The Milwaukee Bucks drop to 0-2 in Summer League following a 90-80 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Brayden Burries and Cormac Ryan were the lone Bucks players to hit double figures, with the no. 10 pick scoring 26 points and Ryan putting up 15, as the team struggled offensively, shooting 15/39 from the field (38.5%). Nate Ament struggled once again, going just 3-for-7 from the field for seven points and three turnovers. RJ Davis led the Spurs with 20 points and three assists, while four other Spurs joined him in double figures.
NBA.com Box Score
Game Recap
Burries got the Bucks on the board early, pulling out a shot fake from three and finishing with an 11-foot mid-range jumper. Milwaukee had a hard time holding on to the ball after that, with second-year guard Kasparas Jakučionis committing three straight turnovers, but luckily, San Antonio couldn’t make them pay. The Spurs started to build a lead thanks to their three-point shooting from RJ Melendez and Ja’Kobi Gillespie, going up 13-6 with three minutes left in the quarter. Things went from bad to worse for the Bucks, who missed seven straight shots and committed three more turnovers, as the Spurs went up by 17 points before Jesse Edwards finally stopped the bleeding with back-to-back buckets in the paint. San Antonio would have the last laugh of the frame, though, as Emanuel Miller banked in a floater at the buzzer, giving them a 25-10 lead at the first break.
The Bucks continued to struggle to find the bottom of the basket, missing their first four shots before Burries got open on a back cut to the rim. The Spurs expanded their lead during the Bucks’ dry spell, going up by as many as 21. Burries was the only Milwaukee player to find any modicum of success on offense, drilling a catch-and-shoot three-pointer amid his teammates’ struggles. Cormac Ryan and Jakučionis made the first consecutive baskets, with Jakučionis hitting a euro-step layup and Ryan drilling a transition three. Ryan hit his second three-pointer of the game, cutting the Spurs’ lead to 17 points heading into halftime, 42-25.
After a quiet first half, Ament got a bucket right out of the break with a corner-three. Another recent Bucks draft pick, 2025 second-rounder Bogoljub Marković, got his first basket on a reverse layup on a feed from Pete Nance. Despite those early fireworks, both teams struggled to put the ball in the hoop. At the 5:51 mark, these out-of-conference foes had combined for just 10 points on 3/13 shooting. The Bucks finally got their first extended run of the game, going on a 10-0 dash thanks to six more points from Burries, cutting the Spurs’ lead in half before they called a timeout. Ryan helped Milwaukee briefly cut the deficit to single digits with a free throw, but RJ Davis scored on back-to-back possessions, putting San Antonio up by 12, 59-47, heading into the fourth.
After Jakučionis’ early baskets helped the Bucks get back within nine, the Spurs pushed their lead back out to double digits on Davis’ second three of the game. The turnover bug bit them once again, as Pete Nance turned it over (the 20th for the Bucks), as Davis scored a layup to push San Antonio’s lead to 15 with 4:02 on the clock. The Bucks did try to make it interesting in the waning moments, with Burries nailing a three with 47 seconds left to cut the deficit to six, but by then it was too little, too late.
Stat That Stood Out
I feel like the stats that sum up this game best are the Bucks’ 10-for-34 (29.4%) first-half shooting and 12 turnovers. While the Spurs did have 14 first-half turnovers, they shot 14/38 (36.8%) from the field.
Read the full article here