Milwaukee Bucks: What’s trending in the fifth week of the season

To make no bones about it, it was certainly a tough week for the Milwaukee Bucks.

After falling to the Brooklyn Nets and the Los Angeles Lakers in a week that was filled with high-profile showdowns, the Bucks are now down 9-6 on the season and have hit a losing skid going into Sunday night’s meeting with the Atlanta Hawks.

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While it was a disappointing week, especially going against title favorites such as the Nets and the Lakers, there were some noticeable trends that still surfaced all throughout.

So without further ado, let’s dive into what trends all stood in the Bucks’ winless week and where they stand a little more than a month into their run this season.

Donte DiVincenzo’s effort on defense has been a rising trend.

It’s known that Donte DiVincenzo is one of the most dedicated defenders on the Bucks and it’s certainly continues standing out for me.

Over the Bucks’ clash with the Nets, the Bucks showed their new proclivity to switch screens and it led to DiVincenzo standing in the impossible position of having to defend one of the best scorers in the league, Kevin Durant. As he didn’t shy away from the challenge, DiVincenzo got right up into Durant and acted like there wasn’t a seven inch height difference between them.

DiVincenzo worked in concert with Jrue Holiday to make things harder for James Harden at times and limited the number of open looks that he got to either force Harden into contested jumpers and to pass out of situations he would normally attack in.

While DiVincenzo was praised by many for his defense on the Nets scorers, giving his all on defense even at a time where he’s slumping a bit on offense. That type of effort and maturity is why Donte is averaging a career-high 1.4 steals per game so far this season.

While DiVincenzo’s off-ball defense and thievery in the passing lanes has long stood out, this development of his on-ball defense is very relevant to the Bucks showing an increased flexibility.