Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 127-106 win over Sacramento Kings

The youth movement

With the Bucks’ leading contributors doing their job for the night, save for some exceptions, the team’s developing nucleus shined in the spotlight, thanks to the glowing showings from Sterling Brown and Donte DiVincenzo.

Starting with DiVincenzo, the 22-year-old gave the Bucks his usual brand of energetic defense and harassed the Kings’ spacing threats, particularly sharpshooter Buddy Hield, for possessions and broke through in passing lanes to disrupt the Kings’ offense.

He paired that with a strong shooting performance as he matched his season-high four triples, all of which fueled his career-high 18 points. Chipping in three steals as well as three boards and an assist over 23 and a half minutes, DiVincenzo did more than his fair share on the night.

Moving over to Brown, the third-year wing was inserted into the game right as the Bucks were in crisis mode and eventually lost their lead to the Kings midway through the third quarter.

And to say he shot out of a cannon upon seeing his first taste of meaningful action in two weeks would be an understatement as Brown was wreaking havoc defensively and crashing the glass repeatedly in the hopes of giving his team a lift. Eventually, Brown was able to parlay his defensive activity with a pair of corner threes that helped the Bucks move past their previous shooting struggles from the outside.

All of that led to Brown compiling his first career double-double (11 points, 12 rebounds) on seven shots (2-of-3 from deep, 2-for-2 from the free throw line), along with three assists, a block and a steal and was a team-high +21 in over 18 minutes of burn.

Budenholzer certainly turned to Brown in a rare moment of desperation and that decision couldn’t have paid off better for both men and the Bucks overall. Perhaps it may be the very performance needed for Brown to return into the team’s rotation.

The Bucks will close out their road trip when they take on the Portland Trail Blazers Saturday night for a 9pm central time tip-off at the Moda Center.