Winning, in theory, should prove to be more difficult for the Milwaukee Bucks without two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in the starting lineup.
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Except, in two games without “The Greek Freak” this season, Milwaukee has outscored its opponent by an average margin of 18 1/2 points.
Winning, it seems, has been easy breezy for the Bucks despite an obvious omission from the stat-sheet — all thanks to a stellar supporting cast.
In Monday night’s 140-113 win versus Indiana, three of Milwaukee’s starting five eclipsed 20 points. Jrue Holiday scored a game- and season-high 28, to go along with 14 assists and five rebounds.
Incredibly, two other Bucks players finished just a basket shy of reaching the 20-point figure — forward Bobby Portis collected a double-double off the bench and Brook Lopez tallied 18 points in just 19 minutes of action.
The catalyst of the evening, however, was a trio that tends to fly under the radar, even in Antetokounmpo’s absence.
Holiday, All-Star snub Khris Middleton and Pat Connaughton, making his first start of the season, performed as if they were always the clear-cut scoring options on the third-best team in the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings.
Middleton’s 25 points, eight boards and six helpers was nothing dramatically new — he’s averaging 20.4, 6.0 and 5.5 per game — but his coolness in the moment helped to account for any missing pieces.
In similar fashion, Middleton dominated during Milwaukee’s tilt with Cleveland on Jan. 9, a 100-90 victory — the only other game this season that Antetokounmpo sat out. He had 27 points that night, but carried the team largely by himself.
It’s worth noting Middleton’s success without Antetokounmpo on the floor, not that he’s any sort of slouch playing alongside the adored power forward. Monday night’s outing, however, happened to mark Middleton’s top scoring output since before the All-Star break.
Likewise, Holiday played more minutes than any other Bucks player in Milwaukee’s first go-around without Giannis this season. But Monday’s affair was different from January’s game against the Cavaliers, where Holiday was limited to 15 points, in sync with his season average.
This time, Holiday was faster, more aggressive. He sank 11 of 15 looks and went 5-for-6 from deep — maybe, playing against his older (Justin) and younger (Aaron) brothers raised the stakes. Whatever the motivation, Holiday set the tempo, and in doing so, led the Bucks to their second-highest point total of the season.
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And yet, it was Connaughton, arguably, who had the best night of anyone on Milwaukee’s roster.
The 6-foot-5, 28-year-old shooting guard was lights out from beyond the arc, draining six 3-pointers off seven attempts. He fell one rebound short (20 points, nine boards) of logging his first double-double of the season, while playing a game-high 33 minutes. He shot a 78% clip from the floor and paced a squad that recorded the second-most triples (24) in a game in franchise history.
So, sure, it would make a whole lot of sense for the Bucks to be worse off without Antetokounmpo running down the court. But that hasn’t been the case based on the sample size, although considerably small, this season.
Which poses a question worth examining: How has Milwaukee fared without its superstar since, well, becoming a superstar?
Antetokounmpo made his first All-Star game appearance during the 2016-17 season. Over a four-year span, the Bucks compiled a 14-15 record in games that Giannis did not dress, or was ruled inactive.
That .483 winning percentage certainly aligns with the notion that Milwaukee cannot afford to miss Antetokounmpo for an extended period of time, or else border on mediocrity. But it’s not like the Bucks are hopeless without their 2013 first-round pick, either. Especially as of late.
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March 24, 2021 at 03:44AM
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