Holiday makes presence known
Off-season acquisition plays big role in rout
Before the Milwaukee and Golden State took the court at Fiserv Forum on Friday afternoon, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said new Bucks guard Jrue Holiday would bring “alpha” confidence and ability on offense and defense to the club and added Holiday’s impact will be huge in the postseason.
It was evident not long after, too, as Holiday pestered Warriors star Stephen Curry all game and had a hand in 28 points by the end of a decisive third quarter to lead the Bucks to a 138-99 victory in their home opener.
Holiday had his hands in nearly 30% of the Bucks’ 100 points through three quarters, as he scored 12 points and had six assists that led to 4 three-pointers and two layups.
Defensively, Holiday tried to stick on Curry and make the two-time most valuable player work for everything. Though Curry finished with 19 points – and Holiday did get help – the Warriors’ star made just six of his 17 shots (including 2 for 10 from beyond the arc).
“We put a ton of attention on Curry and Jrue is primary guy to try and stay as attached to him as we could, give him just as few open and clean looks as possible,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said.
“It starts with Jrue’s effort. There’s a lot of screens. (Curry’s) great moving off the ball, he’s great with the ball but once he gives it up it’s so natural maybe to take a second or relax a little bit and then that’s when he gets you, and for the most part I though Jrue’s attention to effort and detail and all those things were good. His teammates were good around him. We showed him a couple bodies a lot of the night, scrambled on the backside. It was a good effort. Steph’s that good a player – he deserves that much attention.”
Curry didn’t score his first basket until about a minute remained in the first quarter and scored just four points in the third quarter, when the Bucks stretched a 10-point halftime lead to a commanding 23-point margin. Holiday’s final assist to D.J. Wilson for a three-pointer made it 96-73.
“Honestly, I just think our spacing we have, the athleticism that we have opens up everything,” Holiday said. “Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and Khris (Middleton) demand so much attention, so just to be able to run in space, to correct spacing and really just go from there. See things that are going to happen, make the right reads. It’s not just all on me. They actually have to knock down the shot.”
In that third quarter the Warriors cut
the lead to eight at 72-64 thanks to six points off Bucks turnovers, but they only scored 20 in total. Holiday, Middleton, Antetokounmpo and Donte DiVincenzo each scored on an 8-0 run that pushed the lead to 16, and the rout was on.
The Bucks (1-1) were then able to rest their starters for the entire fourth quarter while the bench pushed the lead to as many as 42.
The bench was especially effective from long range, making 11 of their 18 three-point attempts to help the Bucks shoot 54.1% from long range (20 of 37).
Khris Middleton led all scorers with 31 points on just 15 field goal attempts, including 6 of 8 from long distance.
“Just an incredibly efficient night,” Budenholzer said of Middleton’s performance. “That’s just – that’s special.”
Antetokounmpo had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds while DiVincenzo added 13 points. Free agent acquisition D.J. Augustin made his Bucks debut after recovering from a calf strain he suffered in the second exhibition game. He finished with 13 points.