The short handed Milwaukee Bucks used a 14-2 fourth quarter run to surge past the depleted New Orleans Pelicans en route to a 103-92 victory.
It wasn’t as pretty as it could have been. It wasn’t as convincing as it should have been. Yet despite playing one of their most boring post All-Star break games, the Milwaukee Bucks showed they can beat teams without razzle-dazzle.
Early on, the Bucks threatened to close out the tired Pelicans quickly by taking a commanding 23-12 lead.
But Luke Babbitt (of all people) kept the Pelicans afloat with a three-pointer on the very next possession. Those points accounted for three of his eventual season-high 16.
Anthony Davis took it from there. Using a perfect 6-6 FT shooting quarter, Davis put up 12 bully-ish first quarter points.
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The Bucks again threatened to blow the game wide open in the second quarter fueled by eight points from Tyler Ennis, capturing a 43-31 advantage.
But a series of defensive breakdowns and sloppy offensive play allowed the Pelicans to reduce the Bucks lead to just three at halftime.
The Pelicans finally broke through in the third quarter, taking a 69-68 lead off a Dante Cunningham layup.
As if sensing that this was a game they couldn’t reasonably drop, the Bucks bounced back to take a six point lead into the fourth.
Then Jerryd Bayless took over. He scored seven of his 17 points during a key 14-2 stretch that saw the Bucks take control of the game for good.
The win is nice, of course, but more important is that the Bucks found a way to win without any 20-point scorers and with Jabari Parker struggling mightily (15 points, 4-10 FG, 6 TO).
The Bucks have a great chance to extend their two game winning streak to three in Brooklyn Sunday night, but first lets check out the Milwaukee Bucks grades and reactions from Saturday’s action.
Next: Reactions: The Good