Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 128-125 loss to Denver Nuggets
By Adam McGee
Living in foul trouble
As the Bucks were forced to deal with a significant disparity in fouls on Sunday night, it’s true that the whistles weren’t as kind to them as they could have been, but also that Milwaukee didn’t help themselves either.
The Bucks were called for 37 personal fouls and three technical fouls, as opposed to Denver’s 23 personal fouls and single tech. That translated to 46 free throw attempts to 27 in the Nuggets’ favor, and even more importantly, it led to the Bucks finishing the game without two of their most important players.
Eric Bledsoe only fouled out late in overtime, but the Bucks were forced to close out regulation and overtime without Giannis Antetokounmpo due to his own issues with fouls.
Prior to fouling out, Antetokounmpo had already spent some time on the bench due to foul trouble, and immediately picked up his sixth personal foul upon re-entering the game due to a dubious charge call that saw Nikola Jokic fall to the floor with minimal contact.
In truth, Antetokounmpo’s frustrations with the officials had spilled over throughout the night, though. The Bucks’ superstar forward had spent much of the third quarter picking up petulant and unnecessary fouls, which ultimately left him with no margin for error in what proved to be his final action of the night.
Antetokounmpo’s frustrations were on display when he remonstrated with the officials following his final foul, which led to a technical foul and an official ejection. The Bucks certainly had reason to feel hard done by the officials for the game overall, but they channeled that frustration into some genuine, cheap fouls of their own too.
In the end that cost them, whether it was Antetokounmpo’s technical foul, one previously assessed to Bledsoe, or any other cheap personal foul throughout the game, as the Bucks found themselves just one point short of getting out of Denver with the win in regulation.