Well, in a game that truly had it all, the Milwaukee Bucks fell 128-116 to the revamped Washington Wizards. The Bucks were led by “the Heat package,” which combined for 68 points. The final score really doesn’t reflect how the game transpired; frankly, the Bucks controlled most of the contest but just couldn’t turn an eight-point lead into a 15-point lead. Some of that was Washington, but I felt like Milwaukee shot itself in the foot a good number of times by playing frantic and rushed instead of calm and poised.
That said, take a step back and think: “frantic and rushed” is about what you would expect when a bunch of guys who have barely played with each other—including young fellas getting thrown into the fire—suit up for a regular-season game. A beautiful mess, shall we say—I can’t wait to do it all over again on Friday. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast, Bucks In Six Minutes, below.
Editor’s note: this year, we are trialing a more consistent grading criteria (while still allowing for your interpretation)—grades are not rewards for production, they’re judgments of performance against expectation:
A: Exceeding expectations.
B: Above expectations.
C: At expectations.
D: Below expectations.
F: Fail (i.e., substantially below expectations; actively detrimental to the team).
Player Grades
Ryan Rollins
23 minutes, 9 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 0 turnovers, 4/14 FG, 1/4 3P, –4
Rollins vastly underperformed compared to what we have come to expect from him and rightly rode the pine to close the game. Yeah, he missed some makeable shots—took some bad ones too—but he is also relied on as the team’s best point-of-attack defender, and he failed on more than a few occasions to keep dudes in front of him and navigate screens. I also thought Rollins allowed himself to get sped up going to the basket, which really isn’t like him; he’s usually cool as a cucumber in tight spaces. An out-of-character game on so many levels.
Grade: D-
Tyler Herro
31 minutes, 24 points, 9 assists, 4 turnovers, 9/21 FG, 4/11, –6
My Prescient Prediction was basically right on. This was the Herro we expected to see in the preseason and, indeed, it looked like he took it up a notch for the real thing. Except when Bilal Coulibaly was on him, Herro got wherever he wanted. Look, we know Herro can score, but the nine assists were the story (and the reason he gets into the B band). Washington paid him a lot of attention in the pick-and-roll, and he was able to methodically locate the open man most of the time. As expected, Herro’s on-ball defence wasn’t great—and I’d like to see him compete 10% more in that part of the game—but I thought he was largely in the right spots off-ball.
Grade: B-
Jaime Jaquez Jr.
31 minutes, 22 points, 7 rebounds, 8/12 FG, 1/3 3P , 5/6 FT, 0
Jaquez was nails all game long. He used his size to make plays for himself and others in the paint, especially when Washington tried to hide Young on him—straight to the post! Jaquez also proved a helpful defensive option on the Wizards’ big front line, which might even be a preferable matchup for him than wings or guards. Other than Jericho Sims, who played under two minutes, Jaquez was the only Buck who didn’t have a negative plus-minus—and it felt like it.
Grade: B
Kyle Kuzma
27 minutes, 5 points, 3 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 turnovers, 2/9 FG, 1/4 3P, –10
Woof. Where do I start? Look, Kuz’s defence was good, and he did have some solid posessions guarding (and fronting) Davis, but his game had no other redeeming qualities. First off, this whole “returning to Washington and embracing the hate” thing is so corny and has to stop—he’s done this every time Milwaukee has played them! You could tell from the jump that this was a game within a game for him. Sure, Kuz wanted to win, but he wanted to be the reason the Bucks won—give me a break! He missed gimmes at the rim, took out-of-rhythm shots, missed a free-throw blockout, and made two of the most diabolical passes I’ve seen. To top it off, as Miggity pointed out, I’m pretty sure Kuz scored a bucket for the Wizards via a controlled tip. Hated almost every second of Kuzma’s game.
Grade: F
Myles Turner
32 minutes, 11 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, 4/7 FG, 2/5 3P, –4
Turner’s offensive numbers look fine, but I thought he was woeful on defence. My biggest issue was his lack of urgency and awareness when recovering to rolling big men after showing on pick-and-rolls. He was surely aware that Trae Young loves to throw lobs, yet there were at least three instances where Turner could have easily recovered to his man after showing on screens, only to dawdle, let the big get behind him, and catch a lob. I also thought Turner was straight-up soft on the inside, letting himself get pushed around.
Grade: D
Kel’el Ware
13 minutes, 7 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 6 fouls, 3/6 FG, 0/2 3P, –10
On the one hand, I don’t want to go crazy on a 22-year-old for not being able to physically deal with Anthony Davis. On the other hand, I wanted to see him compete more. I just spoke about Turner lollygagging after showing on screens while his man got behind him—Ware might have been worse. Ware was BBQ chicken for Davis and simply couldn’t be on the court at the same time as him—hence he fouled out in 13 minutes. I felt like Ware was a little lost and sped up on both ends, and it is year three for him now, so you’d hope to see less of that. Still, based on the preseason, I can’t say this sort of game was out of the ordinary. He won’t be playing against an All-NBA centre every game, though, which we need to keep in mind.
Grade: D-
Kasparas Jakucionis
26 minutes, 15 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 5 PF, 4/7 FG, 1/3 3P, 6/6 FT, –4
Wow. What a game for Jakucionis! So much to like. With this season being a developmental one, giving KJ—who is younger than Brayden Burries—26 minutes on opening night and having him look right at home is huge. Jakucionis handled (and beat) pressure with relative ease, while holding up OK on defence (though Young did catch him too many times). The final thing I want to highlight is KJ’s feel and how he used it to draw a few Young-like BS fouls. People don’t like it, but guards who aren’t elite athletes need to have this in their bag. Swing-throughs, up fakes, accentuating contact—you need it all, and his counterpart at point guard last night is the perfect example.
Grade: B+
Brayden Burries
15 minutes, 12 points, 5 rebounds, 1 turnover, 3 PF, 3/6 FG, 2/2 3P, 4/5 FT, -12
I mean, you couldn’t have asked for much more from Burries in his first official game. You could tell his heart was racing a bit at the start, but he settled in after getting his name in the books. By the third quarter, Burries was nailing step-back threes with a one-point lead and doing celebrations running back down the court. Also, as we saw in the preseason, Burries is going to get to the charity stripe. Yeah, he got caught in the wrong spots on defence a few times, but that’s to be expected—great first outing.
Grade: B
Ousmane Dieng
21 minutes, 5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 turnover, 4 PF, 2/6 FG, 1/5 3P, –4
I thought Ous played… just OK. He had a smooth windmill gather that left our guy Khris in the dust, and his defence was mostly solid, but man, the dude needs to make threes for this to work.
Grade: D+
AJ Green
15 minutes, 6 points, 2/3 FG, 2/2 3P, –10
AJ was AJ. Hit an open three and made a tough one off a wide pindown. Jenkins drew up some action for him out of a timeout, but it broke down. Defence was fine even if he was undersized.
Grade: C
Taylor Jenkins
It’s tough to judge Jenkins too harshly, given it was the first game. The Bucks generated 42 three-point attempts and won the possession battle. He also “played the kids” like fans wanted. Maybe Jenkins could have had the team better prepared for the foul-baiting that Young and (to a slightly lesser extent) Davis were going to do; I did think the refs got sucked into a few horrendous flails by Young, but some were definitely there. Ultimately, I think we could easily be sitting here talking about a Bucks win if a few things had gone differently, so overall, not much to complain about at this point.
Grade: C
Limited minutes: Jericho Sims
DNP-CD: Gary Trent Jr., Nate Ament, Bogoljub Markovic, Caris LeVert
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance
What We Learnt
Jenkins will lean toward playing the youth, even if it costs him wins and leads to frustrating moments. Good.
Bonus Bucks Bits
- Postgame, Jenkins credited his team’s ability to weather multiple storms in the third, but said their inability to keep the Wizards out of the paint and off the free-throw line was what did them in. Mentioned the backside rotations as a key flaw as well.
- On Burries: “The shots were great, but I thought he was making good reads… Looked very comfortable. I thought he did some good things defensively… He’s got a lot to learn, but this is great for him to get this exposure right out of the gate.”
- As I mentioned, this was a classic game where veterans were playing a rebuilding team, and the refs seemed obliged to call everything in favour of Young and Davis. On one possession, in the bonus, Young “set” a screen (flopped at the slightest bit of contact). The ref saw him on the floor and called it. Really frustrating; you could see the dismay on all the Bucks’ faces.
- I’m both very happy that Gary Trent Jr. didn’t play and incredibly worried that it means something is coming down the pike.
- Milwaukee did a lot right. They won the possession battle (91 attempts to 86), played in transition (16-9 fast break points), and got strong contributions from their bench (45-39). They just couldn’t handle Washington’s size, got destroyed 70-50 in that area, and, obviously, the free throw discrepancy (41-23).
Up Next
The Bucks head back to Milwaukee for their home opener on Friday, which is now at 3:00 p.m. CDT to make way for the World Series. Tune in on My24.
