標籤: Kuzmas

Throughout his NBA career, Milwaukee Bucks forward Kyle Kuzma has never had to see a shot he didn’t like, and during the team’s game against the Phoenix Suns he reached an important career milestone with 10,000 career points.

After the Bucks’ game, Kyle Kuzma gave a heartfelt reaction to reaching the 10,000 career point plateau.

Kuzma said, “As a kid, I said I had two dreams that I wanted to play in the NBA, and I wanted to score 10,000 points. Random, that’s just how random it happens.” “I knew I was getting close for the last month or so, and I feel like it was yesterday or the day before yesterday… I looked to see how close I was, and I was praying this morning.

“I told God, ‘It would be great if I could score 30 tonight,’ because I knew where I was. And I had 33. Honestly, you can’t beat that.”

Although the Bucks lost the game against the Suns 129–114, Kuzma etched his name in the history books as the latest NBA player to score 10,000 career points. He finished the game with 33 while shooting 12-of-21 (57.1 percent) from the field, 6-of-10 (60 percent) from the 3-point line and 3-of-4 (75 percent) from the free-throw line.

Kuzma’s name came up in trade rumors as the deadline approached, but ultimately nothing materialized and the Bucks retained the veteran forward. Selected 27th overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, Kuzma has been a solid double-digit scoring threat throughout his career, helping the Los Angeles Lakers win the 2020 NBA Championship.

This season, Kuzma has been benched, playing in 59 games at a rate of just over 26 minutes per game. He averaged 13.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists with splits of 49.2 percent shooting from the field, 36.5 percent shooting from the 3-point line and 72.4 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

What’s going on in Milwaukee? Over the past few games, Kyle Kuzma has been a solid role player for the Milwaukee Bucks. With Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined, Kuzma played nice complementary basketball in place of the star. With Antetokounmpo returning against the shorthanded Boston Celtics, the former NBA champion was expected to go to the bench.

In fact, Kuzma went to the bench to start the Bucks’ game against the Celtics. However, Kuzma never left the bench during the game, not logging a single minute of action in their loss to a Boston team without Jaylen Brown. When asked why he was benched, head coach Doc Rivers said that he had decided not to play forward according to Eric Nehm.

Although Kuzma has not had a good game this season, the forward has been playing better in the last four games. He was averaging 16 points per game over the last four games, along with nearly four rebounds and only three assists. With the Bucks shut out for most of the game, it’s curious why Rivers decided not to give the forward a chance to perhaps contribute.

Over the last three games, the Bucks have lost a total of 78 points. This is a worrying trend, especially as they have been on a comeback trail and have won eight of their last ten matches. Rivers said this when asked about the sequence of defeats.

“I don’t care about the points. I just care about how we’re playing. We’ve been playing great, and we’ve kind of lost our way and I think that’s on both sides. I think offensively, we had a great rhythm and we’ve done that in spurts the last three games, but we haven’t been able to sustain it.”

The Bucks next face the Atlanta Hawks on March 4.