The Milwaukee Bucks were without point guard Damian Lillard, small forward Khris Middleton, and point guard Patrick Beverley once again on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies. With Milwaukee being at home, they lost for the second straight night against Memphis by a final score of 111-101.
With the loss, the Bucks are now 1-7 this season without Damian Lillard and they are going to need him back healthy sooner rather than later. With the loss, Milwaukee drops to 47-29 and Memphis improves to 26-50. This is the second straight game that the Milwaukee Bucks lost to a non-playoff team as they lost to the Washington Wizards (15-62) on the road the night before.
The Bucks are still leading the Cleveland Cavaliers by 1.5 games for the two seed, but Milwaukee can not be the number one seed because the Boston Celtics clinched the top record in the NBA on Wednesday night. In the game on Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, Brook Lopez was the leading scorer for the Bucks.
He finished with a double-double with 25 points, 10 rebounds, and one assist. When Lopez is the Bucks’ leading scorer, that is a major problem. He should be scoring and grabbing rebounds, but it isn’t a good sign when he leads the team in scoring.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 21 points, grabbed seven rebounds, recorded eight assists, blocked five shots, and recorded one steal. Bobby Portis Jr. scored 19 points off the bench for Milwaukee and Malik Beasley also added 10 points for the Bucks.
Pat Connaughton started in place of Damian Lillard and the lack of a backup point guard has hurt the Milwaukee Bucks this season. Another alarming thing for the Bucks is that ever since Doc Rivers took over as head coach, they have a 15-15 record. They had a 30-13 record when Adrian Griffin Jr. was the head coach and maybe they should have just kept him. This move was not ideal for the fanbase in the first place also.
Jaren Jackson Jr. Goes Off For the Memphis Grizzlies Against the Milwaukee Bucks
Ja Morant has been out for most of the season for Taylor Jenkins’ team, but Jaren Jackson Jr. has continued to play well for Memphis. On Wednesday night, the Bucks defense had no answer for Jackson Jr. as he scored 35 points, grabbed three rebounds, recorded four assists, blocked one shot, and recorded three steals.
In this game, there were three other players that scored in double figures for the Memphis Grizzlies along with Jaren Jackson Jr. GG Jackson had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds, Brandon Clarke scored 14 points, and Jordan Goodwin also added 13 points off the bench for Memphis.
The Bucks need to get over this loss against the Grizzlies. Memphis will not be heading to the NBA playoffs this season. Milwaukee needs to find its playoff tune quickly because the NBA playoffs are coming.
