Bucks Stock Market: Milwaukee holds on for a fun win against Memphis
Giannis and Khris made sure the Bucks didn't blow another halftime lead despite the Grizzlies surging.
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 theory that the Milwaukee Bucks are an entirely different team when they’re playing an elite opponent gained traction on Wednesday night, as Milwaukee looked strong throughout a nice win against the red hot Memphis Grizzlies. The rotation gaining strength has a lot to do with that too — Jrue Holiday made his return after dealing with an ankle injury, and with Tres Leches (Pat Connaughton, Grayson Allen, and Donte DiVincenzo) all still active the likes of Rodney Hood, Sandro Mamukelashvili, and Semi Ojeleye no longer log minutes. It turns out playing exclusively good players is helpful to winning games!
Giannis Antetokounmpo 📈
Is it entirely a coincidence that Giannis Antetokounmpo dominated the Grizzlies after a dumb viral soundbite (that won’t be named or linked here because these bad takes are circulated entirely to garner clicks) questioned if he was a better playoff player than Ja Morant? Probably, considering Giannis dominates most everybody. He tallied 33 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and a block, and shot an eye-raising 2/4 from three, and an even more eye-raising 7/8 from free throw. This was another Giannis game that made me glad we have decided to not take him for granted ever here at GSPN.
Khris Middleton 📈
Khris Middleton had a nice scoring game against Atlanta, but his plethora of turnovers ruined the upstock. This time around Khris actually wasn’t hot, making just 1 of his 6 attempted threes, but he still posted the LeBron line of 27-7-7 and had just one turnover. This game ruled from Khris. It was awesome to see him run so much offense for himself or others without needing to rely on threes or multiple turnovers.
George Hill📈
I wanted to see more things from George Hill coming into this game. Not specific things, just things in general. It felt like he hadn’t always had a noticeable impact in recent games. He sure did against Memphis — between grabbing rebounds to earn the Bucks crucial extra possessions and hitting some big shots, Hill was awesome. Still starting as Jrue knocks the rust off, Hill posted 14 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists and a steal, while shooting 5/7 from the field. The Bucks don’t need that level of production from Hill every night, but it’s encouraging to see an effort like this from him.
The Bucks are back in action for the first night of a back-to-back on Friday night at 7 pm against the Chicago Bulls, in a game that was flexed to ESPN.