In stupendously humiliating fashion, the Milwaukee Bucks inexcusably lost to the tank-tastic Houston Rockets, 143-136. If that wasn’t hard enough to swallow, Giannis Antetokounmpo suffered another ankle injury, threatening the team’s prospects as the playoffs approach.
Not even a minute after tip, Giannis was fouled by Kelly Olynyk and re-injured his right ankle, which was already the victim of a recent sprain. He limped off and would not return. Why he needed to play on the first night of a back-to-back against the team with the worst record in the league is beyond me. Milwaukee will be very fortunate if he avoids serious injury after all he’s been through lately.
To add insult to injury, Milwaukee then proceeded to utterly embarrass themselves. The Bucks led the entire first half, but couldn’t stretch their lead past 17 as some hot Rockets shooting always got them back within single digits. Houston began the second half on a 9-0 run to grab the lead as they went nuclear from deep. Their advantage grew to as big as 8 after Milwaukee led by 8 going into the locker room.
Jrue Holiday scored 14 straight points to get Milwaukee back into the game and reclaim the lead early in the fourth. But the Rockets would not waver by continuing to blitz the Bucks from deep and tied it at 125 with 5 minutes to go. Kevin Porter Jr. immediately sunk two heat-check triples and the Bucks instantly became undisciplined, turning the ball over and committing some bad fouls. Porter ended up with a 50 burger in the closing minutes as Houston stepped on Milwaukee’s throat, finishing off one of the worst losses in the Bucks’ recent history.
Stat That Stood Out
There are a lot of numbers one can point to that would explain this loss, but the massive rebound disparity is pretty damning. Houston is one of the worst rebounding teams in the association but killed Milwaukee on the glass with a 52-38 drubbing. The offensive rebounding edge was 16-8, which resulted in a 21-4 Rockets advantage in second-chance points.
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