Poor crunch-time offence hurt the Milwaukee Bucks yet again as they drop a winnable game to the Phoenix Suns, 106-108. Giannis led the Bucks with 31 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists. KD starred for the Suns, dropping 38 points, eight rebounds, and five assists.
Game Recap
Kyle Kuzma got the Bucks off the mark with a three to begin while also showing off his passing chops by reading the low-man rotation twice and zipping it into Brook under the basket, Bucks up 15-12 at the first timeout. Gary Trent Jr. came in and immediately got two steals, leading to four points in transition, followed by a spot-up three to give them a 22-15 lead with 4:31 left in the quarter. Both teams traded buckets from there, with Milwaukee up 30-25 after one.
The second quarter started badly for the Bucks, with consecutive Kuz TOs turning into a 6-0 run as Doc called a timeout less than two minutes in. The Bucks stabilised a bit from there, turning to Lopez on the block and attacking the smaller Oso Ighodaro. Giannis came back in and attacked a plethora of mismatches, kicking it out to open corner shooters and getting the lead to eight with 2:25 remaining. But overzealous Bucks defence to end the quarter—being too aggressive in the backcourt and needlessly doubling their stars—allowed the Suns to creep back into it. Bucks up 58-54 at half.
The third quarter included a lot of misses from both sides. The Bucks got out to a six-point advantage with Giannis and Brook working together to connect on alley-oops. Kevin Durant kept the Suns close, with 13 points in the quarter. The Bucks offence got pretty slow and sloppy, with Giannis holding onto the ball a little too much. Suns up 81-78 after three.
The start of the fourth was chaotic, to say the least. Trent dropped consecutive buckets, but Kuz had some ugly possessions with the ball in hand. Both teams had some bad misses and TOs, but the Bucks’ inability to rebound continued to hurt them, giving up their 14th o-board midway through the fourth. Kuz was having a nightmare out there, missing his fifth three of the night as the Suns increased their lead to 98-92 with 5:40 left. Rollins came in for Kuz momentarily, and Trent hit a crucial long two to reduce the lead to three with four minutes left… and then Giannis hit a three (!) to tie it at 101. The Suns scored down the other end and then went to Hack-a-Giannis; the strategy proved fruitful, with GA missing both. Then, and I am not kidding, Kuz made a corner three and-one for the four-point play to put the Bucks up 105-103 with 1:20 left. KD came down the other end and hit a tough three to put the Suns up one. Brook was then fouled for two shots with 9.6 left and made one to tie it up. Suns ball out of the timeout, Trent got on the wrong side of Booker, who caught it on the right wing and hit the mid-range shot. Lopez had a chance to tie at the buzzer after a timeout, but his fadeaway jumper was long. Suns win.
Stat That Stood Out
The Bucks gave up 14 offensive rebounds in this one. Which just shouldn’t happen with the size advantage they had. Failure to box out and pursue the ball hurt them.
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