Denver Nuggets hold off Milwaukee Bucks for 105 – 95 victory – NBA Recap(Part 2)
Milwaukee Bucks would have been expected to launch a furious rally coming out of the interval, but it never materialized. The Bucks played OK in the third quarter, but they didn’t turn any heads with their attacks. In fact, the Denver Nuggets were pretty
much able to match the home side in the period and ended it still on top by 18 points at 85 – 67.
The last quarter was therefore just a formality and the Nuggets took their foot of the gas. Milwaukee were able to get some points on the board as they looked to reduce the final margin of their impending defeat. When the clock ran out, Denver secured the
win with a 105 – 95 score line.
Brandon Jennings was the main man for the Bucks on the night as he raked in a game high 30 points to go along with his 6 assists. Tobias Harris was also notable, coming off the bench for 14 points and 8 rebounds.
Australian centre Andrew Bogut was the big disappointment for Milwaukee as he struggled, putting up dismal figures of just 2 points and 5 rebounds.
After the game, Nuggets coach George Karl revealed that Bogut’s poor showing wasn’t a coincidence, for his team had consciously targeted the centre to keep him from playing well.
"We wanted to stay body-to-body. On the first play I was ready to commit suicide because the whole game-plan was to not let him have easy baskets and to make him shoot over us as much as possible and plug him from the guards and perimeter guys and collapse
on his dribble as much as possible." He said.
That notwithstanding, Bucks coach Scott Skiles was not at all impressed by the effort from his side, blaming naivety and lack of focus for the loss.
"We're not close to really understanding how hard we need to play and how hard we have to compete and pay attention to detail."
His players seemed to agree, as they accepted that despite their struggles on the attacking end, it was their weakness on defence that did the most scathing damage to Milwaukee.
"I don't think it was much offensively as it was just what they were able to do on us defensively," Jon Leuer, who scored 11 points in the contest, said after the game. "They got those easy buckets in the first half. We kind of cut it down in the second
half."
The loss was Milwaukee 9th of the 2011-2012 NBA season and their first in a home game. They have won only 4 games so far and have now lost 3 in a row.
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