Milwaukee vs. Philadelphia Summer League Recap: A More Exciting Loss Than It Had Any Right to Be

Who would’ve guessed that Milwaukee’s first Summer League game would end in the same fashion as Gordon Hayward’s legendary near NCAA championship upset. It also finished in supreme Summer League fashion, with both the Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers making boneheaded back-and-forth errors as the game wound down, with the Buck eventually losing 107-106 as a Sterling Brown ³⁄₄ court shot just hit off the rim.

Milwaukee started sluggish in the first quarter, trailing the Sixers 32-19 with Daulton Hommes starring as about the only Buck worth watching during an 8-point outburst. My favorite quote from the broadcast crew came in the second quarter, when Jorge Sedano remarked on Bonzie Colson, “He’s built....interestingly, right?” Just delightful stuff there, we’ve all thought the same thing Jorge. They also played basketball in the second quarter, but the Bucks fared little better, falling behind 60-43.

The third quarter started with Jock Landale getting bonked on the back of the head with the basketball, followed by an illegal screen call. So yes, Summer League was in full swing after one half. And if you were wondering how the period went, the Bucks were down 87-71 after three. Sensing a theme here? If so, then you’d be wrong! Miraculously, Milwaukee put together a massive fourth quarter run with some transition buckets, pushing the pace and finally forcing the Sixers into turnovers. After a gaggle of gaffes at the end, Brown’s heave just caromed off the rim. Here’s that spectacularly mistake-prone sequence.

Bonus Bucks Bits

Daulton Hommes went on an absolute TEAR in the first, but marred his legend a little in the second by fouling Shake Milton on a triple with just 0.1 seconds remaining in the half. Same sorta thing in the second, when he crossed up his guy and nailed a stepback jumper before losing him on the other end to give up an easy back-cut finish. You get the good and bad with him, but he’ll need to clean up the bad if he wants to find any traction on a team somewhere.

This was a little depressing, leaving the roster’s “genuine NBA players” count to merely one:

We all know Sterling Brown can hoop, the Bucks are just trying to get him more reps with this Summer League stint, so it was nice to see him continuing to operate well as a ball handler in the pick-and-roll. He also nailed a pull-up triple and made a nice read and dish to Johnny Hamilton at the tin. Still, 4-17 is not optimum. He certainly struggled overall today, but I’m more looking for flashes in SL play anyway.

The only thing I knew about Rayjon Tucker was a tweet I found where he dunked over two guys. In today’s game, he also dunked. Expect that to be the main reason he ever gets mentioned in these Summer League recaps.

Zhaire Smith had some absolutely spectacular alley-oop finishes today. This one was my favorite, my word:

Kudos to Bonzie Colson for putting together a supremely solid effort today, ending with 22 points and five rebounds.