The Milwaukee Bucks rested their big three Saturday evening in Charlotte on the second night of a back to back and traveling from Milwaukee to the East Coast. The Bucks reserves played a great game and got a nice bounce back win for the Bucks who are now an NBA best 70-28 following a loss since the 2018-19 season, Mike Budenholzer’s first year with the team.
The Milwaukee Bucks used a starting lineup of Jevon Carter, Grayson Allen, Jordan Nwora, Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez. Of those five, Grayson Allen was the only one not to score in double figures. The starters shot 8-of-21 on 3-point attempts, a tick over 38 percent. Certainly a welcome sight when considering that those players weren’t having open looks created by the big three but creating their own looks.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks reserves win over Charlotte Hornets: Brook Lopez setting the tone
As mentioned, the Bucks starters made eight 3-point shots, led by Brook Lopez who made three of his five attempts, including a super deep shot at the end of the first quarter that put the Bucks up by six, the Milwaukee Bucks led the entire rest of the game. Brook Lopez is currently shooting a career high 41.7 percent from behind the 3-point line at 34 years old! Brook is currently second in the NBA in made 3-pointers at the center position.
Brook Lopez also set the tone defensively, continuing his insane stretch of dominant rim protection. Lopez blocked six shots Saturday night, over his last five games Brook has totaled 21 blocks, 4.2 per game, an insane average.
Lopez is leading the league in blocks by a sizeable margin. Brook Lopez is the NBA’s leader in blocks with 66, Nic Claxton who is in second with 52 has played two more games than Lopez.
Brook Lopez is truly epitomizing the term “3 & D” player, not something you usually expect from the center position and we’re here for it.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks reserves win over Charlotte Hornets: Bobby Portis leading the way
I’ve been trying for a large portion of the season to think of more nicknames for Bobby Portis, having settled on Bobby Board-is at times due to his rebounding prowess but after Saturday’s game I think he might be related to Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Bobby Portis scored 20 points on efficient 9-of-18 shooting despite being just 1-of-5 behind the 3-point line and added eight rebounds. However, what stood out this game is Bobby Portis had a team high, game high and career high seven assists! A stat-line of 20 points, eight rebounds and seven assists sounds like something we’d get from Giannis Antetokounmpo, albeit on a night where he didn’t play a full workload of minutes but still, we’ve never seen Bobby stuff the stat sheet like this.
Bobby Portis came out of the gate firing, scoring 11 of his 20 in the first quarter and then taking advantage of the increased attention to begin distributing for his teammates. On the season Bobby is averaging a career high 2.4 assists.
Bobby Portis has also recovered from a slow shooting start to the season and over his last five games is shooting 33-for-63 from the field, 52.4 percent.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks reserves win over Charlotte Hornets: Defense bounced back
As mentioned, Brook Lopez set the tone for the Milwaukee Bucks’ defense Saturday night with his six blocks. The Bucks held PJ Washington, who is averaging 15.4 points this season, to 0-of-13 field goal shooting and Kelly Oubre to 4-of-14 shooting, while Oubre recouped some of his points at the free throw line, he was held in check.
The Milwaukee Bucks didn’t put on the best display of defense on Friday night against the Los Angeles Lakers, allowing 70 points in the paint, the Hornets still put in 52 of their 96 points in the paint, five points and change above the Bucks average points in the paint allowed. That said, allowing less than six points above the average points in the paint without the big three is certainly tolerable.
Charlotte scored 96 points, the sixth time this season the Bucks have held their opponents under 100 points, the Milwaukee Bucks have won all six of those games.
Jevon Carter kept up his brand of pesky on ball defense and swiped two more steals, Carter is averaging a career high 1.4 steals this season. The Milwaukee Bucks have gotten some career best contributions from some of their role players which no doubt has fueled their great first quarter of the season.
Stay tuned with Behind the Buck Pass for takeaways from tonight’s matchup with the Orlando Magic.