Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways From Loss to Utah Jazz
By Reid Mueller
Coming in losing eight of their last nine and falling one game back of the eighth seed, the Bucks were looking to get back on track. The Utah Jazz ended up being too difficult of a challenge to overcome, though.
The Milwaukee Bucks started the first quarter with energy, matching the Utah Jazz blow for blow.
Thon Maker was the star for Milwaukee, hustling for two rebounds, a steal, and two blocks in the first five minutes of the game. Giannis started the game finding it difficult to get an open look inside against the leaning tower that is Rudy Gobert. He would finish the quarter 1-5 from the field. The Bucks’ All-Star would be forced to create for his teammates, finding Tony Snell on two kick out threes.
The first quarter would continue to go back and forth, blow by blow. The bench entered the game and played with the same level of intensity as the starters. The team played a tough first quarter, but against one of the Western Conferences best, they found themselves down 30-27.
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The Utah Jazz started the second quarter off with two quick turnovers. Milwaukee would capitalize with two buckets to take the lead 31-30. To continue the trend as of late, the Bucks lead would not last long as Utah would go on a 6-0 run.
The Bucks would not come back and snag the lead as the Jazz slowly built a double digit lead. They took advantage of the open three from the corner. When the Bucks occasionally tried to close out harder and defend the corner, they fell victim to the back cut.
Milwaukee would give up another 30 point quarter, falling behind 61-48. The Bucks would finish the half without a double digit scorer, led by Greg Monroe with eight points. The defense looked out-matched against the Jazz’s low tempo, make the defense pay for their mistakes offense. Jabari Parker spent the half chasing Joe Johnson and Gordon Hayward. They took advantage.
The defense picked up to start the second half, giving up just seven points over the first five minutes of the third quarter. The offense just wasn’t clicking enough to cut into the lead. The Bucks wouldn’t have a player hit double digits until a Jabari drop-off dunk with 6:43 left.
Any hopes of turning this game on its head and coming back seemed lost at the end of the third quarter. The Utah defense buckled down and gave the team nothing easy. Utah was able to build their lead to 80-61.
The final quarter went to the Bucks as they outscored the Jazz 27-24. The quarter was largely uneventful as both teams were sort of just playing the clock down as the game was in hand. Thon got some more run, hitting three consecutive threes from the top of the key. The final score was 104-86, as the Bucks have now lost nine of their last ten.
Now lets move on to the takeaways.