Bucks Stock Market: Milwaukee's winning ways continue against the Hawks
A bad third quarter on the second night of a back-to-back wasn't enough to stop the Bucks.
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.
After a dominant first half it seemed like the Milwaukee Bucks were set to cruise to a blowout win over the lowly Atlanta Hawks, but of course the Bucks lost momentum in the third quarter and ended up needing to play the whole game out. Still, winning both halves of a back-to-back and six straight games is nothing to scoff at, especially since Milwaukee is still without Brook Lopez, Pat Connaughton, and George Hill (at least for now). There was a lot to like about the Bucks win on Wednesday night, although it was a tough night for one player in particular.
Jrue Holiday 📉
Let’s get the bad news out of the way early. Jrue Holiday had been on such a heater and was so important to Milwaukee’s winning streak, but he seemed to simply run out of gas against the Hawks. Holiday did manage 11 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 steals, but he also turned the ball over 4 times (including some ugly ones) and missed 12 of his 17 shot attempts.
Giannis Antetokounmpo 📈
Giannis was incredible to start this game and the cushion he provided with his red hot start was the difference for Milwaukee. In his first 9 minutes, the Greek Freak posted 17 points (and yet another pretty made three-pointer). He ended the night with 43 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal against just 2 turnovers, and shot 15/22 from the field. Four of those misses were threes as despite the one nice make Giannis was only 1/5 from distance, although you’d be hard-pressed to find any other flaws in his game this evening.
Bobby Portis 📈
It’s no wonder Milwaukee crowds go nuts over Bobby Portis, I’m getting amped just writing about his performance. Portis notched a powerful double-double, putting up 23 points, 15 rebounds, 1 steal, 2 blocks, and no turnovers while shooting 9/17 from the field and 4/8 from deep against Atlanta. It’s hard to have a better game than Bobby did, and after some bad decisions to not shoot open threes in recent games Bobby was letting them fly as he should always do against the Hawks. He also added some very solid defense late and made his only free throw attempt to cap off his ideal outing.
The Bucks get a few days off before taking on the Golden State Warriors on the road Saturday night. Thankfully even though it’s on the West Coast that game tips off at 7:30 Central time.