Bucks Stock Market: Another lead is blown as the Bucks fall in Atlanta

It's hard to win without Jrue Holiday and Brook Lopez, but should it be this hard?

The Bucks Stock Market is a fictitious market run by the GSPN crew that tracks player stock “movement” following the conclusion of every game. Here’s the spreadsheet logging the game-by-game results.

Despite a 12-point halftime lead built on Khris Middleton shotmaking and generally strong execution on both ends, the Milwaukee Bucks blew yet another winnable game on Monday night, falling 121-114 in Atlanta against the Hawks. Milwaukee is now 2-6 in its last eight games, and the Bucks have not won consecutive games since January 1. In addition to being shorthanded, Milwaukee suffered from questionable shot selection, being careless with the basketball, and leaving shooters open a few times too many. Despite our podcast affirming the big picture signs have been mostly good for Milwaukee, these games are hard to endure. While his impressive scoring burst prevented him from taking a downstock, Middleton’s 8 turnovers played a large role in Atlanta’s comeback.

Pat Connaughton 📈

Let’s start with the one true bright spot from Monday night’s mess — Pat Connaughton truly snapped his slump, nailing 4 out of his 5 attempted triples plus converting his only shot within the arc. It wasn’t enough for the win, but it was nice seeing somebody finally put up a double digit scoring game from the bench.

Giannis Antetokounmpo 📉

Giannis still managed 27-6-6 in this game, but despite the Hawks being without Clint Capela he was largely unable to finish at the rim, instead relying on free throws for his points. Giannis shot 8/20 from the field and 1/3 from deep, and was second on the team with 5 turnovers. In fact, he and Khris were the only players on the team to turn the ball over at all, and 10 of their combined 13 turnovers came in the second half. Not ideal execution, to say the least.

The Bucks are back in action on Wednesday, as they take on the electrifying Memphis Grizzlies at 7 pm Central. Rohan Katti and I will be watching that game live on Playback with Gyro Step listeners, so forward this email (or screenshot your 5 star rating/review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify) to GyroStepPod@gmail.com to get access to our Discord and the link to watch live with our version of the Manningcast!