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

It’s Pat’s planet, we’re just living on it

Thursday night was Pat Connaughton‘s turn to lead the Bucks’ bench unit, which finished with 45 points on the night.

The 26-year-old had it rolling early on upon entering the game midway through the first quarter and took on more ball handling duties than we’ve usually seen him do while in a Bucks uniform. While the Notre Dame alum did that to good, if not great results, Connaughton’s activity on the ball was key for the Bucks all night long and he brought the house down with a one-handed putback slam during the second period.

Connaughton continued to do damage on the rims and generally attacked the paint in his subsequent shifts on the floor, and he closed out his scoring account with his second triple off a feed from Antetokounmpo at the end of the third quarter.

All in all, Connaughton posted a season-high 18 points on 10 shots (2-for-3 from three, 2-for-2 from the free throw line), four rebounds, two assists, one turnover and was a +2 in over 21 and a half minutes of run.

Garnering the most minutes of any bench player for the night, it was good to see Connaughton put together one of his more complete performances in a Bucks uniform during what has been an uneven start to his fifth NBA season.