The Milwaukee Bucks put together a full 48-minute effort to capture their signature regular season win of the season, beating the red-hot Denver Nuggets, 121-112, Thursday night at Fiserv Forum.
The Bucks (33-25) have now won seven of 10 and beat one of the best teams in either conference for the first time, as their Emirates NBA Cup title over Oklahoma City does not count in the standings. Milwaukee came into the game having gone 0-8 against the top three teams in the Eastern Conference and 0-3 against the current top three teams in the West before the victory.
“We just played well, man,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “We look at it, we beat the (Los Angeles) Clippers, we beat Oklahoma whether it counts or not, we still beat ’em, and then won this game. So we’re not going to let that be taken away from us. It doesn’t mean anything except for it’s a home game that we needed. And it was a well played game, it was a very physical game.”
Denver (38-21) had won 10 of 11 heading into the game and was tied for second in the West.
“Yeah, we haven’t been good against top three teams in the Eastern Conference and I think we’ve had one game in the NBA Cup and one game against Houston earlier in the year,” Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo said, noting the team’s win over the No. 4 team in the West in November.
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“So, this is go time. We gotta be locked in. Whenever we get on the court we gotta be sharp. I feel like everybody within the team knows that. And defensively we’ve taken it to another level, but we can keep on getting better. In order for us to be great, we gotta beat good teams. And this was a start. Hopefully we can build from this and keep on going within our journey until the end and playing good basketball and keep competing against the best.”
The Bucks led by as many as nine early, trailed by six at one point and then built a 12-point advantage in the fourth. The Nuggets made a spirited run late to cut it to 111-106 with 2 minutes, 21 seconds left before Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard closed it out by scoring nine straight Milwaukee points.
BOX SCORE:Bucks 121, Nuggets 112
Antetokounmpo was just 11 of 23 from the floor, but he hit a pull-up 20-footer with 90 seconds left that gave the Bucks a 115-106 lead that elicited a mean mug. It was the cap stone on a 28-point, 19-rebound, seven-assist night. Lillard took just nine shots, but he drilled a three-pointer with 58 seconds left to effectively clinch the game at 118-107. He finished with 19 points.
“My favorite play of the game was Giannis and Dame two-man game, played back-and-forth, throw it back-and-forth, that’s the one thing that they can still do better,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said of the pair. “And the more we do that, the more difficult we become.”
Brook Lopez was fantastic on both ends of the court, scoring 22 points while defending Nikola Jokić all game long. Denver’s MVP candidate scored 32 points, had 14 rebounds and 10 assists.
“To guard a player like that, it’s a team effort,” Antetokounmpo said of the team defense on Jokić. “Everybody gotta be locked in, everybody gotta be in their spots. Everybody gotta be able to compete. And obviously Brook is on him, but that is the first line of defense.
“We were trying to be as physical as possible with him, starting with Brook, but whenever he got to the paint, we tried to show bodies, have our hands up, crowd the paint as much as we can and just make him keep on making plays, keep on making decisions, which he’s one of the best decision makers in the league, but just gotta keep on making it tough on him and just give him give him different looks and hope by the end of the night you’re the one with the ‘W’ and not their team.”
Kyle Kuzma scored 16 points and had nine rebounds for Milwaukee while Gary Trent Jr. had 15 and Taurean Prince had 10. For Denver, Jamal Murray had 20 points on 9-of-20 shooting while Michael Porter Jr. had 12 points on 5-of-22 shooting.
“I think overall we competed as a team,” Antetokounmpo said. “It was a high energy game, it was almost a playoff game I felt like. And we were locked in. We were locked in from this morning. We came in one hour before shootaround, went through our plays, then we stayed 45 minutes after shootaround and went through their plays. We were locked in this whole morning. I think we came to the game, we were locked in. At times we played well, at times we didn’t. But overall, I’ll say that it was playoff atmosphere, playoff win, and we got back on track after the game we lost against Houston.”
Bucks slow down Nuggets offense
The Nuggets came into the game with the league’s second-best offense with a 119.4 rating (points scored per 100 possessions) along with the third-best scoring average (121.3 points per game).
Jokić, obviously, is the fulcrum.
Behind his MVP-worthy play, the Nuggets are the league’s best-shooting team (50.9% overall) and best ball-sharing unit (31.3 assists per game). They don’t shoot a lot of threes (30
th
, 31.4 per game) but they make them at an incredibly high rate (No. 3, 38.1%).
And with their constant ball movement and cutting, they get to the free throw line 22.9 times per game (7th).
Jokić is averaging 29.2 points per game on 57.5% shooting overall – including 61.4% on two-point shots and an incredible 44.5% on his 4.5 three-point attempts. He’s also averaging 12.6 rebounds and 10.4 assists per game – putting him on track to be the first player to average a triple-double since Russell Westbrook did it in 2020-21.
The Nuggets’ offense was the best test of a Bucks defense that has climbed to No. 10 in the league (112.0 points allowed per 100 possessions).
Fortunately for the Bucks, they have Lopez to anchor that effort.
No player can defend Jokić one-on-one, and Lopez certainly had help, but for the most part the Bucks could let their 7-foot, 1-inch, all-defensive team center try and make things as difficult on Jokić as possible. And, while the Nuggets’ star’s stat line was impressive – he recorded his 27
th
triple-double of the season – it felt like he was all the Nuggets had.
“I thought Brook was fantastic,” Rivers said. “We matched his minutes exactly with Jokić, which we don’t do a lot. The guy, that Jokić, he’s really good. He’s just really good. I mean, he made; the shots he makes. They look like there’s no way they can go in. And his passing is something to marvel. It just is. And for him to do that and us still win games against him is big for us. I thought Brook gave everything tonight.”
Milwaukee held Denver to:
- 26.5% three-point shooting (9 of 34)
- 28 assists.
- 11 free throw attempts.
“We’ve been very good defensively, but tonight took everything,” Rivers said. “Our weakside defense was fantastic tonight. I would say (Greg Buckner), if he had one complaint, is transition ‘D,’ weakside ‘D.’ They had 19 transition points in the first half, we took them away in the second half. It’s definitely something we’re gonna watch and teach and show that we can do it every night. We have to. We have to get habits.”
Bucks’ bench unit steps up
Following the team’s loss in Houston on Tuesday, Rivers said he felt Kuzma was not as involved offensively as he needed to be while captaining the team’s second unit – particularly in the fourth quarter. Then, before the game against Denver, Rivers said the bench group of Kuzma, Kevin Porter Jr., AJ Green, Trent and Jericho Sims needed to move the ball more consistently to generate offense.
Rivers said the second unit worked hard in shootaround Thursday morning to work on specific plays and creating movement, and the Bucks checked both boxes against Denver.
“I think back in that Houston game the ball got a little stuck — that’s to be expected,” Kuzma said. “We’ve only played a couple games together. A few us from new, different teams, trying to figure out things. I think tonight I made an effort to be a lot more aggressive in that unit. (Porter) did a great job getting off the ball and finding me early in transition or calling a couple plays that allowed me to get in pick-and-roll. First half I was aggressive scoring and then in the second half I was aggressive facilitating, whether it was hitting guys for some easy shots or just putting pressure on the rim and it did good for us today.”
Kuzma was more aggressive, both in looking for his own shot and then creating for others. AJ Green (2 of 3 from behind the three-point line) and Trent (3 of 4) got clean looks while Porter helped create shots for Sims and others. After going scoreless for half of the fourth quarter against the Rockets, that group stretched an 84-83 third quarter lead to 99-92 when the starters checked back in with about seven minutes to go.
“They made a great run for us and obviously that cushion, that momentum was huge for us,” Lopez said. “As great as they’ve been, I think they’re gonna be so much better in a few weeks, a month down the line, which is scary to think.”
Did you notice?
With 4 minutes, 51 seconds left in the game Lopez took Jokić one-on-one, beginning outside the three-point line with a behind-the-back crossover from left to right. Lopez continued down into the paint and drew a foul while finishing with an off-balance dunk. He then made the free throw to give the Bucks a 107-96 lead.
Lopez had a vintage night offensively, scoring 22 points by going 6 of 7 from the free throw line and making six of his 10 two-point field goals.
Rivers and Lillard said a key for the Bucks was for Lopez to play in the paint and be a threat rolling to the rim off of screens more often then he usually is, and the 36-year-old made an impact in that way.
“That was a big point for us,” Lopez acknowledged. “Doc said it. Dame said it. Everyone was telling us just over and over, Brook roll, Jericho (Sims) roll tonight, we’re gonna get a lot of looks there, they’re gonna try and be up with Dame obviously. And so, we’re gonna be in spots to make a lot of plays and we were. “
Five numbers
0:
Games left in which
can be active after Thursday’s game under his current two-way contract. Players signed to those deals can only be active for 50 games in a season – but
Rivers said there is a chance the team makes a roster move to fully guarantee Rollins’ deal. The team currently has one open roster spot.
3-1: Bucks record with the starting lineup of Damian Lillard, Taurean Prince, Kyle Kuzma, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez.
12-13: Bucks record against teams with a .500 or better record on the day of the game.
20 and 6: Nuggets bench points in the first and second halves, respectively. Denver came in with the fourth-worst scoring bench group in the league (27.6 points per game), and the Nuggets reserves did some damage in the opening 24 minutes to give them a 57-54 lead at the break. But, the Bucks were able to neutralize that group in the second half.
24: Second chance points for Denver.
Bucks in a dogfight for playoff positioning
Milwaukee began the day as the No. 5 seed in the East, one game behind Indiana in the loss column for the fourth spot – and the last position that would get at least one round of home-court advantage. But, the Bucks are also just one game ahead of Detroit for the No. 6 spot, as the Pistons beat Boston on Wednesday night to win their eighth straight game.
The Bucks do have tiebreakers over both teams, as they are 2-0 vs. the Pistons and 1-0 vs. Indiana, but they have games remaining with each.
“We’ve got to build good habits, we’ve got to win games, we gotta finish the season strong and get ourselves ready,” Antetokounmpo said coming out of the all-star break. “We gotta take practices, we gotta take games serious. Obviously we can’t lose our joy. We gotta keep on enjoying the game and have great camaraderie around the team, but when you’re on the basketball court everything gotta be sharp. Got (25) games left, we gonna try to get the highest seeding that we can and after that we’ll see what’s next. But even if we finish fifth, I have absolutely no problem.
“It doesn’t really matter where you finish in my opinion. Obviously you might have a little more advantage, but at the end of the day you gotta beat somebody to go all the way. We’re not thinking about going to the first round, we’re trying to go all the way, so you gotta beat somebody. And that’s my mindset all year long.”
The Bucks are not in real danger of missing a playoff berth, however, as they are six games clear of the Orlando Magic for the first play-in spot. But, they are in a position where they would have their lowest playoff seed since the 2017-18 season when they finished 44-38 and No. 7 in the East.
Throughout the year, Rivers has said earning some semblance of homecourt advantage is important, but he said for now it’s not something he’s tracking too closely.
“If you told me what seed (we are), I didn’t know,” he said at the start of the post all-star break schedule. “That’s how much I’m looking at it. I just know we want it and I just know if we win enough games we’ll get it, and that’s the bottom line.”
Bucks waive Liam Robbins
Milwaukee formally waived center Liam Robbins on Thursday, who was with the team on a two-way contract. Robbins, who was born in Waukesha, appeared in 13 games for the Bucks this season. The 7-footer played seven games for the Wisconsin Herd in the G League. The team now has an open two-way spot along with an open guaranteed roster spot.
Is Giannis playing?
Antetokounmpo is available to play as he manages his recovery from a strained left calf. Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said before the game in Houston on Tuesday Antetokounmpo’s minute restriction was around 32-34 minutes, and he played 31:44 vs. Rockets. He remains on that minute restriction.
What channel are the Bucks on?
The 7 p.m. tip will be broadcast nationally on TNT while also being simulcast on truTV and Max with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller and Taylor Rooks on the call.
Bucks injury report
Bucks starters
- Guards: Damian Lillard, Taurean Prince
- Forwards: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kyle Kuzma
- Center: Brook Lopez
Bucks vs. Nuggets odds, over/under
Denver is a 3.5-point favorite over Milwaukee and the over/under is set at 240.5 points, per BetMGM.
