Bucks Stock Market: Trae Young and the Hawks shimmy their way to a win in Atlanta.
The road trip is over, and the Milwaukee Bucks dropped 3 of the 5 games it contained.
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.
It seemed like the Milwaukee Bucks had a chance to pull out an unexpected win in Atlanta on Sunday night, but the Bucks’ defense simply could not string together stops against a hot shooting Hawks team that was desperate for a win after losing six straight games. Brook Lopez’s absence seems to grow more damaging with each consecutive loss, as the Bucks desperately need another interior defender and rebounder both alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo and for when the Greek Freak is sitting.
Semi Ojeleye 📉
Semi Ojeleye is getting chances to be that fill-in defender and rebounder with Lopez out, but in addition to the defensive qualities Brook provides he is also a dangerous offense player. Ojeleye has not been that. He made just one of his six shots and also only grabbed 3 rebounds of his own against Atlanta, and wasn’t especially stout on defense either. Not a great game for Semi by any means.
Bobby Portis 📉
It’s only fitting in one of the games where Lopez is especially missed for both of the bigs trying to step up in his place to get downstocks. Bobby Portis’ line looks solid enough, but it doesn’t tell the story his defensive film does: Bobby got cooked on switches and simply was not impactful on defense even in the painted area. I’m not sure any player has arms up for more shots that end up as makes than Portis does, as he always seems to be defending against shots that find the bottom of the rim. Bobby obviously is not looked at as a stout defender, but he’s been a problem on that end on the tail end of this road trip.
The Bucks get a few days off to hopefully get healthier before starting a homestand on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers.