Bucks Stock Market: Giannis puts on a show in Hollywood as the Bucks crush the Lakers
LeBron and company made it closer than it had to be, but Milwaukee dominated their third straight team on their West Coast trip.
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 Milwaukee Bucks moved to just half a game outside of first place in the Eastern Conference with yet another dominant offensive performance, as the Bucks smacked the Lakers 131-116 on the back of one of the better Giannis Antetokounmpo showings I can remember. It wasn’t a perfect game for Milwaukee though, as the Bucks showed yet again with Brook Lopez out their bench is too thin. Milwaukee’s reserves let the Lakers back in late after the starters had the lead up to 30 at one point in the third quarter. The championship core is very much here, but Jon Horst should still be active in exploring upgrades to the second unit that will be useful, and maybe vital, even after Lopez returns. Anyway, onto stocks.
Giannis Antetokounmpo 📈
He’s still the Best in the World, no matter what any talking head or February MVP column says. Giannis poured in 44 points on astounding 17/20 shooting, including a perfect 2/2 from three-point territory, plus added 14 rebounds, 8 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks without turning the ball over at all. The Lakers have two superstars who are excellent defenders, but nobody anywhere could do anything to stop Giannis.
Bobby Portis 📈
Bobby Buckets continued his hot scoring streak, providing 23 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, and just 1 turnover in another strong performance. Bobby shot 50% from the field, made 5/9 threes, and brought his typical overwhelming energy all night long. The only player with more points or rebounds for Milwaukee was Giannis, to put Portis’ big time performance in perspective.
Greg Monroe 📉
The Greg Monroe story had a fun start, and it still might be fun in the grand scheme of things, but Moose’s inability to get up quickly or finish through any sort of contact is very much not fun. He didn’t make a shot despite trying thrice, all in the paint, and only added two rebounds and a block in his 15 minutes of action.
Wes Matthews 📉
It was unrealistic to expect Wes Matthews to continue as one of the best 5 Bucks on the team after his electric start to the season, but his slump since then has been pretty brutal. Like Monroe, Wes also didn’t score, his defense didn’t seem as impactful as usual and he added more fouls (3) than points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks combined (2) against the Lakers. Milwaukee simply needs more consistent bench production than this.
Donte DiVincenzo 📉
Speaking of needing more consistency, Donte DiVincenzo did not have a stellar showing in the Bucks’ final game before the 2022 NBA trade deadline. He was a solid 3/7 from the field, but continued the trend of turning the ball over once for every assist he dealt, ending with 8 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers.
For every big Donte positive there is a corresponding negative this season — his scoring requires basically a shot per point, which is not good; every audacious pass or impressive offensive rebound seems to have a 50/50 shot of going directly to the other team. It’s not surprising based on the extremes that DiVincenzo is a polarizing player among Bucks fans, and that means whether he’s dealt or not it’s going to be an interesting day for Bucks discourse on Thursday.
Milwaukee is back in action on the aforementioned deadline day, taking on the Phoenix Suns at 9 pm Central in the last game of their West Coast trip. Hopefully the Bucks make the Finals rematch worth the sleep deprivation dedicated fans will suffer the next day for watching it.