Bucks can’t stop Rockets
Houston beats Milwaukee, 110-99, at the Bradley Center for 17th straight victory.
The center position has represented a weakness for the Milwaukee Bucks all season.
With Tyler Zeller again out with back soreness and facing the NBA-best Houston Rockets, which play at a fast pace, dominate from beyond the threepoint line and don’t have a physically dominant big man, the Bucks made their strategy clear early.
Jabari Parker replaced starter John Henson — who ultimately played 20 minutes and was the only center to see the court — at the first media timeout, marking the earliest the Bucks have gone to the “small-ball” lineup with 6foot-11 Giannis Antetokounmpo at center since Joe Prunty took over as coach.
Milwaukee’s strategy, like most employed against Houston this season, didn’t yield the result the Bucks had hoped for as they fell, 110-99, on Wednesday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
“They use a lot of small-ball lineups as you can see,” Prunty said. “Guys that stretch the floor cause a problem. … We thought that was a good option for us to look at Giannis in that (role). Actually, I think that in a lot of ways helped us.”
The win was the Rockets’ 17th straight while the Bucks dropped to 2-6 since the all-star break and fell back
into eighth place in the Eastern Conference, two games behind the idle Philadelphia 76ers in sixth.
Antetokounmpo carried the Bucks in the second half, scoring 22 of his 30 points following intermission. His 16point third quarter, along with a pair of three-pointers from rookie Sterling Brown, helped the Bucks pull within four points at two separate junctures late in that period.
But as they’re liable to do, the Rockets quashed the noise at the Bradley Center quickly.
In a span of less than a minute, a pair of three-pointers by Eric Gordon and one by P.J. Tucker ballooned the margin — which had been as high as 16 — back to 12.
From there, the Bucks fruitlessly chased, getting as close as being down five with just over a minute left in the game. That’s when Chris Paul, who scored 12 of his 16 points after halftime, isolated Jason Terry and drove for a layup with 45.1 seconds left that effectively put the game away.
NBA MVP front-runner James Harden, while quiet in the second half, made plenty of noise in the first. He deposited 21 points before the break, including seven in the final minute of the second quarter capped by a deep, buzzer-beating three that put the Rockets ahead, 58-46, at halftime.
“They had a lot of guys contribute,” Prunty said. “At halftime Harden obviously was the problem. He had an unbelievable end to the second quarter, which was a tough stretch for us right there. Then you come out and don’t have the start to the third quarter that we want.”
Middleton supported Antetokounmpo’s strong effort with 18 points and 12 rebounds in the loss while Eric Bledsoe added 15 points, with 11 of those coming before halftime.
Brown brought a solid effort off the bench for the Bucks with 15 points in 27 minutes. Parker wasn’t effective on defense, almost constantly giving up ground and also had a hard time getting his shot going early before finishing with 10 points on 5 of 12 shooting. BEHIND THE BOX SCORE
All-star impressions: Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni earned the right to coach Team Stephen during last month’s all-star weekend, which involved getting the opportunity to spend time with Antetokounmpo.
Here’s what the Houston coach says he learned about the Milwaukee star during that time.
“That he’s great and will be great,” D’Antoni said. “Just a lot of enthusiasm and wants to be great, which is probably — besides being 6-11 and unbelievably athletic — probably one of his best skills is that he wants to be good, and he wants his team to be good. He’s a good one to have here.”
UP NEXT
Teams: Milwaukee Bucks (34-31) vs. New York Knicks (24-41).
When: 7 p.m. Friday.
Where: BMO Harris Bradley Center. About the Knicks: New York has been in freefall since late January, losing 13 of its past 14 games. The Bucks have played a notable role in the Knicks’ struggles, beating New York twice in early February, including on Feb. 6 in the game most will remember as the night Knicks all-star center Kristaps Porzingis went down with a torn left ACL. Since then the Knicks are 1-9, including five losses by double digits.