Khris Middleton makes a lot of shots, but it isn’t enough as the Milwaukee Bucks fall to the Detroit Pistons.
Starting Lineups – Milwaukee Bucks: O.J. Mayo, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker, Miles Plumlee
Detroit Pistons: Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tobias Harris, Marcus Morris, Andre Drummond
It is as of yet unclear which direction the Milwaukee Bucks are willing to head in for the rest of the year. Fruitless drive towards a post-season berth? Try and will themselves to a mediocre record and an okay draft position come summer? Let Giannis and Jabari take the reins and let things fall as they may?
If their goal is the former or the latter, there may be just a bit of overlap, but who can complain about that, right? Either way, the focus is on the here and now, and that presents itself in the form of the visiting Detroit Pistons. After a semi-active trade deadline, the Pistons will be bringing former-Buck Tobias Harris along which should make for an interesting look.
Both sides opened up hot right away; Giannis paced the offense as the primary ball handler finding O.J. Mayo who started out hitting from distance a few times. Detroit answered each time down the court, however, and porous defense on the wings allowed Tobias Harris and Morris to put on a healthy lead in no time.
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Milwaukee failed to close out or switch defensively with fluidity, and that only made things worse for an already lackluster unit. Reggie Jackson had no trouble working his way to a speedy five first quarter assists, and a six for seven three-point shooting Pistons team would be too hard to keep pace with after one, 34-24.
Of course, it was only a matter of time given the dire straights until Steve Novak, certified secret weapon, was brought off the bench to bring things back. He’d hit his first three, but not do much else beyond that. Beyond Novak, scoring distribution was relatively even between starters and bench guys. Neither Jabari nor Giannis seemed primed to take over early, which is fine given the situation and the fact that they were still getting theirs from time to time.
Some more fantastic shooting from Detroit cancelled anything of positive note the Bucks did, and the half would be a lopsided plus for the Pistons on the road, 59-49.
Halftime defensive shifts for Milwaukee looked to do the trick for a large portion of the third quarter with the once hot Pistons getting nothing to go from distance for that 12 minute span.
Khris Middleton began to get a bunch of looks to go as he propelled his way to a solid 26 point (on 11-20 shooting) and seven rebound evening coming in big keeping things somewhat entertaining.
Careless ball handling didn’t help much, especially with how many turnovers came unforced. While Michael Carter-Williams has had flashes of bright here or there throughout the season, one cannot deny that he’s been having a tough stretch lately.
Tonight was no better. He looked frustrated nearly all night, did his best to give up unforced turnovers with regularity, and didn’t help things with a rough shooting night. The current starting unit has at least looked functional without him, and it may be reasonable to imagine that a bench role is the future for MCW.
The other starter-turned-bench-big Greg Monroe didn’t fare much better. He provided a bit more scoring inside, but he fell flat when faced up against his former-teammate Andre Drummond who had very little trouble getting 15 points and 17 rebounds.
Monroe may still be looking for inspiration with the rest of the season , but his getting dominated by Drummond wasn’t pretty to watch.
Crappy slow play for Milwaukee kept digging a deeper hole, and besides some garbage time points, the final score wasn’t very indicative of how dominating Detroit was this evening. At least Giannis had this dunk…?
Either way, the Bucks fall tonight, 91-102.
Come on by and check things out as we continue our draft prep and of course Monday night’s game with the Houston Rockets in town!