After a shockingly slow start to their season, the Milwaukee Bucks have returned to winning ways and continue to gain momentum while earning a trip to Las Vegas.
The Bucks defeated the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night at Fiserv Forum in an NBA Cup knock-out round game. With the victory, the Bucks will be one of four teams left standing in the in-season tournament. It was their 11th win in the last 14 games, a stretch that included a seven-game win streak, pushing the Bucks’ record to 13-11, sixth in the Eastern Conference
The Bucks will play a semifinal game in the NBA Cup on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where the tournament’s semifinal and final games will be held.
“This is huge for us. This is what we wanted to do,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said after Tuesday night’s game. “You set goals and you try to reach them. Our goal isn’t just to get to Vegas. We want to win this thing. But you’ve got to get there first.”
The Bucks will be the only team returning to Las Vegas in the NBA Cup’s second year. They lost to the Indiana Pacers in the semifinals of the last year’s inaugural in-season tournament.
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The opportunity to win the NBA Cup is part of dramatic turnaround for the Bucks, who harbored championship aspirations heading into the season but opened the regular season 2-8, leaving fans frustrated and the team struggling for answers. When the Bucks faced the Toronto Raptors at Fiserv Forum a month ago, it was a matchup of teams with the worst records in all of the NBA.
One constant in a season of ups and downs to this point has been the play of superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who leads the league in scoring at 32.7 points per game. Despite dealing with various nagging injuries, the Greek Freak has missed just two games this season and appears to be playing with a renewed purpose in an effort to bring the Bucks back to a championship level of play.
Antetokounmpo, a two-time MVP, led the Bucks to the NBA crown in 2021, the franchise’s first title in 50 years and just its second ever. But after making the Eastern Conference semifinals after the 2021-22 season, the Bucks have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.
Antetokounmpo scored 37 points in Tuesday night’s game, marking his third consecutive game with 30 or more points and league-high 15th 30-point game of the season. Antetokounmpo shot 62.5% from the field (15-24), marking his 22nd consecutive game with 20 or more points on 50% or better shooting. It’s the third-longest such streak in NBA history behind Shaquille O’Neal (25, in 2001) and Zion Williamson (25, in 2021).
Antetokounmpo is arguably playing as well if not better than at any point during his 12 years with the Bucks since coming into the league as an 18-year-old rookie in 2013.
“He’s doing everything,” Rivers said. “He’s been so efficient. He takes the shots when he should take them. He makes a pass when he should pass. The more he passes and the more he gets other guys involved, the easier it becomes for him.”
The Bucks got a much-needed boost last Friday when veteran forward Khris Middleton, another key cog in the Bucks’ run to the 2021 championship, returned to the lineup after missing the first 21 games of the season while recovering from surgery on both ankles during the off season.
The team’s fortunes have also been bolstered by the recent improved play of reserve forward and fan favorite Bobby Portis, who registered a season-high 23 points in Sunday’s 118-113 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Portis scored 22 points and hauled in 10 rebounds Tuesday night for his third double-double of the season. He scored 12 points and grabbed five boards in the second quarter. Portis has now scored 20 or more points on a scorching 80% shooting in each of his last two games, missing just three of his last 21 shot attempts overall.
“He’s just playing great,” Rivers said. “His emotions are in the right place. His focus is right. You can see his energy. The last two games have been fantastic. Without Bobby, we’d be in trouble.”
Portis applauded the NBA for creating the NBA Cup and said he fully embraces the tournament. “I love it. It gives you an extra incentive early on in the year to fight for something,” Portis said. “I love to compete. I have a competitive spirit. That’s my best quality as a player. The game is precious, especially when you get to win.”
Portis said a return to Las Vegas is important to him and his teammates, who feel they have unfinished business. “Last year, there were a lot of expectations on our team,” he said. “This year, nobody really gave us credit. There’s been all types of narratives this year, especially since where we started the season to where we are now. I like the makeup of our team and the swagger and confidence everybody is playing with. I like the camaraderie and how it keeps getting better.”
And let’s not forget about another supremely talented player in the Bucks lineup, sharp-shooting Damian Lillard, who seems to be much more comfortable and is thriving this season in a Bucks uniform after struggling at times last season. Lillard, who arrived in Milwaukee via a blockbuster trade just before the start of the 2023-24 season, scored 28 points and dished out nine assists in Tuesday night’s game. He has now scored 25 or more points in seven of his last eight games, averaging 27.4 points and 7.5 assists per game over that span.
“More than making it to Vegas, I think it’s just us being able to pull ourselves out of a hole,” Lillard said. “It takes the right type of energy. We just stayed connected and kept fighting. That’s a hard thing to do when you’re struggling and you’re expected to be winning. It takes a connected group to be able to bounce back and come out of that. We got ourselves back to where we want to be and we’ve got to continue to build on that.”
