Giannis and Doc Rivers talk about the Bucks’ 125-90 loss to the Warriors
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Doc Rivers talk during the Bucks’ 125-90 loss to the Warriors on March 6, 2024.
SAN FRANCISCO – The Golden State Warriors snapped a six-game winning streak over the Milwaukee Bucks with a 125-90 victory Wednesday night at the Chase Center.
The Bucs (41-22) trailed by 20 at halftime and made a third-quarter charge, but it was too big a deficit to beat the Warriors (33-28).
Left tackle Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the lineup after missing Monday’s game against the Tendinettes and scored 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting. He also dished out six assists and had seven rebounds.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” he insisted after the game, “last game I didn’t feel 100%. I’m going to try to play as many games as I can this year, that’s the third game I’ve missed. But I want to be out there on the court, try to build chemistry with the guys, dem Try to build chemistry with each other. I think every time we play together it helps. But at the end of the day if I don’t feel like I can protect myself, I try not to put myself in danger because the moment you have things that slow down and then you put yourself in (hurt’s way) – especially the way I play. This game is heated, good feeling. He felt it, and was ready to go.
Box score: Warriors 125, $90
Damian Lillard added 20 points on 7 of 16 shooting, including a 5-for-10 mark from behind the three-point line. He tied Reggie Miller for 4th all-time with 2,560 three-pointers made. Bobby Portis scored 20 points off the bench, 18 of which came in the first half.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 29 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including 6-of-10 from behind the three-point line. Jonathan Kuminga added 20 and Draymond Green added 12.
More: How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to overcome himself to play the best basketball of his life
Trace Jackson-Davis blocks Giannis, Bucks finish
The Bucs cut a 20-point halftime deficit to six with 5 minutes, 34 seconds left in the third quarter, and the Warriors called a timeout and it was replaced by both teams. Trace Jackson-Davis came in for the Warriors and beat Antetokounmpo to the basket for fun. Jackson-Davis then blocked a series of Antetokounmpo attempts at the rim, then dunked on a Curry lob to push the Warriors to 88. -77 in 90 seconds of play. Then another block on Antetokounmpo followed with a dunk that made Golden State 91-79 with 2:20 to go in the quarter.
In the 6 ½ minutes of the third quarter, the Bucks lost a lot of energy, going on a 19-5 run to get within 83-77. Milwaukee leaned into the big lineup, with Antetokounmpo aggressively attacking the basket and then finding Brook Lopez at the baseline for two baskets in the game. Then, Damian Lillard added 2 three-pointers for a small gap, Malik Beasley and Jae Crowder made changes on the defensive end.
“Seven minutes in the third quarter, our ball movement was flawless,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. We scored every time. So when you score a goal, you are allowed to prepare your defense. Then we played good defense. The final three minutes of that quarter turned around. Ro Roro Roro Roro Roro Roro Roro Roro Roro Roro Roro It turns out that the . And the game is over.
Unfortunately for Milwaukee, the Davis-Jackson momentum-swinging plays not only kept the ball out of the basket for Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, but also helped break down the defense.
“I’ve never faced anyone like him before, with that length, speed and explosiveness that he has,” Jackson-Davis said. “He’s been waiting for him before and he’s had a pretty successful career. You just sit back and let him come at you, then watch the spin he likes to do. Rime, I got the best of him.”
The Bucs never got back into the game, but Jackson-Davis wasn’t done. He sealed the victory with a dunk on an offensive rebound and then scored against Antetokounmpo in the fourth quarter, allowing the Bucks to score just nine points. Jackson-Davis had 15 points and three offensive rebounds to go along with four blocks.
The Bucks had a rough first half and their defensive line was too much.
Golden State shot 68% overall (6 for 10) from 60% (6 for 10) from behind the three-point line at the end of the first quarter and took a 40-32 lead. The Los Angeles Clippers scored 35 first quarter points on Monday.
Maybe every group is like that for a quarter.
Milwaukee hadn’t allowed a 40-point quarter since Miami reached that number in a Feb. 13 win over the Fiserv Forum Bucks. And the Warriors scored just 88 points in Sunday’s loss to Boston.
The Warriors led 78-58 and went on to score 38 more in the second quarter. It was the most points an opponent has scored against the Bucs in the first half this season.
“I think they had 20 points off our turnovers,” Antetokounmpo said of Golden State, who finished with 21 points off 15 rebounds. We can’t let our offense dominate our defense. At the end of the day, we have to be better. Scored 125 points. They had 78 at the half.
Since Rivers took over as head coach on January 29th, they have been the top two scoring quarterbacks for a Bucks opponent in any game. Other than Miami, the only teams to score 40 points in a quarter were Dallas (44, first quarter) and Utah (40, fourth quarter).
Everything was working for the Warriors, who shot 64% overall and 63% (12 of 19) from behind the three-point line.
“It’s going to come as a bit of a shock to you, but I didn’t think it was our defense — I thought it was our offense,” Rivers said of the decisive first half. Abuse all night. They are 21 points behind our sales. They had 15 blocked shots. And because of our bad offense tonight, the whole game was in transition or offense. This is the first night in a long time that we haven’t played together, moved the ball. We have forced measures. So I thought it was more than that. We definitely had a lot of defensive breakdowns, but a lot of them were in transition because our floor balance was really bad tonight. We took too many bad shots, had too many bad possessions so we never connected on the rebound and they took advantage of that.
Despite Golden State’s small size, the Warriors outscored the Bucks 34-22 in the paint and ran off 13 fast break points in the first half.
“Obviously it was difficult because they were coming out so fast, but obviously we have to be better in transition, better communication, which we’ve been good in the last few games. We would do well to learn from this. I’m sure we’ll get back to where we were in the next game.”
Milwaukee improved their transition defense and ranked 12th in the NBA in allowing 13.8 fast break points. They allowed just 9.2 per game at halftime during the six-game hitting streak.
After the All-Star break, they were 1st in the league in allowing 40.3 points in the paint.
Brandin Podzimski fired the Warriors early
In the homecoming game at Fiserve Forum on Jan. 13, Brandin Podzimski scored 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting and pulled down 10 rebounds. On Wednesday, the 21-year-old from Greenfield returned from a knee injury and made an immediate impact after sitting out the previous two games, first with a deep three-pointer in the bank and then a lob to Kuminga for a fast break layup.
He scored just five points in the first half, but his points — and three assists — helped lead the Warriors to a 20-point halftime advantage. He finished with eight points.
Podzimski is a big reason the Warriors are back in the Western Conference playoff hunt.
5 numbers
1 First half rebound by Giannis Antetokounmpo. He averaged 11.3 tackles per contest.
2-for-20 Three-point shooting guard Malik Beasley went 0-for-6 in the Bucs’ last three games Wednesday night against the Warriors. He went 1 for 7 in each of his two starts.
12 Bobby Portis has scored in double figures off the bench for the Bucs in consecutive games.
17 Combined points were scored by Bucs starters Brock Lopez (9), Jae Crowder (4) and Beasley (4).
2012-13 The last time the Bucks swept a season series against Golden State (except for 2019-20, when the teams met once).
When will Chris Middleton play?
The 32-year-old landed on Kevin Durant’s leg following a jumper on Feb. 6 in Phoenix, and Durant was called a foul for crowding Middleton’s landing spot. Middleton stayed in the game for a few more minutes but has since exited.
He was kicked out of the Warriors’ 12th game.Th Straight play misses Middleton. Although Rivers While Middleton said he might leave if it’s a playoff game on Feb. 22 — and that the three-time All-Star is getting individual work — there’s been no clear indication of his return.
“He was on the floor, he didn’t practice live,” Rivers said Wednesday before the game. “From this point on, I don’t know if any NBA team has a live practice for the rest of the season. But we do a lot of two-on-two, three-on-three stuff, and he’s been able to do some of that. That’s good.”
Earlier in the week, Rivers said there were no obstacles in Middleton’s recovery and that the team was taking extra precautions. Middleton was dressed in street clothes during Wednesday’s shootaround, but Rivers said the forward “went hard” during a workout the day before. But while Middleton is doing some heavy lifting, the Bucks’ head coach conceded the star needs to step up his minutes after so much time off.
“Very likely,” Rivers said. “I don’t think it’s because of the injury, though. Before it was more about the knee and stuff like that. I think it’s more about the lungs. Maybe you do that.”
Aside from court chemistry and the impact on wins and losses, the damage could still come at a financial cost to Middleton.
When he re-signed with the Bucks in the summer, he had a $1.5 million bonus to appear in 62 games. Middleton was on pace to reach that milestone after playing in 43 of the Bucks’ first 51 games, but now has to appear in each of the team’s final 19 games.
Even if Middleton is healthy, that seems unlikely, as he has only played in one back-to-back games this season (Jan. 3-4). The Bucks have three more back-to-backs this season.
It’s important to note that Middleton must play just one second in each of those games — the NBA’s 20-minute limit per game doesn’t count toward contract bonuses for regular-season awards. Fans will remember former Bucks point guard Jrue Holiday playing with Cleveland in 2022 with an eight-second bonus.
Even if Middleton gets his bonus, it won’t affect whether the Bucks get over the second “tax suit,” which they passed anyway. It will only affect the Bucks’ 2023-24 luxury tax bill and will be at the peak for 2024-25.
Nickel Column: Bobby Portis showed he can do it all as the Bucks beat the Clippers on Monday.