The Golden State Warriors made their lone trip to Milwaukee to face the Milwaukee Bucks at Fiserv Forum Tuesday night for what could be a preview of a potential NBA Finals matchup. Tuesday’s game also marked the return of former Milwaukee Buck Donte DiVincenzo to Milwaukee for the first time playing for the Warriors, despite some solid perimeter shooting, the night went better for the Bucks than it did for Donte.
Golden State moved to an ugly 2-12 record in road games this season, meanwhile the Bucks are 13-3 at home.
Giannis Antetokounmpo reached another Milwaukee Bucks milestone Tuesday night, becoming the all-time franchise leader in minutes played. Marking another milestone reached by a member of the Milwaukee Bucks through the first third of the season.
Takeaways from the Milwaukee Bucks domination of the Warriors: bringing stars to Earth
The Golden State Warriors actually jumped out to a very fast 7-0 lead in the first two minutes of this game on a 3-point shot by Jordan Poole and two quick jumpers by Klay Thompson. However the Bucks countered quickly with an 18-6 run over the next seven minutes and 38-20 over the final 10 minutes of the first quarter gaining a lead the Bucks would never relinquish.
How did the Bucks put together such an impressive victory? It starts by taking Golden State’s perimeter shooting out of their rhythm and never letting them get comfortable. It was evident very early in this game that the Milwaukee Bucks were the more physical team and the Warriors did not appreciate this style of play and spent a lot of time looking to the officials to save them.
The officials did no such thing and this game resulted in a festival of technical fouls. Steph Curry, Steve Kerr, Andre Iguodala, Jonathon Kuminga and Mike Budenholzer all received technical fouls for yelling at officials.
What the Bucks did though was fight over screens making it hard for players like Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole to get open shots coming off picks, forcing them to drive towards the basket. While there is no stopping these three players on the offensive end, deliberate efforts by players like Jevon Carter, Wesley Matthews and more to fight over those screens and disrupt rhythm turned three microwave scorers into inefficient jump shooters and running shots altered by DPOY candidate Brook Lopez who also blocked two more shots Tuesday.
Curry, Thompson and Poole each made six field goals, Curry and Poole each attempted 17, Thompson 16. The perimeter trio shot 18-of-50, just 36 percent from the field and 8-of-24, 33 percent from the 3-point line and the Bucks accomplished this without Jrue Holiday, one of the NBA’s best defenders and a master at beating screens before they even come.