MILWAUKEE — For the second night in a row, the Milwaukee Bucks could not match its opponent’s energy or overcome its pressure, this time in a 111-100 loss to the Washington Wizards at the Bradley Center Saturday night.
Washington out-rebounded the Bucks 53-36, as well as 20-8 on the offensive glass and consequently outscored Milwaukee in second-chance points, 29-10.
“Can’t win,” Bucks coach Jason Kidd said after the game. “You can’t win. When you give up that many second chance points, you’re not going to win too many games.”
This came one night after the Toronto Raptors pulled down 57 boards, compared with just 30 by Milwaukee.
“I think effort — last night we got out-rebounded both offensively and defensively, and tonight was the same way,” Kidd said. “They just kind of bullied us under the boards — got second and third opportunities, which I thought turned the game around in their favor.”
The Bucks showed promise early, leading by as much as 15 in the first half.
Much of the team’s early success stemmed from superb defensive play by Larry Sanders, who blocked four shots and got a steal in his 12 first-half minutes. However, he saw his playing time limited after committing three personal fouls in that period. Sanders would only play seven minutes in the second half, and the defense was noticeably more vulnerable. The Wizards scored 64 points in the second half, compared with only 47 in the first.
Kidd said his team didn’t bring to the second half the energy necessary to win the game.
Brandon Knight and Giannis Antetokounmpo kept their team relevant on the offensive side of the ball as the Bucks lead dissolved, scoring 27 and 20, respectively.
“Yeah, Brandon really showed up even though the rest of us didn’t,” Jabari Parker said. “It’s our job to be there for him. We didn’t have good energy coming out and they (Washington) capitalized.”
As for Antetokounmpo, his 20 points scored against Washington were the most in a game in his career.
“He’s taking what the defense is giving him,” Kidd said. “He’s putting a lot of pressure on the defense — it’s not just scoring the ball, but finding open guys — so you can see, since he started starting for us, his game has grown.”
Antetokounmpo came up with four of the Bucks’ 28 defensive rebounds, which helped contain what could have easily become a blowout.
“It was tough for us to rebound the ball,” he said. “It’s a thing we have to work on — to block out the guys. We have to have our big guys in there, especially, sometimes with these guys — with Washington Wizards’ big guys — they’re very good. All of them go to the offensive glass, so in a game like this, we have to help them rebound the ball.”
The Bucks will undoubtedly look to improve upon its 7-7 record Tuesday night against the Detroit Pistons. In the meantime, its back to the drawing board for Milwaukee in search of an answer to its rebounding problem.