Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways From Loss To Dallas Mavericks

Middleton Frustrations

Khris Middleton remains as important as ever to the Bucks when he’s on the floor, but it’s clear that he’s struggled a little in some of his recent games.

Middleton has shot less than 40 percent from the field in four of his last six games, including a 1-13 showing against the Hawks, and a 5-15 game on this occasion against Dallas.

Luckily the Bucks have managed to get away with that for the most part during that spell, but it would become a much larger issue if it was to continue for the remainder of the regular season and into the playoffs.

Not looking to overreact to a minor shooting slump from a player who has had his season so significantly disrupted by injury, there’s another aspect of Middleton’s recent contributions that is worth noting.

Often spoken about as one of the quieter players on the team, Middleton has definitely been more vocal since his return from injury, but particularly in terms of voicing his frustrations.

This has come in a couple of notable instances where Middleton has failed to get a call on offense and lumbered back down the floor in order to complain to the official as the opposition scored. In one of those cases, Middleton’s complaining even yielded a technical.

Although there were no techs in this instance, Middleton entered the fourth quarter with no fouls to his name before racking up five in the period. Sure, there were plenty of questionable calls that went against him, but the visible frustration Middleton showed wasn’t akin to the player Bucks fans had watched in previous years.

After the game, Middleton spoke to Charles Gardner of the Journal Sentinel about some of the calls that led to Harrison Barnes regularly getting to the free throw line, and made an important note.

"“That game is not on the refs; that’s on us.”"

It’s great to see Middleton more passionate than ever, but on the whole things are going well for the Bucks, and tapering his frustrations may help both him and his team to maintain their rhythm.