MILWAUKEE — Sitting at his locker, reflecting on the Milwaukee Bucks’ 123-114 overtime loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, forward Kyle Kuzma kept coming back to one thought.

“It’s all the little things,” Kuzma said. “It’s just little things, but they all add up.”

Playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is sidelined with a left adductor strain, those little things are more important than ever, and the Bucks (8-8) didn’t take care of them Thursday.

Just look at the final three possessions of the fourth quarter.

After a Myles Turner 3-pointer gave the Bucks a two-point lead with 14.8 seconds remaining, Sixers coach Nick Nurse called a timeout to draw up a play. In that same timeout, the Bucks were informed that they had a foul to give before giving up bonus free throws, and their strategy called for them to take that foul before the Sixers attempted a shot that could potentially tie the game.

Philadelphia threw the ball into Dominick Barlow, who caught it with his back to the basket more than 30 feet from the rim. Barlow pitched the ball back to Tyrese Maxey, who made a crossover to his left hand with 10.5 seconds left. That crossover took him around Kuzma, who missed the chance to take a foul before a shot and then took a swing at Maxey’s floater with seven seconds left to send the Sixers’ All-Star point guard to the free-throw line with a chance to tie the score.

“We were trying to give (a foul) before they could get a shot up, but unfortunately, we didn’t,” Ryan Rollins said. “I feel like that was a key part of the game.”

After Maxey tied the score, Bucks coach Doc Rivers called a timeout to advance the ball and set up his play. The Sixers, like the Bucks on the possession before them, had a foul to give, and they gave it to Rollins before he could throw a pass to Kuzma rolling to the basket.

As the Bucks set up for another inbounds play with 4.2 seconds remaining, the Bucks tried to set up another play, but something was lost in translation.

“We had something drawn up, and then obviously, they did their take foul, and that took that play away,” Turner said. “And then, we kind of tried to call something on the fly, and again, we just didn’t execute it.”

Rivers told reporters that the final play of regulation was supposed to be an isolation for Rollins, but Turner approached Rollins with a screen, and it looked like Kuzma was attempting to do the same. Eventually, Rollins dribbled to the open space on the right side of the floor and attempted a fallaway jumper that ended up well short as time expired, and the game went into overtime.

 

“To me, that’s the difference in the game,” Rivers said. “They executed the foul to give, we didn’t, and we lose.”

Speaking about the Bucks’ final offensive possessions, Turner found himself echoing Kuzma.

“It’s little things like that that matter,” Turner said.

In their third game this season without Antetokounmpo, the Bucks did a number of the big things right.

  • Before struggling offensively in the five-minute overtime period, they had made 51.2 percent of their shots, including 45.2 percent from 3.
  • Rollins stood out once again by tying his career high in points with 32, dishing out a career-high 14 assists and grabbing six rebounds.
  • Four players outside of Rollins — Bobby Portis (19), Kuzma (17), Turner (14) and Gary Trent Jr. (11) — ended the game with double-digit point totals.

But the little things mattered most in the Bucks’ third straight loss. And it wasn’t just the final three possessions of regulation. The same thing happened in overtime.

The extra period was not kind to the Bucks, but a playmaking burst from Rollins brought them back into the game. Following a pull-up jumper that brought Milwaukee within two points, Sixers guard Quentin Grimes got to the basket and drew a foul with 57 seconds remaining.

Grimes made the first free throw to give Philadelphia a three-point lead. He missed the second, but the Bucks failed to secure the rebound and ultimately fouled Grimes on another drive, which ended up being too much for the Bucks to overcome.

 

The defensive glass has been a problem for the Bucks all season, but taking care of it in a situational moment could have given them one last chance to steal a win in overtime. Instead, Milwaukee made one last lapse, and the Sixers finished the game.

Winning without Antetokounmpo is going to be difficult. The margin for error will be minuscule every night if the Bucks want to sneak out victories with their best player sidelined, so they will need to execute the little things at a high level. On Thursday, they failed to do so, and the Sixers snuck out a win on the second night of a back-to-back.

“I thought we played unbelievable,” Rivers said. “I thought we played hard overall. But our execution at times tonight — and I get it, we have different guys — but some of ’em, we just have to do it.”