Bucks vs. Clippers: Firing blanks in the fourth

Milwaukee Bucks v Los Angeles Clippers — Photo by Harry How/Getty Images

Milwaukee loses control in the final frame

The Milwaukee Bucks fought valiantly for three quarters against the Los Angeles Clippers, but lost control in the final frame, going down 117-127 in the first game of their West Coast trip. Damian Lillard recorded his second straight triple-double with 29 points, 10 assists, and 10 rebounds, while Giannis had 36 points and 13 rebounds. James Harden was simply unstoppable for the Clips with 40 points and nine assists, while Norman Powell added 33 points of his own. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.

What Did We Learn?

It probably wasn’t the reason they lost the game, but the main observation I took out of this is that the Bucks just don’t have the two-way stopper they may well need in the playoffs. Overall, their defence has been solid as a unit, but sometimes it just comes down to having one guy who can neutralise a hot player, and they don’t really have that (maybe AJax, but then the offence…). As much as you can be up to scratch on your schemes, sometimes it just doesn’t matter when the personnel isn’t quite there.

Look, maybe they won’t need that player, but man, oh man, did James Harden cook anyone the Bucks put on him last night. And maybe it was just a hot shooting night—many of his attempts were tough ones—but he was just too big, it felt like. The one-on-one defence was so ineffective that Milwaukee eventually went to their zone after Harden had 15 (!) straight points to end the third quarter. Same thing happened with Jalen Brunson a few weeks back. Postgame, Dame and Giannis spoke about what they thought went wrong on defence:

“They just attack, attack, attack, attack. For us, when you know that they’re a team that has guys that are going to be attacking, you’ve really got to pay attention to the tendencies… and try not to foul… There were too many of those situations, and it hurt us.” – Lillard

“We weren’t good tonight. Our individual pride has to be better next time. Somebody has to step up and take that challenge. When a guy is going for 10 straight [points], eight straight, dancing with the ball, somebody has to take that challenge.” – Antetokounmpo

Three Things

Damian Lillard notched his second straight triple-double.

Lillard had an unimpressive night shooting the ball (6/16 from the field and 1/9 from three) but was able to contribute in other ways. He and the Doc have both spoken over the past few weeks about getting downhill and not settling for perimeter shots. Well, he’s been doing that recently, and the results have been really positive. If Dame can still “play well” while not shooting efficiently, this team goes to another level.

Turnovers and rebounding issues killed Milwaukee all night long.

The Clippers had 97 field goal attempts to the Bucks’ 79. This was primarily due to the number of turnovers (13) and offensive rebounds (12) they gave up. giving your opponent that many bites at the apple and expecting them not to take advantage is just unrealistic. If they had cleaned that up, they might have won this game, even with Harden’s heroics.

Khris Middleton was rough in this one.

Maybe the lead-up to this game had something to do with Middleton’s ineffectiveness, but man, did he struggle. Khris went 0/4—which is crazy just from an attempts standpoint—and was unable to even get decent looks at the rim most of the time. He was equally as bad on defence, with some really damning possessions just letting guys go right past him. Maybe it was just a one-game thing, but this performance was a little jarring, in my opinion.

Bonus Bucks Bits

Pregame, Giannis was shooting free throws over a pole, presumably to get more air under his shot. Well, something was working; he went 12/15 in this one.

Giannis Antetokounmpo with an interesting way to practice free throws I’ve never seen before pic.twitter.com/tlWVrdX2tD

— Farbod Esnaashari (@Farbod_E) January 26, 2025

Gary Trent Jr. and Taurean Prince combined for 9/16 from deep, hitting timely shots to keep the team in it.
With Bobby Portis out, Brook Lopez led the team in court time, playing 41 minutes. I’d be interested to know the last time Lopez played over 40. (editor’s note: it was on November 13th, 2024 against the Detroit Pistons in a 127-120 victory. He played over 40 twice last season, too.)
This was probably Ryan Rollins’ worst game as a Buck. For a player who is usually measured and reliable, he had his fair share of “don’t worry, guys, I’ve got this” plays last night. Know your role, young fella.
Despite his stat line, Kawhi Leonard wasn’t great. A team-worst -13 in 24 minutes.
I thought it was notable that Terance Mann—once the apple of the NBA Nerd Community’s eye—logged just 14 minutes.

Up Next

The Bucks play the Utah Jazz on Monday night at 8:00 p.m. CST in the first game of their back-to-back. Watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.