Game in Review: Milwaukee Bucks @ Brooklyn Nets – March 13

Jason Kidd continues to pace the Milwaukee Bucks against his former team as Milwaukee takes home a win from Brooklyn.

Starting Lineups – Milwaukee Bucks: Jerryd Bayless, Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo,Jabari Parker, Greg Monroe

Brooklyn Nets: Donald Sloan, Markel Brown, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thaddeus Young, Brook Lopez

Ever since having left the Brooklyn Nets and the bright lights of New York City, head coach Jason Kidd has had very little difficulty getting the Milwaukee Bucks past the team he first coached. He’s only lost one of the six meetings the two teams have had starting last season, though many of those games were a bit tight down the stretch.

With Brooklyn riding primarily on the backs of lesser-known players to finish the year, it was easy to assume that they shouldn’t have been a huge challenge. However, given their draft position (that is, it being owned by the Boston Celtics), the Nets have every incentive to win as much as they can, so a good punch can always be expected on any given evening.

Milwaukee rushed out to a big lead early on and dominated much of the first quarter, though Brooklyn would find a way to begin to attack the interior with regularity, exploiting the mismatch between Greg Monroe and Brook Lopez. Giannis was facilitating in a remarkable way with seven assists already by the end of the first 12 minutes of play.

In fact, Giannis was dangerously close to putting together a triple-double by the end of the first half with 12 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. With him as the lead guy, there were few issues getting Jabari Parker involved offensively for another night in a row. Another trend that held up? Young guys like Johnny O’Bryant, Rashad Vaughn, and Tyler Ennis getting solid burn with the subs off the bench.

This type of move was typical of a dominant half for Giannis:

If there was a sole negative takeaway from a relatively successful first couple of quarters, it was the once more below-average help from the bench guys in propping up leads. Miles Plumlee and JOB were the only guys who bothered to put the ball into the basket combining for a whopping six points. In comparison, Brooklyn got a helpful 19 from their guys.

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Somehow, even though Milwaukee’s starters seemingly performed enough to secure a good lead, the Nets punched high above their weight as they actually had a small lead at the break, 51-50. It… wasn’t great.

Giannis and Jabari came out shooting to rectify that issue however, and it was their initial break that fueled a solid second half start. A fantastic byproduct of that run of play? Giannis grabbing yet ANOTHER triple-double, his fourth of the season. As detailed by the Bucks, Giannis is the first player in franchise history (!!!) to have four triple-doubles in one season. To say that he’s quickly emerging as one of the stars in the NBA is an understatement.

But, really, when Giannis was making these sorts of feeds in transition, it was pretty much over:

Super Giannis or otherwise, Brook Lopez was doing everything he could to keep the Nets in things. Monroe continually had issues keeping pace with Lopez who has the ability to space the floor, and if Brook wasn’t putting moves on Greg, he was feeding it to his shooters on the outside.

A flurry of Brooklyn threes were looking set to be the difference maker, especially in the early fourth with the subs in. Sean Kilpatrick of D-League fame made his impact felt with some in-rhythm jumpers from way out to break the back of multiple Milwaukee runs, and it would fall on the shoulders of the starters to win the game.

Funnily enough, once Giannis was put back into the game, he went into full-on wrecking ball mode, coming in and utilizing his athleticism on multiple possessions to either drive solo to the hoop or to keep moving in motion for fast break dunks. He’d continue playmaking as well, such as getting Plumlee set up for this dunk:

With time ticking away, the Bucks held onto a small lead of only four points. A Middleton three with 1:00 left in the game looked to be the game winner, especially with Giannis quickly grabbing a steal shortly thereafter which lead to an easy Monroe lay-in to secure things as the Bucks go on tonight to win,

Giannis would end the night with 28 points, 14 assists, and 11 rebounds (!!!) and Jabari would be just behind him with 23 points and five rebounds. Thus, another great night for the young duo.

C’mon back for the Giannis and Jabari show Tuesday evening as the Canadians from Toronto stop in town riding quite a successful season of their own.