MILWAUKEE — Despite being grounded in New Orleans all week by a historic winter storm, which postponed one game and prevented the Bucks from even being able to practice, they arrived in Milwaukee a little more than two hours before they were set to play Thursday night.
And despite the unusual travel day, the Bucks rallied from a 15-point first-quarter deficit to dominate the Miami Heat in a 125-96 victory, Milwaukee’s fifth win in a row to cap off one of the more difficult travel experiences of the NBA season.
“Just a strange, long couple of days,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Thursday night.
The Bucks arrived in New Orleans on Monday ahead of the snowstorm in hopes of playing Wednesday night. However, a foot of snow got dumped on the Big Easy, shutting down several major roads with minimal snow clearing equipment on hand.
That left the Bucks stuck in their hotel for three days while Tuesday’s practice and Wednesday morning’s shootaround were canceled before the NBA elected to postpone Wednesday’s game.
Players searched for ways to pass the time. At one point, Giannis Antetokounmpo found a ballroom where he could dribble a ball around. Damian Lillard said he started watching several Netflix shows in between workouts. Bobby Portis organized a card game in his room Tuesday night.
“It felt like it was COVID all over again,” Portis said Thursday night with a laugh. “We were just in the room just chilling.”
Already facing the prospect of rescheduling one game against the Pelicans during a second half of the season loaded with back-to-backs, the Bucks did not want to postpone against the Heat and have to make up a second game.
Players wanted to play if they made it back to Milwaukee in time, and with an hour delay on the start time for the game, they were ready to do so. Rivers called on the players to summon their old high school travel basketball days from AAU, when teams would get off the bus and go play.
Both Lillard and Antetokounmpo delivered a clear message as the team prepared to bus to the airport in New Orleans: no excuses.
“As a leader of the team, you got to let the team know off the rip, we not doing that,” said Lillard, who had 29 points and 11 assists and finished one rebound shy of his first Bucks triple-double. “We not having excuses. I don’t care about the flight, I don’t care. We’ve been in a hotel. … Ain’t going to be no excuses tonight, you got to go out here and jump on them like we’ve been doing. And no excuses if something goes wrong, we can’t be looking at it as a crutch or nothing like that.”
Still, the Heat jumped out to an early lead over the Bucks after what Antetokounmpo called a “sloppy” first 10 minutes of the team searching for a rhythm after not playing all week. But despite falling behind 20-5, the Bucks bounced back quickly, leading going into halftime 71-55.
Antetokounmpo, who finished with a 25-point triple-double, said he was proud of the fight his team had, but also downplayed the so-called tough travel conditions with some perspective.
“The only difference is that we had to take a flight,” Antetokounmpo said. “At the end of the day, if you could call this adversity, I think the team responded very well facing this adversity that we had to take a flight for two hours before the game.”
However, the travel doesn’t stop for Milwaukee. The Bucks are scheduled to fly again Friday morning for the start of a four-game West Coast road swing, beginning Saturday in Los Angeles against the Clippers.
“How crazy is that?” Antetokounmpo said. “It’s insane. Yeah. Go back home, spend one or two hours with your family and after that you got to wake up, get ready, pack your bags, and 9:30, be in the airport. Get ready for these four games in seven days.”
