Since the first day Jason Kidd arrived in Milwaukee he’s been preaching that the Bucks’ success would be dependent on a collective effort—that every night the scoring would have to come from somewhere different because the roster doesn’t have a go-to player that can carry a 25+ per game scoring average.
But recently, the Bucks have had that go-to scorer. Two out of the last three games Texas A&M forward Khris Middleton, a 39th overall pick in the NBA’s 2012 draft, has scored a career-high 30 points to lead the Bucks to two victories. Last night Middleton was 12-of-17 from the field, including a perfect 4-of-4 from downtown in 42 minutes, as his 30-point performance jetted the Bucks past the Orlando Magic at home 97-91.
“Khris is playing at a very high level for us on both ends,” J-Kidd said. “We can go to him in the post or on the perimeter. He’s knocking down shots.”
Middleton has scored in double-digits his past 17 games, and surpassed his 12.8 PPG average in 13 of those 17 contests. Middleton is also shooting 48 percent from the floor this season, including an impressive 53 percent in March.
“It’s playing with confidence,” Middleton said. “I’m not going to force it, but if the shot’s there, I’m going to shoot it and just be aggressive.”
Milwaukee almost let this one go from the start. The Orlando Magic shot 50 percent in the first half and took a 57-54 lead into halftime. Nikola Vucevic scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead Orlando in the post. From the perimeter, the Bucks were having a hard time stopping Tobias Harris who made three shots from beyond the arc in the game and had 17 points.
“They were getting everything too easy in the paint,” Middleton said. “The second half we tried to be a little more physical to just try to take away everything they wanted to do. We forced them to take tough jump shots.”
In the second half, the Bucks turned up the defensive effort, holding Orlando to just 34 second-half points. Harris shot just 3-of-12 in the second half, and Victor Oladipo was 1-of-8 after intermission. As a team, Orlando hit only 30 percent of its attempts in the second half (13-of-43).
Michael Carter-Williams struggled offensively and scored just 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but he made some solid contributions without his shot present, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out six assists.
“Our defense in the first half wasn’t us,” Carter-Williams said. “We really picked it up in the second half. I think that’s what really won us the game.”
When the Magic missed, the Bucks were able to get the rebound and go. Five players had at least four rebounds in the second half, as Milwaukee outrebounded Orlando, 30-15, in the third and fourth quarters.
“We need (Carter-Williams) to rebound the way he did tonight,” Jason said. “I thought he made some great defensive plays. Maybe he got beat, but he came back and challenged the shot at the rim. Giannis did the same thing, challenging shots at the rim.”
Orlando found a way to stick around by continuing to knock down threes. After the Bucks built a 79-74 lead, Luke Ridnour, Channing Frye and Oladipo all hit from deep in a span of two minutes to keep the game close.
The Bucks are the fifth best team in the league (33 percent) at defending the three-point line, but Milwaukee’s last two opponents have combined to hit 19-of-32 attempts from beyond the arc.
“We need to take that away,” Coach Kidd said. “The last couple of (games) we’ve given guys the opportunity to take rhythm 3s and they’ve knocked them down.”
While Jason hopes the Bucks can get back to where they where at defending the three, shooting it from downtown ended up helping them out in a big way down the stretch. With 3:15 left to play, Middleton sank a crucial three-ball from the corner to put Milwaukee up two.
Later the Bucks looked inside to ice the cake. Zaza Pachulia shuffled a sweet pass over to Giannis Antetokounmpo who threw down a dunk as the shot clock expired to push the game out of reach with just 19 seconds left. Giannis scored 11, while Pachulia notched a double-double by scoring 10 points and pulling down 12 boards.
“It was good ball movement,” Pachulia said of that key late play. “Khris started with a post-up, and I flashed low, we ran a pick-and-roll handoff. MCW (Carter-Williams) made a great pocket pass, and I saw Giannis’ guy was coming toward me. I had to pass to Giannis because I told him previously to cut to the basket and that’s what he did. The coaches have told us to talk to each other, and if you communicate you’re going to make things easier for each other. That’s what we’ve been doing lately.”
ADDING MAYO
After missing four straight games with a sore right hamstring, Bucks guard O.J. Mayo returned to the lineup Wednesday.
Mayo scored four points with two assists and three turnovers in 10 minutes, all of which came in the first half. The veteran was not on Milwaukee’s bench in the second half, but Kidd said it was not due to a re-aggravation.
“His (limit) was 10 minutes tonight,” Kidd said of Mayo. “We thought we’d get his 10 minutes in the first two quarters, get his treatment and see how he feels (Thursday). I haven’t talked to him yet, but hopefully (it) went well and he’ll be able to go tomorrow.”
NEXT UP
With 18 games to go, Milwaukee heads to Indiana for a crucial game Thursday night. The Pacers are 12-2 since the All-Star break and are 4.5 games behind the Bucks in the Eastern Conference standings.
Milwaukee then has consecutive road games against Western Conference contenders Memphis and New Orleans before returning home to face San Antonio next Wednesday.
Tip off against the Indiana Pacers is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET at Bankers Life Field house in Indianapolis.
