Kidd-less Bucks lose in Orlando
PrintORLANDO, Fla.--Jason Kidd got the night off courtesy of the NBA.
The Milwaukee Bucks coach didn’t miss anything.
Elfrid Payton scored 22 points and had 10 assists, and the Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks 114-90 on Friday.
The Magic shot 52.4 percent from the field and limited the Bucks to 41.9 percent shooting. Tobias Harris scored 19 points for Orlando, and Evan Fournier and Victor Oladipo had 17 apiece.
Milwaukee was without coach Jason Kidd after he was suspended for one game for a run-in with officials during Wednesday’s 129-118 loss to Sacramento.
The Bucks found out four hours before game time that Kidd was suspended.
“It’s not really our decision to be surprised or not,” assistant coach Joe Prunty said. “We (assistant coaches) talked and prepared for the roles we’re required to do.”
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jerryd Bayless led Milwaukee with 17 points apiece. Khris Middleton had 15, but the Bucks’ defense was slow in transition and constantly left Magic shooters wide open on the perimeter.
“We have to be a more consistent team,” said Prunty, who took over for Kidd. “In the first half we were competing, but in the second half there were a couple of things that make you question what kind of team we are.”
Orlando made each of its six 3-point attempts and 13 of 16 shots (81.3 percent) overall while blowing the game open in the third period. Orlando outscored Milwaukee 37-22 in the quarter to push a six-point halftime lead to 86-65.
“The game always looks better when the 3 is going in,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said.
Payton started the third-quarter surge with a trey 30 seconds into the period. Fournier had a fast-break 3-pointer and Nik Vucevic followed with a traditional three-point play to boost the lead to 77-57.
“We just have to play defense,” Milwaukee forward John Henson said. “If we don’t fix it, it’s going to be a long season. You got to care about it.”
Middleton was Milwaukee’s only offense in the quarter, scoring 11 points, and the Bucks went 5 for 21 (23.8 percent) from the field against an aggressive Magic defense.
Payton led a strong defensive effort that helped Orlando outscore Milwaukee 65-47 in the second half. He was shooting 35 percent from the field coming into the night, but he connected on 10 of 12 shots against the Bucks.
“I was trying to put a little extra pressure on the ball (in the second half) and that helped us get a lot of deflections and get out in transition,” Payton said. “As far as shooting, I’m always confident, but the ball was really moving tonight. We were able to penetrate and get a lot of kickouts and shoot the ball in transition. It was all good.”
The Magic got 12 points from Harris and nine each from Oladipo and Payton on their way to a 49-43 halftime lead. Orlando used five 3-pointers, two from Harris, to make up for a lack of inside scoring.