Game 37: Bucks deliver 3rd straight loss to Spurs

(1) What happened in the second quarter? (2) Player observations

Photo credit: Reginald Thomas II on Spurs.com

Entering the game

The San Antonio Spurs were without forward Jeremy Sochan, who is once again dealing with a lower back injury. The Milwaukee Bucks had their full rotation available and were favored by 5 points.

This is the story of a game

This game was pretty much decided in the second quarter. Milwaukee brought up their intensity on the defensive end by holding the Spurs to 15 points, and on offense, the Bucks scored 34 points in the quarter. San Antonio trailed by 19 points going into halftime. Veterans Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes tried to help the Spurs get back in the game, as the Spurs got within 8 of the Bucks’ lead, and entered the fourth down by 13 points. In the fourth though, Milwaukee would once again push ahead and lead by as many 26 points. In the final few minutes both teams emptied their benches and Milwaukee would end up winning by 16 points.

“I thought their physicality got to us, even early,” said Spurs Acting Head Coach Mitch Johnson after the game. “I think we made a few shots just to hang around in that first quarter, but our offense was slow. We weren’t getting catches in the spots we wanted to get catches. Our timing was off and their physicality dictated a lot of that, or our lack of - whatever lens you want to look at it through. And then I think the court kind of got slanted in terms of us being down hill, running back on defense and they were just coming at us with so much momentum. I think our offense let us down at times tonight.”

“We were playing against the clock a bunch, so we had no pace,” continued Coach Johnson of the Bucks’ defenders contesting a lot of the Spurs’ shots. “We were just in mud. So they were always close to us, because the basketball wasn’t moving. Whether we were over-dribbling or we couldn’t get to the spots, they were always just around.”

“Tonight we got our butt kicked,” said Coach Johnson. Victor Wembanyama echoed what his coach said in his postgame press conference.

“They were better than us,” said Wemby. “They were better basketball players tonight. We have to step up and we have to respect that team.”

After the loss

With the loss, the Spurs fall below .500 (18-19) for the first time since December 6. Like on December 6, the Spurs are once again facing a season high 3-game losing streak. The Spurs are holding onto the 10th spot out West, though they now have an identical record with the Sacramento Kings (18-19), who sit 11th out West.

The road continues to be a challenging place for the Spurs this season, with the team falling to 6-11 on the road, and in games against the Eastern Conference, the Spurs are now 3-5.

The Spurs trailed by 20 points for the 10th time this season and in those games they’re now 1-9.

Up Next

The Spurs will have two days off before resuming play in Los Angeles Saturday against the Lakers.

Here are the two items in this postgame report:

• (1) What happened in the second quarter?

• (2) Player Observations

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Shot location scoring and Spurs box score

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(1) What happened in the second quarter?

In the second, you could see the Bucks playing with more intensity defensively. Their guards were applying ball pressure near halfcourt, making the Spurs have to work on getting into their offensive sets. They also made a switch in the second by making Giannis Antetokounmpo (25 points) the main defender on Wemby. With Giannis’ defensive pressure on the Spurs’ best player, San Antonio had a tough time get anything going offensively. The Spurs shot 26% in the quarter and 33% from three.

On the other end, the Bucks had players go on runs in waves, with Damian Lillard (26 points) scoring 10 points in the quarter, Brook Lopez (22 points) launching 3s and ending up with 9 points in the quarter, and then off the bench, AJ Green (14 points) went on a heat check, finishing with 8 points in the quarter.

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(2) Player Observations

• Chris Paul - Paul finished with 18 points on 10 shots, with 5 rebounds, 7 assists to 0 turnovers, 1 steal, and 1 block in 29 minutes. Paul did what he could in the third to try to chip at the Bucks’ lead, by scoring 9 of his 18 points in that quarter, making three triples, including two-pull up threes with bigs like Lopez and Bobby Portis playing drop defense.