HOUSTON — To close Tuesday’s game against the Houston Rockets, the Milwaukee Bucks put together one of their best defensive quarters this season. Milwaukee gave up 15 points in the fourth, the fourth-fewest points they’ve allowed in any quarter this season.
Unfortunately, that performance was paired with their worst offensive quarter. The Bucks managed a mere 12 points, their fewest this season. After entering the fourth quarter tied at 85, they lost 100-97, dropping their record to 32-25, a half-game ahead of the surging Detroit Pistons for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference.
“Defensively, we were good enough,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after the game. “Offensively, we didn’t play as well as we can. We’re a better team than that offensively. This is one of those games that will keep you up at night. It really was.
“My guess is, if we’d have won, (Rockets coach) Ime (Udoka) would say the thing because both teams were right there.”
The fourth quarter was not without controversy:
- With 4:27 left in the game, Rockets guard Amen Thompson was ejected for a flagrant foul 2 against Giannis Antetokounmpo where he got caught in the air trying to contest Antetokounmpo’s shot and then pulled him down by his head.
- With the Bucks trailing by three with six seconds remaining, Damian Lillard tried to draw a shooting foul from a little beyond half court when the Rockets attempted to foul as soon as the ball was inbounded but was only granted two free throws.
- Despite the officials ruling that Lillard was fouled on the catch and not while completing a shooting motion, 2.3 seconds came off the clock.
But the Bucks did not lose the game because of those moments. They lost because they couldn’t score in the fourth quarter, and there was plenty of blame for the poor offensive performance in the final 12 minutes.
Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green, Kyle Kuzma and Jericho Sims played the first 4:38 of the quarter and did not score.
“We just didn’t play right,” Rivers said. “That group didn’t move the ball. We took early, contested 2s. There was a ton of next passes that we didn’t make. It’s funny, that group, they’re exceptional defensively. They kept getting stops.
“But then we kept going down, turning the ball over and making bad plays on our own. That stretch really hurt us.”
Out of the All-Star break, with Antetokounmpo working through a minutes restriction as he returns from his left calf strain, Rivers has decided to go away from his normal staggering pattern that keeps either Antetokounmpo or Lillard on the floor at all times. With both stars on the bench, Rivers has leaned on the newly acquired duo of Porter and Kuzma to create offense. They had some success in the first three games out of the All-Star break. That same success was not there on Tuesday.
Outside of two dunks on two steals in a 40-second stretch of the second quarter, Porter struggled against the Rockets. He scored four points in 11 minutes in a return to Houston, where he spent three NBA seasons, and committed four turnovers, three of which came in the first five minutes of the fourth.
Things didn’t improve much when many of the starters re-entered the game. The Bucks did not score in the fourth until Lillard knocked down a pair of free throws with 6:02 remaining, and they only found brief success with Antetokounmpo and Lillard in the game’s final seven minutes against the Rockets, who are fourth in the NBA in defensive rating.
“I wasn’t happy with how we played offensively down the stretch,” Rivers said. “I didn’t think we had Giannis with the ball enough. I didn’t think we posted him enough in this game. Running it over in my head … I have to get them get the ball to Giannis more in the right spots. I have to get Kuz involved with that second group more, and they have to see it.”
After posting up Antetokounmpo on the play where Thompson committed the flagrant foul, the Bucks entered the ball to the two-time NBA MVP in the post once more for the rest of the game. That possession led to an unsuccessful drive from the Bucks’ All-Star forward.
“I’ll be honest with you: If you’re asking me a question if I believe maybe I should have gotten a little bit more touches, yeah, I’m a competitor,” Antetokounmpo said. “Obviously, I believe I could make something happen, but at the end of the day, I am still a great teammate.
“Whenever Dame feels like he has a matchup that he wants to explore, we have to go to the position and give him the space for him to explore that matchup. You have to be mature enough to understand he’s got it.”
The Bucks had a few possessions in the final five minutes, such as this Kuzma turnover, that might be described as careless or sloppy.
For the most part, the Bucks created decent looks. Historically, Kuzma has not been spectacular on catch-and-shoot 3s, but this was still a great look in clutch time.
Lillard has always been among the league’s top clutch performers but couldn’t knock down this pull-up off the bounce.
Then, with 26 seconds left, Rivers thought Lopez ended up too far out on a 33-foot 3-point attempt.
“We told him. We knew that if … Giannis rolls, either Giannis is going to get a quick dunk or Brook’s going to get a 3, but Brook kind of found himself out of the area,” Rivers said. “Probably shouldn’t have taken that one.”
Per data from Sportradar, Lopez’s average 3-point attempt comes from 26.8 feet, roughly 3 feet behind the line and the 20th-deepest average attempt distance among the 200 shooters who have attempted at least 100 3s this season. The deepest 3 Lopez hit this season was a 32-footer against the Brooklyn Nets on Dec. 26.
“Dame obviously draws so much attention,” Lopez said. “And I got it, and the look felt great honestly. It felt great. I was very happy with the look. Maybe it was a little deep, but in the moment, I was there. It felt good to me.”
After the game, Lillard went through the final three minutes and highlighted several plays in which he thought the Bucks put themselves in the right positions but couldn’t knock down shots they created.
“I felt like we got solid shots,” Lillard said. “Obviously we could have done some things better, but at that point, if Kuz makes a wide-open corner 3 or Brook makes a wide-open 3 or I hit that 3 when we down one and we go up two, it’s a completely different game, and we’re not even talking about our possessions.
“So, I thought we could have done things better, but we did have possessions that I can remember off (the) top of my head where we got four or five good looks.”
One of the last looks the Bucks had to salvage the game may have been the most controversial. With six seconds remaining, Lillard received an inbounds pass just beyond half court and launched. Lillard thought he was in the act of shooting.
“I saw them telling each other ‘foul,’ ‘foul,’ foul.’” Lillard said. “So I really took a risk. You know they almost didn’t call it because that’s how good I timed it. And I just picked it up and shot it, and he fouled me at the same time.
“So I understand that they (think) it’s unrealistic, but at the same time, with the understanding that they’re saying ‘foul’ and I’m telling the refs, I heard them say foul right away, so I just made the smarter play. But I definitely thought it should have been three free throws.”
The officials thought otherwise. Asked by a pool reporter after the game, crew chief Tony Brothers said Lillard was awarded two free throws “because the contact occurred prior to the upward shooting motion.” Brothers was not asked about those 2.3 seconds.
To add to the late-game drama, Lillard missed the first free throw. He tried missing the second on purpose, but Antetokounmpo and Rockets center Alperen Şengün dragged each other into the lane early, resulting in a violation and a jump ball at center court. Antetokounmpo controlled the tip to Lillard, who pump-faked Tari Eason, who flew by. Lillard sidestepped and launched a 3 that missed as time expired.
The Bucks’ offensive difficulties Tuesday dropped the team to 15th in offensive rating (113.4 points per 100 possessions) on the season, and their struggles in the fourth quarter further highlighted a larger issue. On the season, the Bucks are last in offensive rating (103.9 points per 100 possessions) in the fourth quarter.
| Off Rtg | Rank | |
|---|---|---|
|
1st Quarter |
117.2 |
7th |
|
2nd Quarter |
116 |
7th |
|
3rd Quarter |
116 |
13th |
|
4th Quarter |
103.9 |
30th |
Even if the Bucks liked the looks they got against the Rockets, they need fourth-quarter shots to start falling if they plan to compete with the East’s best teams this postseason.
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(Photo of Damian Lillard: Alex Slitz / Getty Images)
