A depleted Bucks squad struggled on a road SEGABABA.
The Milwaukee Bucks lost handedly to the Portland Trail Blazers 125-112. Giannis stuffed the scoreboard for the Bucks, but his 39 points felt like empty calories, while Dame only managed 20 in his second homecoming. Meanwhile, Portland got an A on the group project: Deni Avdija put up a team-high 30, but there was also Anfernee Simons with 25, Deandre Ayton with 21, and Shaedon Sharpe with 17.
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?
I mean, probably not much. The Bucks were in Utah last night. In both games they were missing Bobby Portis and AJ Green, limiting their rotation (especially among bigs—Doc complained postgame about trying to find minutes to get Brook off the floor). Their main guys logged heavy minutes for the second night in a row. That’s kind of all there is to it.
Meanwhile, Portland shot 43% from deep. Moreover, they were clearly hyped for Dame’s return. This was Portland’s only nationally televised game this year, and it wasn’t because of them. Chauncey Billups talked pregame about how he expected his guys to get up for the playoff-like atmosphere, as last year’s game was similarly electric. Hell, even the press spaces were packed, which our Blazers counterpart told me was atypical. The crowd gave them a non-negligible advantage, especially as Dame himself was pretty quiet, thus reducing any cheers that the Bucks might have garnered. Particularly as a young team, Portland feeds off energy, a point echoed by both Coach Billups as well as Dame postgame. Dame said that he thought that Simons in particular had a pep in his step for this matchup, reinforced by Melanie Ricks sharing that Simons said that he credits Dame for his success. He certainly has been a bit of a Bucks killer as of late.
Three… Threes! (And Not Those Threes!)
Three Early Fouls on Khris
Were they Khris’ fault or Scott Foster’s fault? Yes. Doc complimented the officiating in the postgame press conference, saying that they established consistent refereeing early. Unfortunately, they used Khris to establish said consistency.
Regardless, with Dame locked up by Camara (whose defense he complimented after the game) and not aggressing his way out (likely due to legs), and with the sacred Bobby post-up “cheat code” unavailable, it would’ve been real nice for Khris to spell an exhausted Giannis on offense. But his early foul trouble took him out of the first half, putting pressure on Giannis that showed by the time the third quarter rolled around. Here, Doc talked about being fine with Giannis attacking when Dame was denied the ball, but also being frustrated that Khris didn’t touch the ball (he finished with only two attempts). It’s hard to reconcile that.
Ultimately, it’s good to see Khris in a back-to-back (although Doc downplayed its significance) and he had an excellent game against Utah on Monday. But Tuesday was an off night by his (pretty high!) standards.
Three Freaking O-Boards At The Rim
This was a particularly consternating sequence that felt like the final dagger in the coffin—and there was actually a fourth offensive rebound earlier in the possession! Overall, though, the Blazers racked up 17 offensive boards, and while that didn’t translate into too many points (perhaps because of sequences like this!), it was reflective of differential effort: Doc highlighted Portland’s aggression on the boards, contrasted against Milwaukee’s lack thereof.
Three Former Blazers
It wasn’t just Dame’s homecoming: Pat and Gary made returns as well! During warm-ups, it was fun to see hordes of people freaking out about Dame, compared to the few folks who yelled “We miss you too Pat / Gary!” Pat even said thanks. For all the Portland—Milwaukee connections, there really should be a direct flight between the cities (asking for a friend…).
Bonus Bucks Bits
- The Bucks were hit with an early, weak flagrant when Deni Avdija ran into Taurean Prince. Stop me if you’ve heard that before.
- Unlike Khris, AJax didn’t record a foul until the third quarter, finishing with just two. I would have almost preferred him to rack up more fouls early on to match the physicality that Portland brought. He also finished with a nifty 9 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists, one of his better offensive efforts.
- Giannis missed his first four free throws 🙁 He finished 5-10.
- McDonald’s sponsored the en-vogue tic-tac-toe in-game entertainment. The X’s were fries and the O’s were McNuggets. They looked DISGUSTING.
- We love a Planet Pat close-out block!
- MarJon second quarter minutes!
- The Moda Center has a hustleboard, which counts blocked shots (not blocks—blocked shots), rebounds, and steals. Hm. Portland won the hustle points though, so who am I to say.
- Because the Blazers scored 100 points, tomorrow you can use the McDonald’s app to receive a free 6 piece McNuggets with a purchase of $2 or more. Why is it always so complicated!?
- They personalized some in-game entertainment for the Bucks: a hook shot contest! Sadly, they only referred to Kareem, not John Henson.
- A Bigfoot named Douglas Fur is an AWESOME mascot. Blaze the Trail Cat? Not so much.
- The half-court shot was sponsored by Damian Lillard Toyota. (Riley, not sure if I’ve told you, but the Dame vanity plates are actually just cars from his literal dealership.)
- All told, I had a great time covering my first Bucks game in-person!
Up Next
Milwaukee concludes their four-game roadtrip against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday at 7:00 p.m. Central. Watch the game on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin or stream it on our Playback and YouTube channels.
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