Bucks Stock Market: Giannis dominates the Indiana Pacers
The Greek Freak put up 50 points on Tuesday night, and the Bucks needed every single one of them.
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.
The good news is that Giannis Antetokounmpo is feeling pretty good after missing Monday’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers with a sore left ankle, as he dropped 50 points on the Indiana Pacers in Milwaukee’s 128-119 victory. The bad news is the Bucks needed him to be that great, as they gave up 119 to a lackluster Pacers team and got soundly beaten (despite an attempt at a fourth quarter comeback) by an even worse Trail Blazers squad the night before without him.
The injury bug has bit down and won’t let go, as Grayson Allen joined Brook Lopez, George Hill, Pat Connaughton, and Wes Matthews as unavailable Bucks mid-game when he left with what the team is calling a sore left hip. The All-Star Break is just one game away, and hopefully we get a healthier Bucks team on the other side of it.
Giannis Antetokounmpo 📈📈
The double-upstock is rare around these parts, but there’s no arguing Giannis wasn’t worthy tonight. He posted 50 points, 14 rebounds, and 4 assists, and his scoring was wildly efficient: Giannis made 17 of his 21 shots, 2 of his 3 attempted triples, and was 14/18 from free throw as well. As has been the case lately, Giannis chose to defer early and waited to take over: 32 of his 50 points came in the second half. Generational is probably an overused adjective these days, but we have seen very few players on the level Giannis Antetokounmpo is currently on.
Lindell Wigginton 📈
I had ragged on Lindell Wigginton some in the past week, as he’s struggled since being inserted into the rotation at the end of the West Coast trip. That makes sense — Wigginton had basically never played NBA minutes outside of garbage time this season before the Phoenix game, and he’s a rookie currently on a two-way contract. Tonight it felt like he got more comfortable having a real role though, and he made the most of his minutes, scoring 12 points on 4/8 shooting from the field while adding 2 rebounds, 1 assist, and 1 steal. Wigginton lived from the perimeter offensively, as 6 of his 8 attempts were threes, as were 3 of his 4 makes. I’d like to see his comfort level rise within the arc now — at one point he passed out of what should’ve been an open lay-up, which really shouldn’t ever be done. He’ll definitely get a chance to play again on Thursday, and hopefully he can keep shooting well while also making plays in the paint too.
Speaking of Thursday, Milwaukee is taking on the Philadelphia 76ers at home at 7:30 pm Central time, and Rohan and I will be watching live with viewers on Playback! Make sure you’re subscribed using the link above and we’ll send out the link earlier that day so you can watch along with us, Manningcast style.