Sputtering Bucks continue frigid shooting in 122-99 loss to Grizzlies for fourth consecutive loss
MEMPHIS – The Milwaukee Bucks concluded their first road trip of the season with an 0-3 mark and lost their fourth straight game, 122-99, to the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday night at FedExForum.
Memphis (3-3), playing on the second night of a back-to-back and without several injured rotation players, went on a 19-1 run from the middle-to-end of the first quarter to take control of the game. They never really looked back from there, sending the Bucks back home to Milwaukee at 1-4 on the year.
The Bucks host the unbeaten Cleveland Cavaliers (5-0) on Saturday.
MORE: Box score | Bucks schedule | NBA standings
“Losing, it’s frustrating," Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. "But we are doing the right things. Like (Wednesday) night we arrived in Memphis and we came together as a team, watched film. Not as eight, nine guys that play. We watched film, we talk about, like what can we do better? What we’re not doing as good, let’s keep one another accountable. We’re doing the right thing.
"Coming (Thursday) in shootaround and talking about it, talking about our offense, talking about our defense. Everybody is doing the right thing. I see it in everybody’s eyes. They’re willing to do the right thing to win games and sometimes it’s not going to go your way.
"This is part of the season it’s not going our way. But, losing two, losing three, losing four, losing five, losing six in row; losing one, it’s always frustrating. But, again, my dad used to say, ‘why do (you) whine if you’re not going to give up?’ So I’m not going to give up."
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 37 points on 17-of-22 shooting, along with 11 rebounds. Brook Lopez (12 points) and Bobby Portis Jr. (11) were the only others in double figures.
The Grizzlies had seven players reach double figures while the regulars were in the game. Ja Morant had a triple-double.
“We’re gonna figure this out eventually," Bucks center Brook Lopez said. "Obviously it would be better, it would be greater, it’s gonna work out better for us in the end if we figure it out sooner, but we’re gonna be in a different team in March. Obviously we want that to end up happening sooner, but again, we know what we’re capable of. We know who we are. It’s just gonna continue to be imperative that we keep coming together, keep working together, keep trusting.”
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Bucks have no answer for Grizzlies
Not every game this year, especially this early in the season, needs to be a referendum on where the Bucks will be down the line. But the games are being played and they count, and Thursday’s contest in Memphis did mean something.
Especially in the context of when the game was played, and by whom.
The Grizzlies were on the second night of a back-to-back, and lost starters Desmond Bane and Marcus Smart to injury in a loss on Wednesday. Yes, superstar guard Ja Morant and 2023 Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. were available – but six players were not.
The Bucks had two days off and a practice since losing their third straight in Boston on Monday, with every key player outside of Khris Middleton available.
With unsatisfactory losses to Chicago and Brooklyn on Oct. 25 and 27, respectively, losing to a diminished and weary Memphis team would be far from ideal.
Unfortunately for the Bucks the game on Halloween was a chilling echo from Feb. 15, which was a bad 113-110 loss to the – you guessed it – shorthanded Grizzlies in Memphis. That team didn’t have Morant, Jackson Jr., Bane and Smart and still beat the Antetokounmpo- and Lillard-led Bucks in Doc Rivers’ 10th game as head coach just before the all-star break.
This time, behind Morant and reserve guard Scotty Pippen Jr., the Grizzlies out-ran the Bucks. And being one of the few teams that can match Milwaukee’s size, Memphis was able to seal and rebound the many Bucks misses, which helped them get out and run in transition. The Grizzlies also kept up the pace in the half-court, with sharp off-ball movement.
“We knew that they liked to attack from the slots, we knew they cut out the corners and it seemed like we were caught by surprise by a lot of that stuff," Bucks guard Damian Lillard said. "The pace that they played at, how fast they were moving, we were just a step slow and they had that all night.”
Milwaukee took more shots than Memphis (89 to 76) because the Bucks didn't turn it over an abnormal amount (7) and they weren't beaten on the offensive glass (8 second chance points) when the regulars were in -- two big issues for the Bucks in previous losses. But they just missed too often, which played into the Grizzlies' advantage in speed.
And there were even times when after a made shot the Grizzlies launched the ball over the top of the Bucks, scoring easily against a porous defense.
“It’s discipline. Period," Rivers said of the Bucks' failings on getting back. "It’s on us to demand it more, point it out more, which we’re doing, and at some point there has to be consequences for it. Just too many times they ran behind us today, over and over again. I mean, bigs running behind us for lobs. That just can’t happen. It’s not like we don’t work on that every day. But we’re not working on it well enough, because if we were they wouldn’t be doing it. Again, I keep going back to me. There’s something they’re not hearing that I’m telling ‘em, and I gotta do a better job.”
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Bucks cold three-point shooting continues
A week away from Fiserv Forum was not kind to the long-distance shooting eyes of the Bucks, as they followed a 10-for-33 (30.3%) showing in Brooklyn on Sunday with an 8-for-31 (25.8%) shooting performance in Boston on Monday with an even more dreadful 8-for-38 (21.1%) when the regulars were in Thursday night.
They were just 4-for-26 from beyond the arc by the time they were down 22 points at 80-58 with 7 minutes, 28 seconds to go in the third quarter.
“That may be the greatest make-miss night ever," Rivers said. "I mean, I don’t think anybody would complain about the threes we had. They were wide open. And I thought we moved the ball and got great shots."
Damian Lillard never got going at all and finished the game 0-for-6 from deep. Fellow guard Gary Trent Jr. was was 0-for-7 on the night from behind the three-point line and Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis Jr. combined to go 4-for-11 from distance.
“We’re going to take a lot of those looks every time and we have the right guys shooting them," Lopez said. "Most of our guys are the right guys shooting them, too, it just, they didn’t go in. And that’s the way it is sometimes. We obviously always have to show up defensively and we gotta take care of transition. That’s something we’re going to keep harping on all year. But, I thought we played the right way offensively for the majority of the night.”
Some of those 30 misses weren’t even close, either, with airballs sprinkled in with front- and back-iron misfires.
That problem begets another, as the frequent misses – and the long rebounds that ensued – helped the Grizzlies get out and run to beat the Bucks back in transition.
"But the defensive transition was still awful tonight," Rivers continued. "And, so that’s on me. Like, everything’s on me until we get it right. We’ve got to fix this.
"I thought we played with the right spirit. We didn’t make shots and you’re gonna have nights like that, but on those nights we have to find a way to get stops. I don’t know how many times they advanced the pass and beat us down the floor. They did it probably eight to 10 times on the few (shots) we did make. Morant had a free pass tonight as far as driving and attacking. Now, he’s tough for everybody and probably tougher for us, so we gotta do a better job of figuring out how to contain guards like that.”
5 numbers
4: Straight losses for the Bucks. They lost four in a row from April 2-7 last season under Doc Rivers and Dec. 21-28, 2022, under Mike Budenholzer. The last time the Bucks lost five in a row was from Feb. 10-18, 2021.
4: Points for Bucks guard Damian Lillard, on 1 of 12 shooting. It matched the lowest point-total in a game for his career, which he did three times in Portland (twice in 2013 and once in 2021). One of the game’s all-time great scorers, it was just the 17th time in his career he was held to under double-figures in scoring.
Lillard: "It’s hard, because I mean my entire career I’ve always been somebody who, like, if I can do one thing I can take over. I can take over a game. I think I’ve joined a new team and my situation is different and I understand that it’s different, so I have to try to find a way to not just go back to what I’ve always done because it’s probably not always necessary. Or probably not necessary at all. So I think that’s probably the most difficult part is when things seem like it’s getting out of control or the going is getting tough, I’m able to put my hands on it a little bit more. I think just not really being in that role is a little bit more difficult. It’s more of a process to figure out for me.”
3-for-8: Giannis Antetokounmpo’s mark from the free-throw line. The Bucks star has begun the season in a bit of a rut at the line, as he came in making just 55% of his charity attempts.
26-14-10: Points, assists and rebounds for Memphis star Ja Morant. It was his first triple-double of the season and 12th of his career.
19-1 and 12-2: Runs by the Grizzlies in the first half that helped them take a 70-48 halftime lead. In those stretches the Bucks were 1-for-12 from the floor and committed three turnovers. They were the turning points in the game as Memphis led 17-16 when the first one began and 51-44 when the second one started.
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What channel is the Bucks game on?
The game, which begins at 7 p.m. CT, will be aired locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call.
Is Giannis playing?
Yes. The MVP candidate has been probable to play with tendinitis in his right patella since the season began.
Bucks starters
Guards: Damian Lillard, Gary Trent Jr.
Forwards: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Taurean Prince
Center: Brook Lopez
Bucks injury report
Khris Middleton, out (surgery on both ankles)
Giannis Antetokounmpo, probable (right patella tendinitis)
Grizzlies injury report
Memphis has Ja Morant back healthy, but he's one of the few for the home team that is playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
Desmond Bane, out (right oblique strain)
Marcus Smart, out (right ankle sprain)
Luke Kennard, out (left foot muscle strain)
GG Jackson, out (right fifth metatarsal repair)
Vince Williams, out (left tibial stress reaction)
Cam Spencer, out (right ankle sprain)
John Konchar, questionable (right quad bruise)
Bucks vs. Grizzlies odds, over/under
Milwaukee is a 6.5-point favorite over Memphis, and the over/under is 227.5 points.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks lose fourth straight, falling to Grizzlies, 122-99
