After a rocky first quarter, Bucks blowout shorthanded Pelicans to set up a 5th seed clincher against Detroit
The Milwaukee Bucks won for the sixth time in a row, taking down an eight-man roster fielded by the New Orleans Pelicans, 136-111. Despite their best efforts, the Bucks have been locked out of home-court advantage for the first round of the playoffs, after the Indiana Pacers narrowly beat the Cleveland Cavaliers (without their top four players), 114-112, clinching them the fourth seed. For Milwaukee, Giannis scored a game-high 28 to go with 11 boards, but only five assists, so no fourth-straight triple-double, unfortunately. Kevin Porter Jr. had 20 off the bench, and Lester Quinones led New Orleans with 21. 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?
There wasn’t much to learn in terms of the direct on-court action of last night’s game. The Bucks were playing a team that was missing 11 players and only had a rotation of eight all game. The bigger piece of news and what we did learn is that the Bucks will not have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, whether they end as the fifth seed or the sixth seed. They will have a chance to clinch the fifth seed in the East tonight when they travel to Detroit to take on the Pistons. Here’s what Doc Rivers had to say about the bout ahead:
“It’s the first part of the play-in. That’s basically what it is. It’s going to be a great experience. I’m looking forward to it. I think the crowd in Detroit is going to be amazing. They’re going to play hard. They’re going to play well. And we’re going to have to match it.”
What might prepare the Bucks the most for this moment has been the fact that these last six games have been like playoff games for them, at least according to Giannis. With that challenge, the Bucks have seemingly responded, and Giannis is liking what he’s seeing
“I kinda like where we are right now, we’ve been competing we’re able to score the ball, we always keep our composure, (no matter) the time, and score. I love where we are right now, we just have to stay humble and go each game ahead of us.”
I talked about in the preview yesterday how much things have seemingly shifted in the last six games since the Bucks’ ugly loss to the Atlanta Hawks not too long ago. With him seemingly challenging the team to play with a playoff mindset and how much things have changed around the team, I asked Giannis what he thought the biggest shift was, comparing the four-game losing streak with the six-game winning streak:
“I don’t know, we’re playing good basketball, moving the ball, trusting one another, the ball is going in. We feed off our defense we get the energy and then offensively when we play defense it makes it easier for us. When the ball is moving and we have great shooters, we’re one of best shooting teams in the NBA and when you’re able to create a wide-open look for your teammate most likely it’s gonna go in. We’re feeding off from our defense, trying to get three stops in a row multiple times. I think we did that against Minnesota—seven to 12 times we got three stops in a row in the fourth quarter, which is incredible in a quarter. When you feed off of that and you play the right way offensively, good things are gonna happen, and you’re able to score 120, 110, 130. I think today we scored 135—everybody eats, everyone feels good and everyone competes.”
Three Bench Player Observations
While it is a minuscule two-game sample size, the Bucks’ bench has been doing some incredible things. Every time they come into the game, they can positively change the game. They played the entire fourth quarter with Giannis against the Timberwolves to spark that miraculous comeback, and then last night, after a rocky first quarter, they helped the Bucks outscore the Pelicans 79-59 in the middle two quarters to seal this game up. In this section, we’ll take a look at the Bucks’ best three bench players from last night and how they changed the game.
Kevin Porter Jr.’s playmaking has steadily been improving.
With each passing game, KPJ seems to be coming into his own with what the Bucks need from him, especially with Damian Lillard out indefinitely. Doc commented on just that before the game began:
“He’s playing the right way, the way that we need him to play. It’s probably different from how he’s ever played. We’ve talked about him being a dancer with the ball, he’s not doing that, he’s being decisive, scoring downhill. Defensively, he’s been fantastic for us, so these are all the things we hoped he could do and he’s doing them for us.”
Porter had another 20+ point outing with exactly 20 points, seven assists, and another five steals. Five of those seven assists came in the second quarter when the Bucks were trying to pull ahead of the Pelicans—much needed for a stifled Bucks offense.
If the Bucks don’t send a bag to Gary Trent Jr. for his shooting, there are gonna be problems.
The fact that the Bucks were able to get Trent on a vet minimum is something that needs to be studied. Another game, another efficient offensive game for Trent as he shot 4/7 from the three-point line and finished with 17 points. He also had the highest +/- out of every player last night with a +23 in 24:29 of playtime. Whether the Bucks can truly afford Trent and Porter this off-season, they are a truly dynamic backcourt off the bench.
The steady force of Bobby Portis down low has been missed.
Doc talked pre-game about how much having Bobby has allowed the Bucks to better manage Brook Lopez’s workload, and last night was evidence again. Lopez only had to play 23 minutes, with Portis playing a near-even split at 22 minutes exactly, and was a positive offensive force for the Bucks. He finished his night with 14 points and eight rebounds on 5/10 field goal shooting and 2/4 from beyond the arc.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Giannis Antetokounmpo continues to climb the ranks of the NBA’s all-time leading scorers. With 28 more tonight, he passes Mitch Richmond (20,497) for 48th all-time with a total of 20,506 points in his illustrious career.
- Giannis has also tied Wilt Chamberlain for the most consecutive games with 20+ points on 60 %+ shooting from the field with 10.
- Milwaukee’s 136 points tonight mark its second-best scoring performance of the season and seventh 130-point game this season. The Bucks are undefeated this season when reaching the 130-point mark, and they’re now averaging 122.8 ppg in April after scoring 130+ points in two of their six games.
- With 20 points tonight, Kevin Porter Jr. extended his streak of scoring 20+ points to a season-long four games. It’s the third-longest such streak of his career, and he’s now averaging 21.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game over his last four games while shooting 51.9% from the field in that span.
Up Next
The Milwaukee Bucks enter the final two games of the regular season in a battle for the fifth seed, with a home-and-home series against the sixth-seeded Detroit Pistons. The Bucks will travel to Detroit for their second game of a back-to-back, with tip-off scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CDT. You can catch the action at 6 p.m. Central on NBA TV, FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin, or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
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