The Milwaukee Bucks are currently the best team in basketball. The week before this they were the best team in basketball, and the week before that, and the week before that. Really, you have to go back all the way to week one of the season to find a point where they were not the best team. This season has been utter domination, which did not change this week as the Bucks went 4-0 and won by 20 in three of those four. They are now 38-6, leading the East by 8 games and leading all of the NBA by 3 games. The Bucks have the number 1 Defensive rating, the best NET rating, and the 2nd best Offensive rating. For the layman, that basically means the Bucks are really good at scoring a lot of points, and they are the best team at not letting the other team score points.
January 11th: Bucks 122 - Trail Blazers 101
Milwaukee's Big Three came out to play this game, with Bledsoe, Giannis, and Khris combining for 91 points. In what has become typical Bucks fashion, none of the three played over 30 mins. When those three are on the court together, you are not going to stop them. Khris was a cool 4/4 from deep, while Giannis continued to take threes and got himself a respectable 2/4. Donte keeps playing, going for 10 points in 23 minutes, while Sterling Brown still is not getting many, only playing 12 minutes. The story of this game is domination, with the Bucks outscoring the Blazers every quarter, stifling them to a 39% field goal percentage. Importantly, Whiteside did not play this game, meaning the Blazers had to rely heavily on Anthony Tolliver for center minutes. He proceeded to go 3/10 from the field and 1/5 on threes en route to a -11 for the game.
January 14th: Bucks 128 - Knicks 102
If you ever feel like your team is bad, just be thankful you are not the Knicks. If by some strange chance a Knicks fan is reading this, then please stop reading basketball articles, just find a field, lay down, and try to forget. Khris, Bled, and Giannis all only played 22 minutes. Middleton for some reason only takes 2 threes, making one. Giannis calmly scores 37 points in 22 minutes. In an NBA game. Against NBA players (kinda). 3/5 from deep, and very importantly got fouled on a three-point attempt for the first time in his NBA career. As far as positives for the Knicks, Kevin Knox played 23 minutes and did not have a minus +/-. Now sure he was zero, but it's still not a minus. This game summed up: the Bucks shot 14% better on field goals and 12% better from three. It is very hard to lose when that happens.
January 16th: Bucks 128 - Celtics 123
In one of the first games of the season, the Bucks took a 15 point lead against the Celtics into the half and then proceeded to blow the game and lose. In the second matchup for the semi-rivals, history almost repeated itself. After one half, the Bucks were up 76 - 58. They could not miss from three, going a ridiculous 12/15 from three in the first half, while the Celtics went a less good 7/28. That means that the Bucks shot 52% better than the Celtics from three in a half. Donte showed his flame thrower ability going 3/4 in the first half from three and went for a career-high 19 points in 28 minutes. Giannis tried to join the fun but ended the night 0/5 from three as the Celtics mounted a 2nd half comeback, outscoring the Bucks by 14 in the 4th. Importantly, the Celtics were without starter Jaylen Brown for the game, making their comeback even worse. After a perfect first half, the Bucks decided to fall apart defensively, letting Kemba scorch us for a cool 40 point game. Khris made some pretty bad defensive plays late in the fourth, while him and Giannis both had costly 4th quarter turnovers. Thankfully, George Hill is the greatest three-point shooter in the history of the game and nailed two clutch threes late in the game to stop the bleeding. This is the norm now, as Hill is shooting 53% from three on 3 FGA a game, over halfway through the season. In the waning minutes, the Celtics closed it to 5, and with 30 seconds left Giannis got stripped, leading to a Marcus Smart three that fell well short, sealing the game for the Bucks.
January 18th: Bucks 117 - Nets 97
After two games with ZERO lead changes, the Bucks got 6 in this game, all within the first quarter. Nets started out strong, but by the end of the first quarter, it was 30-22 and it was never close after that. Giannis went for 29 in 25 minutes as no Buck played over 30 minutes. Khris had a good bounce-back game after a less than good Celtics outing as everyone on the Nets looked lost defensively against Giannis or Khris. The Bucks shot 45% from three, starkly opposed to the Nets 30%. No Net got over 20 points and no Net left this game with a positive +/-. Very importantly though, the Nets did not have Golden God Joe Harris aka the 2019 NBA Three-Point Champion. It is hard to win in this league when your best player does not play. Kyrie said they are missing pieces on a team that made the playoffs last year and then got Kyrie. Sure, KD is hurt and not playing this year, but come on Kyrie, you have the pieces. One of the reasons Brooklyn exceeded expectations last year was their amazing team chemistry, which somehow seems to be lacking since Kyrie came. Weird.
To sum up this week, Bucks good, Celtics crafty, Knicks sad, Blazers should trade us CJ, and Kyrie is the exact opposite of Walter White... bad at chemistry.
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