Milwaukee Bucks Flash Potential In Streak-Snapping Win

The Milwaukee Bucks have been one of the biggest disappointments in the NBA this season, but flashed their potential in a huge win over the Golden State Warriors.

The elements were there for an upset. The Golden State Warriors, 24-0 and winners of 28 straight regular-season games dating back to last season, flew into Milwaukee following a double-overtime thriller against the Boston Celtics a tired and battered team.

Klay Thompson, who didn’t play Friday because of a sprained ankle, was in the lineup Saturday but was a shell of himself, going 4-for-14 and finishing with just 12 points. The Warriors were without Harrison Barnes, meaning veteran Brandon Rush started.

Plus, Golden State was playing for the second straight night and its fifth game in eight days.

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But it’s not as if the Milwaukee Bucks were fresh as daisies. The Bucks had lost Friday night in Toronto and had the double-delay of having to clear Customs before returning to Milwaukee to host the Warriors in what was their sixth game since Dec. 4.

Milwaukee has been enigmatic, at best, in the early going this season. Riding a wave of preseason hype that had some predicting 50 wins for the young club, Milwaukee stumbled out of the gate and was just 9-15 when the Warriors came to town.

More alarming was the way the Bucks were losing. Eight times already this season, they have been blown out by 15 points or more—something that happened just four times during their 41-41 campaign in 2014-15.

Going into the game, Milwaukee was the most foul-prone team in the NBA, whistled for an average of 23 fouls per game.

They were being outrebounded, struggling to defend the 3-point line (allowing 36 percent from the arc) and giving up 100.5 points per game and 105.2 points per 100 possessions after finishing fourth in the NBA in total defense , allowing 96.2 points per game, and posting the second-best defensive rating in the league at 99.3 points per 100 possessions.

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Michael Carter-Williams, the former Rookie of the Year acquired from the Philadelphia 76ers at the trade deadline last February, was struggling, entering Saturday averaging 10 points, 5.4 assists and 3.2 turnovers per game while putting up a .416/.250/.712 slash line.

Tired or not, those numbers appeared to add up to nothing but a Saturday night prime rib buffet for the mighty Dubs.

So it was stunning to see how well the Bucks defended the 3-point line, in particular, holding the best long-range shooting team in the NBA to just 23.1 percent (6-for-26) from deep. Stephen Curry finished with 28 points, but was only 2-for-8 from his sweet spot beyond the arc.

And Carter-Williams had his finest all-around game since coming to Milwaukee, playing 30 minutes off the bench and going for 17 points, five assists, five steals and—most significantly—just a lone turnover, hitting 7-of-10 from the floor.

O.J. Mayo provided the deep ball, hitting 4-of-8 from beyond the arc on his way to 18 points and Greg Monroe ate up the small-ball Warriors inside, going for 28 points and 11 rebounds to go with five assists.

Jabari Parker hit 9-of-14 shots in his 29 minutes as he continues to play his way into shape after knee surgery last January. And Giannis Antetokounmpo put together his first career triple-double, finishing with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.

“It is a big win for those young guys in the locker room, the time they put in for these 25 games and the effort from start to finish,” coach Jason Kidd told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “You can say the crowd was off the charts.”

The Bucks, 43 years apart, have now ended the two longest winning streaks in NBA history. It was Milwaukee that ended the Los Angeles Lakers’ historic run of 33 straight victories in 1972. The win also denied Golden State with first 7-0 road trip in league history.

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Milwaukee also closed strong—something that’s been an issue this season as they had played to a minus-7.8 net rating in the fourth quarter through Friday’s loss at Toronto, per NBA.com/stats.

On Saturday, the Bucks opened the final period with an 80-77 lead. Seven straight points pushed the advantage to 10 points a little more than three minutes in, however, and Golden State would never get closer than seven the rest of the way.

Whether the win is a springboard to the Bucks getting back to where so many pundits believed they would be remains to be seen—they open a four-game West Coast swing on Tuesday with the first of back-to-back games in Los Angeles.

They face the Lakers on Tuesday and the Clippers (who beat them 109-95 in Milwaukee on Wednesday) the following night before a Friday night rematch with the Warriors at Oracle Arena and close the trip against former Buck Brandon Knight and the Phoenix Suns on Dec. 20.

Milwaukee is still 13th in the Eastern Conference, four games behind the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks, who are tied for eighth place.

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But for 48 minutes on one Saturday night in December, the Bucks reminded everyone how good they can be when they play with energy and focus.