It has been too long since we last saw Jae Crowder on the court for the Milwaukee Bucks. Thankfully, that lengthy injury spell finally ended on Wednesday as the veteran returned to action after nine weeks on the shelf.
Ultimately, Crowder wasn’t able to do anything to prevent the Cleveland Cavaliers from manhandling the Bucks en route to a 135-95 blowout win. However, there’s also no denying that Crowder looked good in his first game back.
Jae Crowder Speaks Out on Milwaukee Bucks Return
Crowder’s performance against the Cavs is one of the few, if not the only bright spot from Wednesday’s embarrassing loss. The 33-year-old finished with 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting, with a rebound, a steal. Crowder went 4-of-10 from distance too, and it is clear that he has the green light to shoot from beyond the arc.
“Just good for my mental, let me know that I could still play basketball, and do it without pain now,” he said, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jim Owczarski. “That’s the most I took from it. I’m able to make cuts and do stuff without any pain. We can only go up from here. I just think tonight was good for my mental. Obviously we got our a** kicked but we’re going to regroup and get back to it.”
Notwithstanding the butt-whopping, this is definitely a step in the right direction for both Crowder and the Bucks. It should only be a matter of time before the 6-foot-6 wing is able to get his feet back under him.
Crowder did miss a lot of time, though, and he wasn’t around as this new-look Milwaukee side started to build its chemistry. He will have a lot of cacthing up to do, which is something the veteran is well aware of.
“We just got better a little bit,” Crowder said of the Bucks team is he returning to. “I played nine games. I feel like you look at us now we’re a totally different team. We understand each other more, we’re reacting off each other a little more, so it’s a different feel to the game because we are playing as a unit right now. The first nine games we were trying to feel each other out, new unit, new guys. But I think right now the team is going up. Obviously we had a setback tonight with this game. It was one of those games but I feel like we’re in a much better place than we were when I got injured.”
It would be even better if the Bucks win on Saturday against the 4-37 Detroit Pistons. A loss would bo absolutely chatastrophic.
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