Consider the Bucks stoked.
That a security guard employed by Kevin Durant and on the Nets’ payroll charged onto the court and actually bumped and shoved P.J. Tucker during Game 3 of what is now a contentious Eastern Conference semifinals series enlivened what had been a slumbering Bucks team. They shot horribly, sure, but they secured a victory and are braced for more chippy play in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
“That sparks everything and kind of puts a battery in everybody’s back,’’ Bucks reserve forward Bobby Portis said Saturday after practice. “Makes us go out there and play harder and it makes it just that much better that we’re at home too, so our home crowd can really lock in and get the juices flowing in the arena so we can have that home court advantage and feed off them.’’
The juices were flowing with less than five minutes remaining in the third quarter of the Bucks’ inelegant 86-83 victory. Tucker, a feisty defender, was whistled for a foul and complained about the call. Durant started chirping. Tucker and Durant went nose-to-nose, words (they weren’t pleasantries) were exchanged and suddenly, Antjuan Lambert, Durant’s security guard, was on the court getting physical with Tucker.
“It was kinda crazy, he just attacked P.J.,’’ Portis said.
Bucks guard Jrue Holiday said he knows Lambert and that “I guess maybe [he] was doing his job.’’ But then, Holiday reconsidered.
“He bumped Tuck kinda hard, though,’’ Holiday said. “I don’t know if he’s supposed to do that. I think when it comes down to it I’m here to play basketball and that’s not something I’m gonna worry about. I like the chippiness and the talking of KD and Tuck. I’m gonna back Tuck every time.
“I feel like that’s something the league has to deal with or the teams have to deal with. But it’s not really my job. But attacking Tuck? I mean, I don’t think anybody wants to attack Tuck. Tuck crazy.’’
Said Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer: “I’m not aware of us asking the league to take a look at it. That doesn’t mean that we haven’t, but to my knowledge we have not.’’
Lambert will not work any of the remaining games of the series in Milwaukee, according to an NBA source, and will not be assigned to the court area for the games in Brooklyn during this series.
The Bucks do not approve of what went down.
“In the heat of the moment I have no idea who that guy is with or who he is affiliated with,’’ Budenholzer said. “Could be Fiserv Forum security, could be Bucks security, could be Nets security. I know enough, I guess it’s sorted out that it was Nets security.
“In the heat of the moment you know that people are coming to try and de-escalate things and get things under control and not bump and escalate and have things become a bigger problem than what we’re trying to address. If it’s a Nets security guy and he’s bumping our player and things like that it doesn’t seem like that’s the protocol and that’s what we could expect from any type of security. I don’t think you want to bump and escalate things.’’
An off-color chant directed at Durant cascaded down from the crowd immediately after the altercation. With the Bucks one win away from evening the series, expect Durant to be treated even more rudely in Game 4.
“Most of the time teams’ security comes in and gets in-between everybody,’’ Portis said. “So he probably did cross some boundaries with that, but at the same time they’re just coming in thinking it’s them against everybody so they had that mentality. It was cool that their security guy had their back in that way but it still wasn’t cool for him to do that in that sense.’’
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