Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 110-99 loss to Houston Rockets
The Milwaukee Bucks were unable to play spoiler as they lost to the NBA’s cream of the crop, the Houston Rockets, who earned their 17th consecutive win Wednesday night.
With the NBA’s best rolling into town on a lengthy winning streak, the Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t conjure up their streak-busting powers Wednesday night as they fell to the Houston Rockets 110-99 in the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
The Bucks looked to hang with the Rockets early on in the night by matching their every move as both sides got off to hot starts. That didn’t hold for long, though, with both offenses grinding down to a halt and lacking a bit of punch by the end of the first quarter, which saw the Rockets leading 24-22.
The Bucks continued to lack some bite, especially in half court situations offensively, throughout the second as the Rockets raced out ahead to carve out a comfortable 12-point lead going into halftime.
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Coming out of the break, the Bucks looked to bring down their double-digit deficit to no avail due to the Rockets keeping up their methodical scoring pace offensively.
That held until the latter stages of the third when the Bucks tore off an 11-0 run to be within four points at the 3:25 mark of the quarter. But once again, the Rockets answered the call by peeling off a 14-7 run from that point on to lead 87-76 after three.
Again, the Bucks looked to put the Rockets on their heels at the start of the fourth, but the Rockets put an end to that quickly by reinforcing their double-digit lead midway through the quarter.
While the Bucks were able to make one last push to bring the Rockets’ lead down to five with about a minute to go, that’s as far as they would go to make it interesting as the league’s best put on the finishing touches with the little time that was left.
So without further ado, let’s take a closer look at what stood out in the Bucks’ loss to the Houston Rockets Wednesday night.