The Bucks may have another gem hiding away.
The Milwaukee Bucks lost to the Houston Rockets 119-113 on Wednesday night, and with a 30-46 record and their playoff hopes officially dead since March 28, most people wouldn't have given the game a second thought.
But Cormac Ryan made sure it mattered anyway.
Ryan, a 27-year-old guard on a two-way contract who had logged just 39 NBA minutes before tip-off, went off for a career-high 25 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 4-of-7 from three while adding four assists and a steal across 38 minutes.
Nobody outside of the Wisconsin Herd locker room saw a performance like that coming, and Ryan himself seemed almost in awe of the moment afterward.
"For me it's a blessing to have the opportunity. And that's really all you can ask for, is to have the chance to showcase what you can do, the work that you can put in," Ryan said after the game. "I've worked tremendously hard. Put a lot of faith in myself and the Lord and just trusting that and being able to go out tonight and be surrounded by a group of guys who wanted to compete and go do that. So, it was awesome to kind of get in the flow and play real minutes and all you can do is make the most of your opportunities. That's my goal down the stretch here."
A Long Road to This Moment
Ryan's path to the NBA has been anything but smooth.
He played college ball at Stanford, Notre Dame, and North Carolina before going undrafted and grinding through two G League seasons with the Oklahoma City Blue and then the Wisconsin Herd, where he averaged 20.4 points per game this year and shot 42.3 percent from deep.
Milwaukee signed him to a two-way deal on February 26 and he made his NBA debut on March 19 against Utah, where he hit a three-pointer 11 seconds after checking in for the first time.
And even though every one of his five NBA appearances has come in a loss, he keeps showing up with the same energy and the same willingness to let it fly.
Wednesday's game was a perfect example.
The Bucks dressed just eight players, lost Gary Trent Jr. to a hip contusion in the first quarter, and found themselves down by 20 against a Rockets team sitting at 47-29 and fighting for a top-four seed in the Western Conference.
None of that mattered to the guys on the floor.
Milwaukee ripped off 10 three-pointers in the third quarter alone and cut the deficit to seven heading into the fourth, with Ryan and AJ Green combining to nail nine of their 11 attempts from deep during that stretch.
Playing for Something Bigger
Ousmane Dieng led the way with a career-high 36 points, 10 assists, and seven rebounds, and Pete Nance chipped in a career-best 23 of his own.
It was a full-roster effort from a group that had no business hanging with a team like Houston, and yet they nearly pulled it off.
That fight is exactly what Doc Rivers has talked about wanting to see from his young players as the season winds down.
With Giannis Antetokounmpo sidelined along with most of Milwaukee's rotation, nights like Wednesday become audition tapes.
The Bucks host Boston on Friday, and for a team with nothing left to play for in the standings, guys like Cormac Ryan are proof that there's always something worth playing for.