Knight Shines in Thrilling Weekend Split

On Friday night, Jason Kidd’s Milwaukee Bucks came just one possession shy of a win or overtime against the Detroit Pistons. But on Saturday night, that one final possession sealed the squad’s first signature win of the season.

After falling 98-95 to the Pistons, and suffering a close loss to the Chicago Bulls early in the week, the Bucks turned around the following night to host the previously unbeaten Memphis Grizzlies, and with just one second to go and the score 92-91, point guard Brandon Knight drove hard through the lane and dropped in the game-tying layup through contact. He then completed the three-point, and game-winning, play at the line.

Following the young squad’s first momentous victory, Coach Kidd talked about the week his team had and the growth they endured throughout.

“If you look at the week, we went against all the best teams, when you talk about playoff teams. Chicago being the best in the East, Memphis being undefeated probably one of the best in the West,” Jason said. “As a team we’re trying hard every night to put ourselves in position to win. We’re learning late-game execution—sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it doesn’t, that’s just part of basketball. But tonight’s another step forward.”

MOTOWN SHOWDOWN

Two nights after giving up a halftime lead against one of the East favorites in Chicago, the Bucks made a short road trip to take on the Detroit Pistons. In opposite form of Wednesday’s tilt with the Bulls, the Bucks started slow against the Pistons, but made it very interesting late.

Milwaukee struggled shooting from downtown throughout, including a 0-of-5 mark from deep in the first quarter. Those lost possessions helped the Pistons gallop out to a 27-21 lead.

Those woes subsided a bit in the second quarter, as Jared Dudley canned two threes and the team went 2-of-5 in the frame. His second triple cut the Detroit lead down to just two, but Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who finished with a game-high 19 points, fueled a rally to drive the lead back to seven at the half.

After the break, Coach Kidd made a few adjustments and turned to two of his young stars, Knight and Jabari Parker, to spark the comeback.

“We have a lot of young guys, so this is going to be a good learning experience for them,” Jason said. “They understand that when they make a mistake, they have to keep playing, but we’ve got to be able to execute on both ends to win.”

Parker, the team’s top draft pick, started the second half with an authoritative driving slam from the left side, followed it up with a dime to Larry Sanders and continued shortly after with another dunk.

Then it was Knight’s turn. After knocking down a pair of free throws and tossing an assist to Ersan Ilyasova, he worked off a pick-and-roll with Zaza Pachulia to take and make a wide-open go-ahead 16-foot jumper. On the following possession, B-Knight splashed a three to make it 68-63 Bucks.

However, after the outburst from the Bucks’ Brandon, Detroit’s Brandon Jennings responded with three triples of his own over the final 2:30 of the quarter to give the Pistons a 76-72 lead going into the fourth.

The deep ball was one of the major differences in the game: Overall, the Bucks shot 46.8 percent from the field, but from three they made just 5-of-20, while Detroit made 11-of-23.

Whenever Milwaukee tried to make noise from deep, Detroit answered back even louder. O.J. Mayo hit from deep at the 9:03 mark in the fourth, but Caron Butler matched him immediately on the other end.

The Pistons built their lead to nine with just five minutes left in the game, but Giannis Antetokounmpo and Parker, the two youngest Bucks, tried to rally the team to victory. The two 19-year-olds combined to score 10 straight points in the final quarter, a span highlighted by a huge driving dunk from The Greek Freak, as well as a dunk by Parker after he swiped the ball from Caldwell-Pope.

That dunk made it just 93-91 in favor of Detroit. Parker finished with a career-high 18 points, five rebounds and three steals, but afterward, he couldn’t enjoy his big night.

“It wasn’t enough,” Parker said. “I’d rather take a game where I score four points and we win the game. It’s just all about winning. It’s 50-50 balls, rebounds. It’s mostly defense. Offense will take care of itself.”

The Bucks held onto that two-point deficit with less than 20 seconds to go, when Caldwell-Pope threw up a jumper that didn’t draw any iron and clanked right off the backboard. Unfortunately, it fell right into the arms of Josh Smith, who put it back up for two to extend the lead to four with just 15 seconds left, putting the game out of reach. The Bucks were outrebounded 40-35.

“We fought for 48 minutes,” Jason said. “But it comes down to a couple things. We’ve got to take care of the ball on the offensive end and defensively we’ve got to get a rebound. We give up an offensive rebound at the wrong time. This game can be cruel. We played great defense. It’s an airball and he comes up with the offensive rebound and putback.”

TAMING THE GRIZZ

After a heartbreaking loss to start their third back-to-back already this season, Jason’s Milwaukee squad faced a daunting task of taking down one of the league’s most physically bruising teams: the undefeated Memphis Grizzlies.

Fortunately, Jason’s squad is built to handle just this type of challenge. Milwaukee boasts as much youth as any team in the league, and J-Kidd’s rotation is as deep as it gets, often featuring 11 players punching their cards for double-figures in minutes. He stressed that to his team before they took on the Grizz, and it ended up paying of in a big way at the end of the game.

“We were talking about pace today. We felt our pace was getting a little too slow,” Jason revealed after the game. “We’re playing a lot of guys, so for us being a younger team, we can’t be tired and we can’t just rely on trying to outscore teams. We have to run. We’re deep, so tonight, on a back-to-back, to be able to play at our pace was big.”

Two of Milwaukee’s young spark plugs, Knight and Antetokounmpo, took that message to heart.

Giannis, the team’s lanky do-all swingman, faced as tough a matchup as anyone, often squaring off with the 260-pound bruiser, Zach Randolph. Z-Bo powered his way to 22 points, but Ante was with him every step of the way, leading the Bucks with 18 points off 6-of-11 shooting. Afterward, Jason praised the play of his young budding star.

“You’re talking about one of the best forwards in the game in Z-Bo,” Jason said. “Z is always going to make sure there’s some contact, and Giannis being probably 220 pounds is probably outweighed, but I though he did a great job.

“We played through Giannis. He didn’t settle, he was getting to the paint, and he was finishing—you can see his growth coming a long slowly.”

Impressively, and much thanks to Giannis, the Bucks outscored the Grizzlies in the paint, 46-42. The Bucks shot a respectable 45.5% from the field as a team, converting a lot of shots in the painted area both with offensive rebounds and dribble penetration.

The player who made the last game-winning shot, coincidentally also made the first. Knight splashed a three for the game’s first points off a feed from Parker. He then returned the favor, dishing to Parker on a 15-footer, and later on a triple by the No. 2 overall draft pick.

Knight then took the ball back in his hands, working a crossover to find room for an open 19-foot J. Antetokounmpo had a quiet first, but he quickly made noise in the second.

Just two minutes into the frame, Giannis threw down off a nice dime by Mayo, who finished with a game-high seven assists to go with nine points.

Parker also threw down a thunderous dunk in the frame off a feed from Jerryd Bayless, but Randolph banked in a ridiculous half-court buzzer-beater to give the Grizz a 51-44 advantage going into the break.

Coach Kidd called for a few halftime tweaks, and they paid big dividends on the defensive end. After allowing 51 points in the first half, the Bucks gave up just 41 in the second, setting the groundwork for their comeback.

Meanwhile, Knight kept the team rolling offensively with six points and two assists in the third quarter. He finished with 14 points and six assists, though he turned the ball over six times. Coach Kidd talked at length about his point guard afterward, saying he isn’t worried about the errant passes.

“Some of the turnovers are due to trying to make a pass—his intent is good. He’s trying to find a teammate,” J-Kidd said of B-Knight. “In this league you have active hands and sometimes they get deflected…we would love for no one to have turnovers, but the game is built on mistakes. If we can cut them down a little but that’s great, but I still want him to be aggressive.”

That aggression showed on the final play of the contest, but throughout the fourth quarter, it was Antetokounmpo acting as the aggressor, making several huge buckets throughout.

The first came off a Bayless steal that led to a wide-open fast-break dunk for The Greek Freak. However, the game just continued to teeter back-and-forth.

Bayless knocked down a gigantic go-ahead three of his own, but Randolph answered back with a nifty bucket down low to grant the lead back to Memphis. Ante then responded with a tough drive through contact to make it 90-89 bucks with just over two minutes to go.

The staunch Memphis defense locked down over those final two minutes and took a 92-90 lead into the final eight seconds, where B-Knight went to work. The former Kentucky Wildcat made a fantastic split-second decision to tie the game with just 1.1 seconds left, and he then hit the and-one free throw to clinch his team’s theatrical win at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

After the game, Coach Kidd talked about how he drew up that final play, and how well his young point guard executed that call.

“We were looking at a couple things,” Jason explained. “We wanted to look at O.J.
[Mayo] for a three, but it was taken away. With B-Knight having the ball in his hands being down two, we looked for the three first, it didn’t present itself, so the part of it is to drive the ball. He did a great job keeping his composure, and finishing the play—and biggest part was actually finishing the free throw.

So give B-Knight a lot of credit, but those guys that were on the floor there executing, on the defensive end and the offensive end, they were great.”

After two losses that were tough to take, the Bucks were thrilled to see things finally fall in their favor at the end of a game. Jason was also glad to see his young players come through in the clutch—but he is most happy that his squad has consistently put itself in position to win ballgames.

“It’s about finding a way to win,” Jason said. “Guys are playing hard and playing for one another, we are putting ourselves in positions to win games, and that’s all you can ask for from a young team.”

UP NEXT

The Bucks host an injury-plagued Oklahoma City Thunder team that hasn’t seen Kevin Durant play once this season, and a Russell Westbrook that has been sidelined due to a fracture in his hand.

Without the Thunder’s superstars, they have only won twice so far this season, sitting with a 2-5 record.

The game will be played at BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee. Tipoff scheduled for 8:00PM ET.