Antetokounmpo feasts at home
MILWAUKEE — The Rockets were never in the game. Even when they had a few good moments, the Bucks had little reason to notice. The game looked like a blowout as soon as it started, but the Rockets might have been in trouble from the moment the charter touched down in the early morning hours.
They were not just playing the second half of a back-to-back, on the road, against a championship contender and in the home opener of a team that had played just one game. They were also without two starters, center Bruno Fernando and guard Eric Gordon.
That led to a lineup shuffle with Usman Garuba getting his first playing time of the season to match up with Giannis Antetokounmpo. But from the start, the lineup was the least of the Rockets' issues.
The Bucks rolled from the opening minutes and cruised to a 125-105 blowout of the Rockets. Antetokounmpo did as he pleased most of the way, calling it a night with eight minutes left, having scored 44 points on 17 of 21 shooting.
When he sat, the Bucks had made 56.2 percent of their shots, and half the 28 3s they had put up while applying defensive clamps on the other end.
Jalen green led the Rockets with 22 points but made just 6 of 19 shots. Kevin Porter Jr. went 5 of 15 to score 18.
Five takeaways:
A little rally in the 3rd
The Rockets had been buried early, but they did find their way into a few moments of life.
It never really seemed to matter. The Bucks appeared entirely capable of blowing the game open whenever they got around to it. The Rockets never came close to stopping Antetokounmpo.
But there was a stretch in the third quarter when Kevin Porter Jr. and Jabari Smith Jr. knocked down 3s, and Usman Garuba set up K.J. Martin inside. The Bucks 24-point first-half lead had been cut in half and Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer felt the need to get a time out.
By then, the Rockets starters had played the Bucks' fairly evenly, even with the Bucks 13-0 start to the game. The most any had been outscored was by five points, and some of that came when Kevin Porter Jr. was playing with the second unit.
That did not last. Antetokounmpo swatted them like a fly buzzing around the picnic. The Bucks took a 98-79 lead into the fourth quarter. But there were a few minutes the starters held their own.
Feeling rejected
Jalen Green got one of his underhand flips to go at the rim. This was not a good thing.
He tried it several more times and found that is not going to work too often. His teammates were treated as rudely.
If you drive too deep on the Bucks, the length will block out the sun — and most shots. Rockets keep trying them. The Bucks blocked 10 shots.
Bucks started fast
There was no way the Bucks were going to shut out the Rockets.
It might have seemed that way at first. There were plenty of swings and misses early. But they were going to keep getting their hacks.
It took a little more than three minutes for the Rockets to get a hit, but Kevin Porter Jr. got them on the board with a drive and off-hand finish. The Bucks had scored the game's first 13 points. They would lead, 16-2, before the Rockets scored again with Jalen Green creating some offense. But even when the Rockets had a few moments, the Bucks were scoring so early, the game
never escaped blowout status.
By the end of the third quarter, Stephen Silas had almost cleared his bench, calling on every available player but his largest, Boban Marjanovic, and smallest, Trevor Hudgins. The Bucks led, 41-23, shooting 65.2 percent including 7 of 10 on 3s.
The Rockets had an occasional flurry of scoring. The Bucks were never challenged.
Not seeing is believing
The Bucks' home groaned and then booed. The disappointment was palpable. It was also understandable.
The replay of one of Giannis Antetokounmpo's slams cut off before he could finish doing destruction.
Not seeing all of it in all its glory was what passed for a difficult moment for the locals.
Alperen Sengun fouled Antetokounmpo while trying to block the dunk from behind. Antetokounmpo finished over three Rockets players, the third time he had been fouled while scoring at the rim in his first 11 minutes on the floor.
It brought to mind Jalen's Green realization early last season when he was struggling.
“It's a man's league,” he said then.
His young teammates felt that on Saturday, and the lesson came from a superstar
who was skinnier than they were when he was a 19-year-old rookie 10 seasons ago.
A few Green minutes
The Rockets were down 22 when Jalen Green returned to the floor with 6:19 left in the first half.
As much as the rockets did not look like they belonged on the same floor with the Bucks, with Giannis Antetokounmpo manhandling them as if he was playing with the neighborhood kids at the park, Green showed he was on that level.
Green poured in three 3pointers and drove to a slam in the next six Rockets possessions. He missed a dunk in there when he tried a one-handed alleyoop finish. But that run game him 18 points with 4
1⁄2 minutes left in the first half.
That was as much as any three teammates combined and cut a Bucks lead that had reached 24 to 15.
He ended up getting caught too deep on several possessions, missing shots he tried to wrap around defenders, though Sengun was left alone to put in the rebound on one of those misses.
He did not score again, however, until less than six minutes remained, making the game one of those teaching moments he had spoken of the night before. But there once again were the flashes of what could be.
A staggering change
For the first time this season, Silas staggered the playing time for guards Kevin Porter Jr. and Jalen Green.
With Eric Gordon out, Daishen Nix got his first playing time of the season. He checked into the game with Porter sitting and Green remaining in the game. When Porter returned, Green was out.
That always seemed a likely change after the first two games in which the Rockets starting guards played together. Silas said he anticipated that eventually he would stagger their playing time, but their chemistry was so good in the first two games, he wanted to ride with that.
Against the Bucks, he needed one of his top scorers on the floor at all times, and likely will again.