Damian Lillard’s game-winning layup vs. Rockets doesn’t mask the Bucks’ massive flaws

The Milwaukee Bucks were bailed out by several plays that went their way and one egregiously missed call down the stretch on Monday, and it was Damian Lillard’s layup with 3.9 seconds remaining that gave them a 101-100 skin-of-their-teeth victory over the Houston Rockets. 

Before we get to the breaks of the last few minutes, here is Lillard’s winner. 

Look, it was a nice play by Lillard. Never mind that the possession before he took a terrible shot, a damn-near falling out of bounds contested step-back 3 six seconds into the shot clock with the Bucks down one and in position to set up a 2-for-1 scenario. The guy won the game for his team. Give him credit. 

But if you’re just going off the highlights, you’re blowing smoke if you think the Bucks should’ve won that game. There isn’t a single sign that this is a good basketball team, let alone a contender. No team relying this heavily on a 36-year-old Brook Lopez is in good condition. 

Think about this: The Bucks needed Lopez to go for 27 points, 10 rebounds, five 3-pointers, four blocks and three steals, a line no player in NBA history has ever put up at at 36 or older, to barely squeak out a victory over a Rockets team that shot 28% from 3 and 40% overall. 

Less than a week ago, the Bucks again needed 29 points, eight rebounds, five 3-pointers, five blocks and three steals from Lopez to beat the Pistons. In overtime. As Joel Embiid can barely be bothered to get on the court, old-man Lopez has played 147 minutes over the last four games. That’s what it has taken for Milwaukee to beat the Pistons, Raptors and now the Rockets on a last-second shot. 

Hell, the Bucks shouldn’t even have had the ball on the possession that Lillard hit the game-winner in the first place. Giannis Antetokounmpo peeled back after getting beat by Fred VanVleet to make a great block on a Alperen Sengun’s weak push shot that was begging to be batted away, but when Lopez came down with the loose ball and shoveled it back to Antetokounmpo, he was very clearly out of bounds. 

That should have been Houston’s ball with a one-point lead, a fresh shot clock and under 20 seconds to play. Milwaukee would’ve been forced to start the foul game. The game was likely over right there. 

Bucks fans will tell you this is some sort of basketball karma for the phantom call (which, to be fair, the refs admitted they missed) that sent LaMelo Ball to the free-throw line with seven seconds to play on Saturday, where he sank both and in the process the Bucks, who could only muster an isolation 18-foot pull-up from Antetokounmpo on their final possession.

Here’s the deal: When you’re whining about a bad call because you’re that desperate to beat the Hornets by one point, you have much bigger problems than the refs. Doc Rivers loves identifying his scapegoats, but this is a reach. These calls even out. It’s perfectly fitting that after Rivers was fined $25K for painting a boo-hoo picture of his Bucks constantly getting the raw end of the whistle, it was, in fact, a blown call that saved them two nights later. 

It wasn’t the only stroke of luck that saved them. A few possessions earlier, Sengun was on a direct line to the rim and instead of going up with the shot, he decided to kick it out to Dillon Brooks for a 3-pointer with no Bucks defender within a country mile of him. He missed. 

If Sengun takes the layup, or at least draws a foul and knocks down the free throws, the Rockets go up six. If Brooks makes the warm-up 3, they go up seven. With 90 seconds to play, the game likely would’ve been over right there as well. Instead, Milwaukee’s A.J. Green cashed a pull-up 28-footer on the other end to cut the lead to one. 

Even after Lillard’s layup, the Rockets had the ball on a side-out for one last shot and absolutely blew what should’ve been a point-blank game-winning layup for Sengun. Watch Antetokounmpo, either because he and Andre Jackson Jr. miscommunicated in the worst way at the worst time or because Antetokounmpo simply made an error in judgment, chase Jalen Green away from the basket as Sengun pops into the great wide open. 

If VanVleet completes this simple pass, the little bit of pressure on the inbounds pass notwithstanding, the game is once again over for the Bucks. 

At this point, the Bucks will take a win any way they can get it, especially against a quality Houston team. But they didn’t “hold” Houston to 100 points. The Rockets just can’t shoot. They barely make 32% of their threes, the third-worst mark in the league, and they shot even worse than that on Monday. 

If you want to convince yourself this was because of Milwaukee’s defense around the arc, you go right ahead. But the truth is pretty plain to see. The Bucks are not a good team. They’re 5-9 and could, and perhaps should, be 4-10. 

Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m thinking that 36-year-old Lopez playing like Victor Wembanyama on a good night, a blatantly blown call by the refs, a blatantly blown game-winning layup by the opponent, and a Dame-time game winner on a possession the Bucks never should’ve had after he went 0-for-6 from 3 in the game, isn’t exactly a replicable blueprint. 

Game winners are cool, and nobody has more of go-ahead shots in the clutch than Lillard since he entered the league in 2012. But even that kind of excitement to close a game can’t mask the stink that’s coming off this Bucks team.