3 things to watch in Milwaukee Bucks rematch with Orlando Magic

If you couldn’t get enough of the Orlando Magic after Saturday, well then you’re in luck! The Milwaukee Bucks will play the Magic for the second time in three days after beating them 117-108 and moving above 0.500 for the first time since they were 3-2.

They led by as many as 29 points but a lackadaisical fourth quarter saw the Bucks outscored 37-21 and it became a relatively close contest that the defending champs ended up closing out. They’re on a three-game win streak and have the chance to pick up two more wins against lesser competition at home.

They haven’t necessarily been the most impressive wins, but the Bucks have managed to somewhat right the ship after a lot of concern following their loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Regardless, this will be another chance for the Bucks to find their rhythm now that they’re slowly getting healthy and continue to figure out which lineup combinations and rotations work best.

How will Jrue Holiday perform for the Milwaukee Bucks in their rematch against the Orlando Magic?

Without going through his entire career history, I have to assume this is one of Jrue Holiday’s worst scoring stretches in his career.

Since returning from an ankle injury earlier this month, Holiday is averaging 12.8 points on 41.4 percent true shooting and 39 percent effective field goal rate. He’s still been a very good facilitator with an assist rate north of 30 percent and averaging over six per game, but his scoring has been incredibly inefficient.

He has really struggled to finish around the basket which is the primary source of frustration for fans, but he’s seen a drop-off in basically every area on the floor in terms of his efficiency.

I’m still being patient with Holiday on offense as there could be some lingering effects from a myriad of things, primarily his ankle injury that caused him to miss five games earlier this season. There’s some validity to the ankle issue still bothering him as he posted two games with a true shooting percentage over 80 percent at the start of the season before he missed those games.

It’s been rough seeing Holiday miss shots that we know he can make at a consistently high rate, but fans need to be patient with the 31-year-old guard. The key is that he’s remaining aggressive on offense which is something the team stressed to him last season. He’ll get going soon enough and put this stretch of terrible offense behind him.