AJ Green and Bobby Portis key fourth quarter run as Bucks beat 76ers 114-105.
It took until the fourth quarter, but the Milwaukee Bucks finally put away the scrappy Philadelphia 76ers in a 114-105 victory Thursday night at Fiserv Forum.
After jumping out to an early first quarter lead, Milwaukee (43-24) trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and didn’t reclaim the advantage for good until early in the fourth quarter when Bobby Portis and AJ Green came off the bench to combine for every point in a 12-3 Bucks run that flipped a three-point deficit to a 96-90 lead.
“I think Bobby just stuck with it and let it come to him and when he sees one go he can put ‘em on the board pretty quick and that’s what he did,” Green said. “I just tried to be patient, find space and let it fly when I was open.”
The Bucks then did enough down the stretch to slow all-star guard Tyrese Maxey and send the 76ers (36-30) to their fifth loss in six games. Green helped close the game, which included defending Maxey at times, and finished with 14 points while Portis had eight.
"Obviously AJ is a sniper and Bobby is our punch off the bench," Damian Lillard said. "He's going to score the ball, he's going to bring energy, he's going to be toughness and that edge. And I think to start that fourth quarter there's going to be a lot of attention on the ball with me, there's going to be a lot of attention when Giannis (Antetokounmpo) gets the ball and Doc (Rivers) is just always on me about getting downhill, getting into the paint 'cause the defense is going to converge and just making the right plays.
"I think when you got guys like that on the other end of that, AJ is going to shoot it, he's going to make it and I think Bobby is going to do what he doe as well – he's going to score the ball."
It was fourth time this season Green had reached double figures in scoring.
“I probably was more proud of Bobby because I thought they sped Bobby up in the first half, got under his skin a little bit – and you know Bobby – and I thought he caught himself there in the second half and really helped us,” Bucks head coach Rivers said. “And AJ was just terrific, spacing the floor. Once on a switch we trapped and his job after that was to deny Maxey and he did a great job of doing that.”
BOX SCORE: Bucks 115, 76ers 104
Antetokounmpo scored eight straight after Green and Portis’ surge and then Lillard added two of his own and assisted on a Brook Lopez three-pointer to effectively clinch the game with a minute left at 109-101.
Antetokounmpo finished with a team-high 32 points and added 10 rebounds and seven assists. He made 9 of 12 shots and 14 of 18 free throws. Lopez had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Lillard had 17 points and nine assists.
Maxey led the 76ers with 30 points while Tobias Harris had 15.
Bucks slow Tyrese Maxey in fourth quarter
The Bucks have had their hands full with Philadelphia's all-star guard Maxey this season, as he scored 31 points on Oct. 26 and 24 on Feb. 25. Thursday was no different as the 23-year-old nearly willed the 76ers to an upset victory. He scored 10 points in 12 first quarter minutes to stake the 76ers to a 29-24 lead and then scored eight points in a 1-minute, 10-second stretch at the end of the second quarter to keep his team out front 61-53 at halftime.
Maxey continued to hit key shots to help keep his team from losing the handle on the game in the third quarter, making a handful of baskets following Bucks scores stave off a true momentum shift.
He had 29 points through three quarters, but in the fourth quarter the Bucks tightened the screws on the dynamic 6-foot, 2-inch scorer by trapping him with their big men.
“He’s so talented,” Lopez said of Maxey. “He’s tough to slow down. Just having trust in the guard that we’re going out there with is big. Bobby, Giannis, whoever it is, we gotta go out there and do our job and obviously we trust that the guard’s going to push a player like Maxey to us so we can even get to the trap. And it’s trusting in the back side behind us as well. So, just knowing and believing that your teammates are going to be there for you makes it that much easier going into the trap.”
Maxey went 0 for 4 as the Bucks eventually overtook the game after he checked in during the fourth quarter. He missed all five of the shots he took in just under nine minutes of play in the fourth. He didn’t score in the frame until he made a free throw with 58 seconds remaining.
“A player like that it takes a team,” Green said. “We wanted to get the ball out of his hands a little bit more so we started blitzing and corralling the ball screen and making him give it up and I just tried to deny it back. And when I was guarding him, just make it tough. He’s going to make shots, just make him work for all those shots. Brook, Bobby, Giannis they all have my back down in the pain so it makes my life easier as well.”
He finished with 30 points on 12 of 22 shooting, including 5 of 8 from behind the three-point line.
It was the 27th time this season the Bucks gave up 30 or more points to an opposing guard, but just the fifth since Rivers took over on Jan. 29.
Sloppy first half sets Bucks back
Philadelphia took a 61-53 lead into the break thanks to 18 points from Maxey and 11 off the bench from Cameron Payne, with the two guards combining to go 7 for 9 from behind the three-point line. Their performances from deep – which featured Payne being left open for his and Maxey flying around screens to open up a couple of makes – helped the 76ers to a 57.9% mark from deep (11-for-19).
They made three more three-pointers than the Bucks (8-for-19) and then scored 10 points off 17 Milwaukee turnovers in the opening 24 minutes. The Bucks came into the contest as the seventh-best team in the NBA in protecting the ball, turning it over just 12.6 times per game.
“I think we just let them kind of dictate us a little bit," Green said. "They were kind of in our space nd we just sped up a little bit and just weren’t patient offensively, just getting what we wanted. In the second half we did that and things opened up tremendously.”
Milwaukee’s big men in particular had a rough half, as Antetokounmpo had four turnovers in his 19 minutes and Portis had three in 11 minutes. Lopez had two giveaways in his 18 minutes of play.
“I thought they were more physical in the first half," Rivers said. "I thought they were the instigator the entire first three quarters. They instigated all the actions, they denied us, they fought us, they trapped us, they pushed us, we were on the floor more than them bottom line. I thought the fourth quarter it flipped.”
Did you notice?
Giannis earned his fifth technical foul of the season with 8:28 to go in the third quarter after he was first called for an offensive foul on a move he eventually passed out of at the 8:47 mark. Bothered by the call, Antetokounmpo was quickly whistled for a defensive foul on the ensuing 76ers possession – and then was quickly rung up for the technical. As Tobias Harris got ready to shoot the free throw, Antetokounmpo followed official James Williams to the other side of the court to plead his case, gesturing down to the offensive end of the floor.
Five numbers
2 Buzzer beaters during the game, first by Philadelphia’s Nic Batum to beat the clock going into halftime and then by Pat Connaughton just before time expired at the end of the third quarter.
3 Home games the Bucks have played in a month following Thursday’s action against Philadelphia. They hosted the Charlotte Hornets on Feb. 27 and the Los Angeles Clippers on March 4. They went 5-4 on the road beginning with a Feb. 15 loss in Memphis before the all-star break.
23 Points off Bucks turnovers for the scoring-challenged 76ers. Milwaukee gave it up 15 times in total but were much better in the second half, however, turning it over just five times for just six 76ers points.
895 Career steals for Antetokounmpo, moving his past Paul Pressey (894) for No. 2 on the all-time steals list in Bucks history. Quinn Buckner is No. 1 with 1,042 steals – one of the few franchise marks Antetokounmpo does not own.
2020-21 Last time the Bucks swept a regular season series against Philadelphia.
Giannis plays with sore hamstring
The MVP candidate began the day listed as probable to play with left hamstring soreness, the first time he has dealt with that issue all season. He said he first felt his hamstring against the Los Angeles Clippers on March 10.
Antetokounmpo went through his usual pregame warmup and was cleared to play, though he continued to work on his hamstring afterward. He played seven first quarter minutes and was 1-for-2 from the floor. After his first rotation, he rode the exercise bicycle near the Bucks bench to stay warm.
“You have to stay warm,” he said of jumping on the bike. “If you don’t and you get cold, now you gotta warm up again from the beginning and it’s hard. And that three, two to four minutes that you step on the floor and you try to get yourself going again, that’s when damage is going to happen. So, you have to stay warm throughout the whole game. The bike was good but the bike, I didn’t like. I didn’t like the way I felt when I started walking on the floor when I got subbed in but I had my physios and people taking care of, give me some heat pads and tried to stay warm as much as possible.”
He missed one layup in the first quarter and had a block dunked in the second, though it looked like he lost the handle on the ball as he went up. He did put down a dunk with authority later in the second quarter off a baseline spin move and by the third quarter he was able to leap to put down a high Damian Lillard lob pass with authority.
Antetokounmpo has recently dealt with right knee tendinitis (March 10-12) and left Achilles tendinitis (March 3-8) but has missed just three games this season.
“You don’t play with calves and hamstrings," Antetokounmpo said. "They’re shaky. You can feel like a strain or whatever the case may be and it’s (small) and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So, that’s pretty much going to be longer out. So you don’t mess with stuff like that. But I felt in a good place. I think I was 100%? Maybe not, but I felt in a good place. I was able to compete, I was able to control myself, so I’m happy that I did (play).”
Khris Middleton injury update
The all-star continues to work out in two-on-two and three-on-three scenarios, but he has yet to be cleared to play. Middleton was briefly upgraded to questionable to play against Sacramento on the March 11 off day, but he has quickly been ruled out since.
Players dealing with a long-term injury are only required to speak one time while they are out, and Middleton said on March 6 that the main impediments to a return are pain and continued swelling in the ankle.
Middleton injured the joint on Feb. 6 when he landed on Kevin Durant’s foot in a loss at Phoenix. Durant was assessed a flagrant foul for the play.
More: The Bucks' Khris Middleton opens up on getting through his toughest year and bouncing back
Bucks change pre-game schedule vs. 76ers
Milwaukee returned from its long West Coast trip on Wednesday afternoon, and the team did not hold a shootaround before the 76ers game. Instead, the Bucks went through a pregame walkthrough at Fiserv Forum.
Doc Rivers said he typically lets his teams have the morning off after a long west coast trip to adjust to the time zone.
The Bucks typically skip a shootaround on the second game of a back-to-back, but Thursday marked the first shootaround the team has not held following an off day since Jan. 11.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Green and Portis key fourth quarter run as Bucks beat 76ers 114-105.
