Bucks Stock Market: Could not corral the Mavericks

Dallas's offensive and defensive prowess was too much for Milwaukee to handle.

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.

In their penultimate home game of the regular season, the Milwaukee Bucks played host to the Dallas Mavericks for a Sunday matinee matchup. It was a back and forth affair, as the Bucks got out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter, but red-hot shooting from the Mavericks allowed them to fight back and pull away as the game went on. As a team, Dallas shot 51.3% from the field, 42.1% from three, and 88.9% from the line, which made it extremely difficult for Milwaukee to get back in it. Let’s talk movements.

Jrue Holiday 📈

Jrue Holiday was the one bright spot offensively against the Mavericks. He was lighting it up from deep, tying his season-high for threes in a game with 5. Holiday also took care of the ball, not turning it over once while managing to dish out 9 assists. He also had to take his shifts defending Luka, which is a difficult task, but his physical play bothered Dončić on a few occasions.

Wes Matthews📉

I recognize that this is not the ideal matchup for Matthews, but his performance this afternoon wasn’t pretty. He was put into the starting lineup for his defense, but he got diced up by Luka Dončić (which he does to everyone). Offensively, Matthews missed all three of shots from beyond the arc and missed his only two-point attempt. Will Mike Budenholzer re-think Matthews as a starter? Time will tell.

Khris Middleton📉

My goodness this was an abysmal performance from Khris. 3-14 from the field, 0-4 from three, 3 turnovers, 5 fouls. That just isn’t going to lead to victories for the Bucks. Defensively, he was out of position multiple times and got hunted in isolation. Hopefully, he’s getting the poor play out of his system before the playoffs start because they are less than two weeks away.

The Milwaukee Bucks will play their next game on Tuesday, heading south of the state’s border to take on the Chicago Bulls at 7:00pm central.