Bucks win; Maker to be traded
Wizards fall, 148-129. Thon Maker going to Pistons for Stanley Johnson.
With the NBA awash in player movement and deal speculation ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline, it was easy to forget that actual games were being played.
The Milwaukee Bucks took advantage of the shorthanded Washington Wizards to put up a monster first quarter and roll to a 148-129 victory on Wednesday at Fiserv Forum.
The Wizards were playing with nine players
thanks to injuries and a trade that sent Otto Porter Jr. to the Chicago Bulls. The deal was reported right before tip-off.
The Bucks jumped on the Wizards early by scoring 50 points in the first quarter. According to ESPN Stats and Info, it was the team’s most points in a quarter since Nov. 12, 1991 and the thirdhighest quarter in franchise history.
“Obviously we shot the ball really well,” Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said. “But then there was mixing in getting to the basket. Just kind of the normal stuff.
“I think we were playing pretty fast, a lot of possessions. They were scoring, too. It was like an ABA game or something.”
The Golden State Warriors and the Bucks are the only teams to have 50point quarters in the last five seasons. The Warriors set a first-quarter record by scoring 51 points against the Los Angeles Clippers last month.
The Wizards also had a strong first quarter on offense, shooting 7 of 8 on three-pointers. Washington even took a 29-28 lead on a fast-break dunk by Bradley Beal. But the Bucks found no resistance from the Wizards’ defense and immediately ripped off a 10-0 run.
In the waning seconds of the first quarter, fans at Fiserv Forum chanted “We want 50! We want 50!” and Milwaukee guard Malcolm Brogdon nailed a three-pointer for a 50-35 advantage that drew a loud roar from the fans.
The Bucks’ numbers were eye-popping to see after the smoke cleared from the offensive fireworks. Milwaukee shot 20 for 27, including 7 for 9 on threepointers. Five players scored at least seven points, led by Khris Middleton’s nine.
Giannis Antetokounmpo sank all four of his shots in the first quarter and Ersan Ilyasova came off the bench to shoot 3 for 3, including 2 three-pointers, for eight points in just over four minutes.
The shots kept falling in the second quarter. Antetokounmpo made four more shots and scored 10 points as the Bucks took an 85-65 lead into the break.
The 85 points are the most in a first half in Bucks history. The most points in either half came when the team scored 87 against the New Orleans Jazz on March 14, 1979.
It was the seventh 80-point half in franchise history.
The hot shooting wasn’t just limited to the players. At halftime, a fan nailed a shot from halfcourt for $5,000 that probably elicited the biggest cheer of the night from the fans.
The Bucks lost some steam in the third quarter. The Wizards whittled the lead down to 111-100 on a dunk from Thomas Bryant, forcing Budenholzer to call a timeout with 3:49 remaining in the quarter.
The Wizards eventually got within nine points, but the Bucks closed the third quarter with a three-pointer from Brogdon and a slithering layup by Antetokounmpo for a 120-107 lead.
The closest Washington got in the fourth quarter was 120-113. Then the Bucks put together a 13-0 run.
Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe turned his game up a notch to close things out, piling up 10 points and three assists in a span of 3 minutes, 17 seconds after the Wizards got within seven points.
“We’ve seen him do it a handful of times, probably more than that,” Budenholzer said.
Antetokounmpo finished with 43 points, one short of his career high. He shot 17 for 21 and made all three of his three-point attempts.
It was the Bucks’ highest-scoring effort of the season after dropping 144 on the Atlanta Hawks and Sacramento Kings. The Bucks record for a regulation game is 158.