The Milwaukee Bucks seemingly had more to gain by losing Sunday’s regular season finale as dropping to the East’s No. 3 seed would have them avoiding a potential first-round matchup with the Nets. So, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer rolled out a starting lineup that could’ve doubled as the Bucks’ G League affiliate Milwaukee Herd.
There was one notable exception, though. Jrue Holiday was in the starting lineup, but he was never actually going to play.
Holiday’s contract had a $306,000 incentive bonus if he could play 67 games this season. Needing just one more appearance to hit that threshold, Budenholzer elected to send Holiday out there to get his money. All it took was eight seconds.