Milwaukee Bucks: Eric Bledsoe found top form on Western Conference trip

After a strong four-game spell on the Milwaukee Bucks’ Western Conference road trip, point guard Eric Bledsoe appears to have found top form at a crucial juncture.

It’s an old adage in the NBA, or perhaps more accurately a cliché at this point, that teams can often come together and find the best version of themselves when they’re forced into the unifying experience of embarking on a lengthy road trip.

On Sunday, the Milwaukee Bucks concluded their own such trip, wrapping up a four-game spell of taking on Western Conference foes and crossing the country and multiple time zones with visits to Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Utah, and Los Angeles in the space of seven days.

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The Bucks finished that trip with a highly commendable 3-1 record, continuing to steady themselves after a somewhat shaky start to the season, although not necessarily offering anything particularly revelatory in the process.

Instead, though, it seems as if the road trip proved crucial for one of the team’s most important individuals, as Eric Bledsoe moved past his early season injury issues to compile a string of fantastic performances.

It’s by no means a shocking detail, at this point, for Bucks fans to discuss the mercurial Bledsoe as something of a wildcard element, capable of winning or losing games (and series) for Milwaukee depending on his form at any given spell.

The Bucks have certainly paid for that in the postseason in each of the past two years and, as such, countless hours of conversation among fans, and indeed articles written on this site, have been devoted to Bledsoe’s struggles.

With that in mind, it only seems fair to highlight just how good Bledsoe’s recent play has been for Milwaukee.

Over the course of the Bucks’ trip out West, Bledsoe averaged 22.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game, while shooting 52.4 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from deep, and 93.3 percent from the free throw line.

Those numbers are objectively impressive, and based on Bledsoe’s history, that level of shooting efficiency would likely seem to be particularly unsustainable. Having said that, with news of Khris Middleton‘s injury, the Bucks will desperately need their point guard to maintain something close to his recent production to relieve some of the strain on Giannis Antetokounmpo.

As Bledsoe detailed in a piece by Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, a recent conversation with Antetokounmpo illustrated the importance of him attacking opposing defenses, and in turn opening up the floor for the rest of his teammates:

"“Giannis came to me and talked to me and he actually wanted me to be over-aggressive,” Bledsoe said. “I’m kind of a team, pass-first guy and sometimes it gets me in bad situations, so if I stay aggressive like that good things are going to happen for this team.”"

Since making those comments, Bledsoe has certainly been in attack mode, and both he and the Bucks have reaped the rewards.

Next. Milwaukee Bucks: 3 players who need to step up in Khris Middleton’s absence. dark

Now, for the next month without Middleton, Bledsoe may well be more important than he’s ever been since arriving in Milwaukee, and at the very least his recent jump in form offers a platform he can build upon over this upcoming crucial stretch.

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