Rollins couldn’t quite throw it down. Maybe just an inch or two high.
- Here’s an odd one: the Bucks committed three defensive three-second technicals in this game. Only one was from Lopez, who is almost always the one who picks those up. The other went to Kuzma and Nance. Marques Johnson said he’d never seen a team have three in a game and I can’t say I have either.
Up Next
A familiar face is on track to rejoin the team as the Bucks return home and try to make it five straight wins as they face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night: Bobby Portis. You can catch the action at 7 p.m. Central on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
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