MINNEAPOLIS — Brook Lopez had not scored since midway through the second quarter. The 36-year-old center had not even attempted a shot since midway through the third. But with the score tied and 25 seconds remaining in Wednesday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers called for a pick-and-roll with Lopez screening for Kevin Porter Jr.
With Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard both sidelined with injuries in the Bucks’ final game before the NBA All-Star Break, Lopez’s gravity was among the team’s best advantage creators. The veteran big man had not showcased his scoring touch since the first half, but he scored seven points in the first five minutes of Wednesday’s game with Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert on him. Lopez, in fact, has spent the last seven years shooting deep 3s in head-to-head matchups with Gobert, trying to pull the four-time Defensive Player of the Year away from the paint.
When Porter attacked briefly and then kicked it out to Lopez deep on the left wing, everyone knew what was coming next. Except Lopez didn’t attempt the deep 3.
Instead, he pump faked and attacked Gobert’s aggressive closeout off the bounce. The Minnesota Timberwolves center recovered well, but Lopez was creative enough to switch to his left hand at the end of his drive and draw contact to force two free throws.
“I popped,” Lopez (11 points, seven rebounds) said. “I saw him close out pretty hard, so I just put it on the floor and tried to make a play.”
Lopez made it sound simple, but there is nothing simple about a 7-foot-1, 276-pound center pump-faking a 30-foot 3 and driving to the rim for an off-hand finish to draw a foul on one of the game’s best defensive players.
With the game on the line, Lopez calmly drained two free throws to give the Bucks a two-point lead, setting the scene for the game’s final play.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch had two timeouts but opted instead to let his superstar Anthony Edwards attack without a play drawn up to attempt to tie or win the game. Edwards’ 23rd miss of the night allowed the Bucks to escape with a 103-101 victory and head into the All-Star break with a win.
“Gutty. Just tough,” Rivers said of his team’s defensive performance. “They’re a good offensive team. They’re a good basketball team. We knew we had to defend Edwards. We did our best of doing it without fouling. Overall, we did that, and that was really good.”
While the Bucks had come up just short of Rivers’ goal of holding the Timberwolves to under 100 points on the night, he still thought they did what they needed to do to put together a strong defensive effort against one of the league’s top young stars. Edwards was 10-of-33 from the field, including 4-of-17 from behind the 3-point line, and the Bucks sent him to the free-throw line only five times, despite playing a very physical game.
GO DEEPER
Anthony Edwards keeps shooting, even as the misses in clutch moments keep coming
Rivers admitted that the Bucks have not been able to see much of their trade-deadline vision come to life yet, so they’ve been forced to settle for glimpses of the things the new players can do in the meantime. Those examples were on display again in Minnesota. This time, though, the Bucks got to see those plays in moments that mattered more.
Since acquiring Kyle Kuzma from the Wizards, both Rivers and general manager Jon Horst have talked about how they believe Kuzma will help the team play in transition more and how they love the 29-year-old forward’s ability to grab rebounds and take off for the offensive end. On Wednesday, Kuzma displayed that ability in crunchtime with a big-time assist to Gary Trent Jr., who finished with 21 points on 8-of-12 shooting.
“It was huge,” Rivers said. “(Kuzma) and Giannis are two guys — I mean, it’s not like a lot of fours and threes or whatever they are (who) can do that in the league. And that was great to see Kuzma do it and fire it. Our guys, the more you do that, the more they run. When they think they have a guy that’s going to pass them the ball, they become Usain Bolt. They start flying down the floor, and you can see that today.”
With Lillard out Wednesday, Rivers inserted Ryan Rollins into the starting lineup. He made just two of his 12 shots and struggled to find consistency on offense, so Rivers turned to the recently acquired Porter to run the show late.
The Bucks had built a five-point lead with just under three minutes remaining, but seven consecutive points from Naz Reid gave the Timberwolves a two-point lead with 47.6 seconds remaining. Rivers was out of timeouts because of an unsuccessful challenge 12 seconds before Reid’s final bucket, so the Bucks were forced to play without a timeout. That’s when Porter took control.
“His guts,” Rivers said when asked what he liked about Porter’s performance. “He’s calm. It’s funny. They score, and he was the first one (to say), ‘Everybody relax.’ I didn’t know he was going to shoot the ball, but we knew we could get downhill.”
Neither Kuzma nor Porter was perfect on Wednesday; each player had possessions they could have executed better. But both were solid and did enough to help the Bucks get a hard-fought road win against a strong Western Conference opponent. Kuzma put up 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting and added 13 rebounds and four assists, while Porter contributed 11 points, eight rebounds and five assists.
Both players showed what they could do and hinted at what they may be able to contribute when the Bucks get to full strength after the All-Star break.
“We’re really hoping that when we come out of the break, we have our team,” Rivers said. “That’s the hope. That’s the guide.”
When the Bucks return from the break, they need to have their top players at full health and their new players ready to contribute. Through two-thirds of the regular season, the Bucks have not been good enough yet, but Rivers still believes in this team.
“I really like this team. I just do,” Rivers said. “Every time they’ve given us something to win, we’ve won it thus far. We’re the only team that can say that.
“We started out, whatever, 2-8. We’re 29-24, and we would love to be better. We’ve dropped some games this year that we clearly could have won, but those are all behind us. Hopefully we have great health the second half of the year, and I love where we’re at.”
(Top photo of Brook Lopez and Rudy Gobert: Brad Rempel / Imagn Images)
