Milwaukee grinds out a win against Washington’s Khris Middleton
The Milwaukee Bucks failed to register a field goal in the final 7:02 of the game but somehow escaped with the victory against the Washington Wizards, 104-101. Kyle Kuzma, although relatively inefficient, was among Milwaukee’s most impactful players with 19 points, five assists, and eight rebounds in his Washington return. Giannis had 18 points in 19 minutes, and five other Bucks register at least nine points. Alex Sarr dropped 22 and seven rebounds for Washington, while Khris Middleton had 12 points on the evening, including a ginormous three down the stretch. 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?
I think the main learning was that with Dame out, Giannis on a minutes restriction, and Bobby suspended, it was a grind to generate offence. Kyle Kuzma helped a little with that but asking him to be a facsimile of Khris is a little unrealistic. They tried tapping into “Brooklyn” as Doc called it postgame, where Brook Lopez gets down on the block and plays like he did with the Nets all those years ago. But other than that, you’re looking at KPJ as the primary creator (which he has done an admirable job of thus far), and asking Trent, Green and Rollins to do stuff above their paygrade. Makes you a little nervous, but the upgrade in defence and rebounding offsets that a little bit.
Three Observations
Washington’s switching coaxed Milwaukee and Giannis into a brand of slow, iso-heavy offence.
With the lack of offensive options last night, the Wizards plan seemed to be to switch basically everything and stay out of rotation, which inevitably led to the ball ending up in Giannis’ hands on the block with a mismatch. Now, Giannis can usually beat mismatches, but you pair that strategy with the fact that Milwaukee was down creators, Antetokounmpo on the minutes restriction and looking out of sorts, no Bobby to stretch the floor, and the usual slew of options dried up. This was a nice piece of coaching from Brian Keefe, I thought, to pick that poison for this particular game, given the circumstances.
Kevin Porter Jr. is impressing not only fans, but his coaches and teammates.
KPJ had just two points at halftime, but 10 in the second half as he helped keep the margin at 10–14 points through the late third and early fourth. You could see the team deferring to him as the primary creator throughout the game, and he kept delivering. His ability to snake pick-and-rolls and get to those step-back jimmies is awesome. The herky-jerky dribbling is tantalising. Giannis spoke glowingly of Porter postgame:
“Oh, I love him. He’s nice, I’m not even going to lie to you… He’s been incredible these past two games I’ve played with him… He’s able to get to his spot, create for others. Defensively, he’s so good. Knows how to use his hands and his body… I love playing with him… That’s a steal, for sure.”
Just wanted to throw this one in here for the heck of it:
Ryan Rollins continues to stay ready.
After not playing the previous night, Rollins started against the Wizards and produced. 6/10 from the field and 2/5 from three with four assists, four rebounds, three steals, one block, and a team-high +12 in 33 minutes. Yeah, this dude is an NBA player, period. He has just three games left on his two-way contract. Maybe the Bobby Portis situation complicates matters, but the Bucks would surely want to sign him to a standard contract, right?
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Not to be dramatic or anything, but Kyle Kuzma attempting that late contested three with Brook right in front of him on the block being guarded by Kyshawn George (!) made me want to throw my computer out of the window. Doc jokingly said Kuzma was trying to be the hero in his return after the game:
“That last play was supposed to go to Brook and Kuz wanted to make the shot. So we’re going to give him the hero ball grace period for one day. But he knew it right away.”
- Brook Lopez had a massive block on Middleton late in this one. Postgame, he credited Kuz with doing a good job running Khris off the three-point line and funnelling him into the paint.
- Jericho Sims is doing a fine job. He screens and rolls hard; if they’re switching, he still rolls hard to quickly take his matchup out of the action (even though he knows he’s not getting the ball with the mismatch). The guy just does things with purpose and intent. It’s not necessarily pretty, but he’s definitely additive out there.
- Rough few games for Gary Trent, eh? A combined 6/19 over this back-to-back.
- No minutes for new Wizard AJ Johnson.
Up Next
The Bucks head home to play the Miami Heat on Sunday night in their blue City Edition uniforms! Catch the action at 6:00 p.m. Central on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
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