MILWAUKEE — The Bucks clinched the top spot in the NBA this season with their win over the Bulls on Wednesday, but the regular season doesn’t just come to an end when a team puts the top spot out of reach for the rest of the league. Everybody still needs to finish out their schedule, so the Bucks came into Fiserv Forum to do some more work on Friday night.
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Most of the team’s regulars did not play, but some of their players needed to get some more reps and set an example for the younger players out on the floor, while most of the veterans supported that effort from the bench. On Friday, that on-court responsibility largely fell on the shoulders of Jae Crowder.
“Just being aggressive and trying to lead these guys and give guys a good chance to play good basketball. Lindell (Wigginton), AJ (Green), and ‘Champ (MarJon Beauchamp), make those guys play good basketball and play the right way. That was my main focus coming into it.”
While the Bucks ultimately fell to the Grizzlies, 137-114, with Memphis playing their healthy regulars to clinch the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, the effort from the home team was strong. Two-way player Lindell Wigginton led the way for the Bucks at point guard with 25 points, five rebounds and 11 assists and the Bucks actually took a 72-71 lead into halftime, but they just didn’t have quite enough to pull off an upset victory over Memphis.
Crowder rounding into form
While everyone on the roster wore their jerseys on Friday morning for the Bucks’ annual team pictures, many of the Bucks’ veterans knew they would be sitting on the bench in normal clothes on Friday night.
Smile – it's team picture day!! 📸 pic.twitter.com/PO7VLNaWqv
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 7, 2023
There was, however, one notable exception. Crowder, the Bucks’ main trade deadline acquisition, knew he would need to be on the floor on Friday to continue the process of getting back on the floor.
“I think I should play a little bit in both games, just to continue to strengthen my calf and see it respond the right way moving forward,” Crowder said after shootaround on Wednesday morning. “I just feel like I’m going to take these games and prepare for them as if we’re trying to lock up the No. 1 seed in my mind. I think, for rhythm and conditioning purposes, I’m going to continue to play hard and hopefully get some good minutes out of these last two games.”
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In an ideal world, Crowder probably would not be playing in these two final games, but the process of getting him back onto the floor and ready for the postseason has not gone perfectly.
On trade deadline day, Feb. 9, the Bucks moved five second-round picks, as well as George Hill, Serge Ibaka and Jordan Nwora, to obtain Crowder, a player general manager Jon Horst admitted trying to acquire from the Phoenix Suns for much of the season. Once a member of the Bucks, Crowder sat out his first four games as the team put him through conditioning tests and tried to figure out how close he was to game shape after sitting out for the Suns and not playing in an NBA game in roughly nine months.
After sitting out those four games, Crowder debuted for the Bucks on Feb. 24 against the Heat and then played the next 10 games. On Mar. 14, Crowder put up 11 points (including 3-of-4 3-point shooting) in 25 minutes in his first game back in Phoenix and his 11th consecutive game, but sat out the Bucks’ next game on Mar. 16 against the Pacers with left calf soreness. Ultimately, Crowder missed five straight games before returning on March 27 and playing five of the Bucks’ next six games before Friday’s contest.
“Good days and bad days, I guess, you could say, but I was expecting a little bit of that with the ramp up of minutes and stuff like that,” Crowder said of the up-and-down experience. “But since the injury, I’ve responded well to everything, so I’m very satisfied with that.”
From a team perspective, going into Friday’s game, Budenholzer felt very good about how the process has gone and what Crowder has brought to the team.
“Overall, I think we’re really positive,” Budenholzer said before Friday’s game. “It was, I think, important for us. We went after him all year. I think it’s definitely unfortunate that he had the (stint) where he had to go out again and couldn’t just have a steady — whatever that would have been — 25 games or so. But that’s our league. You just have to kind of make the best of it. From Day 1, Jae has kind of made the best of it, whatever’s put it in front of him and we’re excited, feel good about it and he’s going to play some tonight and this weekend and get more. He’s in a good place.”
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And that was before Crowder put up a season-high 24 points on Friday night.
Season-high tonight for Jae.
24 PTS | 1 REB | 2 STL | 4-5 3PM pic.twitter.com/lToOc8ueCp
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) April 8, 2023
Crowder set a strong example for the Bucks’ young players on the offensive end, hitting 10 of the 12 shots he took, but that didn’t keep him from playing his typical hard-nosed defense on Friday night.
While Crowder has not played more than 25 minutes in a game this season for the Bucks, Budenholzer seemed convinced that Crowder is getting to the point where he could play even more minutes if the team needed him to do so.
“I don’t know where he is from coming back from this (injury), but he’s close to, if not ready, to just be free,” Budenholzer said. “We got a lot of players, but this time of year, when you get to the playoffs, whatever’s needed is what you gotta do. So, I think we’ll be kind of aware of getting him prepared and through the next 7-10 days, but that includes playing for him. And then, when it’s time to play in the playoffs, hopefully everybody just has complete freedom.”
Giannis honored pregame, Ray Allen in the building
While MVP candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo did not play on Friday night, he did make his way onto the floor for a special pregame ceremony.
A special moment for the Antetokounmpo family! 🙏#FearTheDeer | #NBA pic.twitter.com/ho2o3dQeaZ
— Bally Sports Wisconsin (@BallySportWI) April 8, 2023
Before the game, the Bucks honored Antetokounmpo for making his way to the top of the franchise leaderboard in games played, points and assists with a ceremony run by former Bucks’ TV play-by-play broadcaster Jim Paschke that also included Orlando Magic GM John Hammond, who as Bucks general manager, drafted Antetokounmpo in 2013, and Paul Pressey, the player that formerly held the Bucks’ all-time assists record.
And while the Bucks honored the man currently wearing the number ’34’ on his jersey, the other man who most notably wore that number before Antetokounmpo was also in the building for the first time in many years.
Ray Allen in the house tonight. pic.twitter.com/vBeOGOkupF
— Eric Nehm (@eric_nehm) April 8, 2023
“It’s amazing,” Allen said of returning to Milwaukee. “My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. Because this place, it raised me. Still have good friends here. My family lived here. My extended family lived there for some time after I left… And I just, I enjoy this part of the country. It’s a peaceful existence. For me, just being here, there’s more space. You can breathe a little bit.”
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Allen played his first six seasons in Milwaukee and blossomed into a star during the team’s Big 3 era, making three straight All-Star Games for the team between 2000 and 2002. In 2001, the Bucks made it to the Eastern Conference finals, but lost to the 76ers in seven games. During the offseason, the Bucks decided to try to make a few more additions to get themselves over the hump, but those moves ended up tearing the locker room apart.
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Allen’s relationship with then-coach George Karl deteriorated and Allen, just 27 years old, was infamously traded away for a 34-year-old Gary Payton, who played just 28 games in Milwaukee, and Desmond Mason. The trade was the start of the end of the Bucks’ most successful era since the 1980s. The Bucks toiled in the middle class of the NBA until Antetokounmpo blossomed into a superstar and led the Bucks to their first NBA championship since 1971.
Because of the trade, Allen’s time in Milwaukee was cut short and the Bucks never retired his jersey number, which has now led to a potentially awkward situation in which two of the most beloved Bucks of the modern era have worn the same number. Allen, however, does not think that is a problem because he appreciates everything that Antetokounmpo has done in his time with the Bucks and how great basketball brings joy to a community.
“It’s been interesting, because the places that I’ve been, including college, people have worn my uniform, my jersey afterwards,” Allen said. “I guess my ego isn’t big enough to warrant some type of emotion or sadness or whatever people may assume or feel.
“Getting your jersey retired is a big deal. But I think it’s always about the people you played in front of and how you made them feel growing up, like young kids. When the Bucks won the championship and even when we won a conference championship, there were 7, 8, 9, 10-year old kids and that’s everything to them. Kids used to run around and say, ‘Light It Up! Light It Up!’ And that’s everything as they’re growing up. That’s the spirit of growing up in an environment where you have a team of great players and professional athletes that lead the charge. Giannis is now they guy for the kid that is growing up today.
“So, that’s why when we always get caught up in the comparison, the thing you always have to lead with is ‘comparison is the thief of joy’. We just have to enjoy what we see in Giannis and Khris and what they mean to this era because this too will be over. And if the team does the right thing and the GM is pushing and you find a new generation of people, that’s what makes an organization great and that’s what makes these people continually build and buy into this organization and the Bucks nation.”
(Photo of Jae Crowder: Benny Sieu / USA Today)
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