A step in the wrong direction
The Brooklyn Nets may have the record of a team that may be tanking for a better spot in the NBA draft, but there’s something that sets the Nets apart from the other teams near the bottom of the standings: they don’t own their firstround pick.
So the Nets don’t have any reason to shut players down, limit starters to a certain number of minutes or any of the various traits a tanking team might usually exhibit.
They’re playing to win and did just that on Thursday night at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, popping 19 three-pointers on the way to knocking off the Milwaukee Bucks, 119-111.
Milwaukee coaxed 20 Brooklyn turnovers but couldn’t keep up with the Nets’ three-point barrage. The Bucks went 5 of 20 from long range (25.0%) while the Nets drained 19 of their 39 three-point tries (48.7%).
“I thought they hit a lot of threes throughout the entire game,” Bucks coach Joe Prunty said. “We didn’t defend it very well. Defended it very poorly.”
The Bucks got 31 points from Khris Middleton in the loss while getting too little offensively from some of the Bucks’ other top players. Giannis Antetokounmpo was thwarted inside and couldn’t find his midrange stroke on the way to scoring 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting. Ditto for Jabari Parker, who opened the game cold
at 1 of 9 in the first half and didn’t warm up much in finishing with 13 points on 6 of 21 from the field.
With the Nets hanging back to protect the paint, the Bucks struggled to get going inside throughout the night. Sometimes that approach led to inside passes for layups and often there were kickout passes to open shooters, but the Bucks couldn’t get those shots to fall.
When forcing the issue for shots inside, Milwaukee had multiple attempts roll off the rim and 12 others blocked as multiple players tried to muscle through the crowd.
The Bucks looked listless and out of sorts in the early moments of the game.
Antetokounmpo scored the first bucket of the night but that 2-0 lead marked the Bucks’ last advantage until the latter stages of the third quarter. The Bucks couldn’t get anything going offensively, were torched by the Nets’ three-pointers — open and contested alike — and trailed by as many as 11 with seven minutes left in the third quarter.
That’s when things started to turn around. The Bucks used an 11-0 run led by four points, a steal and an assist from Eric Bledsoe, who finished with 18 points, to tie the game with four minutes left in the third. Caris LeVert then nailed a threepointer to put the Nets back ahead, but the Bucks countered with a 7-0 spurt.
But as would become a theme over the remaining portion of the game, no Bucks lead lasted long. Brooklyn, which got 25 points and 5 three-pointers from Allen Crabbe and 22 points from D’Angelo Russell, took the lead back heading into the fourth quarter.
The game went into its final three minutes with the score tied before Crabbe put the Bucks away for good with a pair of three-pointers.
Milwaukee’s latest frustrating, indefensible loss to a team near the bottom of the league standings came one night removed from earning a playoff berth by virtue of a Detroit Pistons loss. With the softest projected schedule among the teams battling for the last three seeds in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks failed to take advantage Thursday night.
Thanks to the Washington Wizards losing a late 17-point lead to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Bucks remained tied with the Wizards for seventh with three games to go. Since they do not own the tiebreaker against Washington, the Bucks will need to finish ahead of the Wizards over the final three games to move up in the standings.
“This would not be good enough to win a game in the playoffs,” Prunty said. “I’m not worried about the playoffs right now . ... We need to play very good basketball regardless of our opponent and tonight is an example of (not playing well enough).”
UP NEXT
Teams: Milwaukee Bucks (42-37) at New York Knicks (27-51).
When: 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Where: Madison Square Garden.
About the Knicks: The Bucks have won the first three matchups this season, with Middleton scoring 30 points in a 120-112 victory in Milwaukee in the last meeting on March 9. The Bucks also won, 92-90, on Feb. 2 and, 103-89, on Feb. 6. The Knicks have lost four games in a row heading into a matchup with the Miami Heat on Friday night at Madison Square Garden.