Bucks vs. Kings: Got ‘em in the end

The Milwaukee Bucks rallied for most of the game after a slow start to beat the Sacramento Kings 114-108 and improve to 2-1 on this West Coast road trip. With no Damian Lillard in this one, Giannis was monstrous with 32 points and 17 rebounds in 34 minutes, while five other Bucks hit double-digit scoring. The Kings had a similar scoring distribution with six guys in double figures, but DeMar DeRozan led Sac with 22 points and four assists. 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?

One of the biggest learnings from this game is that the bench mob that was performing super well as a group after the NBA trade deadline might not be completely back, but there are generally one or two guys who will step up on most nights. Ryan Rollins got another start—presumably to keep the bench mainstays in the same roles they’ll have when Dame is back—but had a night to forget, going 0/4 with a team-worst -9 in his 20 minutes. AJ Green wasn’t much better, going 1/4 on what were mostly clean looks from distance.

On the other hand, Gary Trent Jr., after a rough first three quarters where he didn’t score and went 0/4 from three, hit three huge triples in the final frame to power the Bucks to a victory. Kevin Porter Jr. was also great in this one after a forgetful night in LA, going 8/10 from the field and nailing both of his three-point attempts, plus six assists to boot. Postgame, KPJ credited his time as a primary option with the Houston Rockets as a reason he feels comfortable scaling up his role with Dame out.

“Individually, this is what I do. I’ve had the luxury of being the number-one option on a team before… My guys trust me to make plays and be me, and I trust them to make shots and do the same. There’s a whole lot of trust on this team and when we have games like this when we’re missing troops, that’s what elevates us.”

Three Observations

Sacramento missing Domantas Sabonis was a huge break for the Bucks.

The Kings have usually had Sabonis as Giannis’ primary defender when these teams have played in the past. He has the heft to stand GA up on drives, and his feet are nimble enough to defend Giannis decently well. With Domas out, the Kings had to double, and Giannis was able to have an easier time manipulating the defence—especially in the third where he scored 22 points on 9/11 shooting and played every second of the quarter. This manipulation is not reflected in his stats, but again, poor three-point shooting (especially in the first half) does that. The eye test showed a different story. Anyway, these are the types of plays Giannis can make getting downhill on lesser defenders (sorry JV):

The non-Giannis minutes to open the fourth were massive.

Milwaukee was down 86-89 at the end of three. Giannis had just brought the team back with a Herculean effort in the third and looked like the Bucks’ only reliable source of offence. I must admit, I got pretty nervous about the coming minutes where when GA would have to rest. However, the bench mob came up clutch with the Junior Bros (KPJ and GTJ) dropping a combined 20 in the fourth alone. When Giannis came back in at the 5:50 (!) mark, the Bucks were up 104-100.

The crunch-time offence still needs a lot of work.

The Kings gave the Bucks a gift by also running crappy offence in the final minutes, but if we want to value process over results, we should be honest that the crunch-time offence was putrid yet again. And yes, some of it has to do with the fact that Dame is out and it’s harder to create creases in the defence without him, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. I recall a possession where Kuz tried a wild running floater off zero passes; and another play where Giannis was doubled and kicked it out to Lopez, who did not have a plan once he caught the ball and fired up a turnaround fadeaway which air balled. Like, this thing remains an issue, and most teams won’t give you the number of chances Sac did.

Bonus Bucks Bits

Another positive fast-break game for the Bucks, winning 20-6.
Thought Doc did a decent job putting the right guys out there to close. Moving away from Rollins and towards Porter and Trent. I think an underrated part of coaching that doesn’t get as much shine as it deserves is personnel decision-making at the end of games.
Kuz with 14 rebounds and some great defence down the stretch.
For anyone interested, Rajon Rondo was in quite the crouch position coaching from the Bucks bench in the final minutes.

Postgame, Doc noted the following:

He really liked Giannis’ decision-making for an overwhelming majority of the game.
The team apparently had 17 zero-pass possessions in the first half. This is a bugaboo of mine and it’s interesting that they track it.
He actually liked the combo of Giannis and KPJ paired with three shooters down the stretch.

Up Next

The Bucks play the Phoenix Suns on Monday at 9:00 p.m. Central. Watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin (and NBATV) or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.

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