The Milwaukee Bucks have had an astounding number of lows through 24 games this season. With Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future with the team as murky as ever and his calf still in concerning territory given the influx in recent Achilles’ tendon injuries, the panic button has already been hit for a few weeks now. 

Still, we hadn’t seen an on-the-court implosion yet this season quite like the one the Bucks treated us to on Sunday night. The Brooklyn Nets, who are the youngest team in the league and will almost certainly end with top-five lottery odds this season, trounced the Bucks by an eye-popping score of 127-82. 

It was comfortably the season-low scoring performance for the Bucks so far this season, 13 points fewer than their previous low of 95 points in a 24-point loss to the Lakers on Nov. 15. Kyle Kuzma, who scored 13 points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds in the loss, had a blunt review for his team’s horrible performance on Sunday.

“It’s very disappointing,” Kuzma said. “Especially as a team, as a unit. You know, that's kind of been our Achilles heel this year, is consecutively putting in consistent effort, which is unacceptable, especially at this level. For us, playing a game that we, you know, it's a kids' game, it's a game that you love, and a lot of people would die for it. It's disappointing, for sure.”

Kuzma continued his harsh critique of the Bucks’ effort in the loss and called out the team’s maturity, which was clearly lacking as they were outclassed by a team with an average age of 23.7 years old and three rookies who played extended minutes.

“We didn't play hard,” Kuzma said. “You know, we allowed them to do whatever they wanted on offense, turned the ball over a lot. Probably took a couple shots that we wanted to play more team basketball with. That's just where we're at. We have to mature on the ball, off the ball, mature with our energy on a night-to-night basis. That's basically what it is right now.”

In terms of how the Bucks can reverse their fortunes this season before it’s too late, Kuzma made it clear with a boxing reference that the team just needs to be the one that throws the first punch. 

“Starting out games (slow), I think that's a recurring theme throughout the year,” Kuzma said. “That's a huge thing. It's like Mike Tyson says, everybody has a game plan until you get punched in the mouth. A lot of times we're the ones getting punched in the mouth, and then we're the shell shocked. Then we come out, and we fight in round 7, round 8,  but it's too late.“