Not even the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks are safe from the Oklahoma City Thunder comeback attempts.

Midway through the third quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo checked out of the game with a 16-point Bucks lead. The MVP had just 14 points, but he didn’t need more; Milwaukee was destroying OKC on both ends.

But the Thunder inched back: a Mike Muscala 3 here, a Kenrich Williams corner 3 there, some excellent fourth-quarter defense everywhere. Suddenly, OKC cut a lead that had been as large as 20 all the way down to just two points.

It has been their signature. No lead is completely safe. Antetokounmpo had to play 36 minutes, three more than his season average. The Bucks ended up winning 96-89, but the Oklahoma City Thunder once again struck fear into their opponent, the same way they’ve been doing all season.

It wasn’t through their usual means. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had a poor game, shooting 5-for-20 from the field and missing 10 of his 12 3-point attempts. Lu Dort’s streak of 20-plus-point games ended at five.

Even the Bucks’ stat line was unexpected. Antetokounmpo was just 6-for-16 from the field. Yet his line doesn’t tell the story, as the Bucks imploded with him off the court.

Mike Muscala was somehow a plus-14 in the seven-point loss, and Ty Jerome was plus-12 in 15 minutes played.

This game was lost by a few poor stretches, most notably the Bucks’ 13-0 run over the first 3:02 of the game and the stretch in the third quarter in which the deficit reached 20. For most of the night, the Thunder played well. They tended to prevent deficits from ballooning — several times, they cut a 15- or 16-point lead to 10 — and hung around long enough to make things interesting.

Over the final three quarters, the Thunder outscored the Bucks by three points. They only allowed 16 in the fourth quarter, three of which came off intentional fouls.

Head coach Mark Daigneault was not on the sideline, but it was a good performance. OKC held the Bucks to 96. Here are a few key aspects from the matchup:

The defense

Antetokounmpo could not get going. The Thunder forced him short on quite a few looks, and Darius Bazley managed to body him up well and move laterally to prevent the usual spin-to-dunk moves. Maybe that’s because Bazley also has a package of his own spin moves in his bag.

But there was also something off about Antetokounmpo, perhaps because of all the triple-teams sent his way. Even when he wasn’t surrounded, he missed quite a few shots badly. He’s no 3-point shooter, but he airmailed some looks. He had a few hooks from around the free-throw line that would normally go in but instead hit front iron.

Even with strong defense, the Greek Freak does not go 6-for-16 from the field.

The Thunder decided they would engulf him, and it made a mark on Giannis. It did not, however, work to perfection.

The Bucks had workarounds for when the Thunder would surround Antetokounmpo. They had an excellent passing performance and it started with the power forward. He found open players who found someone even more open. They swung the ball around. Former Thunder player Justin Robinson made a particularly nice pass from the free-throw line that led to a wide-open 3.

And that was generally the way the Bucks played. Antetokounmpo didn’t get many good looks, but he didn’t need to. The Thunder decided to force the ball out of his hands, and through the first half in particular, it worked as they intended, but Milwaukee was ready.

Perhaps most unfortunate of all for OKC was that when it mattered most, Antetokounmpo’s shot did fall. The defense didn’t matter. With 30 seconds left and a two-point Bucks lead, the star faded away from Bazley from the free-throw line and drilled it. That was it for the Thunder, who missed both 3s they attempted in the next two possessions and ended with a stomach-churning 12-for-48 line from behind the arc.

SGA's game

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was perhaps the biggest culprit of poor 3-point shooting. While his step-backs have looked great this year, he’s perhaps becoming a little too confident in his low-percentage shots.

No shot is a bad shot if it goes in, and because of that, it’s hard to tell if Gilgeous-Alexander’s shot is bad or not until it hits the rim. Hindsight is 20/20 and there is little foresight for his shots. But on a night in which he is 2-for-12 from deep, he needs to find different scoring avenues than deep.

Another minor thought: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander last year got very very good at attaching defenders to his hip and pulling up for open shots.

He’s being a little too patient now.

There were multiple times against the Bucks in which he had space in front of him to shoot, but still waited to feel the defender at his hip before making his next move (whether shoot, dribble or pass). Honestly, I can’t even confirm if he’s been doing that a lot this whole year. It was prominent against the Bucks, though.

Either way, if his scouting report now reads that he thrives with a defender on his hip, he’ll have to adjust to start getting better feels for who is around him and, more importantly, where they are.

Gilgeous-Alexander finished the game with a team-high 17 points and six rebounds.

From the Bucks' perspective

I switched over to the Bucks broadcast team in League Pass tonight to hear a different perspective. While they focused on Milwaukee, a couple things about the Thunder stood out to them:

In the first quarter, Darius Bazley blocked Giannis Antetokounmpo twice. Those watching from the Thunder’s lens certainly noticed and celebrated it, but it’s worth mentioning that it was a big deal even for those focusing on the Bucks. That doesn’t happen a whole lot. The broadcast team noted it, and when Antetokounmpo had a block on Bazley later in the game, they called it payback. Bazley’s moments stuck with them.

Play-by-play announcer Lisa Byington and color commentator Marques Johnson raved over Josh Giddey throughout the game. They love his passing, particularly with his left hand. If I remember correctly (which I’m fairly certain I do), Johnson got in a joke about being giddy for Giddey.

Giddey finished with a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double, his second in a row. Six of his rebounds were on the offensive glass. He shot 6-for-12 from the field and had four assists.

The announcers were wrong about one thing though: After Aleksej Pokusevski stepped into a long midrange shot and swished it, they said that it seems like he should shoot more than some of his teammates (the team was shooting below 40% from the field and below 25% from 3 at the time). With all due respect to the announcers, whom I enjoyed very much, the Thunder do not particularly want Pokusevski taking more shots.

Poku

But that midrange look has been very productive for Pokusevski. While he struggles shooting in general, when he steps into that look — even from deep midrange — he’s been consistent.

The shooting percentage is better than all around the court to almost an alarming level. According to NBA Advanced Stats, Pokusevski entered the game 6-for-11 from midrange. He is 8-for-37 from 3 and an even more jarring 4-for-30 from non-corner looks. Perhaps worst of all, the 7-foot player is 3-for-13 in the paint.

Yet that midrange look, for whatever reason, has been money as of late. Pokusevski is hitting them at a high rate. The analytics crowd (myself included) would tell normal players to simply take two steps back and make the 3 instead, but Pokusevski simply isn’t making those from beyond the arc. Of course, he isn’t simply a normal player, either. If opponents keep giving him space in the deep midrange, he should continue to take them.

Other notes

Let’s mention Muscala and Jerome one more time, both of whom were key in cutting down the deficit. Muscala has been absolutely tremendous for the Thunder this season, and it’s not just from his ability to stretch the floor. His defense has also been good. He has been one of the best players on the Thunder this season.

Of course, his stretching of the floor is a bigger reason. He was 4-for-6 from 3 on Friday and finished with 14 points in 20 minutes.

Jerome had 10 points and four rebounds in 15 minutes of play.

Dort, who likewise finished with 10 points, had his five-game streak of games with 20 or more points snapped. Gone are the days when a simple double-digit outing for Dort gets a nod of approval. He was 4-for-13 from the field and 2-for-7 from 3, finishing with his fewest number of points since the second game of the season.

The Thunder (6-9) don’t get a night off before their next game. They’ll take on the Boston Celtics (8-8) at 6:30 Central Time.