The Milwaukee Bucks will officially finish as the worst team in basketball for the 2013-14 NBA season.
The Bucks lost 110-100 in Toronto Monday evening, clinching the worst record in the league at 15-66. Philadelphia also pulled off a victory against the Boston Celtics that helped secure the chamber of mediocrity for Milwaukee this season. By losing Monday, the Bucks are virtually guaranteed to finish in the top-four of the NBA Draft lottery and have a 25% chance of obtaining the first-overall pick in June. Milwaukee failed to win consecutive games this season, making them the third team in NBA history that did not accomplish the feat. The 1986-87 Los Angeles Clippers and the 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks are the other two teams. In Monday’s game, Ramon Sessions led all Bucks players with 22 points, followed by 18 from Brandon Knight and 19 from Jeff Adrien. For Toronto, All-Star Demar DeRozan did not play in the game due to rest. Greivis Vasquez scored 25 points for the Raptors while also dishing out seven assists. Kyle Lowry – who didn’t play last time these two teams met in Milwaukee on April 5 – finished with 24 points and handed out five assists. Jonas Valancinuas dropped in 14 points and pulled down 13 rebounds as Toronto registered their franchise-best 48th win of the season. Toronto officially completed a four-game sweep of Milwaukee. The Bucks will conclude their historically-bad season Wednesday night against the Atlanta Hawks in Milwaukee.
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Milwaukee wasn’t able to make up ground late to avoid embarking on a new historic mark for losses in a season. The Raptors went on to give Milwaukee their 63rd loss of the season by the final score of 102-98.
Even though they were down 28-22 at the end of the first quarter, the Bucks put together a stifling second to give them a 56-47 heading into halftime over the Toronto Raptors. Milwaukee’s bench managed to help cut Toronto’s lead, with 12 big points from John Henson. “Our bench came in and really gave us some solid minutes.” Coach Larry Drew said after the game. “John had to play a lot of minutes tonight; I though he did a good job, too. That was a tough matchup for him, but I thought he did a good job.” The tough matchup Drew was referring to for Henson came from Jonas Valancinuas – who finished the game with 17 points, and 13 boards. Henson helped contribute to the 38 points inside the paint Milwaukee registered in that first half (the Bucks totaled 64 when the game was over). He finished the night with 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds. “I got in a rhythm, and whew I haven’t played like that in a long time. “ Henson said afterwards. The second-year forward also dished out a career-high six assists in the loss but mentioned how he was able to see the floor better thanks to teammate Zaza Pachulia. “Learning from him really from a far and watching what he looks for and what he sees, it really helps out my game as well.” Henson said. Pachulia only managed to play nine minutes in the game due to early foul trouble. The sophomore season for Henson hasn’t been the smoothest. The team has regressed from his rookie season, and just a few weeks ago, he admitted he was going through a bit of a sophomore slump. “We want to win, but I think if we can play this competitive as a team every night, I think there are some better days to come. Hopefully we can look back on this and say this was kind of the turning point of what we did in this organization. That’s all you can hope for.” After ending the first half on a positive note – including an 18-4 run to start the second half – Milwaukee wasn’t able to make up ground late to avoid embarking on a new historical mark for losses in a season. The Raptors went on to give Milwaukee their 63rd loss of the season by the final score of 102-98. After winning the previous two games against Milwaukee, the Toronto Raptors come to Milwaukee Saturday night looking to win their third straight game against the Bucks this season. Unlike those last two games, though, Toronto will not have starting point guard Kyle Lowry and forward Amir Johnson available. For Milwaukee, last night they put together a nice run down the stretch in Chicago against the Bulls, but registered their 62nd loss of the season by the final score of 102-90. The Bucks’ worst record in franchise history came back in 1993-94 when the team finished 20-62. If Milwaukee can’t win tonight, they will secure a new franchise-worst record at the conclusion of this season.
Below are pre-game nuggets and quotes as you prepare for tonight’s matchup: Injuries -O.J. Mayo, Miroslav Raduljica and Ekpe Udoh will not play tonight. All of them missed yesterday’s game in Chicago against the Bulls. -For Toronto, Kyle Lowry and Amir Johnson “probably” won’t play, according to coach Dwayne Casey. They both missed last night’s game against the Indiana Pacers. Other - On Saturday morning, the Bucks announced they have signed Chris Wright to another 10-day contract. Wright played for the team in March and averaged 6.0 points per game in the two games he participated in. - Jeff Adrien set a new career-high for points last night in Chicago scoring 21. - The Bucks own a .652 all-time winning percentage against the Raptors, which stands as their best mark against any opponent. - In the second matchup against the Raptors in Toronto, Ersan Ilyasova scored his then season-high for points with 29, while also snatching nine rebounds. - Also in that second matchup, Toronto shot an efficient 63% from the field after the first quarter. Quotes - Larry Drew on Chris Wright returning for a second 10-day contract: “Of the three guys [Tony Mitchell, D.J. Stephens, Chris Wright], we thought he was more of a fit for us. I though he did a good job this year, he really showed good energy. He had a really good showing against Sacramento and I had a really good conversation with him." - Drew on if he saw Larry Sanders’ comments on the use of marijuana: “I did not see it.” - Steve Novak on who he thinks will win between Wisconsin and Kentucky in the Final Four tonight: “I expected it to be a tie.” The game will tip off at 7:30 CDT. It’s been a harrowing season for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2013-14. With only eight more games left to play, the Bucks are on track to finish with their worst regular season record in franchise history. As of today, their worst season campaign came during the 1993-94 season when the team finished with a 20-62 record. Many fans of the Bucks in the city of Milwaukee (and elsewhere) are cheering for the team to lose in order to obtain a higher draft pick in the NBA Draft. For head coach Larry Drew, he isn’t paying attention to any of it.
“I don’t [react]. Honestly, with all sincerity I don’t. I go out and coach each game to try to win. I don’t look at where we are or what our season is about right now. My job is to get these young men ready to play every single night and to play hard. Given what our situation is, it’s easy to play our season out, but we’re not going to do that. Wherever we end up, that’s where we end up, but we’re not under any circumstance going to go out there and fold the tent.” Drew said on Saturday night before Milwaukee’s 88-67 loss to the defending champion Miami Heat. The last worst team in an NBA season to actually win the top pick came back in 2003 when the Orlando Magic selected Dwight Howard. Still, Milwaukee will be guaranteed a top-four pick come lottery time. “People are looking at the future as far as the draft is concerned and they already got their eyes kind of pinpointed on players of the future, and that’s normal. I don’t fault them at all for that, but I let it be known that I don’t pay much attention to that, all I do it go out and try to coach this team. Where we end up, that’s where we end up.” The loaded upcoming NBA Draft is nearly three months away (June 26), and on Monday, one of the top prospects – Kansas’ Andrew Wiggins – announced that he will not return to school next year and will enter the pool of players. The other top prospect -- Duke freshman Jabari Parker -- is expected to make his decision soon. Wiggins’ teammate Joel Embiid and others will announce their decisions in the coming weeks as well. With Milwaukee losing Monday night in Detroit to the Pistons, they’ve set themselves up for a rough stretch to end their season. If the Bucks lose on Wednesday evening to the Miami Heat, they will need to win out the remaining seven games in order to not finish with their franchise-worst 20-67 record or below. The Miami Heat continued their three-game road trip with a pit stop in Milwaukee Saturday night against the Bucks. The defending champs would be without former Marquette star Dwyane Wade (hamstring) and former Buck Ray Allen (stomach flu). Despite spraining his ankle against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, Giannis Antetokounmpo came off the bench for the Bucks while O.J. Mayo sat out against because of an ankle injury he sustained earlier in the week.
Both of these teams started off the game shooting poorly from the field. At the end of the first, Miami shot a putrid 26% from the field, while Milwaukee shot 33%. “We struggled offensively, that was our biggest problem in particularly the first half. We were just not sharp from an offensive standpoint.” Coach Larry Drew said. The Heat started the game 0-for-5 from the field, 0-for-3 from three, and 0-for-2 from the line (Lebron James missed a pair). Their first basket as a team came with 8:59 left in the first quarter when Chris Bosh made two free-throws. D.J. Stephens made his NBA debut in the second quarter. Stephens, currently on a 10-day contract with Milwaukee, finished with five points and four rebounds in 12 minutes of play. “It definitely felt good being able to get my feet wet a little bit. It’s my first NBA game, so I was out there nervous the whole time, but I just tried to go out there and compete, play hard, play defense, do what I do on offense and just see what would happen.” Stephens said after the game. At halftime, the Heat led Milwaukee 46-29 even though LeBron only managed to score four points. Despite his low point total, James still managed to facilitate the floor effectively and play aggressive. “He has that ability to get more aggressive or turn it up,” Drew said. “It makes their offense that much more effective because you can’t just zero in on him because he will pick you apart." Chris Bosh came through for the Heat by adding 12 points and pulling down five rebounds. The sluggish play of both teams carried on into the second half with Milwaukee shooting 33% at the end of three, and Miami shooting 43%. The third was a nice quarter for LeBron James, as he scored nine points for the Heat. “When he’s in that type mode, he’s that much tougher to defend. He has the ability to get more aggressive, which he did in the third quarter.” Larry Drew said. James finished the night tied with a season-low 13 points while grabbing seven rebounds, but also committed four turnovers. Miami shifted to cruise control in the fourth as they sat him for most of the quarter. The Heat completed their three-game road trip with tonight’s 88-67 win and will head back to Miami as they prepare to play the Toronto Raptors on Monday. For the Bucks, they will head back on the road to face the Detroit Pistons – who the Philadelphia 76ers defeated Saturday to snap their 26-game losing streak – on Monday. Milwaukee scored a season-low 67 points tonight and luckily were one point above the NBA league-low for points in a game this season. This week, I went and got perspective on one of the more interesting topics in the hip-hop industry as of this date (March 30, 2014) from players of the Milwaukee Bucks. Reporters usually don’t give readers that much insight on things like music outside the game of basketball very often, so that’s why I decided to do this (and will now continue to do so).
For this post, I asked three Milwaukee Bucks players whether or not they think hip-hop artist Drake should respond to Jay-Z after Hov took shots at the Canadian rapper in a track titled, “We Made It”. The Brooklyn-born rapper labeled him as “Mrs. Drizzy” in the song. In an interview with Rolling Stone, this is what Drake had to say about Jay-Z that originally sparked the fiery response: “It’s like Hov can’t drop bars these days without at least four art references,” Drake said. “I would love to collect [art] at some point, but I think the whole rap/art world thing is getting kind of corny.” And boom goes the dynamite: “Sorry Mrs. Drizzy for so much art talk. Silly me, rappin’ ’bout s**t that I really bought — while these rappers rap about guns that they ain’t shot — and a bunch of other silly s**t that they ain’t got.” Drake is arguably the best hip-hop artist in the game right now and has the work to show for it. But will Drake actually take time out of his day to respond? Or will he leave Jay-Z sitting in his waiting room alongside Kendrick Lamar. That’s what we’ll find out soon. “Why not? He’s obviously the best to ever do it, why not challenge him.” Ekpe Udoh told me pregame before the Bucks took on the defending champion Miami Heat on Saturday. “I don’t think he has to go at Jay-Z in a diss, but just show that ‘I am going to challenge you’. If he [Drake] is going to go at the throne, he has to drop straight bars. What can you say about Jay-Z? Jay can say whatever he wants, he’s at the top.” “I’m thinking he should not respond to Jay-Z.” Giannis Antetokounmpo said. In my brief conversation with him before the game, Giannis mentioned how he actually saw Drake during NBA All-Star weekend when it took place in New Orleans during the month of February. Antetokounmpo participated in the Rising Stars and Skills Challenge that weekend. Now maybe the funniest response I received on this topic from the Bucks locker room came from O.J. Mayo. “Man, the last time there was beef that I heard it was Tupac and Biggie and they both died.” O.J. let me know that he hasn’t been able to really keep up with much lately, even though I sorta assumed that after what he said. For the second time this season the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks will face off against one another. For the first time since last season’s first-round sweep, they will meet in Milwaukee. In general, the last time these two teams met came in the month of November with Miami winning by the final score of 118-95.
In that game, Milwaukee’s young Bucks all featured some game-time action. Nate Wolters started in place of Brandon Knight at the time (hamstring), Giannis Antetokounmpo made his first NBA 3-pt shot, while Miroslav Raduljica made his debut. This time, Wolters (fractured hand) and Antetokounmpo (sprained ankle) will not be playing. Raduljica last played on March 23, sparingly (four minutes) against the Sacramento Kings. Below are pre-game nuggets and quotes as you prepare for tonight’s matchup: Injuries - O.J. Mayo is out for tonight’s game. Mayo sprained his ankle in Los Angeles against the Clippers on Tuesday. - Giannis Antetokounmpo will play in tonight’s game after spraining his right ankle against the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. (Los Angeles might have a grudge against ankles.) - Former Buck Ray Allen will not play tonight for Miami due to the stomach flu. He didn’t play in Miami when these two teams met either. - Dwyane Wade will rest his hamstring tonight and will not play. Greg Oden and Mario Chalmers are out also. Other - John Henson recorded his first NBA double-double at Miami on November 21, 2012 with 17 points and 18 rebounds. - The Bucks will only play Eastern Conference teams the rest of the way this season. Their last Western Conference matchup was on Thursday when they swept their two-game series against the Los Angeles Lakers (first since 2006-07). Quotes - Coach Larry Drew on Brandon Knight: “He’s still a really young developing player. Brandon wants to get better, he wants to learn. We challenge him at the point guard position because that’s such a vital position in the league. He still makes mistakes, but I think all that’s been said about him at the beginning, I think he really came into this thing really positive.” - Coach Larry Drew on people wanting the Bucks to lose: “I go out and coach each game to try to win. I don’t look at where we are and what our season is about right now. My job is to get these young men ready to play every single night, and to play hard.” Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. CDT. Nate Wolters’ surprising rookie campaign could be just about over. On Thursday night against the Golden State Warriors, Wolters fractured his left hand in the third quarter of Milwaukee’s 115-110 loss. After heading briefly to the locker room for treatment, he returned to the Bucks’ bench without any medical taping and such on his hand. The Bucks officially confirmed the injury and ruled him out for the remained of the game via Twitter. Wolters played just 10 minutes and finished with two points in the game.
After being drafted out of South Dakota State in the second-round of last year’s draft, Wolters played solid this season even though he only averaged 7.3 points and 3.3 assists. In his given opportunities, he showed that he can do a solid job of running the floor for the Bucks and proved to be a reliable player for Milwaukee during the season. He wasn’t brought along slowly, either. In Milwaukee’s first game against the New York Knicks, Brandon Knight suffered an ankle injury that forced Wolters to play roughly 30 minutes in his first NBA game. When Knight returned, he was buried on the bench until January when Larry Drew decided to insert him into the starting lineup. He started in 30 of Milwaukee’s 57 games. “He had been playing really well for us. The kid has a lot of heart.” Drew said after the game. “He’s been competing his tail off, it’s a big blow. Hopefully he’ll have a full recovery.” Milwaukee will play in Sacramento on Sunday against the Kings before ending their four-game road trip on Monday against the Los Angeles Clippers. Early Saturday afternoon, O.J. Mayo was handed down a one-game suspension from the league after his shove to Greg Stiemsma of the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night. On the subject of suspensions, Ersan Ilyasova returned from his and was inserted back into the starting lineup for Milwaukee.
On a warmer-than-usual March Saturday night, the Washington Wizards withheld blowing a 28-point lead and still managed to defeat the Milwaukee Bucks by the final score of 114-107. In the first half, the Wizards recorded a new season-high for points by pouring on 75 against Milwaukee. Of that 75, 30 were from the three point line, making it the second time this season that Washington has made 10 or more threes in a half. Twenty of Washington’s 75 in the first half came from Trevor Ariza, as he embarrassed the Bucks from the outside and even inside. Ariza nailed four triples in the half, and the fourth one helped him pass Antwan Jamison to rank fourth on the Wizards’ single-season total for three pointers made. “They made some shots, but we put up no resistance. There we no real adjustments. We just focused on defending our guy. They’re one of the best teams in our league as far as throwing the cross-court passes.” Larry Drew said afterwards. Alongside Ariza’s outstanding half, Washington received nine points from former Bucks forward Drew Gooden. Gooden scored nine points in the third quarter, including seven points in his first seven minutes of play. Amazingly enough, the Wizards didn’t even need their All-Star point guard John Wall for most of the night. Wall only managed to score four points for Washington in the half and yet they still sat pretty cozy heading to the locker room at the midway point. For Milwaukee, Brandon Knight led the team with 16 points followed by 10 from Khris Middleton. Washington built a ridiculous 28-point lead at one point and time in the first half. “I thought the first half we played like a team that wanted to feel sorry for ourselves, given what our situation is. Having to travel last night, I thought we felt sorry for ourselves, and played like we felt sorry for ourselves in the first half.” Drew said. Washington started the second half as if they thought the game was over. The Bucks had other plans, starting the second half on a 12-0 run to cut Washington’s lead to only 10 (75-65). “We kind of knew if we play the same way [in] the second half good things would happen for us.” Ersan Ilyasova said The Wizards went on a seven minute scoring drought until Trevor Ariza banked a shot off the glass inside with just under four minutes remaining in the third. Before Ariza’s made basket, the Wizards went 0-for-9 from the field. They actually scored a season-low 10 points in the quarter. “We’ve got to keep moving. Our team is based on movement. Even though we were up by 30, we let them get into a rhythm. They were making shots and feeling comfortable. We’ve got to do a better job of that.” John Wall said. Milwaukee turned things on in the fourth quarter and climbed within four points with 6:43 left to play. Milwaukee closed the gap to three after being down 28 with just under three minutes to play, but Bradley Beal knocked down a trey to give the Wizards an eight point lead with 1:23 left that ultimately sealed the deal. Beal finished with 23 points, including 12 in the fourth quarter. After two free throws from Trevor Ariza, the Wizards went on to defeat the Bucks by a final score of 114-107. “We were lucky enough to hang on and pull it out.” Wizards coach Randy Wittman said afterwards. “Give Milwaukee credit, they didn’t give in. We came out in the third quarter and played like we were going to run the clock out and go home. We took shortcuts defensively and we just stopped playing.” Wittman said. For Washington, Ariza led the team with 28 points and Bradley Beal scored 23, along with 15 from Martell Webster off the bench. The Wizards have won eight of their last nine games and are now one game behind the Chicago Bulls for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards improved to 2-1 this season against the Bucks and will finish the season series against them on April 12 in Washington For Milwaukee, Brandon Knight finished with 25 points while Khris Middleton added 15. The Bucks lost their third straight game and will look to get off the skid on Monday against the Orlando Magic. |
Above the AntlersThis blog displays my coverage as a reporter covering the Milwaukee Bucks for the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
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