Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 137-129 win over Portland Trail Blazers

The MVP’s mixed night

On one hand, Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo compiled one of the gaudiest stat lines of his career Thursday night, yet there were a few niggling factors looming over his triple-double performance.

Playing over 35 and a half minutes of action, Antetokounmpo finished with 24 points on 27 shots (1-for-7 from deep, 5-for-10 from the foul line), 19 rebounds, a career-high 15 assists, five turnovers, three steals, a block and was a +5 on the night.

Straight away, Antetokounmpo often took a back seat and seemingly shied away from attacking the paint, which wasn’t too much of a surprise with it being the second night of a back-to-back and sporting heavier legs as a result.

That led to the 24-year-old pulling the strings for the Bucks’ offense and he was regularly delivering crisp passes to his teammates, often through double and triple teams from certain spots on the floor. And his teammates responded by putting an assortment of looks to keep Milwaukee’s offense humming for the majority of the night.

On the other hand, Antetokounmpo clearly didn’t have his legs under him in what was an incredibly inefficient outing by his lofty standards and his shot selection only tells a part of the story. The Bucks superstar was even short arming second chance efforts directly at the rim, all of which added to his frustrations for the night.

It’s hard to complain about Antetokounmpo’s showing, considering just how monstrous it ended up being overall, but it’s fair to say that Antetokounmpo will look forward to the day off Friday to recover from a tough back-to-back set, travel wise.