Setting foot in Gainbridge Fieldhouse as 5.5-point underdogs, the Milwaukee Bucks were not expected to take Game 1 on the road from the Indiana Pacers. Be that as it may, the 117-98 loss was a disappointing performance that saw the Bucks down by as many as 28. Giannis Antetokounmpo did what he could to keep his team in it, putting up 36 points and 12 rebounds on 14-23 from the field, but his fellow starters provided just 14 points of support.
Two of them, Taurean Prince and Kyle Kuzma, registered goose eggs. In fact, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Kuzma’s box score blank puts him in historically egregious company.
Milwaukee Bucks, Kyle Kuzma Flounder Vs Indiana Pacers in Game 1
Aside from Giannis, Doc Rivers had to move off his starting five in the second half. No other Buck on the court at tipoff recorded more than Kuzma’s 22 minutes of playing time. Simply put, the Pacers played them off the floor, forcing Milwaukee to rely more heavily than ever on bench minutes from AJ Green, Kevin Porter Jr. and Gary Trent Jr.
Each of those three played 27-29 minutes and they combined for 41 points. Bobby Portis was unproductive as a scorer, contributing just 4 points on 2-8 shooting, but he did help on the glass with 8 rebounds.
While the the bench production is encouraging, for now Bucks fans are licking their wounds. If anything, poking fun at Kuzma’s no-show could be a good way to let off some steam.
In his Milwaukee playoff debut, the small forward finished 0-5 from the floor in addition to missing two free throws. His only non-zero box scores contributions were minutes (22) and fouls (2). (He also notched a team-worst negative 24 plus-minus.) After the game, Bontemps linked Kuzma’s performance to five other historic playoff letdowns:
As Kyle Kuzma checks out, he will be the sixth player to have at least a 20 trillion in a playoff game.
The others?
Mike Dunleavy Jr. in 2015
Bruce Bowen in 2008
Brent Barry in 2005
Michael Cage in 1993
Maurice Lucas in 1986— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 19, 2025
One small part of 48 minutes’ agony for fans, Kuzma’s 20-minute “trillion”–a box score of all zeros–was the cherry to top Milwaukee’s pied-in-the-face performance.
Looking Ahead to Game 2 and Beyond
Ok, so Game 1 didn’t go as planned. There is, though, one key positive to take away. With the contributions Rivers got from his reserves, he may have found an effective rotation moving forward in the series. In addition to their 45 total points, Portis, Porter Trent and Green combined for a plus-minus of negative 12. Ryan Rollins led the starting unit with a -13 mark.
Of course, plus-minus can be a deceiving stat, and, if considered at all, should be taken with plural grains of salt. Taking too much from a simple, rather random tool like plus-minus would be extremely ill-advised. The sole force keeping the Bucks from utter humiliation, Giannis finished with a negative 18–largely because he shared the court with the ineffective starting group including Prince and Kuzma.
But it is also a more relevant metric in the playoffs, when opposing teams refuse to take their foot off the gas even in blowouts, reducing the garbage-time distortion that occurs in the regular season. Indeed, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle left his starters in until the one minute mark. The margin of deficit between Milwaukee’s bench versus starter minutes is not nothing.
In Game 1 for the Bucks, plus-minus numbers reflect what the naked eye could see; leaning on Trent, Porter and Green improved ball movement and allowed Milwaukee to at least attempt to keep up with Indiana’s run-and-gunning pace. Part of that, it should be noted, was simply shooting variance, as Green was the only Buck capable of making threes (5-11 while the team shot 9-37). For the league’s leading team in three-point percentage (38.7%), this is another area that could swing Milwaukee’s way next time out.
It is easy to overact to a bad loss, but might behoove Rivers to tweak his rotations--or at least be even quicker at the trigger–as the Bucks prepare for Game 2 in Indiana anticipating another Damian Lillard absence.
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