Giannis and Doc Rivers speak on the Bucks’ 125-90 loss to the Warriors
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Doc Rivers speak on the Bucks’ 125-90 loss to the Warriors on March 6, 2024.
SAN FRANCISCO – The Golden State Warriors snapped the Milwaukee Bucks’ six-game winning streak with a 125-90 victory Wednesday night at the Chase Center.
The Bucks (41-22) fell behind by 20 at halftime and made a spirited third quarter charge, but it was too large a deficit to overcome the Warriors (33-28).
Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the lineup after missing Monday’s game with left Achilles tendinitis and scored 23 points on 8 of 15 shooting. He also handed out six assists and had seven rebounds.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” he insisted after the game. “Last game did not feel 100%. I try to play as many games as I can this year, that was the third game that I missed. But I want to be out there on the court, try to build chemistry with the guys, try to build chemistry with Dame. I think the more we play together I think it benefits us. But at the end of the day if I don’t feel like I can protect myself out there, I try not to put myself at risk because I feel like the moment you have things that linger then you put yourself in (harm’s way) – especially the way I play. This game, warmed up, felt good, was ready to go.”
Box score: Warriors 125, Bucks 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 No. 4 all-time in made three-pointers with 2,560. Bobby Portis had 20 points off the bench, but 18 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 had 12.
More: How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to get over himself to play the best basketball of his career
Trayce Jackson-Davis blocks Giannis, finishes off Bucks
The Bucks cut a 20-point halftime deficit to six with 5 minutes 34 seconds left in the third quarter, but at that point the Warriors called timeout, and substitutions were made by both teams. Trayce Jackson-Davis entered for the Warriors and he beat Antetokounmpo to the basket for a lay in. Then, Jackson-Davis blocked consecutive Antetokounmpo attempts at the rim, and then threw down a dunk off a Curry lob to push the Warriors lead to 88-77 in just about 90 seconds of game play. He then followed up another block on Antetokounmpo as the rim with a dunk to give Golden State a 91-79 lead with 2:20 to go in the quarter.
The Bucks had expended a lot of energy in the 6 ½ minutes of the third quarter, going on a 19-5 run to trail just 83-77. Milwaukee leaned into its big lineup, with Antetokounmpo attacking hard to the basket and then finding Brook Lopez on the baseline for his only two baskets of the game. Then, Damian Lillard added 2 three-pointers for a little spacing, while Malik Beasley and Jae Crowder created turnovers on the defensive end.
“The 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, you’re allowed to set your defense. And then we played good defense. The last three minutes of that quarter, we reverted back to turnovers, forced shots, the same stuff. And the game was over.”
Unfortunately for Milwaukee, Davis-Jackson’s momentum-swinging plays not only kept the ball out of the basket for Antetokounmpo and the Bucks but it helped break down the defense.
“I’ve never faced anyone like him before, having length like that, as fast as he is, and explosive,” Jackson-Davis said. “The person that I watched guard him in the past that has done a pretty successful job is Blake Griffin. Just kind of sitting back and allowing him to come to you, then watching that spin move that he likes to do. Obviously just timing at the rim, I got the best of him with that.”
The Bucks never got back in the game, but Jackson-Davis wasn’t done. He punctuated the victory with a tip-dunk on an offensive rebound and then followed it up with another block on Antetokounmpo in a fourth quarter in which the Bucks scored just nine points. Jackson-Davis had 15 points and three offensive rebounds to go with his four blocks.
Bucks have rough defensive first half too much to overcome
Golden State took a 40-32 lead by the end of the first quarter after shooting 68% overall and 60% (6 for 10) from behind the three-point line, which was the second straight game the Bucks started slowly on defense. The Los Angeles Clippers scored 35 first quarter points on Monday.
Perhaps each team was due for such a quarter, however.
Milwaukee had not allowed a 40-point quarter since Miami reached the number in a Feb. 13 victory over the Bucks at Fiserv Forum. And the Warriors had scored just 88 points Sunday in a loss at Boston.
The Warriors kept the pace going into the second quarter, scoring 38 more to lead 78-58. It was the most points an opponent scored in the first half against the Bucks this season.
“I think they had like 20 points off our turnovers,” Antetokounmpo said of Golden State, who finished with 21 points off 15 takeaways. “We cannot allow our offense to dictate our defense. At the end of the day, we got to be better. They scored 125 points. In the half they had 78.”
They were also the two highest-scoring quarters in any game for a Bucks opponent since Rivers took over as head coach Jan. 29. The only other teams other than Miami to score 40 points in a single quarter were Dallas (44, first quarter) and Utah (40, fourth quarter).
Everything was working for the Warriors, who shot a blistering 64% overall and 63% (12 of 19) from behind the three-point line.
“This is gonna sound like a little shock to you, but I really didn’t think this was our defense — I thought it was our offense,” Rivers said of the decisive first half. “I didn’t think we played solid offense all night. They have 21 points off of our turnovers. They had 15 blocked shots. So they were in transition or in offense the whole game due to our bad offense tonight. This is the first night in a long time where we just didn’t play together, didn’t move the ball. We forced actions. So I thought it was more of that. We had a lot of defensive breakdowns for sure but a lot of them were in transition where we weren’t matched up because our floor balance was so bad tonight. We took so many bad shots, we had too many bad possessions that when we got back we were never matched up and they took advantage of it.”
Even though Golden State was undersized, the Warriors outscored the Bucks 34-22 in the paint and then got out and ran to the tune of 13 fast-break points in the first half.
“They were getting out quick so it was obviously difficult, but we have to obviously be better in transition, better communicating, things we’ve been great at the past handful of games. It’s good for us to learn from this. I’m sure we’ll back to where we were at next game.”
Milwaukee came in having improved their transition defense and were ranked No. 12 in the NBA in allowing just 13.8 fast-break points per game. They had allowed just 9.2 per game on the break in their six-game winning streak.
They were also No. 1 in the league in allowing 40.3 points in the paint since the all-star break.
Brandin Podziemski sparks Warriors early
In his homecoming game on Jan. 13 at Fiserv Forum, Brandin Podziemski 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 that sidelined him the last two games and immediately made an impact by first banking home a deep three-pointer and then tossing up a lob to Kuminga for a fast-break dunk.
He scored just five points in the first half but those points – and his three assists – helped get the Warriors off and running in building their 20-point halftime advantage. He finished with eight points.
Podziemski has been a big reason the Warriors have gotten back into the Western Conference playoff hunt.
5 numbers
1 First-half rebounds by Giannis Antetokounmpo. He came into the game averaging 11.3 per contest.
2-for-20 Three-point shooting by Malik Beasley the last three games for the Bucks after his 0-for-6 showing Wednesday night against the Warriors. He went 1-for-7 in each of his previous two games.
12 Consecutive games Bobby Portis has scored in double figures off the bench for the Bucks.
17 Combined points by Bucks starters Brook Lopez (9), Jae Crowder (4) and Beasley (4).
2012-13 The last time the Bucks swept a season series with Golden State (excluding 2019-20 when the teams met only once).
When will Khris Middleton play?
The 32-year-old landed on Kevin Durant’s foot following a jumpshot on Feb. 6 in Phoenix, and Durant was assessed a flagrant foul for crowding Middleton’s landing area. Though Middleton stayed in the game for a few more minutes, he has been out since then.
He was ruled out for the Warriors game, which was the 12th straight game Middleton has missed. Though Rivers said on Feb. 22 that if it were a playoff series Middleton could go – and that the three-time all-star has been getting individual work in – there hasn’t been a clear indication of his return.
“He’s been on the floor, he just hasn’t had a live practice,” Rivers said before the game Wednesday. “I don’t know if any NBA team has a live practice the rest of the season from this point on. But we do a lot of two-on-two, three-on-three stuff, he’s been able to do some of that, which is good.”
Earlier in the week, Rivers did insist there has been no setback in Middleton’s recovery and that the team is being extra cautious. During Wednesday’s shootaround, Middleton was in street clothes but Rivers said the forward “went hard” in a workout the day before. But even if Middleton is getting in some heavy work, the Bucks head coach allowed that after so much time off the all-star will need to ramp up his minutes.
“Most likely,” Rivers said. “I don’t think it’s due to injury, though. Before it was more about the knee and stuff like that. I think it’s more lungs. You would probably do that.”
Aside from on-court chemistry and an affect on wins and losses, the injury may yet come at a financial cost for Middleton also.
When he re-signed with the Bucks in the summer, he had a $1.5 million bonus for appearing in 62 games. Middleton was well on his way to meeting that threshold after playing in 43 of the Bucks’ first 51 games, but now he must appear in each of the team’s final 19 games.
That appears unlikely, even if he’s healthy, as Middleton only played in one set of back-to-back games this season (Jan. 3-4). The Bucks have three more back-to-backs this season.
It is important to note that Middleton only needs to play for a second in each of those games – the 20-minute threshold instituted by the NBA for a game to count toward regular season awards does not apply to contract bonuses. Fans may remember former Bucks point guard Jrue Holiday playing eight seconds against Cleveland in 2022 to trigger a bonus.
Whether Middleton earns his bonus will also not affect whether the Bucks are over the second “tax apron,” as they are over it anyway. It will only affect the Bucks’ 2023-24 luxury tax payment and his cap hit for 2024-25.
Nickel column: Bobby Portis showed in Monday’s Bucks win over the Clippers he can do it all.
Christine Lake is a sports fanatic who lives and breathes athletics. With an extensive background in sports journalism, he covers everything from major league championships to grassroots sports events. When she’s not on the field or at the stadium, you’ll find Christine coaching youth sports teams.
