Bucks: Angry Kidd takes blame for loss to Wizards.
Kidd upset with himself after collapse
An obviously perturbed Jason Kidd took the blame for the Milwaukee Bucks’ 107-101 loss to the Washington Wizards on Sunday afternoon.
The Bucks coach was terse in his post-game comments after another third-quarter swoon, where the Bucks were outscored 33-21, left them trying to rally late in the game. And they had to do it without star Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was scratched before the game due to illness.
“It was bad coaching,” Kidd said. “I messed the guys up; it was on me. The third quarter was something we talked about and I didn’t do a good job.
“This is a consistent thing we’ve been doing for the last six or seven games. The first quarter, we’ve been down. The third quarter, we’ve been down. This falls on my shoulders. I’ve got to do a better job of coaching there in the third.”
Bucks forward Jabari Parker scored 28 points and added eight rebounds and seven assists while assuming plenty of the scoring load, and point guard Malcolm Brogdon scored a career-high 22 points. Greg Monroe had 12 points and 12 rebounds off the bench while playing 33 minutes.
Brogdon disagreed with his coach that everything was Kidd’s fault.
“I don’t know if he’s being sarcastic. This one was on us; this one was on the players, for sure,” Brogdon said. “We had poor execution on both ends, breakdowns on defense. We had deliberately worked on end-ofgame, last 5 minutes, getting down to that situation. We worked on it yesterday (Saturday) because it happened in the last game.
“We wanted to improve on that and be better and we came out and did sort of the same thing.”
The Bucks lost the season series to the Wizards, 3-1, losing the three games by five, five and six points.
Bradley Beal paced Washington (18-18) with 26 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. had 17 off the bench, the second time he has burned the Bucks. Point guard John Wall added 16 points and seven assists.
Mirza Teletovic replaced Antetokounmpo in the Bucks’ starting lineup and had five points and four rebounds in 31 minutes.
“A lot of things happen in the NBA; it’s a long season,” Teletovic said. “People get sick and somebody else has to step up. We tried our best and we kind of fell short a little bit.
“We had two good quarters and then come in kind of weak, without energy. I think it’s more a mental mistake. We have to know we have that problem and try to solve it. J-Kidd is a proud man, a proud coach and he will always protect his players. I think we’ve got to do a better job.”
When Kidd was asked about the play of Parker, he said, “Unbelievable. He was great tonight.”
Then he was asked about Brogdon.
“Unbelievable. He was great tonight.”
That ended the postgame conference.
Michael Beasley gave the Bucks a spark off the bench, scoring 14 points in 9 first-half minutes. Parker also had 14 points in the half as the Bucks grabbed a 57-49 lead at intermission.
Parker and Monroe had back-to-back blocks in the second quarter, leading to a corner threepointer by Jason Terry that pushed the Bucks in front, 40-31.
Monroe also had a big impact in the half with six points and seven rebounds in 13 minutes.
Milwaukee hit 7 of 12 three-point attempts in the half but hit just 2 of its final 11 and shot 41% overall in the second half (16 of 39). Meanwhile the Wizards hit 54% of their field goals in the second half (21 of 39).
“In the first half, we gave them everything they wanted,” Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “I think human nature kicked in. They didn’t have Giannis and we kind of relaxed.
“The second half is about as good as we’ve played all year on both ends of the floor.”
A three-pointer by Beal gave the Wizards a 94-85 lead with 7:10 left, but the Bucks made one final push.
Brogdon’s three-point play with 2:51 to go brought the Bucks within 100-97. But Parker turned the ball over trying a lob for Monroe and Beal scored. Then Teletovic shot an airball on a threepoint try and Wall scored from the baseline, boosting Washington’s lead to 104-97.
“We’ve got to do a better job of executing in the fourth quarter, but our third quarters right now have been terrible,” Terry said. “Lack of energy, lack of focus. Sometimes you don’t lose games at the end. You lose them at any other point in the game.
“Guys have to understand once the first half is over, another half begins. The score is 0-0. I think that’s something you have to learn as a young team. We gave those guys confidence. There’s no margin for error, especially when you have a guy like Giannis out. He covers up a lot of our mistakes defensively.
“We did early (pick up for Giannis). But being able to maintain that was something we did not do.”