Milwaukee Bucks: The revival of Khris Middleton’s playoff proficiency

For the second straight year, Milwaukee Bucks swingman Khris Middleton has been at his most lethal during the postseason and he’s brought a much needed balance to his squad in their second round series against the Boston Celtics.

After breezing by the Detroit Pistons in the first round of this year’s NBA Playoffs, the Milwaukee Bucks have faced quite the test in their Eastern Conference Semi-Finals series against the Boston Celtics.

Their letdown in the opening game of the series against the Celtics was a shock to the system for players, coaches and fans alike, which brought a much needed wake up call for all involved that the road to advancing out of the second round wouldn’t be nearly as smooth as the previous series.

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After the mulligan, the Bucks followed up their Game 1 loss with a 21-point rout in Game 2 and went into Boston and muscled out a 123-116 win for Game 3 that helped them regain home court in the series.

Through it all, the Bucks’ core contributors have gone through their fair share of struggles, whether it’s been superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has since broke through his Game 1 wall, or Eric Bledsoe being as volatile as he was during last year’s first round series with Boston.

Instead, it’s been Khris Middleton who has risen to become the Bucks’ fulcrum throughout their series with the Celtics.

After breaking out with a remarkable series against the Celtics last year, Middleton has tapped back into being a bonafide Celtics killer. Through the first three games, Middleton is averaging 21.3 points on shooting splits of .500/.650/.900, along with 7.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists.

Along with that, Middleton is posting the third-highest net rating of those that have seen regular minutes throughout the series, just behind George Hill (+12.0 net rating) and Ersan Ilyasova (+18.0 net rating), per NBA.com/stats.

As well rounded as he has been, and his influence on these games has only grown as the series has gone on, the former Aggie’s cold blooded scoring throughout the playoffs has been an extension of what we’ve seen out of him throughout his All-Star campaign.

For starters, Middleton is averaging 1.29 points per possession in isolation situations throughout the postseason, which ranks him in the 96th percentile (Bucks point guard Eric Bledsoe coincidentally ranks in the 100th percentile of players in the playoffs).

Secondly, Middleton has connected on 14 of his 24 pull up three-point attempts so far this postseason, which comes in at 58.3 percent. For frame of reference, Middleton hit on 92 of his 236 pull up three-point tries throughout the regular season, a mark of 39 percent.

Middleton’s glowing individual play on the offensive end during the playoffs is paired with an absolutely immense impact in terms of the Bucks’ offense as a whole.

Tied along with veteran big man Brook Lopez, the Bucks are posting 119.2 points per 100 possessions in the 223 minutes Middleton has been on the floor in this year’s playoffs. In the 98 minutes Middleton has been on the bench this postseason, the Bucks are logging 98 points per 100 possessions.

While Middleton’s game is regularly overshadowed by the otherworldly Antetokounmpo and Bledsoe, to a lesser extent, his fingerprints have been all over Milwaukee’s success so far this postseason.

Considering the ups and downs he experienced throughout the regular season as he had a learning curve adapting to the free flowing offense implemented by Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer, the playoffs have finally given us a look at the fully optimized Middleton under this new philosophy.

For the Bucks to keep advancing in order to punch a ticket to this year’s NBA Finals, at the very least, it’ll be imperative for Middleton to keep up this level of play and continue to relish in transforming his game to its idealized form.