The Milwaukee Bucks returned home on Nov. 14 to conclude a stretch of five games in seven days, beginning with the front end of a back-to-back against the Charlotte Hornets at Fiserv Forum. Unfortunately they were not able to hold on to a late fourth quarter lead and needed overtime to beat the Hornets 147-134. Milwaukee (8-5) held Charlotte (4-8) to just five points in the extra session while scoring 18 its own.
The Bucks refused to lose for the second game in a row, however, keeping up Giannis Antetokounmpo’s early season demand that the team not drop consecutive games. But, they have not won two in a row since Oct. 28-30.
“This team is going to get hot this month,” Bucks center Myles Turner said. “I feel it coming. It’s gonna get to the point where you start rattling off one, two, three, four, five in a row and I feel like we’re due.
“It’s little things that you gotta continue to keep doing to make that happen, though. You can’t just walk in in this league and expect to win games anymore. Everybody’s very competitive, especially in the beginning of the year. But, I just have a great feeling about our habits and where we’re at, and I do have a feeling that we’re gonna get hot very soon.”
Antetokounmpo scored 25 points and handed out 18 assists while Kyle Kuzma had 29 points and 10 rebounds. Ryan Rollins (20), Turner (18), AJ Green (13), Bobby Portis Jr. (12), Cole Anthony (10) and Gary Harris (10) all reached double figures.
BOX SCORE:Bucks 147, Hornets 134 (overtime)
The Bucks host the Los Angeles Lakers on Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. The Lakers (9-4) flew in from New Orleans after beating the Pelicans.
Charlotte was led by Kon Knueppel and Miles Bridges, who scored 32 points each. LaMelo Ball, playing his first game since Nov. 1, logged 27 minutes and scored 16 points and handed out 10 assists – including one to Knueppel that sent the game to overtime.
The Hornets attempted 14 more shots than the Bucks thanks to 22 turnovers by Milwaukee. Charlotte scored 31 points off those extra chances. The Hornets also were 22 of 29 from the free throw line while the Bucks were 17 of 22.
“We had to shoot 65% to win the game,” Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said. “I mean, to shoot 65% and you go into overtime is saying a lot.
“I thought the second half, I will say this, I thought that our rebounding got way better. I think they had seven offensive rebounds (in the first half) and they had three the rest of the game, including overtime. So we solved that problem, but the turnover problem; I bet I can count 10 unforced turnovers that we didn’t need to have. And we’ll clean that up.”
Bucks drastically alter lineups
Before the game, Rivers dismissed a couple of questions regarding the team’s loss to Charlotte on Nov. 14 without Antetokounmpo (“We just didn’t play well the other night, we’re not going to over-do it.”) and a decline in the team’s 3-point attempts over the last five games.
“Again, I’m really not concerned by it guys,” Rivers said. “It’s two games. We won one of ‘em (vs. Dallas), we played awful the next game and it’s really three games. Houston’s a terrific defensive team. So, we just gotta keep our spacing. I think we’ve had some slippage there. We showed it on film (at shootaround). But we’re not overreacting too much right now.”
Yet by game time, Rivers changed the starting lineup for the first time since point guard Kevin Porter Jr. was lost to an ankle injury on Oct. 24 by inserting Kuzma into the small forward position and moving guard Gary Trent Jr. to the bench.
Turner was quick to give Trent credit first, for accepting the change, and noted how well Kuzma had been playing of late. Rivers said after the game he wanted Kuzma size (6 feet, 10 inches tall) defensively and also wanted Kuzma to act as the cutter against Charlotte’s trapping defense on Antetokounmpo.
Five of Antetokounmpo’ 18 assists went to Kuzma in the game.
Then, Rivers completely overturned his bench unit after that.
Harris, who played a total of 21 minutes in just five largely mop-up appearances this season, played about 23 minutes – including a defensive possession in the final seconds that resulted in a miscommunication with Kuzma, and Harris left Knueppel wide open for a game-tying 3-pointer with 21.1 seconds left.
“I had decided I was playing Gary Harris no matter what,” Rivers said. “I just thought; we were looking at guys and I kept thinking, man, I know he can defend, and he has a high IQ. He’ll find ways to get shots, and he did that.”
With Kuzma starting, Rivers turned to big man Jericho Sims to sub for Antetokounmpo, even though he has one career 3-point attempt in five seasons. Amir Coffey, who had seen his minutes increase the last few games, did not play.
The results of several lineups who have never played together were somewhat predictable in the first half in which they trailed 69-61, with the Bucks turning it over 12 times for 18 Hornets points. The Bucks also shot fewer 3-pointers (17) than the Hornets (21).
Kuzma played well individually, scoring 11 points, handing out seven assists and pulling down four rebounds in 17 first half minutes, but the flow of the game was largely uneven.
Rivers said the planned rotations were “messed up,” however, due to foul trouble in the first half.
“That’s just NBA basketball, man,” Turner said. “I think it’s something early in the season that now is the time to experiment, you know?”
The second half was a little bit tighter (eight turnovers, 13 points for Charlotte), as the Bucks overcame a 10-point deficit to lead by as many as six late in the third quarter. But they couldn’t quite put the Hornets away and the teams traded baskets until the final seconds until Knueppel forced overtime. At the end of regulation, the Bucks were 17 of 31 from behind the 3-point, just one more than they tried in Charlotte on Nov. 12.
“I mean, it could be tough (to find chemistry) but we understand our principles as a team no matter who’s out there on the floor,” Harris said. “We’re a versatile, we’re a very deep team, so we know it could be any different lineup at any point and our principles stay the same: we want to keep the floor spaced, move the ball, know our shot profile and just continue to just play-to-play. It could be anybody. We’ve been saying since the beginning of training camp it could be anybody’s night, any night. So, we just gotta stay ready.”
In overtime, Rivers stuck with his new-look starting lineup for the entire five-minute session, and they dominated the quarter 18-5. Though the Hornets were able to get into the paint and have some shots at the rim, Turner hit two 3-pointers and Antetokounmpo had a dunk over Knueppel to give the Bucks a 137-131 lead with 2:25 left to effectively end it.
Bucks improve to 2-0 in NBA Cup pool play
The game was Bucks’ second NBA Cup pool play game in East Group C, and they improved to a group-best 2-0 with the victory. Charlotte fell to 0-2. Milwaukee holds a one game advantage over New York, Miami and Chicago, who are all 1-1.
The Bucks head to Florida and New York the final week of November to finish out group play.
According to Cup rules, however, the Bucks will not get credit for winning by 13 points — which they clearly did not know as AJ Green put up a late 3-pointer at the end of overtime.
Per the NBA, “overtime scoring will not count toward the point differential and total points tiebreakers in the Emirates NBA Cup. A team’s point differential will be “0” in group play games that go to overtime, and a team’s total points scored will exclude points scored in overtime.”
Milwaukee is 10-0 in three seasons of pool play to date.
Adjusted Bucks bench unit has big day
Rollins has been a revelation for the Bucks this season, in large part because starting point guard Porter injured his ankle minutes into the season opener on Oct. 22. So, instead of Rollins anchoring the second unit back court, he’s started 12 straight games and logged over 31 minutes on average.
That, in turns, has shuffled up Anthony minutes as well – and the veteran guard has struggled the last seven games heading into the contest against Charlotte (38.1% shooting, 33.3% from behind the 3-point line).
Then, forward Taurean Prince suffered a herniated disc in his neck, sidelining him since Nov. 4. Prince had surgery and is out indefinitely following surgery, which put a spotlight on the 28-year-old Coffey.
The Bucks waived 22-year-old Chris Livingston and his guaranteed salary to sign Coffey after training camp, and on several occasions during the preseason Rivers said he might start Coffey at times depending on the matchup.
Coffey began his career Rivers while they were in Los Angeles with Clippers in 2018-19, and Coffey is a career 38.2% shooter from behind the 3-point line on low volume (career 2.4 attempts per game).
With the Bucks losing Prince, the team turned to Coffey to play slightly more minutes (10.1 per game before Prince’s injury, 11.5 in four games after). While Prince had been one of the league’s better catch-and-shoot 3-point marksman the last two seasons on just under five attempts per game, Coffey had shot a total of seven 3-pointers (making one) in his first 127 minutes on the floor this season.
“Kind of just continuing to find myself in the system a little bit,” Coffey said following shootaround on Nov. 14. “I had a couple games to play within it, so just finding spaces, areas, the right spacing, where I’m supposed to be at on the floor. I feel like that will help me once I get more familiar with that. Just yeah, taking shots when you’re open, just playing your part within the offense.”
While Rivers said Coffey would find his shot, and liked his on-ball defense, the forward did not get off the bench against the Hornets on Nov. 14.
Instead, Rivers turned to 31-year-old shooting guard Gary Harris.
Harris, who signed a 2-year free agent deal in the summer, had not played much (21 minutes) until Nov. 14. He effectively took over Coffey’s minutes, logging a season-high 23 against the Hornets.
“It feels good,” Harris said of the extended playing time. “Especially to get out there and get to hoop with the guys. It was an important game. For us to get a Cup win, that makes things even better. So, definitely looking forward to it but a lot more we can do.”
Before the game, Rivers quipped that Harris would not have any issues getting shots up and that was the case, as Harris scored 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting, including 2 of 3 from behind the 3-point line. Portis scored 12 points while Anthony had 10 points and five assists. Sims added two points and three rebounds.
It was a return to a five-man bench rotation for Rivers, who had previously used all-bench units before eventually leaving Giannis Antetokounmpo, Myles Turner or Ryan Rollins in with several reserves. The bench group scored 42 points and handed out seven assists against nine turnovers.
Pat Connaughton returns to Milwaukee for first time
Former Bucks forward Pat Connaughton returned to Milwaukee for the first time as a member of the Hornets on Nov. 14, and he immediately got out and about in town like he normally would.
Before the Hornets shot around in preparation for the game, Connaughton attended a ribbon cutting for another “Connaughton Court” renovation at the Don and Sallie Davis Boys & Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee. It was the 13th renovated court the Pat Connaughton Foundation oversaw in and around Milwaukee since 2020.
Connaughton was traded to Charlotte in the offseason after seven years with the Bucks as part of a series of moves to open up cap space to sign Myles Turner.
“Milwaukee, yeah, I’ll always be back around,” Connaughton told the Journal Sentinel in the offseason. “They may not see me as often when I was paying 41 home games here, but they’ll see me in the offseason, they’ll see me in the city. The foundation and the real estate development company will remain here in Milwaukee. We’ll always be looking to give back to a place that obviously gave so much to me throughout the seven years that I’ve been there.”
Connaughton played 10 minutes off the bench, going 0-for-3 from the floor and handing out one assist.
5 numbers
1: Flagrant fouls on the Bucks, called on Cole Anthony for pulling the shoulder of Miles Bridges down.
6: Offensive rebounds for Hornets big man Moussa Diabaté. He had eight offensive rebounds in the Hornets’ win on Nov. 12, and had 10 in a Hornets win over the Bucks last season.
18: Assists for Giannis Antetokounmpo, a season high.
23: Minutes for Gary Harris, season high.
32: Points for Milwaukee native Kon Knueppel, the most he’s had in a game thus far in his young career. The Hornets rookie, who reportedly had about 2,000 fans in the stands for his first homecoming game as a professional, was 12 of 20 shooting and scored 10 in the fourth quarter.
Is Giannis playing?
Yes. The Bucks star began the day as probable to return to the court while dealing with pain in his left knee. He played in the team’s first back-to-back of this stretch on Nov. 9-10.
Bucks injury report
- Taurean Prince, out (neck surgery)
- Kevin Porter Jr., out (right meniscus surgery)
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, probable (left patellar tendinopathy)
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers switches up starting lineup
Bucks head coach made a switch to his starters, inserting Kyle Kuzma in place of Gary Trent Jr., who had been in the opening lineup in every game this season.
Bucks probable starters
- Guards: AJ Green, Kyle Kuzma, Ryan Rollins
- Forward: Giannis Antetokounmpo
- Center: Myles Turner
What time is the Bucks game?
Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT.
What channel is the Bucks game on?
The game will be broadcast locally on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin with Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson and Melanie Ricks will be on the call.
Bucks vs. Hornets odds
Milwaukee is a 9.5-point favorite vs. Charlotte, with the over/under set at 239.5 points.
What is the NBA Cup?
The NBA Cup is an in-season tournament the league began during the 2023-24 season. It features all 30 teams broken up into six “groups” for pool play. The winners of each group and one wildcard from each conference (so eight total teams) advance to single elimination tournament play culminating in the championship game in Las Vegas.
The Los Angeles Lakers (2023) and Bucks (2024) were the first two champions of the Cup while LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo were the first two Most Valuable Players.
Each team has hung a championship banner in their respective arenas to commemorate the title.
What is the prize money for the NBA Cup?
- Winning team: $530,933
- Runner-up: $212,373
- Losing semifinalists: $106,187
- Losing quarterfinalists: $53,093
