MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks know things will become more difficult, but that was not their concern Saturday night.
“We just know that no matter if it looks pretty, if we’re playing well, we gotta figure out ways to win the game,” Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo said. “And I was saying it too in the fourth quarter and guys kept saying the same thing, like, it doesn’t matter, just win the game.
“We’re going to go watch film and see what we can do better and come next game and be better. … But at the end of the day, no matter how the game goes, figure out a way to win that game and then we can move on forward.”
And that is what they did, grinding out a 124-114 win over a Washington Wizards team that lost its 14th consecutive game.
The Bucks have won six straight. It’s their longest win streak since their six-game streak out of the All-Star Break last season. They have also won eight of nine and are over .500 for the first time since their opening-night victory against the Philadelphia 76ers.
But it was a fight. The Bucks raced out to an eight-point lead to open the game, only to see six lead changes and three ties before leading the whole second half. Even then, the Wizards were within two points with less than five minutes to go in the fourth.
“I didn’t think we started the game out right,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “We just kinda came out and played and then we kinda got into the game, but you take wins like this because these are games early in the season we would have lost. These games are good teachers for us.”
It may have come on a night where the team played poorly in a win against the lowly Wizards (2-16), but Antetokounmpo put together a 40-point triple-double for the first time in his career with 42 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists on Saturday. According to Basketball-Reference’s Stathead tool, he was the 31st player in NBA history to accomplish the feat.
Damian Lillard, Antetokounmpo’s All-Star teammate, had a big game as well, adding 25 points, five rebounds and 10 assists. It was the third time Antetokounmpo and Lillard had 25-plus points and 10-plus assists in the same game, the most by any duo in NBA history, according to the NBA.
“I thought Giannis and Dame down the stretch really played the two-man game,” Rivers said. “And through the two-man game, they made two great passes — one to Brook (Lopez), one to TP (Taurean Prince) — trusting their teammates. So, there’s a lot of good stuff to show our team to just keep us building.”
With 4:22 remaining, Rivers took a timeout. The Bucks led 105-103 but they had only scored 13 points in the first seven and a half minutes of the fourth quarter. Over the next three minutes, the Bucks went on a 10-0 run that revolved around their superstar duo making plays and elevating their teammates.
On the first possession out of the timeout, Antetokounmpo and Lillard worked together to create an easy bucket for Antetokounmpo.
While there will always be a desire to see them use it more as they did in the play above, and for the duo to look better in it, the two-man game with Antetokounmpo and Lillard has grown stronger in their second season. As he has gotten to know Antetokounmpo, Lillard has grown more adept at identifying and creating situations where Antetokounmpo can serve as the roll man with an empty corner — the most effective rolling action for Antetokounmpo over the years — and they have been able to use it with greater regularity this season.
“Now we’re going into our second year playing together, and our chemistry has been incredible so far,” Antetokounmpo said after the game. “He hits me in the pocket. If he doesn’t hit me in the pocket, that means he has an open shot. He can get downhill, make another play.
“I think we trust one another. We definitely trust way more one another’s decision-making and we give one another space to operate.”
Two plays later, a pick-and-roll action (before the clip below starts) with Antetokounmpo allowed Lillard to get downhill, which eventually opened up a chance for Antetokounmpo to attack from the top of the key in isolation.
And while it may seem as though the Bucks were only getting things done on the offensive end, Antetokounmpo and Lillard also showed up on the defensive end. As Antetokounmpo and Rivers reiterated after the game, the Bucks were far from perfect in Saturday’s game as giving up an open 3 and allowing an offensive rebound in crunch time is not model behavior. But Antetokounmpo recovered in a big spot by hustling in a scramble situation to come up with a block and then Lillard worked hard to close out Alex Sarr and poke away the ball to create a turnover.
As Rivers mentioned, Antetokounmpo and Lillard were not only able to create purely for each other to close out the game, but also the Bucks wrapped up the 10-0 run to close the game with the threat of their two-man game creating for their teammates.
With a six-point lead, the Bucks went to one of their regular clutch-time actions where either Antetokounmpo or Lillard have the ball while the other star and Lopez set up on the elbows to create interplay between all three players.
On Saturday, that ultimately led to Antetokounmpo getting a switch and working on isolation on the left wing. With wing Bilal Coulibaly in trouble, the Wizards sent a double-team and forced Antetokounmpo to make a play, which led to Taurean Prince knocking down a big 3 from the top of the key.
“When we went to the bench, I told him, ‘Way to bail me out’” Antetokounmpo said of Prince, who scored 11 points on Saturday, “because the guy was pressuring me and I was trying to go, but the minute I tried to go by him, the other guy came to double-team. And I was about to throw it to the corner, but he relocated at the last moment. I was able to make the pass. It was great play by him.”
After Sarr missed a 3 on the next possession, the Bucks grabbed the rebound and immediately let Lillard get into a two-man action with Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo’s early screen forced a switch and let the big man try to post up on the left block. Lillard watched as Antetokounmpo tried to push his defender up the floor to create space for a lob over the top. As he worked on his post position, the Wizards’ help defenders started to move closer to him and Lillard took advantage with a strong cross-court pass to Lopez for a 3 to close out the game.
“They know that Dame and Giannis are running the pick and roll to get Giannis to the post,” Rivers said. “And teams make a choice. They either lower their big to try to be the guy on the back side of that and if you do that, you’re leaving Brook alone and that’s what they did and they took the gamble. Dame made a great pass.“
It was an ugly win, but it is a win nonetheless and a strong close to November.
After serious struggles to start the season, the Bucks went 9-5 in November and outscored opponents by 3.3 points per 100 possessions outside of garbage time. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Bucks have the league’s eighth-best offense (116.9 points per 100 possessions) and 12th-best defense (113.6 points per 100 possessions) since Nov. 1, but the team’s home-heavy stretch against largely inferior teams is coming to an end.
Things are going to get more difficult as three of the Bucks’ next four games are on the road. The Bucks will need to clean up things and execute at a higher level to continue to win games and fight their way into one of the top-four seeds in the Eastern Conference.
(Photo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard: Gary Dineen / Getty Images)
