They just didn’t have enough fight
Bucks are unable to clinch top spot in East
When the 2019-’20 season began, the Milwaukee Bucks entered with plenty of goals.
Among them, they wanted to repeat as the best team in the Eastern Conference and this time around
had eyes on translating that into reaching the NBA Finals and contending for a championship.
Just how much they care about the latter goal over the former was on display Tuesday. That’s when the Bucks all but punted on a chance to wrap up the No. 1 seed against the Brooklyn Nets – a team that already owned one of the two worst records of the 22 squads in the Walt Disney World bubble and has been decimated by injuries and positive COVID-19 cases and also happened to be without three of its in-bubble starters.
But clinching the top seed in the East on Tuesday is not the most important thing to the Bucks. That’s short-term thinking. Instead, their focus stayed on maintaining their long-term health, something Budenholzer leaned into by holding Brook Lopez out and benching all-stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton for the entire second half.
Handed the keys to the car, Milthey
waukee bench made a late comeback but sputtered in the final minutes in a 119-116 loss at the Visa Athletic Center.
“I think today was an opportunity for other guys to get minutes,” Budenholzer said after noting that Antetokounmpo and Middleton’s 16 minutes apiece was intentional. “Bled and Pat are back, so it was great. I think it’s a huge step for us to get those two guys back, continue to get more healthy and stay healthy. I think some games, you know, that’s probably more important than anything – that we stay healthy . ...
“It just felt like with the day game and the cumulative, kind of, workload – we track and watch how much the guys are practicing and working – it made sense for us to go lighter on the load for some guys and increase other guys’ load.”
Regardless of who was on the court, though, the Bucks were hardly impressive against a gritty Nets squad that played and worked harder throughout the game. Antetokounmpo and Middleton combined for Milwaukee’s first 11 points to get the Bucks out to a sevenpoint lead, but the team seemed to lose its urgency after those initial 2½ minutes.
Antetokounmpo finished with teamhigh 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting along with six rebounds and four assists while playing in longer stretches – around eight minutes in each of his two stints – than he has in first halves in the bubble. Middleton pitched in eight points, four rebounds and two assists in his 16 minutes.
The Bucks were plus-four in the minutes Antetokounmpo and Middleton were on the court, yet when the pair of all-stars subbed out with just under five minutes to go in the first half, Milwaukee was down by six.
By halftime, the deficit grew to eight as the Bucks gave up 73 first-half points – the second-most the Bucks have allowed in a first half this season behind a March 8 loss in Phoenix when the Suns put up 77 in the first half.
For the top-ranked defensive team in the NBA, that kind of effort doesn’t go over well even if everyone on the bench gets into the game and some key players are missing
“I think we had a 40-point first quarter which is very poor and 33 in the second, so 73 at halftime was pretty disturbing,” Budenholzer said.
Bledsoe was the lone regular starter who stayed on the court in the third quarter, a period the Nets opened with a three-pointer to expand their lead to a game-high 11 points. He made a couple of free throws and dished out a pair of assists to help get the Bucks back within two less than five minutes into the third, coaxing a Nets timeout. When play resumed, Bledsoe was on the bench having hit his 18-minute limit while he works his way back into shape after testing positive for COVID-19 a month ago.
“It was fun, even though we lost,” Bledsoe said. “It was fun to just get out there and be around them guys, showing that team camaraderie and trying to feel that again. So it’s cool to get out there and get a feel for it . ...
“I thought I played pretty well. Had a couple casual turnovers, but all in all, I thought I played pretty well out there. Took the shots that I normally take when I’m playing. Drive, kick, stuff I normally do. I felt good, but the first couple minutes, I was a little winded.”
Connaughton, who like Bledsoe had a delayed arrival to Disney after a positive COVID-19 test in July, also logged 18 minutes with many of them reserved for the latter stages of the game.