JR Radcliffe

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

There were plenty of national outlets reacting with figurative eye emojis as the Bucks delivered an emphatic 134-111 win over the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena in Oakland.

Milwaukee (9-2) handed the Warriors (10-2) their first home loss of the year. It’s a game that was notable for Stephen Curry’s departure because of a muscle strain late in the third quarter, though by then, the Bucks looked like they had taken control. Draymond Green, another of the Warriors’ top four players, did not play, as well.

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 24 points with nine board and four assists and didn’t even play in the fourth quarter. Eric Bledsoe led the Bucks with 26 points.

Take a look at some of the national attention Milwaukee received in the aftermath:

Jack Baer of Yahoo! Sports noted that the Bucks continued to look “very real after running roughshod over Warriors.”

“It might be time to fully embrace the Milwaukee Bucks as an NBA contender,” he writes.

“What else can you say after the Bucks posted a dominant 134-111 win over the Golden State Warriors, a game in which the team led by at least eight points during the entirety of the second half?”

Colin Ward-Henninger of CBS Sports broke down Milwaukee’s dominance in the paint.

“The Bucks might as well have taken out an ad for real estate in the Oracle Arena paint on Thursday night. Coach Budenholzer's squad has been launching 3-pointers at a prolific rate, but even when the 3s weren't falling the Bucks managed to get points in the paint and at the free throw line. They scored 84 points in the paint on the night compared to the Warriors' 32, which makes more sense when you realize they were missing one crucial piece to the defensive puzzle (in Draymond Green).”

Khadrice Rollins of SI.com also recognized that the Bucks had put the NBA on notice.

"The Bucks only needed three quarters to run the Warriors out the gym Thursday…. Bet you weren’t expecting to read that sentence," Rollins wrote.

He added, “Plenty expected the Bucks to be good, but through 11 games, they look scary good. There’s no need to add ‘darkhorse’ before you say this team is a contender to win the East this season."

The Ringer didn’t do a game recap but did point out the biggest winners of the league's “Pace Boom,” with Danny Chau mentioning Brook Lopez among them.

“Lopez is an inspiration. When I hit 30 and am invariably faced with the world’s cruel indifference to my mounting obsolescence, I hope to be able to pivot to what the cool kids are doing, and do it so well that my old job— and my old life —becomes almost unrecognizable to me as a person. Lopez, at nearly 7-foot-1 and 270 pounds, is the largest 3-point specialist in NBA history. And by specialist, I mean the only function he has on the court is to shoot 3s. Nearly 73 percent of his total field goal attempts come from behind the arc, which is the sixth-highest 3-point attempt ratio in the league among players who averaged at least five attempts per game. He has attempted 6.2 3-pointers in the Bucks’ first 11 games this season (at a 38 percent clip), more than twice as many as he took in his first eight seasons combined”

Check that, the Ringer added another story late in the day, and Dan Devine thinks the Bucks are now in the NBA's elite, pointing in particular to the surge that moved the Bucks into control of the game.

"All of a sudden, that three-point lead ballooned to 15," Devine wrote. "The Bucks had just crushed the two-time-defending NBA champions in their own gym. By the end of the barrage, Antetokounmpo had totaled nine points, two rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block in barely three minutes. On a court also occupied by two in-their-prime NBA MVPs, he was the best player—by far."

Grant Hughes of Bleacher Report released power rankings on Friday, and guess who's moved to No. 1? In the entire NBA.

Nick Friedell of ESPN.com referred back to Steph Curry's Wednesday assertions that the Bucks had a look that the Warriors had before they became a full-fledged dynasty.

"I think [their situation] is very similar to four years ago here," Curry explained. "A change of scenery sometimes helps. You get a little boost of energy, a little shift in focus and perspective, and that little difference can unlock something. It's still early. They're taking care of business like they should. It's important when you have that much potential to get off to a good start, but the season will shape out as it's supposed to."

In a view from the other side, Dieter Kurtenbach -- who covers the Warriors for the East Bay Times in Oakland -- was effusive in his praise for Milwaukee's ability to match the Warriors.

"The Warriors were playing exceptional basketball up until Thursday," Kurtenbach said.

"And while one bad game doesn’t change the fact that Golden State is the team to beat in the league, the Bucks performance does change the Association’s paradigm a bit.

"For the first few weeks of the season, I’ve been wondering if there was a team that could play with the Warriors. Yes, the Nuggets beat Golden State, but that had more to do with the Dubs missing wide-open shots than anything Denver did.

"But the way the Bucks played Thursday — on Oakland — made a statement: this team is a matchup nightmare for the Warriors and perhaps the last squad they’d want to face in June."