Milwaukee Bucks All-Star forward Khris Middleton has certainly made an instant impact as he and the team starts their run for the 2020-21 season.
It didn’t take long for Khris Middleton to make his imprint on the Milwaukee Bucks‘ nascent 2020-21 season.
As superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo played well below his MVP standard in the Bucks’ first win of the season, Middleton emerged as the star behind the Bucks’ 39-point victory over the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day.
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Middleton, as the kids say, was in his bag as he led the Bucks with 31 points on 10-of-15 shooting and supplied six of the Bucks’ 20 total triples on the day. All coming in a very tidy 25 minutes and 48 seconds of burn on the court.
Golden State’s inferior play shone throughout the Bucks’ trouncing, but Middleton nevertheless took advantage of the Warriors’ hapless defending by sinking in shots from all over the floor Friday afternoon.
Between that marvelous showing and was two assists away from registering a triple-double (27 points, 14 rebounds) in the Bucks’ season opening loss to the Boston Celtics on Wednesday night, Middleton has been nothing short of tremendous in this opening week of the season.
Khris Middleton is no stranger to leveling up over his All-Star career and the Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff struggles have been a source of motivation this time around.
Coming off a career year in which he made his second straight All-Star appearance and fell agonizingly short of entering the 50-40-90 club last season, Middleton asserted his place as one of the most well-rounded players in the league. Still, Middleton’s efforts saw him fall short of earning what would have been his first All-NBA selection in his nine-year career.
Naturally, there were questions from naysayers of whether that would act as the peak of his development and overall growth. The question of being good, but not great has always followed Middleton and the Bucks as a whole over this window of playing for a championship.
But as he talked about with ESPN’s Eric Woodyard, Middleton has looked to perfect his art and craft continuously and in the face of the Bucks’ greatest playoff disappointment in recent memory:
"“That’s what it’s all about. In some ways you want to drive yourself crazy by telling yourself there’s always something you can be better at and try to be perfect even though you never can be,” Middleton said. “But I think that’s what it’s all about, just trying to find ways to be better just as a complete basketball player, not just as a scorer or a shooter.”"
Time will tell whether Middleton will be able to sustain his excellent play over this 72-game campaign and the same goes for the Bucks’ lights out shooting from distance, which Middleton himself has fueled through the first two games of the season.
As for his terrific performance on Christmas Day, Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer said it best, per Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
"“Just an incredibly efficient night,” Budenholzer said of Middleton’s performance. “That’s just – that’s special.”"
It’s been easy for Middleton’s talents to be overshadowed by the two-time MVP as they have grown together over the years. But it’s performances like the one that Middleton enjoyed on Christmas that shows how immense his presence is to the Bucks’ overall workings as a team.