The Milwaukee Bucks‘ toughest road trip came to an ugly end with their 116-101 loss to the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night at American Airlines Center.
As they were once again without superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo as he continues to suffer from knee soreness, the Bucks fought to stay within striking distance and match the Mavericks’ firepower, all of which was led by Luka Doncic.
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Even with Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton playing below their standard, the Bucks gave the Mavericks more than they can handle for the first three quarters. But Dallas stormed back in the final frame to finish out the night with a win and Milwaukee closed out their road trip out west at 3-3.
So without further ado, let’s explore what all stood out from the Milwaukee Bucks’ loss to the Dallas Mavericks from Thursday night.
Fourth quarter drought stings Milwaukee Bucks in loss to Mavericks
The Bucks closed out the third quarter with an exceptional 12-0 run in the final two minutes that gave them an 84-80 edge going into the final frame. Milwaukee had even turned the tide by irritating Doncic, thanks to the brilliant exploits of Thanasis Antetokounmpo as he continues giving the Bucks quite the emotional and energetic lift.
But for all of the work they did to get to that point, the Bucks couldn’t have closed out their road trip on a worse note with their incredibly brutal fourth quarter.
Their offense had completely dried up not long after the fourth quarter tipped off and permanently lost their lead at the 6:43 mark in the period. The Bucks had just made two buckets within that critical stretch from the 8:02 mark to the 4:02 mark.
For their entire fourth quarter, the Bucks shot 25 percent on their 25 shots from the field and went 2-for-10 from beyond the arc.
As their offense plummeted, the Bucks finished with their shooting performance of the season as seen by their 44 effective field goal percentage and 47.2 true shooting percentage. Some of that can be contributed due to Antetokounmpo’s absence, especially as the Bucks shot 11-for-29 on shots attempted in the restricted area (39.3 percent), per NBA.com/stats.
Given the events that preceded it and the Bucks’ fourth quarter troubles on their road trip, it was tough to see them walk into similar pitfalls yet again.
Donte DiVincenzo hits career-high for 3-pointers in Milwaukee Bucks’ loss to Mavericks
While the Bucks’ offense and interior scoring proved to be a sore spot on the night, Donte DiVincenzo did his part to give the Bucks some much-needed shooting against the Mavericks.
Given the struggles of both Holiday and Middleton, DiVincenzo, along with Brook Lopez, gave the Bucks a huge scoring lift and was dialed in from 3-point range by sinking in his first triple midway through the first quarter.
As the threes continued to flow for DiVincenzo, he eventually set a new career-high for most made 3-pointers in a single game by canning six triples on the night. DiVincenzo is now up to shooting 49.1 percent from deep for the season and 40.5 percent since the All-Star break.
All in all, DiVincenzo posted 22 points on 7-for-13 shooting (6-for-10 from three), six rebounds, two assists as well as two steals and two turnovers in nearly 29-and-a-half minutes.
For all of the shots that DiVincenzo made to prop up the Bucks’ porous offensive performance, they couldn’t get around one of their best players playing below his capabilities.
Khris Middleton misses the mark in Milwaukee Bucks’ loss to Mavericks
Without a doubt, Thursday night proved to be Khris Middleton‘s worst showing of the season and one of the worst in his All-Star career.
Middleton finished with 14 points on 6-for-27 shooting (2-for-4 from deep), eight rebounds, three assists, one steal as well as a turnover in more than 35 minutes of action.
All night long, Middleton can’t get much of any consistent offense going while attempting a season-high 27 field goal attempts. While plenty of attention came towards Middleton’s way at the point of attack, the Bucks forward struggled to hit any of his patented shots, especially off the dribble. The few exceptions came from downtown where he hit a pair of threes over the night.
For all of those reasons, it wasn’t surprising to see Middleton very frustrated at times, although the source of that frustration came as a result of some questionable foul calls. That frustration even lead to Middleton getting a rare technical foul midway through the third quarter.
Middleton must be better and simply put, it’s hard to be any worse than what he showed last night as the Bucks move forward in their run. And he will have a quick turnaround to put his tough night behind him.
The Milwaukee Bucks will come back to host the Charlotte Hornets for a potential first round matchup Friday night at Fiserv Forum. You can catch the action on Bally Sports Wisconsin when it tips off at 7 p.m. CST.