Giannis Antetokounmpo career night leads Milwaukee Bucks over Wizards

The Milwaukee Bucks won the second of two home matchups against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday night after dropping the first on Sunday night without any of the Big 3 playing. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jrue Holiday were back for this matchup. Jrue Holiday came off the bench as he has regularly when returning from absences. Giannis well, he came back and made a LOUD statement.

Let’s look at three takeaways from the Bucks’ win over the Wizards.

Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ win over Washington Wizards: Giannis Antetokounmpo is good at basketball

Understatement of the century here, Giannis Antetokounmpo is quite good at basketball. Giannis set a new career high against the Wizards with 55 points. In addition to the new career high in points, Giannis also added 10 rebounds, seven assists and two steals.

Arguably most impressive by Giannis in this game was his efficiency at the free throw line, Giannis started this game 10-for-10 at the charity stripe en route to finishing 15-of-16 on the night. Over these last three scoring outputs, Giannis has shot 40-of-54 on free throws, a respectable 74 percent. Giannis was efficient from the field as well, shooting 20-of-33 from the field, including 20-of-30 from inside the 3-point line.

Giannis also never let up in this game, nor did he stop focusing on the defensive end. With the Milwaukee Bucks leading 119-107 with less than a minute and a half to go, Giannis dug in defensively against Kristaps Porzingis, poked the ball away from him, completed the second of his two steals, went the length of the court and scored a layup to complete his tally of 55 points. I think we’re way past discussing who the best two-way player in the NBA is.

This latest scoring outburst follows games of 43 points against the Timberwolves on Friday night and 45 against the Chicago Bulls last Wednesday. According to ESPN Stats and Info, Giannis Antetokounmpo is just the third player since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77 to record three straight games of 40+ points and 10+ rebounds, joining Russell Westbrook and Moses Malone. The Milwaukee Bucks play the Toronto Raptors tonight, if Giannis could find a way to score 40 and grab 10 rebounds tonight, he’d become the first to do it four times in a row.

Another way to underscore the magnitude of the three game stretch Giannis is on is that he is just the third player ever to score 140 points, grab 50 rebounds and dish 15 assists in a three game span, the only other two are Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Giannis has truly put his name amongst some all-time greats recently.