Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 97-95 win over Oklahoma City Thunder
Ending in controversial fashion, the Milwaukee Bucks pulled out their second straight win and prevailed over the Oklahoma City Thunder, ending their 2017 on a high note.
Well, the Milwaukee Bucks managed go out with a bang in their last game of 2017 as they fended off a resurgent Oklahoma City Thunder team on Friday night, winning 97-95.
Coming off of their stunningly stupefying comeback victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves the night before, it was curious how the Bucks would follow up their performance, even more so with the Thunder missing one of their cornerstone players in Paul George, who sat for the game with left knee soreness.
However, #ScheduleAlert be damned, the Bucks were the aggressors coming out of the gate, getting out to a double-digit lead within the first five minutes of the game and leaving the Thunder all out of sorts from basically the opening tip.
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The Bucks only continued to pour on the gas from then on in the opening period, with most of that fire being sparked by Tony Snell, who hit a few three-pointers within a minute and a half span in the quarter.
While Russell Westbrook started to give the Thunder some much needed life at the start of the second period, the Bucks didn’t bend all that much as they kept their lead out of the Thunder’s reach.
But halftime proved to be the salve the Thunder needed to slow down the Bucks as they were able to bring down their deficit back to single digits and had the Bucks on their heels for the first time in the night.
Fighting off heavy legs, the Bucks stayed strong and did their best to hold off the Thunder by answering with some timely buckets of their own before leading 73-67 at the end of the third quarter.
The Bucks carried that momentum heading into the fourth quarter, thanks to Khris Middleton taking the reins and hitting a stretch of buckets, much like how he opened up the game for the team. As much as it looked like the Bucks were in the clear midway through the frame, the Thunder started to rumble back up again to deliver one final, big push.
With both teams executing in miserable fashion down the stretch, it appeared the game was all set to head into overtime following a big time three-pointer by Westbrook with 4.7 seconds left to go.
Yet it was Giannis Antetokounmpo who was there to save the day for the Bucks as he slammed home a two-handed jam to secure the win, right after appearing to step out of bounds on the drive (which went uncalled by the game’s officials, which is why it never went to replay as official Derrick Stafford explained after the game, as you can read here).
So with all that out of the way, let’s take a deeper dive and look at what stood out in the Bucks’ win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.