Tag: milwuakee bucks

DeMarre Carroll: Excited to be …

DeMarre Carroll: Excited to be shadowing one of the best coaches in the league! He’s been a mentor throughout my career. Thank you Coach Bud and the Milwuakee Bucks Organization for allowing me this assistant coaching opportunity. Let’s go! #GoBucks

Gbemisola Abudu: One thing about …

Gbemisola Abudu: One thing about Nigerians is that we have a major sense of national pride. A lot of these players want to come back home. They want to do something. They want to figure out how they can be plugged into the NBA’s plan in Nigeria. We have summer camps in Nigeria. We’re working with them to figure out how the NBA can facilitate them with that. That’s where I give them credit. I’m so proud, because it’s not a matter of us trying to reach out to them and convince them. They’re saying they want to help shed light on whatever the NBA is doing. They have established a credibility in the market. People love them, whether it’s Jordan [Nwora], Precious [Achiuwa], or Giannis.

Giannis Antetokounmpo just served everyone a reminder that he’s in the MVP conversation, too

Put some respeck on Giannis.

The collective 76ers fanbase (and Drew Hanlen) got upset about an unofficial MVP straw poll from ESPN’s Tim Bontemps where he polled media members from different markets on who they’d cast their MVP votes for.

The final tally with just two weeks left in the season showed Nikola Jokic leading the field with 62 first-place votes out of 100. Joel Embiid, who also led USA TODAY’s previous poll in February, placed second with 29 first-place votes and 719 total.

And then here was Giannis Antetokounmpo, who came in 3rd place with just 9 votes. It wasn’t just that he was in 3rd place, but he was decidedly 3rd. It wasn’t close.

But that may have changed after Tuesday night.

Antetokounmpo looked like the MVP after a head-to-head matchup with Joel Embiid. The Bucks were down by as many as 14 points until Antetokoumpo scored 13 straight points between the tail end of the 3rd quarter and the start of the 4th to bring them back in it.

The 76ers made the mistake of having Paul Millsap guard the Bucks’ MVP candidate and, well, this was the result.

That wasn’t even Antetokounmpo’s brightest moment in this one, though. It was what he did to shut the door on the Sixers that’ll have you calling Giannis the best player in the world.

The Bucks are up two late after Antetokounmpo splits a pair of free throws with about 13 ticks left on the clock. The 76ers get the ball back, call timeout and advance it up the floor.

They immediately jump into their Harden-Embiid pick and roll. This is a subtly brilliant set through a simple action that will get you a mismatch wherever you are on the court. The defense has to respect Embiid’s ability to pop out and shoot from deep but they also have to respect Harden’s ability to get to the rim and pull up with ease.

The defense is going to switch or trap, either freeing Embiid up completely (GULP) or giving Harden a mismatch with a big (slightly less exaggerated gulp).

The Bucks opt for the switch. Harden is on an island with Brook Lopez and, for whatever reason, decided to take a stepback 3 that badly misses. The good thing about bad misses is that they’re also fantastic offensive rebound opportunities. And with no Lopez down low, Embiid snatches it over what felt like six Milwaukee Bucks.

It was a fantastic play that looked like it was going to result in an easy putback. That is until Giannis did this.

THAT IS A BLOCK. AN INSANE BLOCK. They thought it was a goaltend, but here’s a look in slo-mo.

It’s a block.

That is just a preposterous play by Antetokounmpo. Something that just shouldn’t even be possible. Yet, here he is. Making that play. And it’s eerily reminiscent of another incredibly clutch block we’ve seen this dude make.

That’s just what this dude does, man. This is a play that only he can make. No one else has the quick-twitch athleticism and reaction time that allow him to do this. It’s just special.

Here’s the kicker. Antetokounmpo finished the game with 40 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks, and 1 steal. He also shot 66% from the field. There have only been three games like this in NBA history and that was one of them. The only other two players do to this are David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon. That’s it.

That performance wasn’t just a game for him. It was a statement. Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid are two very incredible players in their own right.

But don’t you forget about Giannis Antetokounmpo.

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Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks fall flat in game two of the Eastern Conference Finals

Former Oklahoma Sooners star Trae Young wasn’t able to lead the Hawks to second-consecutive win in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Well, things didn’t go as well for Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks in game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals as they did in game one. The Milwaukee Bucks came out on fire on both ends of the floor, forcing Young into one of his worst performances of the 2021 NBA Playoffs.

On the night, Young shot just 37.5% from the field and had nine turnovers. His 16 points and his three assists were the fewest he’s totaled in his 14 playoff games. The nine turnovers that Milwaukee forced him into were the most he’s had in a game all season. His previous high mark for turnovers was eight back in March.

Young wasn’t the only Atlanta player with turnovers, as the team combined for 19 on the game. It was an uncharacteristic game as they came into the playoffs averaging 13.8 turnovers per game, which was 23rd in the NBA in the 2020-2021 season. They were 20th in turnovers per 100 possessions.

It was a disappointing performance for Trae Young and the Hawks. With an opportunity to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals, they were pretty much out of it by halftime.

After a first quarter that saw the Bucks with just a six-point lead, Milwaukee stormed ahead with a huge second quarter, outscoring the Hawks by 26 in the frame to take a 32 point lead into halftime.

Giannis Antetokounmpo played a great game, scoring 25 points on 11-18 shooting, and the Bucks got 22 points from Jrue Holliday. Brook Lopez provided 16, and Khris Middleton added 15 points in the starting lineup.

Trae Young and the Hawks will now head back to Atlanta with the series tied 1-1. At home this season, the Hawks were 25-11. The Bucks were 20-16 on the road. To retake control of the series, the Hawks must find a way to bounce back on their home court.

Kyle Korver will never know the angst …

Kyle Korver will never know the angst of a race or understand the feeling of systemic racism; he wasn’t born into that segment of society. Yet he does the next best thing by tapping into that group, and into his own past, to shape his beliefs and those of his children and neighbors. “To watch LeBron use his platform to make a difference was important for me,” he said. “To see him leverage that platform and step into spaces that are confrontational, I haven’t done that in the past. Look, everybody loves to do their part to help out the kids, food banks, hospitals, there’s a lot of ways to give back to communities, but this is a deeper and harder space to step into. My way is going to be different than LeBron’s way, right? But just watching him try was really helpful for me. And so I think I can do more.”

Where are they now: Jon Leuer

Catching up with the former Badger baller to see where his pro career has taken him

In the next installment of our BadgersWire Wisconsin basketball “where are they now” series, we take a look at where former UW sharpshooter Jon Leuer ended up in his pro career.

After an outstanding high school career at Orno High School in his hometown of Long Lake, Minnesota, Leuer came to Wisconsin in 2007 and played sparingly as a freshman. Each year at UW throughout his four year career as a Badger, Leuer improved in nearly every statistical category. The improvements culminated in a senior year where as the primary scoring option, the Minnesota native averaged 18.3 points, 7.2 rebounds, and nearly two assists per game. Leuer and the Badgers made a Sweet 16 run in 2011 that ended with a loss to eventual national runner-up Butler.

Following his four-year Badger career, Leuer was selected as the 40th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft by the hometown Milwaukee Bucks. In a rookie season shortened by the NBA lockout, the 6-foot-10 forward played in 46 games for the Bucks before being traded to Cleveland for a short stint in 2013. Ultimately, Leuer found a home in Memphis where he played on three consecutive playoff teams from 2012-13 through the 2014-15 season. The former Badger did not find a massive role with the Grizzlies, but proved to be a rotational piece off the bench while never averaging more than 6.2 points per game in Memphis.

Following a solid 2015-16 year with the Phoenix Suns, Leuer enjoyed the best year of his career in 2016-17 after landing with the Detroit Pistons. That season, the former Badger sharpshooter averaged career-highs in points with 10.2 per game, minutes played with nearly 26 per game, and started a career-best 34 games out of the 75 he appeared in.

Then, the injury bug hit hard. In 2017-18 off the back of a career-best season, Leuer suffered an ankle injury that kept him out for the season after just eight game due to the need for surgery. Following the injury, Leuer was ultimately traded back to Milwaukee where he was subsequently dropped in the summer of 2019.

Recently, Leuer spoke with Wisconsin State Journal writer Jim Polzin and said he remained in limbo about whether or not he would fight for an NBA return given his past health issues. NBA: Preseason-Detroit Pistons at Toronto Raptors