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Kyle Kuzma Rumors
One wild idea, for instance, would be to trade Lillard to Phoenix for Bradley Beal and at least get something from an expensive salary slot next season. Another would be putting a future first-rounder in 2031 or 2032 in play — the only ones they have left to trade — to augment the roster by dumping Kuzma turning Pat Connaughton’s $9.5 million salary into a starting-caliber player.
Eric Nehm: FINAL: Pacers 123, Bucks 115 - Antetokounmpo 34pts/18reb/7ast - Portis 28pts/12reb - Lillard 14pts/3reb/7ast - Kuzma 12pts/3reb Pacers 2, Bucks 0. Game 3 will be on Friday in Milwaukee.
The Bucks used more than half of the shot clock before trying to get to that look. When they did, Kyle Kuzma swung a pass to Rollins for a drive that Nembhard turned away, which resulted in a Rollins pull-up jumper at the free-throw line. “I think we can do a better job just spacing the floor better and being more decisive when we get the ball,” Antetokounmpo said. “Try to attack. Try to get in the paint. Try to create something either for yourself or for your teammate.”
StatMuse: Kyle Kuzma 0 REB 0 AST 0 STL 0 BLK 0-5 FG 0-2 3P 0-2 FT 21 MINS That's the most minutes by any player in a 0/0/0/0/0 game in the last 10 playoffs. pic.x.com/eJC4D4U4o5
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Eric Nehm: FINAL: Bucks 111, Pelicans 107 - Trent 29pts/5reb - Lopez 20pts/12reb/3ast/4blk - Porter 20pts/8reb/4ast - Kuzma 17pts/4reb/4ast - Rollins 14pts/7reb/10ast/4stl The Bucks are now 44-34 on the season. They have a one-game lead over the Pistons for 5th in the East.
Giannis Antetokounmpo posts monster triple-double in win against Sixers
Eric Nehm: FINAL: Bucks 126, Sixers 113 - Antetokounmpo 35pts/17reb/20ast - Lopez 17pts/3reb/3blk - Kuzma 16pts/4reb/3ast/3blk - Prince 13pts - Trent 13pts/2reb/3stl - Green 12pts/2reb - Rollins 10pts/2reb The Bucks are now 42-34 on the season, same record as Detroit.
Antetokounmpo did a dribble-handoff (DHO) with forward Kyle Kuzma into a pick-and-roll. Buddy Hield, chasing Kuzma, zipped around Giannis to stay connected to his man. He found himself behind a screen by Giannis. But Green didn’t drop back to cover Giannis. “My thought process here is I’m gonna be up at the level of the screen,” Green said. “Because I’ve got to take the 3 away. We’re up 11 points with 51 seconds to go. I’ve gotta take this 3 away.”
Eric Nehm: FINAL: Bucks 133, Suns 123 - Antetokounmpo 37pts/6reb/11ast/3stl - Rollins 23pts/4reb/5ast/2stl - Lopez 22pts/6reb/6ast - Prince 16pts/5reb - Kuzma 12pts/4reb/5ast/2blk The Bucks are now 41-34 on the season. They play next on Thursday in Philadelphia.
Eric Nehm: Final: Knicks 116, Bucks 107 - Giannis Antetokounmpo 30pts/9reb/7ast - Kyle Kuzma 20pts/5reb/3ast - Rollins 20pts/5reb/4ast - Gary Trent Jr. 14pts The Bucks are now 40-33 on the season. They end the season with an 0-10 record against the top 3 teams in the East.
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Brook Lopez scored 21 points on the night, including 18 in the first half. Kyle Kuzma had 14 points and 14 rebounds while Taurean Prince added 15 for the Bucks. Kevin Porter Jr. had 18 and Gary Trent Jr. had 11 off the bench for Milwaukee. "If we stay even keel, we can match up with any team," Porter said. "And we feel the way we play, the ball flying unconsciously, no one cares who makes it, who shoots it, I believe we can beat any team out there."
After just one 20-point game in his first 18 with Milwaukee, Kuzma has scored 20 points in back-to-back games, helping lead the team to a win that the Bucks desperately needed after losing five of their previous seven games. “He’s just more comfortable,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “You can see it, it’s coming. A lot of it was organically tonight. I think we ran one play for him the entire game, he still had 20 points. That’s the value of him.”
In the six games between the second ankle sprain and the start of this road trip, Kuzma averaged only 9.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game on 36.5 percent shooting from the field and 21.7 percent from 3. “I’m an unselfish player,” Kuzma said, following a 14-point outing in the Bucks’ 112-100 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 9. “I try to make the right reads and the right passes. I definitely feel that I could be a little bit more aggressive or being a little bit more of an initiator. I think I’ve been getting live reps at that for the past two years with no. 1 defenders guarding me every night. “Sometimes I find myself a little bit in the corner, which is naturally going to happen and a lot of times with my role or my placement is on this team, which is fine, but there’s a lot of times, I think we can find ways to get me more active. I think that’s something that we talk about anyways, as a team, for sure.”
Following Tuesday’s game in San Francisco, however, Lillard made it clear that Kuzma should not be living off a heavy diet of catch-and-shoot 3s. Instead, the Bucks should be finding ways for him to play to his strengths. “We gotta find ways to put him in position to do what he does well,” Lillard said. “He is an attacker downhill, gets in the paint. He’s a good playmaker when he’s doing that. It’s hard to do that when we’re taking the ball out the net because he’s a guy we want to advance the ball to and let him attack downhill. “You want to give him those opportunities to be that guy and be a playmaker. And we just, we gotta be better about that. I think tonight he hit some 3s, but he’s not a guy that we want to use him, like, just a spot-up shooter. Even though he can make shots, that’s not what we want to put him in a position to be doing.”
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