The Milwaukee Bucks were in Orlando on Monday night to play their third game, in their third different city in four days. After losing to the Los Angeles Lakers Friday night in high scoring affair, beating the Hornets without the big three in Charlotte, the Milwaukee Bucks were without Grayson Allen and NBA blocks leader Brook Lopez.
The Milwaukee Bucks got contributions up and down the roster, from some unexpected players even. Let’s take a look how some of these players helped the Bucks’ offense.
Takeaways from the Milwaukee Bucks win at the Orlando Magic: The offense
The Milwaukee Bucks got off to a slow start in this game, especially committing turnovers, and the Orlando Magic jumped out to an early lead 13-7. Directed efforts by Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday to get to the free throw line helped the Bucks see the ball start to go through the basket and the team’s rhythm picked up.
One player who did struggle shooting was Khris Middleton, who had to jack up a couple late shot clock shots and had several shots go half way down and pop out. However, it’s his second game back from not playing consistent NBA basketball since last spring, I’m not even glancing at the panic button with Khris.
Around the 9:30 mark in the fourth quarter, Orlando went back into a zone they had used at times during this game and it was the catalyst for their late comeback. The Bucks went a bit cold from the 3-point line and allowed what was once a 17 point lead dwindle down to just a four point lead late in the game. Thankfully some skilled offensive play from young guns AJ Green (12 points) and Sandro Mamukelashvili helped the Bucks stay afloat and maintain their lead.
Bobby Portis recorded yet another double-double, his 14th on the season, tying him for third in the NBA, with 18 points and 10 rebounds. During the broadcast on Bally Sports Wisconsin, a graphic displayed that Bobby Portis is currently playing the least minutes per game for players averaging a double-double.
Finally, Jrue Holiday had a near triple-double but had to settle for a double-double two rebounds short. Jrue finished with 17 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.
Yes, Giannis Antetokounmpo is an intentional omission.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win at Orlando Magic: Giannis Antetokounmpo continues his streak
Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from a one game absence in a big way, continuing his streak of consecutive games of 30 or more points, extending the streak to a career-high seven games, one shy of the franchise record held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Giannis will have the opportunity to tie the record on Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings in front of a home crowd.
Giannis finished with 34 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and two blocks. All that on effective 12-of-21 shooting, including 2-of-4 behind the 3-point line and a respectable 8-of-11 from the free throw line again.
Giannis is also nipping at the heels of teammate Bobby Portis in double-doubles as this game was his 13th such game of the season.
I want to give credit to Marques Johnson who during the broadcast made a great point about Giannis Antetokounmpo and diagnosing the defense being played against him. Opponents know he’s not the best shooter, so they give him extra space, daring him to shoot jump shots, which he did effectively in this game as previously mentioned. That said, Marques Johnson made a comment that Giannis isn’t just looking for open jump shots when teams give him that large of a cushion and made the comment that Giannis uses that open space as a “runway” to gain speed and prepare to go around the defender.
Very interesting thought that the defense teams are trying to use to stop Giannis Antetokounmpo could actually be their downfall and fueling the jet for the runway Marques Johnson was talking about.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win at Orlando Magic: Defense is better
The Milwaukee Bucks allowed a season high 133 points to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night, the Bucks have followed that up with two relatively solid nights defensively. The Bucks held Hornets scorers PJ Washington and Kelly Oubre to a combined 4-of-27 from the field. Monday night the Bucks were playing without their defensive anchor Brook Lopez, who sat out his first game of the season, who has been nothing short of fantastic defensively.
Without Brook Lopez the Bucks were presented with a challenge by the Orlando Magic who have a lot of front court players with size, the Wagner brothers, number one pick Paolo Banchero and Bol Bol, that starting lineup features four players about 6’9″ going all the way up to the surprisingly versatile 7’2″ Bol Bol.
That size presented the Bucks with a couple problems at times, Bobby Portis got into some foul trouble and with no Brook Lopez and still no Serge Ibaka, Sandro Mamukelashvili was thrust into a prominent role and he stepped up. Mamu finished second on the team to only Jrue Holiday at +17, a fantastic job well done by Sandro.
The previously mentioned Jrue Holiday drew a tough defensive matchup, the number one overall pick Paolo Banchero, at 6’10”, Jrue was the primary defender. Banchero did not have a comfortable night, despite finishing with 20 points, 12 of them came at the free throw line, Banchero was just 4-of-16 from the field and had a tough time getting around Bucks’ defenders. Banchero was stonewalled on the low block twice, once by Jrue Holiday who stole the ball from the rookie and drove down to the other end and found Pat Connaughton for a three, and once by Khris Middleton.
Khris Middleton has been underrated in the NBA for a long time, his scoring has been respected thanks to his contributions to the Milwaukee Bucks championship run. However, some aspects of his game are still underrated, his passing (see his 3/4 touchdown pass to Giannis) and his defense. As mentioned Khris was the other player that Paolo Banchero tried to back down on the block to no avail and ended up shooting a contested baseline jump shot that rimmed out. The other defensive play that Middleton needs credit for came against Bol Bol. Middleton was defending Bol just inside the 3-point line, Bol tried three separate times to dribble past Middleton and every time Bol made a move, Khris was there. Khris did a fantastic job staying in front of the crafty big man, defending without fouling, moving his feet and keeping his hands and arms free of a potential reach in foul, finally forcing Bol to give up the ball. Bol only scored two points on 1-of-4 shooting.
Finally, noted Bucks killer Terrence Ross was held in check this time, finishing 2-of-10 from the field, no doubt a welcomed sight for Bucks fans.
The Milwaukee Bucks are in action next at home against the Sacramento Kings.