Thunder can’t stop Giannis in loss at Bucks to fall out of first place
MILWAUKEE — The late game alleyoop was overkill. The musclebound exchanges, even among reserves, drilled home what was no longer necessary.
Sunday was the Bucks’ night. The rebounds, the cleaned-up blunders that fell their way, the rim wrath all said so.
By then, Giannis Antetokounmpo acted like a wildfire. He’d been almost Herculean, willing his way wherever he pleased. His 6-foot-11 frame had powered through so many defenders, floated through so much air that it seemingly boasted flames too strong to approach. Created smoke too murky to see through. He erased oxygen, leaving just enough air for himself.
By the end of Milwaukee’s 18-3 thirdquarter run, Antetokounmpo (30 points & 19 rebounds) and the Bucks completely engulfed the Thunder in OKC’s 118-93 loss.
The Thunder rotated and deployed its own mismatches — not like it had much choice versus Milwaukee’s size. After decidedly scrambling to force preferable shots, the Bucks shot a putrid 4 for 17 from deep in the first half.
But Antetokounmpo had been the king of cleaning up any mishaps. Three offensive rebounds in the half, four in the third quarter alone. Malik Beasley even hit the floor for a loose ball that played hard to get, but not so tough that he couldn’t keep himself in bounds and flip up a play that ended in an and-1 for Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo’s first half couldn’t have been much more than the Thunder expected — 10 points and 10 rebounds for the league’s only spiraling meteor. It was his (and the Bucks’) third quarter that flipped OKC on its head.
Milwaukee’s rotations were sharp to the touch. They bumped the Thunder’s ball handlers off their spots, forcing them to pick up their dribble. Antetokounmpo and others like Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis made the rim no man’s land — so long as the Thunder could even get there.
OKC started the second half 0 for 13. The Thunder’s typical drives lost verve. Its lane-driven MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hardly looked like himself.
“Our force on offense didn’t overcome their physicality, and then our physicality didn’t overcome their force,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault simply put. “And that’s how a 25-point loss happens.”
Antetokounmpo finished the third quarter with 11 points and eight rebounds. With several painful and-1s, with unstoppable rim attempts. He helped outscore OKC 34-17 in the period, pushing them well out of the game.
And yet, there was Antetokounmpo, soaring through the lane with less than five minutes to play for another lob over OKC’s white-flag lineup. As if it needed any more reminder of his force.
Framing Shai’s night
Gilgeous-Alexander, bound to consistency and 31 point-games like a Canadian edition of “Groundhog Day,” sticks out when he’s off.
Few teams have truly been able to throw him off. To keep him from finessing his way to his favorite looks, to keep him from impacting a game somehow. The Raptors, the only team to keep SGA from scoring 30 or more points, watched him dish out 14 assists in Oklahoma City and a well-rounded 23-piece in Toronto the other night.
Milwaukee changed things, though. With its rotations, with the way it flashed into the lane. Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just 12 points and two assists on 5-of-12 shooting, his secondlowest scoring output of the season, just ahead of the seven points he posted versus Denver in the home opener.
Gilgeous-Alexander tipped his cap to Milwaukee for the way they defended. He also had another diagnosis.
“I think I also just had a bad night,” he said. “Just one of those nights.”
A fair assessment for a player who’s made a living inside the arc despite crowds and doubles and defenses loading up the paint all season.
Antentoukounmpo noted a quality he saw in Gilgeous-Alexander — generally, but specifically in Sunday’s loss — that contributed to a quiet game.
“You see guys that average 30, 35,” Antetokounmpo said, “but he’s also a willing passer. So that kind of helps you sometimes, because he’s gonna try to make the right play, he’s not gonna force it.”
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t force much of anything; His 12 shot attempts were a season low. OKC lived with the way things played out; the situation spiraled out of control before it could really choose its third-quarter response. Gilgeous-Alexander’s typical reign would’ve come around then.
Young Thunder’s reaction
The Thunder, which slipped to second place in the West after Sunday night, won’t overreact to its blowout loss.
Not just because the Bucks aren’t high on its list of problems. Or because Antetokounmpo is unmatched as a matchup, the teams play twice a year, and a postseason meeting couldn’t happen until a hypothetical NBA Finals.
The young Thunder sounded generally accepting of how they lost their grip in Sunday’s game, decided by a shift in physicality that they couldn’t match. Sure, some of the things that led to the loss are deeply, deeply rooted issues OKC has already addressed and accepted like size and rebounding.
But there aren’t a ton of teams that can effectively deploy the level of size and strength that Milwaukee did Sunday across an entire frontcourt. That can keep up with the gunning Thunder. Milwaukee’s rotations and Antetokounmpo’s wrath saw it rise into peak form — something, for whatever it’s worth, OKC probably won’t have to deal with much more this season.
It’s unusual to have not played a team until late March. The Thunder will get another shot at Milwaukee just before the postseason. By then, it’ll be well aware of what didn’t work Sunday, and, according to Jalen Williams, what’s felt off lately.
“I don’t think we’ve been playing particularly well over this little stretch, too,” Williams said. “I think this loss was good for us just to see, you know, you play a really good team, just see exactly where we’re at. Things aren’t as bad or as good as they seem in the moment.”