Nickel: Portis and Crowder return to action with the same motivation but none of the animosity

How wild is this? Two enemies becoming teammates? In Milwaukee, of all places, where MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to be considered boring. On a Bucks team, of all teams, insulated from the East Coast-West Coast media fixations just by being in the Midwest, buried under another round of snow.

But now Jae Crowder and Bobby Portis have been asked to join forces and the temperature in the locker room feels hotter. Mentos in a bottle of Coke. Water beading off a hot frying pan.

Portis and Crowder are both physical, fearless and loyal to their respective teams. Throw in some differences of style of play, with highly competitive personalities, a little screaming and needling, and the Portis-Crowder matchups still have potential to be combustible.

But Crowder says, hold up. Animosity will not be the theme of this story.

“That's nonexistent; that's nonexistent,” he said, standing in front of his locker after his first Bucks game. “It's motivation now.”

It was Crowder who reached out first. The 32-year-old wasted no time after the Bucks signed him on the trade deadline. He knew he was going to Miami last week for his all-star break to work out, so he approached Portis.

“I really wanted him to come,” said Crowder.

This was a good step toward changing this combative relationship into a collaborative one. For example, two years ago in that epic Bucks vs. Phoenix Suns in Game 4 in the NBA Finals, Crowder matched up with Portis on the blocks. Crowder and Portis went for a loose ball, and Portis fouled Crowder – just a foul, not a kill shot. But Crowder flopped like Portis threw a Mike Tyson uppercut. If you appreciate flops, it was golden.

But Portis was not amused and mocked Crowder briefly with hands up, back arched, give-me-a-break vibe. Still, it worked, because Crowder went to the foul line.

Two years later, these two, with teammate Joe Ingles, went to work together in Miami.

"Good guy, great guy, got nothing bad to say about him,” Portis said Thursday after returning to Milwaukee from the Miami trip. “Sometimes you don't know with guys because you play against guys all the time – and me and Jae always been the type of guys that kind of got into it.

“We always kind of bumped heads, but we bumped heads in a good way. We’re kind of similar; we brought intensity to the game, bring a chip on our shoulders.”

The Bucks were cognizant of this when they acquired Crowder, so the team helped with Portis in Miami with Crowder. Staffers were on hand as Portis was just cleared to play, returning from a month-long rehabilitation process from his injured MCL, and he really wanted to get work in that more resembled 5-on-5 work, in addition to taking time off in the sun and beauty of South Florida. But it was also time well spent, he said, to be with Crowder.

Portis and Crowder did discuss their checkered past.

"When you link up with guys on the same team – after playing against guys for years – you have so many battles and so many stories,” said Portis. “At one point it is going to come up in the locker room, and we're going to talk about the time when we did this and this. It's all fun, man.

“You know, guys play this game for the love of the game and we have a passion for basketball and it's just fun to be on a team with a guy like that, that has the same amount of passion for the game that I do.

“It was fun to go down to Miami just to be around them for extended period of time. I never really knew him outside of basketball. But sometimes, basketball just brings different guys together for special reasons.”

Portis said Crowder is an excellent addition to the Bucks but to hear Crowder talk, it almost sounds as if he wanted to reassure Portis that they would be a good fit together because they are so similar.

"What he brings to the team, I'm aware of it and I try to bring the same. And it's just a clash,” said Crowder. “Every time we step on the court its ‘clash’ because he's trying to impose his will to get his team going and I was trying to do the same for my respective team.

“That was just our competitive juices taking over. It was nothing personal between the lines and we understood that. Once I signed I told him: ‘I butted heads with you because of the energy and the force you play with. And I try to match it.’ It was just like the greatest amount of respect, I think."

Crowder said Portis and Thanasis Antetokounmpo have been the most helpful in bringing him along, as well as Ingles, Grayson Allen and Draft Class of 2012 mate Khris Middleton.

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“It was great to get some work in with a few of the guys,” said Crowder. “Obviously we took it very serious just to try to get better. I think me and Bobby pushed each other to the max. Joe was in there. It was a great week of work for us.

“I played with Jrue Holiday’s brothers, so I know how the whole Holiday thing works with their sarcastic ways. I’ve been just leaning on everybody. I’m trying to get to know everyone and lean on everyone. Talking to Giannis about what he likes, what he don’t like on the offensive.

“But I would say Bobby was the most (helpful), because we just took a break, we took the all-star break together, so that time was well spent.”

Crowder's season debut Friday night was successful, with nine points on 3-for-5 shooting (2-for-2 from three-point range) Friday night in 16 minutes during Milwaukee’s 128-99 demolition of Miami. It was a really good showing even if Crowder said he felt a bit rusty, his timing was off. Still, he was ready.

“I wanted this game due to the fact that I know how hard this team Miami plays and I wanted to push myself to go above and beyond,” Crowder said. "I feel like this was a good first game.”

Portis was stellar in his return from MCL injury with 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting.

Sometimes Portis and Crowder were on the court together, sometimes one subbed for the other. But they both looked at ease as if bygones were bygones.

Portis did have a bit of advice for Crowder.

“We're going to need him to just be himself,” said Portis. “I think that's what everybody's basically told anybody that comes to this organization, just to be themselves and do what they do to help the team impact winning."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks teammates Bobby Portis, Jae Crowder were fierce rivals