Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I want to thank Giants kicker Younghoe Koo and his unfathomable botched kick for making it clear I was O.K. to turn off the Monday Night Football game.
In today’s SI:AM:
🏀 Looking back at college hoops perfection
💪 Patriots rule the division once more
🤕 Dart roughed up again
They lost to who?!
A bad start to the season for the Bucks got even worse on Monday. Milwaukee blew a fourth-quarter lead against the lowly Wizards to lose 129–126 and fall to 9–13 on the year.
The Bucks stretched their lead to 16 points in the middle of the third quarter before Washington went on a 24–8 run to tie the game late in the period. The Bucks retook the lead late in the fourth quarter but saw it slip away thanks to some fantastic shot-making by Washington veterans Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum.
First, with 1:21 left to play, Middleton, the former Bucks star, hit a tough midrange jumper as he was fouled to cut Milwaukee’s lead to 122–121. (He missed the ensuing free throw.) Then, on the Wizards’ next possession, McCollum found Middleton open behind the arc for a three that gave Washington a 124–122 lead with 52 seconds left. McCollum sealed the Bucks’ fate with a leaning, contested three of his own with 15 seconds left that stretched the lead to four points. A Myles Turner turnover that led to a Bilal Coulibaly dunk put the finishing touches on the Wizards’ win.
“You let a team like that get close, they’ll beat you,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “One thing about ’em, if it gets to a four-minute game they have two players in Khris Middleton and CJ McCollum that know how to play. And so, that’s their secret sauce: Try to keep a game close, then let the veterans take over. And that’s what happened tonight.”
It was a rare victory for Washington, which improved to 3–16 and became the last team in the NBA to win its third game of the season. On the other hand, it was a not-so-rare loss for the Bucks, who have now lost eight of their last nine to fall to 11th place in the Eastern Conference.
Part of the problem for Milwaukee is that Giannis Antetokounmpo recently missed four games due to a left adductor strain. The Bucks lost all four of the games that he sat out. But they haven’t exactly been great when Antetokounmpo has been on the floor, going 8–8 in games Giannis has played. It’s the second straight year in which the Bucks have gotten off to a mediocre start. They were 11–11 at this point last season before going 18–10 after the All-Star break to finish 48–34, fifth in the East.
A similar turnaround could prove difficult this season, though. The Bucks are going through a period of adjustment after parting ways with Damian Lillard in the offseason. (Lillard tore his Achilles tendon in Milwaukee’s first-round playoff loss to the Pacers and was subsequently waived. He later signed with the Trail Blazers.) The Bucks signed Turner to replace Lillard as Antetokounmpo’s primary sidekick. While centering the team’s offense around two big men hasn’t led to a decrease in scoring, the new-look Bucks have taken a step back defensively. They gave up an average of 113.0 points per game last season (13th in the NBA). This year, they’re giving up 118.2 per game (ranked 18th). If Bucks fans are looking for signs of hope, though, they should turn to the team’s new starting point guard, Ryan Rollins. The 23-year-old Rollins was a second-round pick by the Hawks in 2022 and played sparingly in his first three NBA seasons (11.9 minutes per game in 81 total games). But he’s adapted well to his increased role and has proven to be an adequate secondary scoring option for the Bucks, currently second on the team with 17.7 points per game.
Unless the Bucks turn things around, they risk wasting another year of Antetokounmpo’s dwindling prime. Giannis is one of the greatest players of his generation, but Milwaukee has failed to build a consistent winner around him. Since the Bucks won the championship in 2021, they’ve only won one playoff series. If the playoffs started today, they wouldn’t even make it.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- Jon Wertheim writes that the secret behind Indiana’s flawless 1976 run goes far beyond talent. Dorm clashes, discipline and a very different era of college basketball kept the Hoosiers perfect in a way today’s game may never see again.
- After years in the wilderness, the Patriots, fueled by quarterback Drake Maye and coach Mike Vrabel, are suddenly bullying the AFC East again, Matt Verderame reports.
- Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart logged only four carries in Monday’s loss against the Patriots, yet still exposed himself to big hits—an ongoing issue, as Gilberto Manzano points out.
- Conor Orr’s latest Power Rankings show just how messy the AFC has become with the Chiefs wobbling and the rest of the field offering little clarity entering Week 14.
- Pat Forde explores how coaching shake-ups, conference imbalances and messy head-to-head résumés could ignite full-blown CFP chaos—right as Lane Kiffin steps into the LSU spotlight.
- Penn State’s surprise interest in Kalani Sitake for its head coaching position is adding yet another layer of turmoil to Championship Week, Forde writes.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. A slick goal by the Sabres’ Josh Norris in his first game since Oct. 9.
4. Sean Monahan’s hand-eye coordination on this goal.
3. Dillon Brooks’s taunt directed at LeBron James after a big dunk.
2. Younghoe Koo’s hilariously disastrous failed field goal attempt.
1. Marcus Jones’s 94-yard punt return touchdown.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Bucks’ Skid Continues With Brutal Collapse Against Lowly Wizards.
