Following a disappointing 113-88 loss to the Orlando Magic on Sunday afternoon at the KIA Center, the Milwaukee Bucks dropped to 2-6 in April, despite holding the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference for the majority of the final month of the regular season.
With a final record of 49–33, the Milwaukee Bucks will enter the NBA playoffs as the third seed and will meet the Indiana Pacers in round one. After an overtime win by the Knicks over the Bulls, New York moved up to second place.
“Indiana has had our number all year, right?,” comments Doc Rivers, head coach of the Bucks. The ideal adversary, then. Someone tough has to play us, and we don’t have much time. They likely feel quite confident in their abilities because of how well they’ve performed against us. Because we’re going to have to, we’ll be really focused.
Last meeting was on January 3rd, although the Bucks have a 1-4 record versus the Pacers this year.
According to Bucks guard Damian Lillard, “I feel good about it” when asked about facing Indiana. “Everyone can beat everybody in the playoffs, especially this season,” is my main point. That is my genuine opinion on the matter. We are thrilled to have a familiar opponent and home court advantage. Fast play is something they’re known for. A lot of points are scored by them. They are one of the rare teams that can score more than 120 points, and we are one of those teams. What we need to do is take use of our knowledge of their capabilities to make it more difficult for them to win.
However, Milwaukee received some assistance in claiming that position because Cleveland lost to Charlotte by ten points after blowing a thirteen-point lead in the fourth quarter in the span of seven minutes. Cleveland’s final score was 48–34. Due to their defeat, the Cavaliers were relegated to the fourth seed.
As a result of the victory, Orlando (47-35) avoided the play-in round and secured the fifth spot. With a victory over Atlanta, Indiana, coached by Tyrese Haliburton, a native of Oshkosh, secured the sixth seed. The Eastern Conference’s top seed was already secured by Boston a while back.
Bucks win Central Division championship
Milwaukee has won the Central Division for the sixth year in a row (2018–24), matching their best run since 1980–1986, when they won six in a row in the Midwest Division. This record was set when Cleveland lost at Charlotte on Sunday, allowing the Bucks to claim the division.
The squad will also be presented with the Wayne Embry Trophy, a new honor for the Central Division champions introduced by the NBA for the 2021-22 season, once again. While Embry did play for the expansion squad that played in 1968–69, he was an original member of the Bucks. After that, in 1971, he became the first Black general manager in the NBA after relocating to the team’s front office.
BOX SCORE: Magic 113, Bucks 88
“Anything named after Wayne Embry is a good award is the way I look at it,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “He’s a pioneer of the league. I mean, he literally is why I believe I’m coaching because he’s the guy I sought advice from when I first got out of the league. I had two, three assistant coaching job interviews and he told me not to take ’em, told me to go to TV and let everybody see your brain instead of sitting on the bench where no one sees you. And he was right. It’s cool. Listen, winning anything is nice. That means you earned it, you got it, and now we’re on to bigger things.”
Bucks go ice cold in second quarter, never warm up
The Bucks took a 39-28 lead after the first five minutes of the second quarter, but then their offense went to sleep, as they did not score another basket and turned it over three times as the Magic closed the half on a 17-3 run.
“I thought way too many isos, and not only did we iso we iso’d the wrong guy – Jonathan Isaac changed the game for them,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said of the Magic 7-footer. “He’s long, he’s effective and we just kept setting pick-and-rolls with him instead of other guys. But, good lesson.
“We’re not a good iso team, though. I think we’ve proven that through the year. We are at times but I think we’re up nine and we had 10 or 11 straight possessions and we may have scored once. We may not have scored any of ’em. That’s something – I talked about at halftime, I talked about it before the game – that’s just something we have to catch ourselves. We have to be better in that.”
It was just a 47-42 lead for Orlando at the break, but was a discouraging stretch of time for Milwaukee as the starters were on the floor for the bulk of that time. The Bucks went 0 for 10 over the last 7:06 of the quarter, with their only points coming off three Khris Middleton free throws.
“They started pressuring us, got us out of our sets and after that we just broke down,” Middleton said. “I think spacing wasn’t right, execution wasn’t there after that first quarter. So, we just gotta be better in that area.”
The Bucks were also just 2 for 7 in the paint in the second quarter, which continued a trend from the first quarter in which they were only 4 for 12.
The 31.6% shooting overall from inside the painted area only accentuated a 4-for-16 (25%) performance from behind the three-point line for Milwaukee, which found little ease in terms of shot creation. Orlando is a tough defense – one of the best in the league – with athletic disruptors from the rim to the backcourt, and they forced Damian Lillard (1-for-11), Middleton (2-for-7) and Brook Lopez (2-for-6) into tough shots from all over the court in the opening half.
“I didn’t like many of our looks,” Rivers said. “I thought defensively they were great. I didn’t like a lot of our looks. I didn’t like a lot of our possessions and that’s on me trying to get them in the right spot. We didn’t run a very good offensive game tonight.”
Even though they were behind just five points at halftime, the Bucks were unable to recover and take the lead. In the first few minutes of the third quarter, they were within three points, but the Magic’s defense was relentless and the Bucks’ shooting was inadequate.
In the end, Lillard scored 16 points despite shooting only 2 of 14 from the field, including 0-for-4 from beyond the arc. He was perfect from the charity stripe, making 12 out of 13. Middleton made just 6 of 15 shots for 17 points, and he was 0-for-4 from beyond the arc. From the charity stripe, he made 5 out of 6.
Bobby Portis grabbed ten boards and scored seventeen points.
With 26 points, 11 boards, and 7 assists, Paolo Banchero was the Magic’s leading scorer. For the Magic, Franz Wagner scored 25 points, while three more players reached double figures.
You did see that Doc Rivers wanted to bench Damian Lillard, didn’t you?
Around 5 minutes and 35 seconds into the second quarter, Lillard took a hit in the backcourt from Orlando big Jonathan Isaac, who is 7 feet tall. Lillard got back up and tried to layup, but he missed. After seeing something that didn’t sit well with Rivers, he swiftly glanced over at the bench to determine if Lillard had to come out, and Pat Connaughton leaped to the occasion to inquire.
However, Lillard stayed in the game after assuring Rivers that he was fine during a play stoppage.
Point guard Damian Lillard acknowledged experiencing occasional discomfort in his left adductor muscle and remarked after the game that he didn’t like Lillard’s movement style. Due to the problem, he was unable to play in Friday’s game against Oklahoma City.
“Had a few little irritation-type moments in that second quarter and Doc was like, I’m going to get you you out,” Lillard acknowledged. “He tried to get me out in the second quarter and I was just like, we already here now, let’s just play.”
Lillard was eventually pulled after clocking 30 minutes. Had he not played against Orlando he would have been out of action for over a week and a half.
“I felt good about at least being on the floor going into the playoffs,” Lillard said. “I didn’t want to just not have no type of game action going into the postseason. Being able to get out there, guys denying me full court, trying to pick me up full court, stuff like that, that was just good for me to just kind of get that bump.”
The point guard said he should be good to go for the first round of the playoffs, but “I won’t be perfect. But I don’t think nobody is. But the week, just being able to get everything together, getting the rest and getting our minds right, it will be good for us.”
Milwaukee’s Jamahl Mosley leads Magic to playoff turnaround
Jamahl Mosley, head coach of the Orlando Magic and a native Milwaukeean who relocated to San Diego when he was a teenager, has led the team to its first postseason appearance since 2019–20 and its first winning record since 2018–19.
For the franchise, Orlando’s 47 victories are the highest since 2010–2011.
Having broken into the league in 2006–07 with Denver, the 45-year-old Mosley went on to serve as an assistant coach for Cleveland and Dallas until landing the position with the Magic in 2021–22. Mosley has improved his team’s record by 25 wins in only three seasons since being hired by former Bucks executives Jeff Weltman and John Hammond.
“He’s done a terrific job,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “When you have a young team – we talked about this the last game with Oklahoma (City) – two of the younger teams in the NBA and they’re both gonna be in the playoffs. It’s impressive. Getting young teams to buy in, they’ve done that. Jamahl just keeps getting better and better. Very happy to see he got an extension. I thought it was well deserved.”
Knowing there was more work to be done, Mosley was asked what he has taken from this season – particularly after experience the lows of nine-game losing streaks in his first two seasons with a core group of players who are all under 25 years old.
“The ability to have continuity, learning from that, learning that the messaging that you continue to bring to these guys and your coaches every single day and the care and the focus our coaches have had with this group – it says so much about the organization, about each one of these guys being willing to stay the course no matter what’s going on and continue to learn, continue to gain experiences through all of these things from season one to now.” he said.
Five numbers
Standings without Giannis Antetokounmpo: 4-5 for the Bucks.
The Bucks’ regular season record under Doc Rivers is 17-19. At the end of the season, they dropped eight of eleven games. If you can’t get them back, Rivers, I don’t care about the eight of eleven. Nobody wants to see that go. My team and I will be responsible for that. However, what am I to do? We’re available immediately, beginning at this very moment. All of our guys were hoping for it, which is a shame. Frankly speaking. And that is exactly what we will receive.
Driving record for 18-22 Bucks. Since going 19-22 in 2017–18, this is their worst road performance. The only other current playoff-eligible team with a lower road record is Orlando (18-23).
224 After going scoreless in his season debut against the Magic, Malik Beasley finally converted a three-pointer. Ray Allen established the record for most points in a single season in 2001–02.
After Junior Bridgeman (1975–1984, 1986–1987), Khris Middleton played in 712 games for the Milwaukee Bucks, putting him in second place all-time. With 792 games played, Giannis Antetokounmpo holds the franchise record. Additionally, Middleton ranks third in points scored, second in defensive rebounds, and second in minutes played all-time, behind only Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. When it comes to field goals and tries from beyond the arc, Middleton is the team leader.
Injury update on Giannis Antetokounmpo
During Tuesday’s game against Boston in Milwaukee, the Bucks star strained his left soleus muscle in his calf, which caused him discomfort. Without making contact, he tumbled as he started to sprint up the court. On the same night he passed the arena’s Achilles tendon test, doctors used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to assess the strain’s severity. He was instantly ruled out for the last four games of the regular season, but the team has not released a date for his return.
In the days leading up to Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs against Orlando, a question was posed to Rivers regarding his faith in Giannis Antetokounmpo’s ability to play.
“I’m confident, but I don’t know how much,” Rivers said. “We just have to wait and see, you know? So, I don’t honestly know. I don’t know if that’s confidence or not. I think if I was on the first tee and I didn’t know which way the ball is going I wouldn’t be confident, so I don’t know one way or the other. I just know he’s doing all the work, we’re getting great reports. (Saturday) he did everything. So, that was positive. That’s all we can get right now.”