Cormac Ryan electrified the crowd in the opening minutes of his first-ever start, and AJ Green later brought the house down with an all-time display of marksmanship, leading to an emphatic 125-108 win by the Milwaukee Bucks over the Brooklyn Nets. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast, Bucks In Six Minutes, below.
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Player Grades
AJ Green
41 minutes, 35 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 11/18 FG, 11/16 3P, +29
Green closed a somewhat up-and-down season with a virtuoso sendoff. Yes, he made franchise history with 11 made triples, and moved into second all-time for three-pointers made in a season. Those things got everyone riled up, with the crowd chanting his name (and nickname). Even better, though, he played a complete game, complementing his shooting theatrics with solid playmaking, above-average rebounding, and alert D. Hard to find anything not to love about his statement game.
Grade: A+
Cormac Ryan
34 minutes, 28 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 turnovers, 1 steal, 10/17 FG, 5/9 3P, +21
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In his first-ever start, Ryan came out firing—and rarely missed in the first quarter. He looked like anything but a newbie, playing under control and never seeming out of sorts on offense or defense. His breakout game would be THE story on any other night. Alas, Dairy Bird outshone him, a tough task when Ryan was such an electrifying player all game long.
Grade: A
Taurean Prince
35 minutes, 18 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 6/13 FG, 6/11 3P, +18
Prince showed out, displaying the big impact on both ends that the team missed out on during his extended absence due to neck surgery. A sequence in the third quarter—he made a high degree-of-difficulty corner triple, then stole the ball on D and raced down court to drain another three—was a crescendo moment that had fans going berserk, and wishing they’d seen more of Prince throughout the season.
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Grade: A
Ousmane Dieng
37 minutes, 12 points, 6 rebounds, 12 assists, 5/12 FG, 0/4 3P, 4 turnovers, +17
Dieng played the kind of solid all-around game that has become his hallmark. On a night when so many teammates were on fire shooting, it was Dieng who most consistently found them for open looks. His own poor shooting was more than made up for by those dozen helpers and six boards.
Grade: B+
Jericho Sims
30 minutes, 11 points, 10 rebounds, 4/4 FG, 3 assists, 2 blocks, –7
Sims followed his career-first triple-double with a double-double in Friday’s tilt. What stood out was his rebounding, as he kept many possessions alive with five offensive boards. He scored at his usual hyper-efficient rate. The plus-minus number seems misleading, as the eye test showed Sims making winning plays on both ends.
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Grade: B
Myles Turner
27 minutes, 13 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 blocks, 6/11 FG, 1/5 3P, +26
Turner was a force of nature on both ends. He swatted away five Nets’ shots and altered plenty more. He started the game with a triple to get the crowd revved up, and kept bringing the cheers with thunder dunks and more long bombs in the second half. Those flourishes came between periods where he seemed quiet, but his +26 tells the story of an overwhelmingly positive impact.
Grade: A-
Kyle Kuzma
21 minutes, 8 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists, 5 turnovers, 3/4 FG, 1/1 3P, –8
Kuzma pulled his occasional disappearing act, not making many obviously winning plays—save the electrifying logo triple to close the first half—while playing too fast and coughing up the ball five times. Not a tragic Kuz game, but certainly not much to like here either.
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Grade: C
Andre Jackson, Jr.
15 minutes, 0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 0/2 FG, 0/2 3P, -11
On Redemption Night for many of his teammates, AJax just couldn’t get his act together enough to join the revival. His shot was off, and he didn’t do much else to help the team’s cause. His -11 “led” the team, and felt like an accurate reflection of his overall impact.
Grade: D
Doc Rivers
No Bobby, no Giannis, no KPJ. Yes, the Nets were also depleted and are a horrid team even at full strength. But the Bucks decisively won the battle of lottery squads, with huge performances from a cast of nobodies. The standout performances from Green, Ryan, Dieng, Sims, and Prince showed that the coaching staff did a better-than-average job coaxing development from those players and keeping them engaged in a season where not much went right, and players could be forgiven if they were checked out by now. Friday’s performance suggested they aren’t, and Rivers deserves heavy credit.
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Grade: A
DNP-CD: Alex Antetokounmpo, Thanassis Antetokounmpo
Inactive: Bobby Portis, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Pete Nance, Gary Trent, Jr., Kevin Porter Jr., Gary Harris, Ryan Rollins
Bonus Bucks Bits
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With 227 three-pointers this season, Green is second all-time in Bucks history. He has a great chance of surpassing Ray Allen, currently number one with 229 triples in the 2001-02 campaign.
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In scoring 20+ points in three of his first 10 NBA games, Cormac Ryan joins elite company. Others in Bucks’ history who’ve achieved that feat: Kareem, Marques Johnson, Brandon Jennings, and Ray Allen.
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Ryan said he and Green engaged in heated games of one-on-one on summer mornings at 5:00 a.m. last offseason: “I felt bad for our trainers; we had to drag them in. They just wanted to sleep.”
Up Next
The Bucks travel to Philly for a Sunday night tilt against the 76ers in the final game of the season. Catch it at 5:00 p.m. CDT on FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin.
Read the full article here