Milwaukee Bucks: 3 takeaways from preseason loss to Dallas Mavericks

Playing the majority of their starters in their final preseason contest, the Milwaukee Bucks fell to the Dallas Mavericks — who did not play Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis, among others — by a score of 114-103 but there were still some notable things to be taken away from the game.

Overall, the Bucks finish the preseason at 1-5 in what was an interesting tune-up for the defending champs ahead of their opening night ring ceremony on October 19th. It was a close game in the first quarter, with the Bucks only trailing by just one. The Mavs dominated in the second quarter, building a 17 point lead at the half, and never looked back from there, leading by as much as 21 tonight.

The Bucks struggled as a whole from the 3-point line and didn’t get much from their bench, being outscored 58-26 in bench points and only 27.5 percent from 3. Pat Connaughton and Jordan Nwora combined to shoot 2-for-16 from deep and on Connaughton’s lone make, he threw his hands up in relief after missing his first six triples.

Although the Bucks struggled from deep in the playoffs as well, it’s not much of a concern. It was simply one of those nights from 3 where nothing seemed to fall despite getting some good looks from behind the arc.

3 takeaways from the Milwaukee Bucks preseason loss to the Dallas Mavericks: Jordan Nwora running with the starters

Khris Middleton sat out the preseason finale after playing the previous two games, which meant there was space in the starting five with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Brook Lopez, and Grayson Allen. It would have been easy to start Pat Connaughton to keep things familiar, but that’s not what Mike Budenholzer decided to do.

He went with the sophomore Jordan Nwora to allow him to play around the big guns after a strong preseason showing. It was a relatively mixed bag for Nwora in this one, with not a lot of positives coming from his scoring. He finished with (stat line) and didn’t begin the second half with the starters.

After the half though, we saw a much more locked-in Nwora who got the message from the coaching staff. He even blocked an attempted alley-oop by the Mavs in the third quarter! It was an overall positive preseason from the 23-year-old who made his case for consistent rotational minutes during the season.

The concern for Nwora has never been scoring, but it’s about showing he can be a more complete player. He had some nice defensive flashes in the second half after he was probably given the business by the coaches at halftime but that shows he’s capable of taking criticism, coaching, and can make those adjustments. I’m excited to see what kind of minutes Nwora gets early in the regular season, especially if the Bucks aren’t at 100 percent.