Bucks lose 113-88 to Magic without Giannis Antetokounmpo, will face Indiana Pacers in playoffs
ORLANDO, Fla. – The Milwaukee Bucks had the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference in hand for the better part of the last month of the regular season, but they finished 2-6 in April after losing 113-88 to the Orlando Magic Sunday afternoon at the KIA Center.
The Bucks ended the year 49-33 and will be the No. 3 seed and face the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the NBA playoffs. A Knicks victory over the Bulls in overtime gave New York the No. 2 spot.
"Indiana has had our number all year, right?," Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. "So, perfect opponent. Listen, we gotta play somebody and they're tough. They've played great against us, they have probably great confidence against us. We'll have great focus, because we're gonna have to."
The Bucks went 1-4 against the Pacers this season, but they last played one another on Jan. 3.
"I feel good about it," Bucks guard Damian Lillard said of facing Indiana. "I think the one thing about the playoffs, especially this season, everybody can beat everybody. That's really how I feel about it. Happy that we got home court and it's a team that we familiar with. We know they like to play fast. They score a lot of points. There's only a few teams that score over 120, we one of 'em and they one of 'em. We just gotta know what their strengths are, which we know well, and we gotta try and take as many of those things away and make it a tougher game for 'em."
Milwaukee got some help to claim that seed, however, as Cleveland blew a 13-point fourth quarter lead in seven minutes and eventually lost by 10 to Charlotte to finish 48-34 overall. The Cavaliers’ loss locked them into the fourth seed.
Orlando (47-35) avoided the play-in tournament and earned the fifth seed with the win. Indiana, led by Oshkosh native Tyrese Haliburton, clinched the sixth seed with a win over Atlanta. Boston secured the top seed in the Eastern Conference some time ago.
Bucks win Central Division championship
The Bucks won the Central Division when Cleveland lost Charlotte on Sunday, giving Milwaukee its sixth straight division title (2018-24) – the longest stretch of division championships in the division since the organization won six straight Midwest Division titles from 1980-86.
It also meant that the team once again will be awarded the Wayne Embry Trophy, which the NBA created for the 2021-22 season for the Central Division champions. Embry was an original Bucks player, finishing his career with the 1968-69 expansion team. He then moved to the team's front office and became the first Black general manager in NBA history in 1971.
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."
Though they trailed by only five at the break, the Bucks never regained the lead. They got within three on a couple of occasions early in the third quarter, but the Magic never let off the gas defensively and the Bucks couldn’t make enough shots.
Lillard finished with 16 points on 2-of-14 shooting, including an 0-for-4 mark from behind the three point line. He made 12 of 13 free throws. Middleton scored 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting and he also missed all four of his three-point attempts. He was 5 of 6 from the free throw line.
Bobby Portis had 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 26 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. Franz Wagner had 25 points and three others finished in double figures for the Magic.
Did you notice Doc Rivers wanted to pull Damian Lillard?
At about the 5:35 mark of the second quarter, Lillard took some contact from 7-foot Orlando center Jonathan Isaac in the back court, eventually recovered and got to the lane before missing a layup. Rivers saw something he didn’t like, and immediately turned to the bench to see if Lillard needed to come out and Pat Connaughton jumped up to check in.
But during a stoppage in play, Lillard reassured Rivers he was OK and stayed in the game.
After the game Rivers said he didn't like the way Lillard was moving, and the point guard admitted he felt his sore left adductor muscle at times. He had missed the game against Oklahoma City on Friday with the issue.
"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 "It 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
Orlando head coach Jamahl Mosley, a Milwaukee native who moved to San Diego in his early teens, has directed the Magic to the postseason for the first time since 2019-’20 and a winning record for the first time since 2018-’19.
The 47 wins Orlando secured are its most for the franchise since 2010-’11.
The 45-year-old Mosley, who broke into the league in 2006-’07 in Denver before assistant coaching stints in Cleveland and Dallas led him to the Magic job in 2021-’22. Hired by former Bucks executives Jeff Weltman and John Hammond, Mosley has led his team to a 25-win improvement in just three seasons.
“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
4-5 Bucks record without Giannis Antetokounmpo.
17-19 Bucks record under Doc Rivers in the regular season. The team finished the year losing eight of 11. Rivers: "I'm not worried about the eight of 11 -- can't get 'em back. No one wants to lose that. That's on me and the team. But what can I do? We're here for right now, starting right now. It's what, unfortunately, all our players were looking for. Honestly. And that's what we're gonna get."
18-22 Bucks road record. It is their worst showing on the road since going 19-22 in 2017-‘18. Only Orlando (18-23) has a worse road record among current playoff-eligible teams.
224 Made three-pointers on the season for Malik Beasley after he went 0-for 4 vs. the Magic. The single-season record of 229 was set by Ray Allen in 2001-‘02.
712 Games played in Milwaukee for Khris Middleton, moving him into second place in franchise history passing Junior Bridgeman (1975-’84, 1986-’87). Giannis Antetokounmpo is the franchise leader with 792 games played. Middleton is also second all-time behind Antetokounmpo in minutes played and defensive rebounds and is third in points behind Antetokounmpo and Kareem-Abdul-Jabbar. Middleton leads the organization in three-point field goals and three-point attempts.
Giannis Antetokounmpo injury update
The Bucks star suffered a painful strain of his left soleus muscle in his calf in the third quarter of the Bucks’ victory over Boston on Tuesday in Milwaukee. He began to run up the court and fell without contact. He passed an Achilles tendon test that night in the arena and an MRI was done to determine the severity of the strain. The team has not released a timeline for his return but did immediately rule him out for the remaining four games of the regular season.
Before the game against Orlando, Rivers was asked where his level of confidence was in Antetokounmpo being able to play in Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs.
"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."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks lose 113-88 to Magic, will face Indiana Pacers in NBA playoffs
