Milwaukee Bucks: Highlights from Khris Middleton’s NBA Africa Game 2018 appearance

We round up Milwaukee Bucks swingman Khris Middleton’s highlights from the third annual NBA Africa Game, which was held early Saturday morning in Pretoria, South Africa.

It’s certainly been a whirlwind two weeks for Milwaukee Bucks swingman Khris Middleton.

Just last week, the Charleston native participated in Team USA’s basketball mini camp held in Las Vegas after being named to the preliminary roster in early April. Once that wrapped up, Middleton hopped on a plane and traveled to South Africa to participate in the third edition of the NBA Africa Game, which was held Saturday morning.

Appearing for Team World, Middleton played an integral part in helping his squad edge out Team Africa 96-92 in what was an entertaining and contested affair down the stretch.

Logging 25 minutes of action, Middleton finished the game with 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field (1-for-6 from three), four assists, three turnovers, a rebound and a steal each and was a +5 on the day.

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As you can see from his final score line, it wasn’t exactly a crisp shooting display for the savvy, methodical Middleton, especially from beyond the arc.

With that said, Middleton came up big by burying a key three-pointer at the 4:10 mark of the fourth quarter as well as a pull up mid-ranger with 2:37 to go in the frame to hold off Team Africa as they were crafting their comeback push late.

Where Middleton made his mark on the exhibition game was with his clean distribution of the ball to his teammates for scoring opportunities.

There was no better highlight in that sense for Middleton than this no-look dish in transition to a cutting Marvin Williams of the Charlotte Hornets to put Team World up 10 just within two minutes in the third period.

For those wondering, this marks Team World’s third straight victory, which leaves Team Africa still winless since the event became established three years ago.

On another note, Team World and Los Angeles Clippers forward Danilo Gallinari was crowned the game’s MVP after posting 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field (3-for-3 from deep), eight rebounds, three assists and two turnovers in 28 minutes.

As a reminder, Middleton marks the second Bucks player to appear in the event, the first being superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who played in the first edition of the game back in August of 2015.

Additionally, Middleton wasn’t the only one with Bucks ties at the event as Bucks legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was on hand to take in the game and even appeared at center court midway through the first quarter. The same goes for the team’s legendary mascot Bango as he did his best to pump up the crowd inside Sun Arena all game long.

It may have just been an exhibition game, but it was great to see Middleton take the court and cap off what surely had to have been an incredibly fulfilling experience over the last two weeks, both professionally and personally.