Jason Kidd and the Milwaukee Bucks spent their New Year’s weekend finishing a four-game road trip against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Chicago Bulls. The Bucks grabbed a split, suffering a setback against the Wolves before blowing out the Bulls.
It was a rough go for the Bucks on Friday night, falling to the Timberwolves 116-99.
“The ball stuck. We didn’t move,” Jason said. “The big thing is our defense, we didn’t put up any resistance tonight and you’ll find yourself in trouble if you do that.”
Minnesota made 13 3-pointers and shot 56 percent from beyond the arc.
“They made threes. (Zach) LaVine and (Shabazz) Muhammad made threes,” Jason said. “You look at, not just the threes, but they got real warm up shots tonight and so we’ve got to do a better job. But this is the NBA. We’ve got a quick turnaround, we’ve got to get ready for Chicago.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 25 points, seven rebounds and five assists; however, it was a poor collective defensive effort that led to the Bucks defeat.
“They’ve got a couple guys over there that are tough covers. We put multiple guys, we went small there at the end to see if we could get it under 10. We couldn’t, and like I said we have to get ready for Chicago,” J-Kidd said. “Our intent, our defense didn’t show up tonight so we gave up 116 points to a team that can score the ball. We didn’t play on both sides. We didn’t share the ball. Offensively, the ball stuck and so we’ll look at it, correct at it and get ready for tomorrow.”
The Timberwolves have some of the league’s best young players in Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns. While those two finished with very impressive nights, including Wiggins’ game-high 31 points, it was Muhammad that got coach Kidd’s attention.
“It’s in the scouting report when he plays us and we said that before going into the game, we’ve got to pay attention when Muhammad comes in and we didn’t,” Jason said. “He had wide open threes today, there was no one guarding him. When you have that type of space you hope they go in and if they do you keep shooting them.”
BUCKS BOUNCE BACK VS. BULLS
After the tough loss, the Bucks went to the Windy City to play the Bulls on New Year’s Eve.
It was a much more successful trip, as the Bucks defeated the Bulls 116-96.
“I thought it was a great bounceback game for the guys after yesterday in Minnesota,” Coach Kidd said. “It didn’t start off well, 11 to 1, but I thought we caught our composure. We didn’t panic. We trusted each other.”
Antetokounmpo had a monster game, finishing with 35 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
“He had a lot of energy tonight. When he has a lot of energy he’s all over the court, not just offensively but defensively and he came up with some big blocks, second or third effort, and that’s what makes him special,” J-Kidd said. “He never quits on the defensive end. He does all the little things, blocking shots and rebounding the ball.”
Jabari Parker added 27 points and five rebounds in 40 minutes.
Even with those impressive performances, it was Malcolm Brogdon that earned most of the attention after the game from Jason.
“Giannis, being the leader that he is, took it upon himself to get the guys going. Jabari in that second half, playing through him, and I think you look at Malcolm, just running the show, doing all the little things, helping the bigs rebound, finding the open guys and then when opportunity presented itself he made shots,” Jason said. “For him to have a triple-double, that’s pretty special.”
Brogdon, in his second career start, recorded a triple-double with 15 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds in 39 minutes.
“Yeah we’re holding him back. Blame it on coach,” Coach Kidd said with a smile on his face. “But I think it’s just special. He’s a special person. For him to come off the bench for us and do the things, and then to be asked to start and run the team with Giannis and Jabari, I thought again he’s handled everything we’ve thrown at him and he was great tonight.”
Brogdon started the previous two game due to Matthew Dellavedova being sidelined with a strained right hamstring.
“Just confidence. He’s full of confidence. He believes he can play and I think just understanding what a starter has to do, there’s a little bit more,” Jason said of Brogdon. “As a guy coming off the bench you can see the flow of the game and try to put, what do I need to do. As a starter you’ve got to try and get those other four touches and get the ball and see how the defense is playing. So I thought he handled it great for a second start and now he’s just got to get some rest and get ready for OKC.”
With that, the Bucks played their last game of the 2016 calendar year. Up next the Bucks travel back home to play the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night.
“(2016) was good. A young group, kind of a new group too. We have a lot of new pieces,” Kidd said. “To finish ‘16 on a positive note, finishing the road trip 2-2 where it could have easily gone 1-3 or been swept, so a lot of good things but we still have a long ways to go.”
