Brook Lopez ‘does a little bit of everything’ as Bucks get third In-Season Tournament win
MILWAUKEE — Brook Lopez does not enjoy talking about himself playing basketball.
Typically, when asked about something he did on the floor or something he could do better, the Milwaukee Bucks center will respond by discussing the team, the team’s greater concepts or how something he did relates to one of his teammates and that player’s spectacular contribution. This personality trait is evident when asked about something he did on the offensive end of the floor.
So when reporters gathered around his locker for a postgame interview following the Bucks’ 131-128 win over the Washington Wizards , Lopez rolled his eyes out of frustration knowing that his offensive exploits were going to be the subject.
In Friday’s win, Lopez recorded 39 points, six rebounds and three blocks. Giannis Antetokounmpo tallied 31 points, nine rebounds and three assists and Damian Lillard put up 31 points, six rebounds and 10 assists as well, which was the first time in franchise history three teammates scored 30 points in the same game. But Lopez’s performance stood out the most. His 39 matched his single-game career high, which he tallied on April 6, 2001, as a member of the New Jersey Nets.
Even on a career night, Lopez was quick to divert the attention to his teammates’ contributions to his success.
“It was just the way the game went,” Lopez said. “I’m lucky to play with great players on this team, from Giannis and Dame all the way down, a lot of talented guys that can put the ball in the bucket but also are great playmakers. Dame had some great passes to me, Giannis did as well and all the way down the line again and that’s just the way it went tonight.”
With Lopez uninterested in discussing his accomplishment, it’s best to turn to his teammates and coach, who were left in awe of Lopez’s special performance.
“I mean, look, Brook’s had, as far as I’m concerned, two All-Star careers,” Pat Connaughton said. “He’s been a guy who has been able to adapt to the changes in the NBA and how the game is being played.
“He’s a guy that obviously dominated the paint, dominated the post, had post moves like no other, footwork like no other. And now he shoots 3s and rolls and drives the lane (like a) big guard, like he does a little bit of everything. Not to mention, obviously, the defensive end, which I think has been consistent the whole time. So to see him in the second half of his All-Star career has been pretty cool for me. And just watching him on TV, obviously going through high school and college in the first half of it and to see the difference is remarkable. I don’t think he gets enough credit for it.”
Lopez’s scoring barrage started simply enough. Midway through the first quarter, Lopez did what he has done since he arrived in Milwaukee in 2018: He blocked a shot and then trailed the play looking for an opening, which eventually got him a wide-open dunk on an assist from Bobby Portis .
In the first half, Lopez had a solid 12-point performance, but he didn’t really start filling it up until the third quarter when he needed to step up in the absence of one of his teammates. With 10 minutes, 40 seconds left in the third quarter, Khris Middleton (seven points, five assists in 13 minutes) asked to be taken out of the game and went back to the locker room immediately. The Bucks ruled him out of the rest of the game with left Achilles tightness shortly thereafter. After the game, Griffin told reporters that they took Middleton out of the game for “precautionary measures,” but Bucks officials said that Middleton did not need to undergo any imaging on the Achilles tendon and he will be evaluated again on Saturday.
With Middleton out, Lopez shouldered more of the scoring load and put up 15 points in the third quarter. By the time the Bucks got to crunchtime, they were fully incorporating Lopez in almost all of their offensive actions. Even when the initial actions were stymied, Lopez was making plays.
“He works on it,” Connaughton said. “He puts the work in. The guy is relentless when it comes to work. He’s consistent when it comes to work and he does work on those little things. He works on dribbling. He works on doing little stepbacks. He does have some guard moves. He has some, I think, athleticism for a guy that size that people don’t always give him credit for.
While tying his career high in scoring in his 16th season would have been a feat in and of itself, Lopez’s night made his night even more impressive by scoring in such a wide variety of ways.
After showing off the moves he has developed in the latter portion of his career as a floor-spacing big man, he is still capable of doing the things he did down on the block when he was an All-Star center for the Nets more than a decade ago.
Just look at this pump fake, step-through move Lopez pulled off from the right block midway through the fourth quarter:
And then, after going to the block, he went right back out to the 3-point line in a pick-and-pop with Lillard:
“When you see it in the game, it’s like, man, the way I believe my shots are going in, you start to look at him like you expect him to make it, especially after these last few games,” Lillard said. “So tonight, I saw how it was going, so I just tried to keep him in the action. And he just kept going. He puts the ball on the floor; he takes those two big steps. Makes free throws, he draws contact, he shoots 3s. When he’s going like that, he’s a handful.”
Then, to cap his performance, Lopez got out of the way and let the Bucks’ superstar duo do their thing, only to be called upon by Antetokounmpo in the dunker spot to end the play:
With a free throw following that bucket, Lopez tied his career high with 39 points and gave the Bucks a six-point lead with 1:38 left.
“I’ve said this before, we talk about Giannis, the Greek Freak, but Brook is a freak in his own way,” Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said. “At his size, he’s extremely effective out there and he’s getting better every year. He can stretch the floor with his 3-point shooting as we witnessed tonight and he can also face up and drive it. He can play with his back toward the basket. He can get on the offensive rebounds. I mean, he was tremendous tonight.
The Bucks’ six-point lead with just over a minute and a half left should have been enough for the Bucks to win comfortably against the Wizards (2-13), but a calamity of errors led to the Bucks sweating out the game’s final moments.
Following a defensive stop on the possession after Lopez’s three-point play, Lillard was fouled and only made one of two free throws. On the next possession, the Bucks gave up a three-point play as Malik Beasley fouled Tyus Jones on a layup, which allowed the Wizards to cut the Bucks’ lead to four with 46.1 seconds remaining.
After using up most of the shot clock, Antetokounmpo, who was playing through an illness, created an open catch-and-shoot corner 3 for Connaughton. The Bucks’ veteran wing missed that shot, but Antetokounmpo rebounded it underneath the basket, only to see it slip out of his right hand as he went up for an uncontested dunk. With the ball in hand, the Wizards ran the other way and got Kyle Kuzma (22 points) a wide-open corner 3 to cut the Bucks’ lead to only one with 16.9 seconds left.
On the ensuing sideline inbounds play, Lillard’s feet got caught up with a defender and the Bucks needed to get the ball to Antetokounmpo, who nailed both clutch free throws to give the Bucks a three-point lead. The Wizards opted for a small-ball unit on the next offensive possession, so the Bucks took Lopez off the floor for backup point guard Cam Payne to switch everything. They blew that coverage and left Landry Shamet wide-open for a right corner 3, but the Wizards’ backup point guard missed, which sent Connaughton to the line to seal the game with 12 seconds left.
He missed both free throws and opened the door again for the Wizards. Kuzma took a layup with 4.2 seconds, which the Bucks quickly matched with two free throws from Lillard with 3.1 seconds remaining. With no timeouts, the Wizards threw the ball to Kuzma at half court, who missed a stepback 37-footer at the buzzer.
The Bucks escaped, and while the team will always be happy to collect a win, Lillard found himself frustrated that it took so much to secure a victory against a team at the bottom of the standings.
“Well, we needed all of it,” Lillard said when asked how it felt to be a part of the Bucks’ first-ever 30-point scoring trio. “It’s the NBA. Teams are going to have nights. You’re going to have dogfights like this sometimes. And I think there is a lot of things we’re going to look at this and say we could have done better to not have to have that type of night from all three of us.
“But it’s a great accomplishment. I think when you got guys that can do that all in the same game, it’s a special weapon to have, but I don’t think we should have needed that. We could have done a lot of things better to prevent even having to have those types of games to win.”
No one needs to apologize for winning games, but the Bucks left the building with a sour taste in their mouths on Friday night, despite a special performance from Lopez and a historic night from the Bucks’ high-scoring trio.
(Photo of Daniel Gafford and Brook Lopez: Stacy Revere / )
