Bucks Stock Market: Milwaukee sputters to a tough loss in Boston

The Bucks lost both a game and another starter to injury in the final game of their short four-game road 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.

Despite jumping out to a solid early lead, the Milwaukee Bucks stumbled through their latter three quarters against the Boston Celtics and ultimately lost 117-103. In addition to an uninspiring result, the Bucks added injury to insult when Khris Middleton landed awkwardly on his left leg going up for a rebound and limped off the floor a play later, eventually being ruled out with a hyperextended knee. We have no timetable on the injury yet and we probably won’t given the Bucks track record this year, although the early reports are positive. The vibes are not good.

Jrue Holiday 📈

The one bright spot of Milwaukee’s tough night was Jrue Holiday continuing to be great offensively. Jrue was tied for the team lead with 20 points and also contributed 8 assists, 3 steals, and no turnovers while shooting 50% from the field and making 2 of his 3 attempted threes. Jrue’s success scoring within the arc is opening up more of his game from farther away, and as long as he continues to rely more on the closer shots he should be able to keep this success going.

Giannis Antetokounmpo 📉

Giannis also ended with 20 points, although most of them came in the fourth quarter as he valiantly attempted to keep the Bucks in the game by taking on most of the Celtics defense at once. For most of the game he was not impactful offensively, and he was unable to make enough of a difference on the defensive end either as Jayson Tatum lit the Bucks up play after play. 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists doesn’t sound like a good Giannis game, and that line is actually generous to how he actually played.

Bobby Portis 📉

Bobby posted 13 points on 14 shots, and when he’s that inefficient it’s really tough to overlook his defensive shortcomings. Just like the last Boston game, I left this one worried about Portis’ ability to stay on the floor in key matchups in the postseason — he played just 26 minutes despite the Bucks losing Khris and being down multiple other rotation players as well. The Celtics targeted Bobby repeatedly by having his man screen for Jayson Tatum, and Tatum took advantage of the space he found as Milwaukee was reluctant to switch those actions after Bobby got roasted last time these teams played. Not a great sign with Brook Lopez potentially out for the rest of the regular season.

The Bucks are back in action on Wednesday night as they take on the Indiana Pacers, hopefully with Donte DiVincenzo back in the lineup. Rohan and I will be watching that game live over on Playback! Join us by getting into the Gyro Group discord, which you can do by either showing proof of Substack subscription (i.e. screenshotting or forwarding this email) or sending us a screenshot of your 5-star Gyro Step Podcast Network review on Apple Podcasts via email or on Twitter.