The Milwaukee Bucks got off on the right foot in 2025-26 on Wednesday night, holding off a late run from the Washington Wizards to get a 133-120 victory in front of their home fans.
This is a bit of a new-look Bucks squad around Giannis Antetokounmpo this season. Damian Lillard is gone after suffering a torn Achilles in the playoffs last season, and big man Myles Turner is in after signing with Milwaukee in free agency. Turner terrorized the Bucks in multiple playoff series with the Indiana Pacers in the past, so they will be happy to have him with the Bucks.
The loss of Lillard leaves a hole in the backcourt for Milwaukee, and Doc Rivers and company were counting on Kevin Porter Jr. to fill some of that void. Unfortunately, Porter left the season opener early after spraining his ankle, and Rivers didn't sound too optimistic about it postgame, via Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
“It didn’t look good, I’ll just say that,” Rivers said, per Nehm. “We just gotta hope for the best. Looking at it, it was a pretty bad sprain.”
The Bucks need Porter to be out there as someone who can score and space the floor for Antetokounmpo, especially with the shallow state of the guard room at the moment. He finished the night with 10 points on 3-for-5 shooting in just nine minutes before suffering the injury and leaving the game. Porter also drained two 3-pointers in the first game of the year.
The Bucks also rolled AJ Green out as a starting guard in this game, and the Northern Iowa product finished with 11 points and made a trio of 3s Cole Anthony and Ryan Rollins came off the bench but had inefficient shooting nights.
Even without Porter for most of the night, the Bucks still had enough to get the win over an inferior Wizards squad on the back of Antetokounmpo. The Green Freak finished his 2025-26 debut with 37 points and 14 rebounds on a hyper-efficient 16-for-26 shooting and appears well on his way to another MVP-caliber campaign. If he can get this Bucks squad near the top of the Eastern Conference, he will be right in the mix for the biggest awards in the league.
