With seven minutes left in the game, Damian Lillard's layup could not find the bottom of the net and he took a deep breath of resignation. After his pass to Antetokounmpo was picked off, he tossed his hands up in the air and then made a go-ahead three-pointer. The Milwaukee Bucks lost to the Memphis Grizzles on Thursday night at FedExForum. When you do all of the little things, like layups and three-pointers, you do it. When you're the more aggressive team, the game rewards you with more bounces and harder balls. I thought we did it in stretches, they're a young team, they don't have nothing to lose, a lot of guys playing for their careers on the line, and we gave them life, but they scratched and clawed and got those bounces over us. The Grizzlelies defeated the Bucks in a boxing match.
The Milwaukee Bucks appeared to be on the verge of a win streak earlier in the week, but then lost to two teams without star power and went into the break with a 3-7 record. "I thought we were bad until we needed to be good, you know what I mean," said Rivers. One kid made three in a row and we didn't adjust. I don't think the losses affect the way I think about the team or where we can go. We have to make some changes to how we play every night. We need the guys that can play defense to be better and we also need the guys that are learning to play defense to be solid. It just tells you where we are.
The next game for Milwaukee is in Minneapolis.
The Bucks came back from a 10-point third quarter deficit on the strength of five early fourth quarter points by Lillard and a pair of Antetokounmpo baskets and an assist to the other team, but they were only able to get two more points. With 45 and 29 seconds left, a pair of missed free throws by Lamar Stevens set up a three-point play by Malik Beasley that brought the Bucks to within a point. The ball shook loose after the two collided, and Lopez missed a 35-footer that would have tied the game. They weren't going for the foul up three, but I was looking to see if they were signaling that. I was going to come off a drag at half court and try to get a clean look but it was just a miscommunication between me and brook. I was trying to come off, but he was trying to get a good angle on the screen, and I was setting my move up, so we did opposite things. It was loose and we didn't end up getting a clean look.
Lopez had 14 points and 11 boards, but he was 3-for-11 from behind the three-point line. Bobby Portis scored 15 points off the bench. It is difficult to let go of the end of the game because you want to have another chance at it. "Tonight was one of those times, when we set ourselves up to be in that type of game, and that type of stuff can happen and it did."
Antetokounmpo has been playing through knee problems.
After the team's morning shootaround in Memphis, Antetokounmpo was initially listed as questionable, but he played in his 15th straight game on Thursday. The 7-footer looked no worse for wear as he consistently hammered the interior of the smaller Memphis defense for 35 points. He reported the issue to the Utah Jazz on Feb. 4 and then the Dallas Mavericks on Feb. 3. Though he has not missed a game since the Jazz game, Antetokounmpo's minutes have fallen to 32.2 over the last six games, and he averaged 26.3 points and 10.5 rebound per game. His assist total has gone up in that time. He was a captain of the Eastern Conference team and will be coached by Rivers. After surgery on his left knee, Antetokounmpo has been in the lineup on a regular basis for the first time in years. He is on track to play his most games since he appeared in 72 in the first season of the award. On the final possession of the first quarter, Patrick Beverley held his hands over his head and began making the "talk" motion with his fingers to get his teammates behind him. One of the first things Doc Rivers said about the Bucks defense was that they weren't talking at a high enough level.
In the third quarter the Bucks struggled to get stops on the defensive end, and the youthful, hungry Grizzlies with 2 two-way players and a player on a 10-day contract were pushing pace to make a name for themselves in a nationally televised game against one of the league's better teams With 2 minutes, 59 seconds left in the frame, Doc Rivers turned to Andre Jackson Jr. for a lift. Jackson Jr. was called for three fouls and missed a seven-foot floater as the Grizzlies increased their lead to as many as 10. He did his job, even though they found him on the other end. That would have made him feel better about himself. You can see it on his face when he misses the layup, but he's young, plays hard, plays with the right spirit, really like him.
The game ball fell into a spectator's drink when it was swapped out for a backup. Fouls were called on the Memphis and the Milwaukee teams as they tried to get to the rim more aggressively. They lost 15 games on the road last season. Williams hit an open corner three at the end of the shot clock to start the quarter for a 60-57 lead, but then after Beasley missed a three-pointer no one got back in transition defense and Williams got an easy layup to make it 62-57. The first play was gambled for the 50th time in the corner. We have to help and then we miss the shot and nobody gets back. We had some guys in Cabo and here.