It wasn’t pretty at times, but the Milwaukee Bucks bounced back in the win column Tuesday night with their 114-102 win over the Orlando Magic at Fiserv Forum.
Coming off their ugly loss to the San Antonio Spurs Monday night, the Bucks returned home to close out their season series sweep with the Magic. With Orlando further decimated by injuries after having dealt heir top players at the trade deadline earlier this season, it was the right opponent at the right time for the Bucks on the second night of a back-to-back.
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Even with that said, Orlando’s fight was paramount from beginning to end as they made the Bucks work just enough to get what was ultimately a routine victory with little fanfare. Still, it’s one that helps the Bucks maintain their pursuit of the second seed in the East.
So without further ado, let’s break down what all stood out in the Milwaukee Bucks’ win over the Orlando Magic Tuesday night.
Milwaukee Bucks take advantage of Orlando’s miscues in win
Coming off their worst defensive performance of the season in their loss to San Antonio, it’s safe to say we saw a more engaged Bucks defense last night.
Of course, it certainly helped to see an Orlando team that is quite short on weapons and overall firepower, but the Bucks still made life difficult for the Magic to get comfortable on offense at times. To that point, the Bucks pounced on the sloppy ball handling that the Magic’s lead ball handlers showed at times throughout the night and it led to Milwaukee feasting on the Magic’s 12 turnovers.
Those mistakes led to the Bucks scoring 18 points off turnovers, which has continued a positive trend for the team in that department. Orlando, meanwhile, scored 13 points off of the Bucks’ nine turnovers, which proved to be the Bucks’ second straight game where they committed fewer than double-digit turnovers.
Given their defensive experimentation we saw over the course of the night, the Bucks looked more measured and tenacious to what we had seen just 24 hours earlier. And that helped set the tone for what was a much improved performance overall.