Milwaukee Bucks Pull Off Close Victory Against Clippers

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By Miguel Browne

The Milwaukee Bucks (12-12) faced off against the Los Angeles Clippers (16-6) in a very heated game. The Clippers started off the game behind some hot shooting from former Bucks guard JJ Redick, who had 11 points in only the first quarter.

At the end of the first, the Bucks were down 28-26, and the crowd was still buzzing from a few good dunks from both teams including a reverse alley-oop from Blake Griffin to Deandre Jordan, and a one-handed lefty slam from Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Bucks ended up pulling off a 111-106 victory.

In the second quarter, the Bucks were the team that got hot from the field. Capitalizing off of some errant turnovers by the Clippers, the Bucks were able to run in transition and get some easy buckets on the break. But then late in the second things started to get chippy.

Off of a Blake Griffin miss, the Bucks pushed the ball up the court and, when Giannis Antetokounmpo tried to lay the ball in, he was fouled hard by Matt Barnes. The BMO Harris arena erupted, and Giannis did not take the foul lightly. He quickly stood up from the ground and glared at Matt Barnes until his teammates walked him away from the area.

The result of the Matt Barnes foul was two free throws for Antentokounmpo, and one free throw for JJ Redick after a technical had been called on Antetokounmpo. Hunter Vannieuwenhoven, member of “The Herd” (a group of sports fans) and UWM student, said of the call he said “ That’s Bull****, that’s absolute bull****.”

The fans in the arena didn’t agree with the call, either, with an array of boos being directed at the refs.

At the end of the second quarter, the Bucks had a sizable lead at 51-42, but a lead against a dangerous Clippers team is always in jeopardy. Gabe Stoltz, another member of the herd and UWM student,  said, “It’s going good so far, but I think that the Clippers are under-performing, and they’re due for a run soon,” and that’s exactly what they did.

Throughout the third quarter the Clippers slowly dwindled the Bucks lead down to one with the Bucks leading 72-71. In the fourth quarter, the intensity picked up between the two teams, but the Bucks set the pace by scoring eight straight points in one minute to extend the lead to 90-79.

Around three minutes left in the game, the Clippers cut the lead to  five. Then Giannis continued to drive to the basket to bring the lead to 7 and a clutch three from Brandon Knight pushed the lead to 10.

The closest the Clippers would get is being down three points with three seconds left. All the Bucks needed to do was inbound the ball to Brandon Knight, who would go on to knock down both free throws to seal the game.

Knight led the team with 22 points, followed by 20 by Giannis. At the end of the game, Stoltz let out a brief sigh and said, “I’m glad we pulled out that win, this is a big step forward for the Young Bucks.”