Just four games into the 2014-15 NBA season, the Milwaukee Bucks have seen a myriad of different scenarios and they proved to Coach Jason Kidd on Tuesday night that they’re learning from their experience.

Much like their opening night battle with the Charlotte Hornets, the Bucks established a double-digit second half lead on the road against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday, only to see that advantage fall into peril late.

But unlike that opening night loss in Charlotte, Milwaukee held on in Indiana and pulled out a balanced 87-81 victory over the Pacers to improve to 2-2 for the season. Afterward, Coach Kidd lauded his team’s effort and ability to adapt and improve in such a short time.

“For those guys in that locker room, to see the things that we’ve gone through early— giving up leads, not finishing a game, having turnovers on the road— being able to address all those things, build on it and make it a positive and finally get a win on the road, it’s important,” he said. “We have to be able to finish games and play 48 minutes. Tonight, we did that.”

Milwaukee Bucks v Indiana Pacers

The Bucks were paced by point guard Brandon Knight, who has been in top form early this season after spending the last few months under the tutelage of one of the greatest in the history of the game at the position in J-Kidd.

Knight tallied 23 points along with seven rebounds, two assists and two steals against the Pacers, bringing his season totals to an impressive 20.5 points, 7.3 assists and 6.8 rebounds per game.

His biggest contribution on Tuesday night came with 22.5 seconds remaining when he answered a three by Chris Copeland that had cut Milwaukee’s led to a tenuous three with a pull-up jumper late in the shot clock that all but sealed the victory.

“He’s our leader. He was getting guys involved early and understanding when to take his shots,” Jason said of Knight afterward. “

[He] made a big shot. It’s being patient, understanding what the defense is giving you and trust. That’s the big thing that we talk about every day. We trust one another on the defensive end and offensive end. You could see that throughout the 48 minutes tonight.”

The road win snapped a 16-game losing streak for Milwaukee on the road dating back to last season and they did it in Bankers Life Fieldhouse, one of the tougher Eastern Conference arenas to win in as the visiting team. Though the Pacers are depleted this year due to the loss of star scorer Paul George to an injury during the summer, Coach Kidd still believes the victory was an impressive statement from his squad.

“They’re a NBA team. I understand that they’re banged up right now, but they have a great coach and they’re going to compete,” he said. “They’re very tough here at home, so for us to fight and find a way to win is big for the guys.”

Milwaukee Bucks v Indiana Pacers

Indiana started the game hot and jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but Knight and Jabari Parker led the Bucks back. The duo scored Milwaukee’s first 12 points and back-to-back buckets from Parker capped by a nice step back jump shot that put his Bucks up 12-10 with less than five minutes to go.

Parker, was starting at the small forward position for the first time due to Ersan Ilyasova’s start at the power forward spot and had saw his production suffer as a result, but afterward he commented that he learned a lot from having to make an adjustment.

“That’s what I need to try to do, not forcing the issue but look for the open plays,” he said. “That’s really going to carry us, helping us use our weapons.”

After the Pacers retook the lead on a three by Donald Sloan, Coach Kidd went to the bench for a nearly full shift change with 3:35 left in the quarter, leaving Knight as the only Bucks starter on the floor with Giannis Antetokounmpo, O.J. Mayo, Zaza Pachulia and Khris Middleton.

Over the final three minutes of the half, each of those subs scored at least two points, as Milwaukee closed the frame on a 10-4 run to establish a three-point edge heading to the second. Coach Kidd credited the effort of his reserves after the game.

“This is a deep team and everybody in that locker room knows they’re going to have a chance to play,” Jason said. “That second group has been playing well.”

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They continued their strong play in the second, led by the Mayo and reserve point guard Jerryd Bayless. After Indiana briefly took the lead back two-and-a-half minutes into the second, Bayless knocked down a trey to quickly grab push the Bucks back in front. Over the next three minutes, Bayless and Mayo combined to score 10 of the 12 points scored in the game to stake Milwaukee to a seven-point lead at the halfway point of the quarter.

Indiana managed to cut the lead down to one with three minutes left in the half, but Knight came back in and buried two buckets in the closing minutes as the Bucks took a five-point lead into halftime.

Milwaukee came out of the locker room fired up and led once again by Knight and Parker they broke out to start the third. Knight hit back-to-back trey’s in the first minute and Parker followed with consecutive mid-range jumpers, tripling the lead from five to 15 in the blink of an eye.

The Bucks eventually pushed the lead as high as 17 on a three by Ilyasova midway through the third, but a late run by the Pacers trimmed Milwaukee’s advantage to eight entering the fourth.

After watching the lead fall to five in the first two minutes of the final quarter, the Bucks reserves picked up their play and extended it back to double digits. Coach Kidd slowly worked his starters back into the game over the course of the game, but Bayless remained on the floor and was a key factor in helping to establish that double-digit advantage.

The veteran hit a trey with 6:49 to play to make it 82-71, then knocked down a pull-up jumper with 3:29 to play to make it 84-73 before giving way to Knight to close out the contest.

“The [reserve] group that was out there got us going, but it was the guys being able to pass the torch to the guys who came in kept the lead and finished the game off,” Jason said. “When you look at the minutes, it’s good to see everybody got even minutes tonight and everybody was productive. We still have a long way to go but when we look at this tape, there are a lot of good things.”

Milwaukee Bucks v Indiana Pacers

As the Bucks approached a back-to-back, minutes were key in Jason’s mind, so not player logged more than 30 and each man that saw action shot at least four times. The collective effort that Coach Kidd continues to emphasize for his young team has not only paid off, the players have also embraced it.

“That’s how we’ve got to play,” center Larry Sanders said. “We’ve just got to be there to help each other. There are going to defensive breakdowns here and there. As bigs it’s our mission to make sure we get to that strong side and help out.”

Sanders was held scoreless on the evening, but grabbed 10 rebounds and made defensive plays throughout the night the helped Milwaukee come away with the win, earning praise from his coach afterward.

“Everybody had a part tonight. When you look at Larry’s numbers, no points, but defensively and offensively he gave us a lot of energy along with rebounds and blocked shots. He was a big presence. Those are the things we like as coaches,” J-Kidd said. “The thing for us, is being able to execute. We’re going to be in a lot of close games. Being able to execute defensively as well as offensively [is key].”

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The Bucks proved they could do that in the closing moments on Tuesday night. Though an 8-0 run by Indiana tightened the game, Milwaukee executed on the offensive end as Knight made the crucial basket with 22.9 seconds to go, then locked down on the defensive end, forcing two late missed out of Rodney Stuckey to finish out the game.

“We thought about how we ended the Charlotte game, and that really stuck with us. We walked through all the scenarios during shootaround today, knowing that it could be a close game,” Knight said. “Our coaches do a great job preparing us for every situation that we are going to see. We saw a situation of needing to close out a game, and we were prepared to handle it.”

Coach Kidd sees every game as an opportunity to learn and get better. Though his young team gave up a 24-point lead against Charlotte earlier this year, he believes that experience was a large reason why his team was able to piece together good decisions down the stretch to win in Indianapolis.

“Being able to learn from our mistakes as a young team shows that we’re going in the right direction,” Jason said. “Early this season, we’ve given up some leads. But it’s about getting stops, executing on the offensive end, getting good looks and if we don’t, being able to get another stop. We did that tonight.”

NEXT UP

The Bucks (2-2) now head home to Milwaukee where they’ll aim to get above .500 for the first time this season as they host the Chicago Bulls in the second half of a back-to-back.

“We played together,” Jason said of the difference in Tuesday’s game. “Once you do that, you’re going to have a great chance to win a lot of games. The starters did a good job and the bench maintained. Especially when you deal with this type of schedule (four games in five nights), everybody is important.”

Chicago (3-1) has seen its lineup in flux early this season. Reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah will miss the game with an illness and point guard Derrick Rose is questionable with a recurrence of an ankle injury.

But the Bulls are a dangerous group even without their two top players. Newcomer Pau Gasol has slid into the Chicago lineup seamlessly and reserve big man Taj Gibson has filled in admirably in the starting frontcourt in Noah’s stead, so Milwaukee will have their hands full with the Bulls. Tipoff scheduled for 7 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on FS-Wisconsin.

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