The Milwaukee Bucks once again lost to one of the worst teams in the NBA, falling 127-82 to a tanking Brooklyn Nets team at Barclays Center in New York on Dec. 14. The 45-point blowout was not only the worst loss by the Bucks on the season, but it is tied for the second-biggest blowout loss in the entire league.
It was also the fewest points scored by the Bucks, by far as their previous low was 95 vs. the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 19. The 11 points they scored in the fourth quarter were also a season-worst (17 vs. Brooklyn on Nov. 29).
“I thought that was, that was, awful,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said after the game. “Awful all around. On me, ‘cause I clearly didn’t get ‘em ready. And on us.
“Give Brooklyn credit, they played hard as heck, they moved the ball, they played right. We didn’t. We gave up 30 points in turnovers.
“Not until the beginning of the second half did we actually look like a basketball team where we started passing the ball, but by the then the basketball gods decided you can’t make any open shots now. You don’t deserve to. So, that was disappointing.
“Probably one of the more disappointing games I’ve ever been involved in with the way we performed and competed. We wanted to blame everybody but ourselves. We’re blaming the refs, we’re looking at each other. No one wanted to play hard. And, you know, that was, we got a lot of soul-searching to do.”
Brooklyn (7-18), on the other hand, knows exactly who it is supposed to be. Before the season, Nets owner Joe Tsai said, “We have one (first-round) pick in 2026, and we hope to get a good pick. So, you can predict what kind of strategy we will use for this season.”
That was not the intent of this Bucks team (11-16), which does not control its first-round pick this year as part of the 2020 Jrue Holiday trade. But the Bucks have now also lost to Washington (4-20), Sacramento (6-19), Brooklyn (7-18), Charlotte (8-18) and Portland (9-16). They beat the 6-20 Indiana Pacers on a buzzer-beater by Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma, who scored 13 points, said the loss is the low point of the season for the team.
“Oh, no question. Oh, absolutely,” he said. “It’s 45 points to a team that’s trying to lose. They got four wins, or five wins or whatever it is now. No disrespect at all because that’s the beauty of this league, right? There’s so much talent and if you’re not ready you can get your butt whooped by any team. And we were proof of that tonight.”
BOX SCORE: Nets 127, Bucks 82
Milwaukee, which beat Brooklyn handily with Antetokounmpo at Fiserv Forum on Nov. 29, was never were truly in the game against the Nets. They fell behind by double digits late in the first quarter and only saw the deficit swell to nearly 30 halfway through the third quarter.
“You could see it,” Rivers said. “I said right at the beginning. I turned to Dave Jaeger and Darvin (Ham) and I said this is not, we’re in trouble. You could see it. We could see it early.
“But it’s so disappointing because you play that hard, that together one night and then you turn around tonight. It’s funny, we don’t really know who we are right now. We really don’t. I heard one of the guys say we’re down this much to this team, I said this team? What about our team? We’re 11-16. What are you talking about?
“We need all of us. Including me. Like, you know, it starts with me. I gotta get these guys right ‘cause clearly tonight was not the right night.”
It was a disappointing showing after beating Boston on Dec. 11 at Fiserv Forum. The last time the Bucks won consecutive games so was Oct. 28-30 when they beat Golden State and New York at home.
Milwaukee has not won on the road since Nov. 10 in Dallas, and they have lost six straight road games The Bucks are winless in their last eight games following a victory this season.
Antetokounmpo missed his fourth straight game with a right calf strain.
Bucks fall back into losing habits in Brooklyn
The Bucks did all the right things to beat the Boston Celtics, one of the hottest teams in the league, on Dec. 11. They said all the right things afterward, too, knowing losing to the rebuilding Nets as a follow-up would not be good.
“We gotta do it again,” Kuzma said after the Celtics win. “This all does not mean anything if we come out and we come out soft. If we come out not playing hard, then we’re back two steps back. So keeping it consistent with the mentality of ‘just punch somebody in the face,’ you know? Be aggressive, both ends.”
Unfortunately the Bucks were the ones who got pummeled.
Despite having a film session on Dec. 12 and a practice on Dec. 13 before the team left for New York to stay sharp, the Bucks turned the ball over 13 times through the decisive third quarter, which led to 17 Nets points. Milwaukee sent Brooklyn to the free throw line 14 times, and the Nets made 13. Brooklyn’s bench, which went five deep, outscored Milwaukee’s 27-13.
The Nets would end up taking their first 30-point lead of the season when the score was 106-76.
As the game neared its conclusion with the benches emptied, 23% of the Nets points had come off Bucks turnovers.
Bucks still looking for shots
The best thing the Bucks do, with or without Antetokounmpo, is shoot the ball.
The came into the game vs. the Nets as the fourth-best shooting team in the league overall and best in the Eastern Conference at 49.4%, and they are the top 3-point shooting team in the league by over a full percentage point at 41%.
But the team had fallen to 29th in the league in scoring (115.1 points per game) in large part because they attempt the fourth-fewest shots per game (85.9). They were 13th in 3-point attempts (37.5). One reason the Bucks have such a low shot total is that they were one of just eight teams in the league to average fewer than 100 possessions per 48 minutes, which is commonly called pace, with 99.74.
Kuzma said he, Kevin Porter Jr. and Ryan Rollins must be more intentional about getting the ball out to their teammates once they touch the paint with a drive.
“We have to just be aware of that because we are the best, one of the best, consistent 3-point shooting teams,” Kuzma said after practice on Dec. 10. “That’s how you get attempts, from drive-and-kick in this league, pick-and-roll and hitting the roller and playing four-on-three. Not just dribbling it up the court coast-to-coast all the time, it’s throwing it ahead, because if you throw it ahead it’s probably AJ (Green) or it’s probably Gary (Trent Jr.) and that’s what they want to do. They want to shoot those type of threes.”
Rivers acknowledged the team attempts are not where he’d like them to be, but he pointed to their 14.8 turnovers per game.
“We have to take care of the ball, number one, to get more shots up,” Rivers said flatly after practice on Dec. 10.
Unfortunately by the time Rivers emptied the bench in Brooklyn, the Nets had out-shot the Bucks 73-65 overall and 37-27 behind the 3-point line. And that was due in large part to 16 Bucks turnovers by the regulars, leading to 24 Nets points.
The Nets made seven more 3-pointers and 10 more shots in total when the regulars were in. The Nets got those extra possessions thanks to 16 Bucks turnovers by their regulars, leading to 24 points.
Brooklyn’s regulars had nine additional points off six offensive rebounds.
In general, Milwaukee doesn’t get a ton of second-chance opportunities (8.2 offensive rebounds per game, 30th), but that can also be a function of making a higher percentage of their shots. Their regulars had five offensive boards vs. the Nets, despite the team not shooting well (under 30% from behind the 3-point line).
Interestingly, the Nets came into the game as the slowest paced team in the league with just 97.88 possessions per 48 minutes, yet they came into the game at Fiserv Forum No. 5 in 3-point attempts (41.1).
They gave the ball away more often than the Bucks (15.8) but if they possessed it, they were going to try to put up threes. When the regulars were in, the youthful Nets protected the ball (11 turnovers) and put up nearly their season average in 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter.
Milwaukee’s stated goals out of training camp were to shoot more threes and move at faster pace, even if the group acknowledged it wasn’t to be the breakneck speed of some other teams.
To date they have fallen short of those objectives.
Brooklyn Nets play without head coach
Shortly before the game, it was determined that Nets head coach Jordi Fernández could not coach due to an illness. He was replaced by assistant coach Steve Hetzel. For record-keeping purposes, the result of the game is awarded to Fernández. The NBA does not give interim coaches wins or losses, regardless of how many games they may fill in for the head coach.
5 numbers
1-5: Bucks record in New York City the last two seasons (1-2 at Brooklyn, 0-3 at New York Knicks).
2-8: Bucks record without Giannis Antetokounmpo this season.
7.1: Percent chance the Bucks had at landing a top 4 pick in the 2026 NBA draft before the game, per www.tankathon.com.
15.3: Percent chance the Bucks had at making the playoffs before the game, per ESPN’s basketball power index (BPI) analytical model.
1-14: Combined 3-point shooting by Kevin Porter Jr., Ryan Rollins, Kyle Kuzma and Myles Turner.
Is Giannis playing?
No. The Bucks’ superstar is out with a right calf strain, which he suffered on Dec. 3 vs. Detroit. The game in Brooklyn will be the fourth straight he misses with injury and 10th he’s missed overall.
What is the Bucks record without Giannis?
2-7.
What time is the Bucks game?
It is set for an early tip-off at 5 p.m.
What channel is the Bucks game on?
The game will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks on the call.
Milwaukee Bucks injury report
Bucks starting lineup
Bucks vs. Nets odds
Milwaukee is a 2.5-point favorite over Brooklyn, with the over/under set at 219.5 points per BetMGM.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks suffer worst loss of season to lowly Nets, 127-82.
Reporting by Jim Owczarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
