Not today.
The light-on-reserves (in both meanings of the word) Milwaukee Bucks lost to the Portland Trail Blazers 125-112 in a SEGABABA. Giannis led the box score with a relatively empty 39 points while Portland featured a balanced attack led by Deni Avdija with 30 points.
Game Recap
Dame started off his homecoming by clanking a three, but swished the next two. After several buckets from Ayton inside paced the home side, Giannis said “anything you can do I can do better” to the tune of seven paint buckets in the period. The Blazers stayed within spitting distance thanks to a heater from Shaedon Sharpe, though—not to mention an Andre-esque three fouls on Khris, who looked out of sorts to start the SEGABABA. Milwaukee was up 36-31 at the end of the frame.
It was a hot start to the second for Dame, with a couple baskets and a nice dish to Pat. They built out a 12-point lead before Portland found some open looks to whittle it back to single digits. An 8-0 run reinvigorated the home crowd as the Blazers would cut the lead to one before Simons pulled a three from nowhere to give Portland the lead. It would stay on a razor’s edge until another Simons bucket put the Bucks down 64-61 at the end of the half.
The sides traded buckets and challenges to start the second half, but Portland subtly and then not-so-subtly grew its lead. A particularly heinous sequence involved a Scoot three, an Ayton block, and a turnover to AJax’s first (!) foul of the contest. (I say that, and then another Ayton stock and a Sharpe three did it one better, putting the home team up nine.) The team and Giannis in particular was clearly gassed and yet the Bucks’ offense was… Giannis one-on-ones, with Camara keeping Dame scoreless until two minutes were left in the period. Milwaukee kept it within single digits, but Deni Avdija heroics gave the Blazers a 97-89 lead after three.
After some dithering, Portland uncorked a 12-point run (including a possession with three offensive boards) to quickly extend their lead to 19, their largest of the game. Brook swished home a couple threes, as the Bucks at least tried to reel them back in. But it was not in the cards as the Trail Blazers ultimately coasted to the win, with Doc giving in with over three minutes remaining.
Stat That Stood Out
It’s not really a stat, but ideally the Bucks would not give up 125 points to the league’s 26th ranked offense. It was their 4th highest total this season. Now, a lot of that can be chalked up to a road SEGABABA without key reserves in AJ Green and Bobby Portis, not to mention above-average three-point shooting from Portland. But ultimately the Bucks made a bad offense look good.
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