Wisconsin Herd fall in season opener to Windy City Bulls
The Wisconsin Herd kicked off their 2019-20 G League season Friday night with a tough home loss to the Windy City Bulls.
Opening up their 2019-20 run on their home floor at Menominee Nation Arena, the Wisconsin Herd lost to the Windy City Bulls in a 129-111 defeat Friday night as they kicked off the Chase Buford era in Oshkosh.
There was plenty of NBA talent on the floor for both teams as the Bucks sent newcomer Dragan Bender on assignment to the Herd ahead of tip-off to go along with their two-way players, Frank Mason III and Cam Reynolds.
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Windy City, meanwhile, had rookie big man Daniel Gafford as well as Denzel Valentine on assignment and flex assignee P.J. Dozier, a two-way for the Denver Nuggets, to go along with their two-way players, Adam Mokoka and Max Strus to bolster their squad to open up the season.
With all that said, it wasn’t exactly a crisp start for both teams to open up the contest, something that grew more apparent as the game went on. It was the Herd, though, that got off on the right foot as they held a 28-22 lead at the end of one.
The Herd’s early control of the tilt would be tested by the Bulls throughout the second quarter before the Bulls fully broke through to take a 46-44 lead late in the period after plenty of back and forth in the lead up to that point. Windy City would then carry a 54-50 lead into the halftime break.
Once play resumed in the second half, the Herd were quickly staring at a double-digit deficit with the Bulls off and running coming out of the interval. But the Herd put their rally caps on to battle back and whittle away the gap between the two squads to trail the Bulls 86-81 through three.
Wisconsin pushed their comeback into the start of the fourth frame and eventually knotted things up at 92 with 8:56 remaining in the quarter. But they quickly ran out of steam just as Windy City’s leading performer, that being Valentine, took matters into his own hands to fuel the Bulls’ 43-point fourth quarter and cruise to victory (Valentine finished with 25 points, 18 rebounds and eight assists).
It was certainly not the result all involved with the Herd aspired to achieve in their home opener, especially Buford as he officially opened up his reign for the Bucks’ G League affiliate. And plenty of kinks will need to be ironed out, the biggest being their execution and taking care of the ball as the Herd racked up 23 turnovers. Windy City made the Herd pay in that regard by rattling off 34 points off of the Herd’s total miscues for the night.
As far as individual performances go, Bucks assignee Dragan Bender finished with 20 points and struggled to shoot the ball from long range for the first three quarters before breaking the drought at the start of the fourth quarter. Even so, Bender’s ball skills and second effort plays on the glass shone through to make up for his shooting woes.
Like Bender, Bucks two-way player Cam Reynolds didn’t fare particularly well from the three-point line, going 3-for-11 from deep and he finished with 19 points. Fellow two-way player Frank Mason III was efficient shooting the ball by scoring 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field (3-for-6 from three, 3-for-4 from the foul line), but piled up six turnovers that negated his three assists for the night.
Herd newcomer D.J. Hogg finished with the most consistent performance for the squad as he put up 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field (4-for-7 from beyond the arc), seven boards, five assists in 26 minutes off the bench and showed off his dribble drive game for scores at points throughout the night as well.
One other note worth highlighting is the Herd finished the night going 16-of-45 from the three-point line, a mark of 35.6 percent. There’s been plenty of talk about wanting to emulate the three-point shooting the Bucks have done under head coach Mike Budenholzer, especially with Buford now in the mix, and it shows already as the Herd’s 45 three-point attempts against the Bulls matched their season-high in that department during the 2018-19 season.
Next. Herd: Meet the 2019-20 opening night roster. dark
The Herd will be back in action Saturday night when they look to exact revenge on the Bulls for the second game of their home-and-home set to open up the season. It’s set to tip off at 7 p.m. central time at Sears Centre Arena and you can catch it through the G League home website.