Bucks Stock Market: Jrue Holiday has a career night but the Bucks fall in New Orleans
It turns out it's hard to win games with eight players unavailable.
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.
Lots of teams are going through exceedingly tough stretches right now, with typical NBA injuries happening plus a rash of COVID-19 positive tests sending dozens of players into the health and safety protocols. The Milwaukee Bucks are one of those teams, as eight players, including Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, missed Milwaukee’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday night. Despite a truly transcendent Jrue Holiday performance, the Bucks ultimately ran out of gas and lost to the Pelicans in overtime.
Jrue Holiday 📈
The playoffs are a different animal, but this was the best regular season game I’ve ever seen from Jrue Holiday. His 40 point outburst was a career high for him, so maybe it’s not really that bold of a statement to say this was his finest hour, but my goodness did he ever bounce back from a cold start to keep pace with basically an entire Pelicans team. Despite shooting 1/8 from three, Jrue found ways to give the Bucks chances, but unfortunately he didn’t have quite enough to will Milwaukee to the win. Who cares, this was an awesome Jrue Holiday game.
Grayson Allen 📈
While Jrue carried the Bucks for most of this game, Grayson Allen took it upon himself to lift Milwaukee in the third quarter, as he simply decided he didn’t want to miss any more shots. Grayson ended up with 25 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block, while making a career-high 7 threes. It sure was nice to see early season Allen back at it, even in a losing effort.
The Bucks are back in action rapidly — they take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at home on Saturday night. If the small lineups work against this massive Cavs team the Bucks are really onto something.