West coast trip begins with third straight loss
LOS ANGELES — On the first night of a long road trip up the Pacific coast, the Milwaukee Bucks started hot but couldn't keep up with the Los Angeles' Clippers effort on the offensive glass or behind the three-point line in a 129-105 loss at the Staples Center.
It is the third straight loss for Milwaukee, dropping it to 29-17.
Los Angeles won its sixth straight to improve to 32-16. It was the Clippers' 11th game winning by at least 20 points, best in the NBA. The Bucks once led by a dozen in the first half but were eventually blown out thanks to the Clippers scoring 25 second-chance points for the game and hitting eight fourth-quarter threepointers. Luke Kennard provided the daggers for the Clippers, hitting four of his five threes over a two-minute period that stretched a 105-98 lead to 117-110.
On the night the Clippers pulled down 13 offensive rebounds, including five in the fourth quarter.
When asked about the Bucks' defensive rebounding effort, guard Jrue Holiday began his answer by raising his hand and saying, "I was terrible, parti."
"I definitely gotta do better. I think Kawhi (Leonard) got some big ones, especially toward the end where you get rebounds like that it's just a momentum shift. You're guarding for 23 seconds on the shot clock and they get extra shots, it's definitely deflating. As a team and me personally, I definitely have to do better."
And when the Clippers took a 123-103
lead with just over two minutes left in the game, Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer pulled his starters.
“Their effort on the offensive boards was a big factor,” Budenholzer said. “Inability to guard the three-point line and inability to rebound. I think a lot of that just comes from not doing a better job just guarding individually. I think it was just not a good; wasn’t a good enough effort for us defensively.
“And give them credit. They played well. They created some of the problems for us but we’ve got to be significantly better.”
Marcus Morris hit four threes en route to 25 points and Reggie Jackson hit four on his way to 20. Terance Mann scored 14 off the bench while Kawhi Leonard had 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
“They shot it at a really high clip,” Budenholzer said. “It felt like they shot it at a pretty high clip the whole game but probably even more so in the (late third/early fourth). Just didn’t think we guarded very well, particularly late. Just too much penetration. They did a good job of getting inside of us and they played with the pass and they made a lot of good shots. They were creating a lot of good looks. I think we’ve got to be better defensively.”
The Bucks’ offense sputtered and defense cracked in the fourth quarter. After scoring 19 points off 13 Clippers turnovers in the first three quarters they didn’t get a single turnover in the fourth, nor could string enough stops together. And when they did defend solidly, it seemed the Clippers managed to keep the possession alive with offensive rebounds.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 32 points on 10-of-21 shooting and pulled in six rebounds. Jrue Holiday had 24 and seven assists and Khris Middleton scored 15 on 7-of-15 shooting.
Los Angeles stretched a two-point halftime lead to 68-59 with an 11-2 run to open the third quarter only to see the Bucks respond with a 14-8 stretch of their own to pull it to 76-73. But then, the Clippers got hot from the outside. Morris, Jackson and Batum each hit threes and Mann converted a three-point play to give the Clippers a 91-79 lead with 2:36 to go in the quarter and they took a 96-86 lead into the fourth period.
The Clippers scratched star Paul George from the starting lineup and the game shortly before tipoff with right foot soreness, leading to Kennard starting in his place.