Bucks Stock Market: Still undefeated with the Big Three

The Milwaukee Bucks win their sixth in a row against a depleted Nuggets team.

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 worst part of Nikola Jokic missing tonight’s game due to injury is not that we didn’t get to see the last two league MVPs battle it out, it was that we didn’t get to see if Mike Budenholzer would once again start Thanasis Antetokounmpo on Jokic, as he did for both games against Denver during the 2019-20 season. What we did get to see was the Milwaukee Bucks flex their muscles against the ghost of the Nuggets, who were without their three best scorers in Murray, Porter Jr., and the aforementioned Jokic. Though Denver did manage to keep it close at points, the Bucks were never in any real danger as they managed to win 120-109. Let’s talk movements!

Giannis Antetokounmpo📈

I mean, come on. 24 points on 10-13 from the field and 1-1 from three, along with 13 rebounds, 7 assists, and only 1 turnover? That is absolutely ridiculously stuff from Giannis.

Denver had no answer for him. Put an athletic defender on him, he’s putting them in the basket. Double him, he’s making no-look passes to cutters and open shooters. Play off him, he’s taking and making jumpers. Foul him, well, that was Denver’s best option as Giannis only went 3-9 from the stripe. However, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that Antetokounmpo is, consciously or not, making a run at both his third MVP and second DPOY with this stretch of continued dominance over the rest of the NBA.

Pat Connaughton📈

If you thought Giannis had an efficient shooting night, wait till I list off what Planet Pat did against the Nuggets. Off the bench, Connaughton had 20 points on 3-3 from two and 4-5 from three. Can we get this man some actual Sixth Man of the Year buzz? He is not only excelling in his role, but adding to it as well. We’ve talked before about his improved ability to finish at the rim, but the improvements on display tonight were his strengthened discipline on defensive rotations and an increased ability to relocate off-ball in order to take and make wide open threes.

Jrue Holiday📈

Jrue Holiday finding his offense just is not fair. While still arguably the best defender in the entirety of the NBA, Holiday showed that he can indeed score the ball at all three levels, which includes layups (finally!). Pouring in 17 points on 7-10 shooting, Kung Fu Jrue had stretches in this game were he was a one-man wrecking crew on the offensive end. One thing that we saw last regular season was Jrue thriving in lineups where he was the only starter on the floor, and that happened again tonight during the third quarter. When given the ability to orchestrate, Holiday was scoring after backing dudes down and also whipping pinpoint passes to shooters after penetrating.

The Milwaukee Bucks play their second game of this two-game road trip on Sunday at 4:00pm against the Indiana Pacers.