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Eric WoodyardESPN
MILWAUKEE — Inside the Milwaukee Bucks’ locker room following Monday’s 120-116 loss to the Dallas Mavericks, players were not hanging their heads.
They don’t have time to.
Their 18-game win streak was snapped, two wins shy of matching the franchise record of 20 set during the 1970-71 championship season. But now Milwaukee’s focus shifts to Thursday night, when the Eastern Conference leaders will welcome the West-leading Los Angeles Lakers to town.
“Yeah, obviously. It’s gonna be a good game, gonna be a test for us,” said Giannis Antetokounmpo, who scored a game-high 48 points to go with 14 rebounds and four assists against the Mavericks. “The Lakers are one of the best teams in the league.
“We’ve gotta bring it, gotta play good basketball, gotta move the ball, but obviously as a team we don’t wanna lose two in a row,” he added. “We’ve just gotta go out there and try to get a win.”
The Bucks have lost consecutive games in the regular season just once since Mike Budenholzer took over as head coach entering the 2018-19 season. To avoid doing so a second time will mean beating a team led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
“They’ve got two of the top-5 players in the world so…” Antetokounmpo said.
The Lakers have a top-five offense, but they’re average at taking care of the ball – ranking 17th in turnover percentage entering Tuesday’s road game against the Indiana Pacers. Only the Bucks and Mavericks shoot better, but the Lakers aren’t nearly as potent from three — they’re more about interior offense.
That actually fits Bucks strengths defensively. The Bucks allow 12.9 field goals made per game inside the restricted area, and only 54.5 percent in that zone, both league-wide lows.
However, beating the Lakers will require more than the one-man show that was on display Monday night. Antetokounmpo is capable of stuffing the stat sheet, which was on display during the Dallas loss. But he got little help. Against Dallas, Antetokounmpo scored or assisted on 59 of Milwaukee’s 82 points (72 percent) when he was on the floor on Monday, per ESPN Stats and Information research. Outside of his 48 points, the rest of the starters scored 23.
The Bucks can’t afford to shoot just 41.9 percent from the field and 26.8 percent from 3 again. Some of the poor shooting can be attributed to missing good looks. According to Second Spectrum tracking data, the Bucks had an effective field goal percentage (eFG%) of 47.1 despite a quantified shot quality (qSQ) of 54.1 — meaning Milwaukee had an eFG% much worse than expected given the quality of their attempts.
Still, even if the open looks start falling Thursday night, the Bucks can’t rely as heavily on Antetokounmpo versus James and Davis. They’ll need a total team effort. 2019 All-Star Khris Middleton, former Laker Brook Lopez, Wesley Matthews and Donte DiVincenzo (stepping up in the absence of the injured Eric Bledsoe) have to make an impact.
“I mean that’s what this NBA is. You can’t get too up and down with each game,” said Kyle Korver, who reached the NBA Finals playing alongside James in 2017 and 2018. “It’s a roller coaster if you do that and by the end you’re just exhausted. We’re exhausted anyway. It’s a long season, but you’ve got to learn to build habits.”
Before Monday night, the Bucks had made winning a habit. They were just the ninth team over the past 20 seasons to win at least 18 consecutive games. Five of the previous eight reached the NBA Finals, with four winning the title. While that remains the goal for Milwaukee, the Bucks aren’t stressing that just yet, even with the showdown with the Lakers looming.
“After tonight, I think we just need to breathe, relax a little bit, enjoy that we won 18 games in a row,” Bucks guard George Hill said. “That’s something special. Then tomorrow in practice, [we’ll] start focusing on the Lakers.”
Budenholzer sees the Lakers as another great test and declared that “we’ll be ready” come Thursday.
Before exiting Fiserv Forum, Antetokounmpo anticipated a quiet ride home with his mom and his pregnant girlfriend, due to give birth to the couple’s first child in late February or early March — with the Bucks and Lakers set to meet again on March 6.
Though his 48 points weren’t enough Monday night — in fact, no player had ever scored more in a loss that ended a win streak of at least 15 games — Antetokounmpo was able to find a silver lining in defeat.
“At the end of the day, my dad and my brother always says this, ‘to excel to be better, you’ve got to face adversity.’ It starts from the leader of the team to the last player, we’ve got to see what we did wrong,” Antetokounmpo said. “I’ve got to step it up defensively, play way, way better defense to help my team and it’s good. At the end of the day, you get better.”