SACRAMENTO – The Milwaukee Bucks overcame a sluggish first half and outlasted the Sacramento Kings down the stretch in a 114-108 victory Saturday at the Golden 1 Center.
The Bucks (40-30) outscored the Kings (35-35) 28-19 in the decisive fourth quarter and 65-47 in the second half overall behind an offensive surge led by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Porter Jr. It was the Bucks second victory in a row without all-star point guard Damian Lillard. The win helped the Bucks keep pace with the surging Indiana Pacers (41-38) in the race of the fourth seed- the last spot with home court advantage for a first round series – in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
“It was great for us,” center Brook Lopez said. “It showed what we’re capable of. We were in a hole early but we were just able to turn it on, get it right and then just keep chipping away.”
Antetokounmpo finished with 32 points on 12 of 20 shooting and an 8-for-13 mark from the free throw line. He also pulled down 17 rebounds and had three assists.
Brook Lopez scored 21 points on the night, including 18 in the first half. Kyle Kuzma had 14 points and 14 rebounds while Taurean Prince added 15 for the Bucks. Kevin Porter Jr. had 18 and Gary Trent Jr. had 11 off the bench for Milwaukee.
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“If we stay even keel, we can match up with any team,” Porter said. “And we feel the way we play, the ball flying unconsciously, no one cares who makes it, who shoots it, I believe we can beat any team out there.”
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The Bucks head to Phoenix to play the Suns on Monday and will face coach Mike Budenholzer for the first time since he was fired after the 2023 playoffs. Budenholzer directed the team to its second NBA title in the 2020-21 season.
Giannis Antetokounmpo takes over to get Bucks into game
Giannis Antetokounmpo often says that playing aggressively does not equate to him putting up the most shots in a given quarter, or a particular game.
And most of the time that is true.
But on Saturday night, after a bad first half of offense by the Bucks that included him not attempting a shot in the second quarter, Antetokounmpo came out with a shotmaker’s mentality. He went 9-for-11 from the floor and 4-for-5 from the free throw for 22 points – and then pulled down eight rebounds and had a steal and a blocked shot to get the Bucks back into the game.
“I’ll be honest with you — I just said ‘(expletive) it, like I gotta be aggressive,'” Antetokounmpo said of his third quarter mindset. “I’ll be honest with you. That’s what I said in my mind. I didn’t say it to anybody. I said it in my mind, you know? So, that’s pretty much it. Sometimes when you play basketball you’re going to have moments like that and you’re like ‘F it,’ I just gotta keep on going every single possession and keep on trying to make the best decision possible for my team.”
A layup through a wall of Kings defenders tied the game 80-80 with 3 minutes, 12 seconds to go in the frame led to a fist pump from Antetokounmpo and a Kings timeout.
Unfortunately for the Bucks, coming out of the stoppage they missed an open three-point attempt, gave up consecutive offensive rebounds to the Kings and then missed another open three – and trailed 89-86 going into the fourth quarter with Antetokounmpo needing to rest.
“I think Giannis did it the right way,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said of the star’s takeover. “He wasn’t forcing anything. He was getting to the basket. He took a couple jump shots, he made one, made two. One I didn’t like, other than that I can’t remember any shot that he took where I thought he was trying to take it over, it was just that he was taking it over. There’s a difference.”
While he only attempted one shot in the fourth – the fact that he missed turned into perhaps the most important play for the Bucks, and one of Antetokounmpo’s most absurdly athletic.
Antetokounmpo drove to the lane with the Bucks up 110-108 but as the Kings swarmed him Keegan Murray blocked his shot attempt back into his hand. Somehow, Antetokounmpo contorted himself to kick the ball out to a waiting Gary Trent Jr. in the corner, who knocked down an open three-pointer for, effectively, a game-clinching triple at 113-108.
Antetokounmpo then hit two key free throws with 20 seconds left to truly ice it.
Kevin Porter Jr. leads clutch bench minutes
Bucks backup guard Kevin Porter Jr. scored 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting and handed out six assists – but it was his early fourth quarter play that helped the Bucks to victory.
He scored nine points while Antetokounmpo was on the bench, including a pull-up, 27-foot three-pointer that gave Milwaukee a 100-97 lead. He followed that up with a basket that gave them a 102-100 lead with 6:13 to go, and the Bucks never trailed again.
Porter also had a notable drive into the paint that resulted in the Kings defense collapsing, allowing him to find an open AJ Green on the perimeter. That got the Kings scrambling, and Green found an open Taurean Prince for a three-pointer.
Though the Bucks only went four deep (and Pat Connaughton saw just two first half minutes), Porter and Gary Trent (11 points) were huge for the Bucks in keeping them connected on a tough offensive night — including giving the Bucks a lead in the fourth quarter by the time Antetokounmpo checked back in to close it out.
“I mean, Giannis’ third quarter sets everything off: His energy, him being a leader, coming out fast definitely got us up and elevated on the bench and ready to go and take it up a notch when he was ready to rest,” Porter said. “We know as a bench unit we gotta come out and be ready especially when the energy is like that and it’s contagious, we can’t let it slow, we gotta stay our foot on the gas.”
Bucks first half offense sputters again
After a 93-point effort in Golden State on Tuesday that saw them score 17 points in the second and fourth quarters, Milwaukee head coach Doc Rivers said the team had to work through the offensive rut they were in.
A depleted Los Angeles team was salve for one night, but a feisty Sacramento team showed that the Bucks didn’t solve anything against the Lakers – and the Bucks scored a season-low 17 first quarter points as they were just 7 of 24 (29.2%) from the floor overall and 0-for-5 from behind the three-point line.
And that was with Giannis Antetokounmpo playing the entire quarter, as the Kings showed double and triple teams to him as he went 3-for-8 for nine points.
“I didn’t think we played right,” Rivers said of the first half. “I think we had 17 zero-pass plays in the first half. Second half, we didn’t. We moved the ball better. And even when we moved the ball in the first half the ball didn’t move again where in the second half you saw ping-ping-ping until we found the shooter, so I thought we played with better intentions in the second half.”
Though Milwaukee did find a spark in the early part of the second quarter behind a bench unit, they still scored just 49 points in the half – the third time in the last four games they couldn’t reach the 50-point mark in the opening 24 minutes.
The Bucks had cut their deficit to 43-40 when Antetokounmpo checked in at the 4-minute, 45-second mark but were outscored 18-9 from then on and he did not attempt a shot. In fairness, he was again seeing multiple bodies and he passed out of those situations, but the half court movement wasn’t sharp enough to fully capitalize on the numbers advantage around him to loosen up the Kings defense.
“For me, my mindset coming off in the second quarter or coming on in the fourth quarter is like, this sometimes might be not smart, I just try to wait for the game to come to me,” Antetokounmpo said of final minutes in the second quarter. “I’m not trying to force anything because while sitting on the bench I view how the game is going and who got it going and who’s scoring and I’m trying to not like, disrupt that. But sometimes it’s not smart because when I’m in attack mode, good things happen most of the time.
“So, going to the second quarter, that’s what I did. And I realize it’s not smart. It doesn’t help the team. Sometimes being unselfish can make you selfish. I don’t know if that sounded how I wanted it to sound. Sometimes trying to be unselfish can be selfish because you’re not doing what it takes to help your team win and I think in the third quarter I was trying to be aggressive.
“And the fourth quarter I was trying to be aggressive and I didn’t get as many shots as I would want but guys hit big shots.”
The Bucks were outscored by 17 points when he was on the court and he had just two assists as they were just 4 of 15 (26.7%) from behind the three-point line in the first half and 20 of 46 (43.5%) overall.
Broadly, the Bucks have set their season-low point totals for a game (93 at Golden State), first half (41 vs. Oklahoma City), first quarter (17 vs. Sacramento), second quarter (15 vs. Oklahoma City) and fourth quarter (12 vs. Houston) since the all-star break.
“Honestly, I think it’s just that time of year,” Porter said. “Your body is aching, you gotta find that will, you gotta prepare and just some things happen. We’re missing our big guy, Dame, he runs a lot and handles the offense a lot, so with him out we already know that our scoring; there’s going to be a lack of. And we gotta bring it on defense. So, the second unit, that’s been a thing — we gotta be consistent and offensively a threat, but defensively saved us tonight.”
Bucks once again struggle vs. hobbled opponent
In the final month of the regular season, it’s fair to say that Milwaukee had caught some schedule and injury breaks in terms of their opponents. Since March 8, the Bucks missed Orlando’s Jalen Suggs, Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams and Lu Dort, the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James (twice) and Luka Dončić and Golden State’s Stephen CurryMilwaukee played Oklahoma City, Indiana (twice), Los Angeles and Golden State as the second game of back-to-backs.Yet the Bucks were 3-5 in those games heading into Saturday night.
Sacramento was not on a back-to-back, they were without Domantas Sabonis (ankle) & Malik Monk (illness).
Sabonis is the league’s leading rebounder (13.9) and was averaging 19.2 points per game while having recorded nine triple-doubles. Monk was averaging 18.1 points per game and was effectively serving as the team’s primary ball handler after trading De’Aaron Fox.
“The message Doc has been harping on that we’ve all supported as a staff and the things the players are really starting to realize is, no disrespect to any opponent, we have to play a brand of basketball that is our brand of basketball regardless of who the opponent is,” Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham said before the game.
“It’s gonna be situations where certain players are out, major key contributors for the other team are out, but it shouldn’t affect the way we play.”
Though the Bucks
could
point to their own obstacles over the last month with Bobby Portis Jr.’s suspension and injuries to Jericho Sims and Damian Lillard – as well as playing Cleveland and Oklahoma City on the second night of their own back-to-backs – but with a healthy Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lillard only missing the last two games they should be more consistent than they have been.
“It’d be nice to get whole — no Dame right now, no Bobby, no Jericho — so we’re literally stuck with one five (center) on the floor in Brook, and when we take Brook out we don’t have a five,” Doc Rivers said after the game. “We don’t have a five on the roster. So we are not going to be able to have that March melding because some of these guys aren’t going to play. But, I think we know our identity anyway. I think we know who we are. I think rotationally-wise I think we’re pretty sure how we want to play and I think we’ll be fine.”
5 numbers
- 8-2: Bucks record without Damian Lillard.
- 16: Second-chance points scored by the Kings, off 14 offensive rebounds.
- 13-11: Bucks record vs. teams in the Western Conference.
- 18-17: Bucks record vs. teams with a .500 record or better on the day of the game.
- 16-18: Bucks record on the road, but they are 7-5 since the start of February. They have not been .500 away from Fiserv Forum this season since starting the year 1-1 on Oct. 27. They were 18-22 on the road last season. From 2018-23 they were one of the best teams on the road in the NBA, compiling a 123-74 (62.4%) record away from Milwaukee.
Is Giannis playing?
The Bucks star is probable to play as he continues to manage soreness in his right knee. He’s dealt with that since the start of the season but has yet to miss a game due to the issue.
What is the latest on Damian Lillard?
The injury report designations for Damian Lillard have changed a few times over the last few days, as he went from managing soreness in his right groin to soreness in the soleus muscle in right calf, forcing him out of the Lakers game. He is now listed more broadly with calf soreness – but the NBA will require the team to be more specific than that should he continue to miss more games.
Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham said before the game that Lillard is considered day-to-day.
Lillard missed three games over 10 days in December with a strain in his right calf. That stretch coincided with a respiratory illness that sidelined him for a game.
The 34-year-old suffered two strains to that calf (including the soleus muscle, specifically) early in the 2022 season while he was with Portland, which forced him to miss a total of 10 games over a total of three weeks.
What time is the Bucks game?
The game will tip off at 9 p.m. CT.
What channel is the Bucks game on?
The game will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Dave Koehn, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call. Josh Maurer will be on the call for WTMJ Radio and the BMO Bucks Radio Network.
Bucks injury report
- Bobby Portis Jr., out (league suspension)
- Jericho Sims, out (right thumb surgery)
- Damian Lillard, out (right calf soreness)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, probable (right patella tendinopathy)
- Gary Trent Jr., probable (left patella tendinopathy)
Bucks starting lineup
- Guards: Ryan Rollins, Taurean Prince
- Forwards: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma
- Center: Brook Lopez
Bucks vs. Kings odds, over/under
Sacramento is a 1.5-point favorite over Milwaukee, and the over/under is set at 223.5 points per BetMGM.
