It may not have been as easy as they’d like it to have been, but the Milwaukee Bucks extended their win streak to six games after beating the Atlanta Hawks 124-115 on Wednesday.
Milwaukee led by as many as 19 in the first half, but Atlanta kept chipping away and hanging around. The good news was that the Bucks were able to do pretty much whatever they wanted on offense and it made up for their… let’s just say disinterested defense at times in the second half.
Still, it was a nice win to pick up on the second night of a back-to-back and they’ll now get a few days off before embarking on another West Coast road trip. Let’s get into some of the big takeaways from tonight.
The Milwaukee Bucks’ league-best offense shined once again tonight
After their big scoring night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Bucks jumped to number one in the league for points per game at 114.5 and they showed once again how great their offense is.
Although their defense has come and gone throughout the season, it has been their offense that has been relatively consistent through this recent stretch of great basketball. Like I said earlier, they were able to do whatever they wanted offensively, even if the shots didn’t always go down.
It started with Giannis Antetokounmpo scoring 17 points in the first quarter (more on him in a bit), then Bobby Portis and Khris Middleton combining for 27 points in the second quarter. Portis hit four 3s in the second quarter and helped build that 19-point lead.
Middleton got to all of his spots in the second quarter and hit some very Middleton-esque shots once he got rolling. Then, when the Hawks started to focus in on him, he turned into a facilitator for Antetokounmpo to help him continue to attack the Hawks’ bottom-five defense.
The same can be said for Jrue Holiday, who had a relatively off night but still made an impact with his defense and his passing. He’s been so awesome lately that he’s allowed to have an off scoring night and get to rest up for a tough road trip.
Even when the Hawks looked to be mounting a comeback, the Bucks were always there to respond with a timely bucket to keep them at bay.