The Milwaukee Bucks were in Detroit Monday night taking on their division foe Detroit Pistons. The Bucks rode a crazy first quarter, in which they scored their high in any quarter this season with 49 points, to the win. Also, the first half was the Bucks’ highest-scoring half this season with 83 points.
One important note before I dive into takeaways, Bobby Portis left this game shortly before all the starters came out with a right leg injury. Portis had his heel landed on which twisted his ankle and caused some pain to his knee, after the game he said “I’ll be alright”.
With the comfort of knowing Bobby Portis wasn’t seriously injured in a game the Milwaukee Bucks got two other massive pieces back in the lineup, let’s look at takeaways from the Bucks’ win over the Pistons.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks win over Detroit Pistons: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton are back
Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to the Milwaukee Bucks lineup and from the tip looked like he hadn’t missed a game. Giannis if anything, looked like he benefitted heavily from sitting out the last five games and came out firing on all cylinders. Giannis was really firing on the orange cylinder in front of the Pistons bench, Giannis started the first quarter 6-for-6 from the field, including two 3-point makes and dropped 20 of his 29 points in the first frame. Giannis’ energy and scoring outburst set the tone for a blowout win and the most points the Detroit Pistons have allowed since 1988.
Giannis as stated finished with 29 points on 8-of-15 shooting, adding 12 rebounds and four assists, all in just 26 minutes of play.
Head coach Mike Budenholzer said before the game that no players were on minutes restrictions although it did feel that way for Khris Middleton. Middleton returned to the lineup but did not resume his position in the starting lineup. Khris came off the bench and played 15 minutes and looked pretty good for a guy playing his first game in five weeks and only the eighth game of the entire season.
Khris Middleton looked like his usual self, probing the defense looking for his shot and handing out assists to anyone who would take them. Passing remains one of the biggest underrated aspects of Middleton’s game. In his 15 minutes of play he registered four assists that could have been several more. Middleton scored eight points in his return on 3-of-7 shooting including 2-of-4 behind the 3-point line.
Khris Middleton did have six turnovers, one coming on his first touch of the game, acquainting him with the NBA’s new emphasis on traveling violations before starting to move off the dribble, also one coming for stepping out of bounds after securing an offensive rebound. All things considered, decent return to action for Khris in an albeit small sample size, hopefully his minutes are expanded Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ win over Detroit Pistons: Bucks total team effort
Every single player that checked into Monday night’s game for the Milwaukee Bucks contributed to the win. Giannis Antetokounmpo was his usual MVP-level self, but Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez both had pretty solid games themselves. Brook was the Bucks’ second-leading scorer with 21 points in just 24 minutes on very efficient shooting. Lopez was 8-of-12 from the field. Jrue Holiday was similarly efficient shooting 7-of-12 from the field, finishing with 16 points and a team-high seven assists. What stands out to me with Jrue however, is zero turnovers. Jrue got bit by the turnover bug on Saturday against the Cavaliers, finishing with six but rectified that in a hurry.
Bobby Portis finished with the same shooting efficiency as Brook Lopez, 8-of-12 from the field including 2-of-3 behind the 3-point line. Dating back to the Milwaukee Bucks’ win against the Pacers on Martin Luther King Jr. day last Monday, Bobby Portis is shooting 47.6 percent behind the 3-point line. Bobby also grabbed 10 rebounds, his 29th double-double, Portis is tied for third in the entire NBA in the category.
Grayson Allen scored nine quiet points but was second on the team with five assists. Grayson was also all over the floor, hustling to save balls from going out of bounds, playing hard-nosed defense and looking to drive to the basket to create scoring opportunities for his teammates.
The Milwaukee Bucks made 23 3-point shots as a team, those 23 long-range shots were made by 11 different players. Eight of those players made two 3-pointers and Jevon Carter made 6-of-8 from behind the arc.
Joe Ingles, while not remarkable in any specific category, did check the box score in every category but turnovers, somewhat cementing his role as a Swiss army knife for this Bucks team.
Wesley Matthews was 2-for-2 from long range and passed the 11,000-point mark for his career.
Takeaways from Milwaukee Bucks’ win over Detroit Pistons: Roles becoming clearer
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton returned to the Bucks lineup and while Khris Middleton didn’t take his place in the starting lineup yet, we got to see the beginnings of how deep this Milwaukee Bucks team truly is. As mentioned previously, 11 different players made a 3-pointer in this game. Led by Jevon Carter, who came in and immediately started splashing 3s. Carter finished 6-of-8 behind the arc. That explosion could be the result of Carter playing against second unit defense, an area where Carter could thrive for the Bucks.
With roles becoming clearer we also got to see our first glimpse of Khris Middleton and Joe Ingles on the floor together. The two got to spend a lot of time getting to know each other during the early stages of the season while they both recovered from injury, but Khris Middleton was out of the lineup with his knee injury before Joe Ingles made his Bucks debut.
The time was short but we did get to see a five-man lineup of Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Joe Ingles, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Brook Lopez on the floor together. That lineup is absolutely massive and lethal on both ends of the floor. This lineup makes me very excited to see players get more and more healthy so we can see this lineup for more than a couple of minutes per game and the damage it could do to opponents.
Having guys like Pat Connaughton and Bobby Portis coming off the bench to support the starters has been great. Back before the season started fans were polled about who the Milwaukee Bucks’ sixth man would be between Portis, Connaughton and Joe Ingles. The fact that the Bucks essentially have three players who could be the sixth man on just about any team in the league is a testament to how deep this roster goes.
That depth is impressively spoken before you get to players like Jevon Carter, Wesley Matthews, Jordan Nwora at times and MarJon Beauchamp. This Milwaukee Bucks team is crazy deep when healthy and General Manager Jon Horst is sure to still be looking for ways to upgrade the roster.
This Milwaukee Bucks’ health should terrify the rest of the NBA.
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