Bucks 126, Grizzlies 114: Milwaukee cools off the hottest team in NBA as Jrue Holiday returns

The Milwaukee Bucks’ Big Three were reunited Wednesday night, with Jrue Holiday returning from a two-week absence to team with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton in toppling one of the hottest teams in the NBA with a 126-114 victory over the Memphis Grizzles at Fiserv Forum.

While the Bucks got healthier with the return of Holiday, albeit off the bench, the Grizzlies lost third-leading scorer Desmond Bane and key reserves Tyus Jones and Kyle Anderson to the league’s health and safety protocol after beating Chicago on Monday. Memphis was already without second-leading scorer Dillon Brooks (ankle), leaving scintillating point guard Ja Morant and emerging big man Jaren Jackson Jr. to shoulder the load.

“No matter who is playing that Memphis team is a really good team, they’re one of then best teams in the NBA no matter who is on that floor so we knew that we had to give them respect,” Bucks guard George Hill said.

Holiday’s return allowed the Bucks to throw some cloud cover around the supernova that is Morant, and while the Grizzlies guard had 33 points he had to take 27 shots to earn them.

Box score: Bucks 126, Grizzlies 114

Podcast: Can Milwaukee's recent struggles be ascribed solely to a missing Jrue Holiday?

“For as much as the ball is in his hands, and tonight they’re a little shorthanded, so I think he had to do more,” Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said of Morant. “Tyus Jones has been a great backup for them and they’ve played them together, those two together have bene really tough to guard.

"I thought George to start with, Jrue, the bigs, everybody, there was just a lot of attention to him. Try to make him work for everything. He had four threes at halftime (and finished with four). So, overall, I think there are some positives to take from our effort on Morant tonight.”

The victory moved the Bucks to 17-3 when their trio of stars play together and 28-19 overall. Memphis lost for just the second time since Christmas Day to drop to 31-16.

Hill started at point guard for the Bucks for the second straight game, and Holiday played 22 minutes as he finished each quarter.

“He was on a minutes restriction, there was a target for us, and to have him available at the end of the game like we did, that just seemed like the most sensible thing to do with him,” Budenholzer said. “And he’s great. He’s such a team guy he’ll do anything in every situation, every moment. He’s just great to coach great to be around every day. So we’ll see how he’s feeling and how he comes out of this.”

Holiday scored nine points on 2 of 8 shooting while handing out four assists, pulling down five rebounds and committing three turnovers in his return.

“Man, having Jrue out there with one ankle, it’s a bonus,” Antetokounmpo said with a grin. “Having Jrue out there for two minutes a game, it’s always a bonus. Down the stretch, end of quarters, him playmaking, him making a decision, being able to go to the corner, go to the dunker, set a screen, I get some rest and not be always the guy that’s gonna make a decision when Khris is out definitely, definitely helps. Helps me, helps Khris, helps George, but it’s not only that. Defensively it helps a lot. He’s always guarding one of the best players of the opposing team. He’s helping us rebound the ball… it’s great to have him back.”

Holiday tweaked his left ankle on Jan. 5 and then entered the league’s health and safety protocol the next day, which caused him to miss a game in Brooklyn. He exited the protocol before a game in Charlotte on Jan. 8 and missed the Bucks’ next five games after that with the ankle injury.

Holiday clarified that he did not test positive for COVID-19, but rather was placed in the protocol for an inconclusive test.

“I wish I had a little more (playing time),” Holiday said with a smile. “I think just trying to get my timing back, get my legs back, get my feel for the game back. It’s been, I don’t know, I feel like I haven’t played in a long time, so just trying to get back right.”

Along with his defense on Morant, Hill provided a lift offensively for the Bucks with 14 points and six assists.

Hill acknowledged Budenholzer has talked to him about being more aggressive in looking for his shot and added, “Like he said, sometimes I’ve got to be selfish in my own ways and look to score. But he knows that’s not me. But my teammates encourage me to be a little bit more selfish and take my shots and I just tried to play the game.”

Khris Middleton had 27 points, with 22 coming in the second half. He scored nine of 10 Bucks points in the opening five minutes of the fourth quarter to help push the lead back up to as many as 15 with seven minutes to play.

But Memphis was able to cut the lead to 114-111 with 2:32 left with a 15-4 run – but following two Hill free throws, Middleton pulled down a defensive rebound and avoided turning the ball over despite a Memphis trap, instead kicking the ball out to Hill. Hill fed it to Holiday, who then hit Antetokounmpo for a dunk and a 118-111 lead with 1:55 to go to essentially end the threat.

“He’s an even-keeled guy,” Hill said of Middleton. “We talked about it in Atlanta, him being hard on himself and I told him we’ve won a lot of games with you so we can’t beat you up about eight turnovers that game or whatever it was. We’re going to need you to get rid of that game and be ready for the next game and he’s been resilient all year and most of his career. When the game is on the line we know that we can count on him.”

Antetokounmpo fouled out with 39.5 seconds left after picking up his fifth foul with 3:02 to go, and finished the game with 33 points, 15 rebounds, seven assists and two steals. Between his fifth and sixth fouls he scored eight straight points for Milwaukee.

Bobby Portis had 14 points for Milwaukee and Pat Connaughton added 13 off the bench.

Jackson scored 29 points and had nine rebounds for Memphis while Brandon Clarke had 14 off the bench.

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Before the gameBudenholzer acknowledged the team had struggled of late coming out of the half, and while he said a correction would have to start with defense the Grizzlies outscored them 40-35 in the third quarter.

Jackson was a problem early in scoring 17 points in the quarter before drawing his fourth foul, and then Morant got into the paint with 10 points inside. But, the Bucks were able to take a 96-87 lead into the fourth as Middleton scored nine and Pat Connaughton had eight.

It was the first time the Bucks held less than a double-digit lead since early in the second quarter, however.

Each team began the game looking to limit each other’s stars from dominating in the paint, and the Bucks were able to take a 61-47 lead into the half largely by keeping Morant from scoring inside. One of the league’s most dominant penetrators, Morant went 0-for-4 in the paint whereas Antetokounmpo was 4-for-7 for eight points inside.

Antetokounmpo finished the half with 17 points, eight rebound and five assists while Morant had 16 by making 4 of his 7 three-point attempts.

Memphis edged Milwaukee 30-28 in paint scoring for the half, but the effort had to come from players other than Morant. Conversely, the Bucks made 9 of their 19 threes to help build a big lead.

No other players joined Antetokounmpo in double figures but eight different players scored, helping offset 2-for-6 shooting starts for Middleton and Holiday. Clarke had 10 points for the Grizzlies.

The first half was all about runs, with Memphis going on a 10-0 streak early in the game to go up 10-2. The Bucks responded with a 12-0 run of their own, which was folded into an 18-5 overall stretch to flip the scoreboard. The Grizzlies responded with an 8-2 spurt before the Bucks closed the first quarter with a 12-0 run to go up 36-30 after one.

The Bucks built a 17-point lead in the second quarter by using an 8-0 run as part of a 17-6 start in the opening six minutes of the frame. Memphis couldn’t take the deficit under 13 from then on.

Outside of Morant, the Grizzlies couldn’t make enough shots to dent the deficit, draining just 4 of their 23 attempts from behind the three-point line and shooting just 36.5% from the field overall. Jackson Jr. played 13 minutes of the first half, scoring two points on 1 of 7 shooting and drawing three early fouls.

Bucks happy to have Brook Lopez around

Brook Lopez, who hasn’t played since Oct. 19 and underwent back surgery Dec. 2, has been getting court work in at the Sports Science Center as he rehabilitates toward a potential return to action.

“We felt positive when we had the surgery,” Budenholzer said before the game Wednesday night. “All the reports coming out of it, the hopes and the expectations. So nothing’s changed, nothing’s new, this is all kind of to some degree what we expected, planned and we’ll continue to monitor and see how he progresses,”

Budenholzer added there is no timeline for a return to games, but Lopez’s return to the locker room has been more than welcome.

“I mean, it’s like getting a brother back, right?” Pat Connaughton said. “He’s a guy that having him around, his energy, his effort, his tenacity, him occasionally yelling at the refs – even if it’s not from the bench – is something that we enjoy and we’ve kind of grown to really need. I think for us to see him now more consistently and to have his juice and have him giving Donte (DiVincenzo) a hard time and him doing different things that make us laugh and make us bring more lively energy, it’s been great.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks 126, Grizzlies 114: Jrue Holiday returns; Giannis scores 33