The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night at Fiserv Forum, the lone time the Mavericks will travel to Milwaukee this season. In previous seasons former Bucks’ coach Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks have had some back and forth, the teams split the last two seasons.
The Mavericks were on the second of a back to back but it didn’t show until the fourth quarter, when the Bucks started to really separate and hold their lead. Let’s look at some takeaways from this matchup:
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win over Dallas Mavericks: The Bucks threw everything but the kitchen sink at Luka Doncic
This game was a matchup of MVP candidates and neither disappointed, Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 30 points and Luka Doncic with 27, both over 50 percent on field goals. When it came to defending Luka, the Milwaukee Bucks started with their best perimeter defender, Jrue Holiday guarding him. Undoubtedly, Dallas set approximately 10,001 screens for Luka looking to get him into space where a defender would be forced with the decision to step up and allow a pass or drop back and let Luka shoot floaters.
The Milwaukee Bucks had 10 players that played eight minutes or more, and all 10 of them spent at least some time guarding Luka Doncic, albeit not intentionally but more so on switching some of the endless screens set by Dallas trying to create mismatches for their superstar.
Of the 10 players that guarded Luka, Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis held him to a combined 2-of-7 shooting, their size no doubt making it hard to get clean looks at the basket. As previously mentioned, Jrue Holiday spent a lion’s share of the total minutes spent guarding Luka. Just under eight total minutes, in that time Luka made 4-of-9 shots and had eight assists but also four turnovers, could be better for the Bucks, but considering you’re facing the MVP frontrunner, it could also be much worse.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win over Dallas Mavericks: Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis are co-existing as well as humanly possible
When I say name a Milwaukee Bucks pair that decided the win over the Dallas Mavericks, it would have been easy to say Giannis Antetokounmpo and Grayson Allen, there is certainly more to come on them, but there should be a big scoop of appreciation for Brook Lopez and Bobby Portis for their stamps on this game.
The two did made their marks in somewhat similar, but also different ways. Bobby scored 15 points on 7-of-12 shooting, Brook scored 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Bobby Portis, or should I say Bobby Board-is, grabbed 10 rebounds and compiled his 11th double double of the season, tying him for 2nd in the entire NBA despite being 123rd in minutes per game. Then you get to Brook Lopez, aka Smash Mountain, who added four blocks, three of which came against former Buck Christian Wood.
Brook Lopez has some insane block tallies this season, including Sunday and Friday night against the Cavaliers. Even just his last five games look like video game numbers, four, six, one, five, four. 20 blocks in the last five games, Brook Lopez is roaming the paint and blocking shots like he’s King Kong on the Empire State Building swatting down airplanes.
Lopez is back to being the leader in blocks per game and total blocks in the NBA and at this point, deserves some serious Defensive Player of the Year consideration.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win over Dallas Mavericks: Giannis and Grayson carried the offense
It’s easy to look at the box score and see that Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 30 to Grayson Allen’s 25, however, Grayson scored just five fewer points on nine fewer shots, how? Grayson Allen did so by playing his most efficient game of the entire season so far, not to mention tying a career high for 3-point makes.
Grayson Allen made a ridiculous 8-of-10 shots, 80 percent including 7-of-8 behind the 3-point line. Grayson made his first seven 3-point attempts before finally missing one in the second half. According to the Milwaukee Bucks twitter page, those seven makes, which all came in the first half, is tied for the most made 3-pointers in a half without a miss in the last 25 seasons! Lost in this game, due to his crazy display behind the 3-point line, is that Grayson also dished five assists, snagged two steals, blocked a shot and did all that without committing a turnover.
Giannis has earned some recognition as well, by capping off Sunday’s win with another 30 point game, in less than 30 minutes, Giannis finished the sixth week of the NBA season averaging 35.3 points over the four games the Milwaukee Bucks played. Following the impressive week, Giannis was named as the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for the second time this season.
Giannis finished this game 11-of-19 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line, continuing his improvements shown during the Cavaliers game Friday, Giannis’ woes at the free throw line are not likely behind him because of two good games at the charity stripe, but being 18 of his last 24 is certainly a great step in the right direction. To go with his 30 points, Giannis also grabbed 11 rebounds and added four assists, marking his 11th double double, tying him with Bobby Portis as previously mentioned.
All in all, Dallas did enough behind the 3-point line to keep this game close for most of the contest but the Bucks added a win against a quality team and played some of their best basketball, especially on offense, this season.
The Milwaukee Bucks play again on Wednesday night against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden, stay tuned for more analysis.