Dominant defense silences Thunder
The Milwaukee Bucks made a statement Sunday evening with a dominant defensive effort against the best team in the Western Conference, silencing the Oklahoma City Thunder 118-93 at Fiserv Forum.
The Bucks (46-25) snapped the Thunder’s four-game winning streak, and dropped them to 49-21 on the year. The teams won’t meet again until April 12 in Oklahoma.
“I think we were most excited being full strength,” Bucks forward Khris Middleton said. “This is the team we want to be, having all our guys out there. We want to play the right way and play together.
“I think we did that. Everybody didn’t have a high scoring night but everybody did their job. They defended well. The guys who got trapped and saw two most of the time they got off the ball and let the rest of the guys make a play (and) sometimes it came back to them. I think with a full team out there we realized what we could do as a team.”
Third-quarter dominance sparks Bucks to victory
Giannis Antetokounmpo lay on his back under the Thunder basket, pumping his fist as his layup fell into the basket after he was fouled by Oklahoma City’s Kenrich Williams.
Sitting up on the sideline near the fans, Malik Beasley pumped his arms at the same time.
Beasley had forced a loose ball and dove to save it, kicking it behind him. The ball wound up in Antetokounmpo’s hands, and the “and one” gave the Bucks a 63-49 lead and effectively clinched one of the Bucks’ best wins of the season.
“I saw Josh Giddey bringing the ball in transition and my guy was still back so I was able to kind of trap the ball and I got my hands on a steal and it went out,” Beasley said. “It’s just who I am. I dive for the ball, make the tough plays and saved it to Brook and got an and-one.
“Just a good feeling and just show that the hard work and the hustle paid off. Especially holding Shai (GilgeousAlexander) to 12, it’s a big day for me.”
The Bucks had forced the Thunder into 12 straight missed shots at that point and had stretched a 48-47 halftime lead into a insurmountable margin for a flustered Thunder team. The Bucks’ run didn’t end there – they stretched the lead to 17 before a Thunder timeout – but Beasley’s defensive intensity and Antetokounmpo’s strong finish perfectly captured why Milwaukee blew out Oklahoma City.
“Turned us up,” Beasley said of the play. “That’s what I need to do. My role is to do the little things to help the team turn out big. Last game (against Brooklyn) I hit a three in the corner and I wasn’t shooting well before that and made a huge shot. Tonight, defended my ass off and made a couple shots, got fouled a couple times. It turned out to be a great night.”
In the decisive first half of the third quarter, the Thunder were consistently forced into tough midrange shots or end-of-clock threes by a connected and hustling Bucks defense. The momentum on that end of the court was palpable, with blocks by Middleton and Brook Lopez leading to an 0-for-9 start by the Thunder. Tough defense, which included Beasley scrambling around the perimeter, forced a tough Chet Holmgren three that was off, which led to a Beasley bucket on the other end and 59-49 lead.
Lopez then raced from corner to corner two possessions later, forcing a tough Luguentz Dort three near the end of the clock that left the big man doubled over for air – but helped Antetokounmpo draw a foul.
It was a remarkable, connected run that saw the Bucks outscore the Thunder 18-2 in over six minutes of play.
“I think we were just all on a string, just trying to force them in the paint and using our length and our size,” Middleton said. “I think Brook, Giannis, Bobby, they were great especially in that second half with just being the anchors down low on both sides. I think guards did a great job running these guys off threes. Our rotations were sharp. Just rebounding, boxing out and rebounding once we forced them into tough twos.”
The Bucks threw multiple bodies at Oklahoma City’s MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, forcing him into 5of-12 shooting for just 12 points. But perhaps more importantly, he only had two assists. Holmgren, a rookie of the year candidate, was just 1 for 10 for six points.
“I thought it was our most connected game, both ends,” Rivers said. “I just thought defensively we were so physical tonight. You could literally see it. Switches were aggressive. Then offensively we took what was there instead of forcing it. They decided they’re gonna trap Dame every time and they were gonna trap Giannis and we told ‘em that and instead of forcing it just give up yourself and keep moving the ball and keep making the right plays and we did that.”
Big Three together again
The trio of Antetokounmpo, Middleton and Damian Lillard have not played together since Feb. 3 in Dallas – which was just Doc Rivers’ third game as the head Bucks’ head coach.
The trio hasn’t had a ton of practice time under Rivers due to different injuries for each player, and Rivers said following Saturday’s practice that they didn’t get to work through any of their three-man actions for the trio – but they were going to run them anyway.
Middleton had looked sharp in two games since returning from a left ankle sprain that sidelined him for 16 games from Feb. 8-March 14 (61% shooting) and Lillard had hit another gear (31 points, 11.3 assists) over his last three games.
But Oklahoma City’s strong perimeter defense gave Middleton and Lillard trouble, as neither reached double figures until the game was already in hand in the fourth quarter. Lillard finished with 11 points on 4-of-12 shooting and Middleton had 11 on 5-of-11 shooting.
Despite that, their defensive effort remained strong throughout on Oklahoma City’s talented guards and wings. Lillard and Middleton also didn’t fall into the trap of trying to get their own shot going outside of the offense as Middleton had 10 assists and Lillard had five.
“They just both played right,” Rivers said of the pair. “You couldn’t see the stress on their face. They didn’t care. The team was doing well.”
They also contributed to the Bucks’ dominance on the glass, with Middleton recording his first triple-double of the season with 10 rebounds and Lillard had six. It was the second triple-double of Middleton’s career.
“Enough guys on this team can play so there’s going to be guys making shots, there’s going to be guys instead of Khris having 20 or me having 25 or Giannis having 40 sometimes it might be a couple guys with 12, 16, 20, whatever,” Lillard said. “I think because of how we played defensively it was like, we was able to play that way offensively and still have a big lead.”
While Oklahoma City could leave Milwaukee feeling good about that, it had no answer for the biggest one of the Big Three. Antetokounmpo was dominant, setting a season-high with 19 rebounds and a season-high with eight offensive rebounds. He was 13-for-18 from the floor and scored 30 points.
“Tried to compete, kind of get my rhythm going,” Antetokounmpo said. “That’s what I usually do in the past. Khris was back, Dame was back and they had the ball the majority of the time. A lot of shots was going up so I just tried to do something else for once, go for every rebounds and I was able to get some, create some second possessions for the team. It was a good day.”
Giannis sets career high for points in a season
Antetokounmpo set a personal record in the game, as his lefty tip-in off his own missed layup with 1:20 to go in the third quarter gave him a career-high point total in a single season. He came into the game having scored 1,993 points in his first 65 games. He finished with 30 against the Thunder, giving him 2,023 for the year.
He scored 2,014 points over 75 games in the 2017-18 season, which was seventh-most in a single-season in franchise history.
Michael Redd is No. 6 with 2,028 points in 2005-06. Unsurprisingly, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the first five spots. His record is 2,822 points, which he scored in 1971-72. The three-point shot did not exist yet.