Bucks vs. Bulls: The Wright stuff

Khris Middleton spearheads an impressive team victory, down Giannis and Dame

With Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo back home, the Bucks had little trouble taking care of the Bulls last night, thanks to 21 from Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez. Bobby Portis also added a 19-point, 13-rebound double-double, among five Bucks in double figures. Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast Bucks In Six Minutes below.

What Did We Learn?

Game by game, you can see Milwaukee becoming more confident in its offensive playbook, and last night, it was clear they were comfortable enough to not only make the right play calls in the flow of the game but also execute them. Late in the third quarter, a fastbreak lay-in by Dalen Terry reduced the Bucks’ lead to eight, a 10-0 Bulls run that made it a single-digit game for the first time since the first quarter. However, Doc Rivers elected not to call timeout and called out a set to Ryan Rollins as he took the ball up. The Bucks immediately embarked on an 11-0 run, extending that to 22-6 into the fourth, effectively putting the game away and giving them their largest lead at 24.

Postgame, Doc mentioned he eschewed the timeout in order to avoid putting the Bulls “on alert” because they’d use the break to draw up a new set play. He instead called 77 action, a double drag screen around two bigs that the lets ballhandler get free laterally across the court. He credited Delon Wright and Rollins for their new-found familiarity with the halfcourt offense and their capability to make things work on the fly:

“We wanted [the lineup on the floor] to push the break… instead of calling a timeout and putting them on alert that you’re running something, run something that we already have. Get downhill, create a shot, and that’s what [Wright] did. So again, another thing you couldn’t have done earlier because Delon wouldn’t have known the 77. Neither would Ryan.”

Three Bucks

Khris Middleton has found an offensive groove.

At one point just after half, Middleton had more points (14) than minutes played (12) as he finished with 21 on 9/15 shooting in just over 23 minutes, including a personal 10-0 run in the second quarter. Those makes came from three levels: 2/3 in the restricted area, 4/7 between the charge circle and three-point arc, and 3/5 beyond it. Though he had just one more assist (five) than he did turnovers, he connected on a nice touchdown pass to Portis and looked very comfortable marshaling the offense. Doc Rivers has mentioned in press conferences before that he held off on installing some of their playbook until Middleton returned, and in the locker room, Middleton mentioned that though he wasn’t working on the actions with the guys in practice, he was still assimilating everything:

“I was watching them do it, for one, a lot. On the side I was working on that stuff and I mean, a lot of this stuff is from last year. So it’s kind of just, you know, just kind of remembering and reminders here and there, but you know, also just trying to figure out how to simplify the game.”

Brook Lopez scored in a variety of ways, and it was pretty fun.

We’ve seen Lopez bust out his old man post moves a little more often lately, and he went to them early tonight with a few drives inside. He only shot once from behind the arc in the first quarter, when he recorded his first nine points, before teeing up four in the second. All told he connected on 4/6 in the paint, most of them on glacial ambles through the lane, scoring 17 in the first half alone. On one offensive possession, he even barked at Andre Jackson Jr. to get in better position in their halfcourt set before he lumbered to the rim for two. With that cantankerousness involved, it was the most old-man sequence I’ve ever seen.

Delon Wright’s best game as a Buck, perhaps?

With a team-high +20 off the bench, the second half was when Wright made his impact felt. Finishing with a box-score stuffing nine points, five assists, four rebounds, and two steals, he amassed most of that production after entering at the 4:08 mark of the third. That was precisely when the run I mentioned above began, as the Bucks transformed an eight-point lead into a 22-point lead in just under four minutes. He played the rest of the game—even in garbage time!—for 26 minutes on the night, his highest total since November 16th in Charlotte.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• With this win, Rivers moves to 35-35 as Bucks head coach, including playoffs. If you include the NBA Cup victory (and the NBA should recognize that with a W in the standings), he is above .500 for the first time since March 30th last season.
• As mentioned, Giannis and Dame were scratched from this game midday yesterday. In the pregame, Doc gave this update on both, which seems encouraging on Dame’s calf strain and uncertain on Giannis’ back:

• Ryan Rollins didn’t have the biggest impact on this game from a box score perspective (eight points, five boards, two assists, 3/6 from the field, including 2/3 from deep), but looked outstanding on defense and channeled his inner Giannis with this sensational chase-down block:

• Doc singled out Rollins, Jackson, and AJ Green for their perimeter defense and rebounding in the postgame presser, noting how well these three handled Chicago’s guards. Coby White (4/11, 10 points) and Zach LaVine (5/13, 14 points) gave Milwaukee trouble in their first two matchups this year, but not so last night.
• Furthermore, Doc called this perhaps the Bucks’ best defensive effort all season, and it’s certainly up there: they finished with a 91.0 defensive rating, per Cleaning The Glass. Sure, outlier shooting by the Bulls and all, but Rivers pointed to the guards not giving their shooters any open looks.
• Gary Trent Jr. had two big threes from the far corner in that late-third quarter run to seize command of the game, finishing +19 off the bench with 14 on 5/10 shooting (4/6 on threes). He’s at 39.3% from distance on the year.
• Green apparently has no dunks in his career. He’s aware, and so are his teammates, who are definitely begging him to throw one down:

• Finally, we got a classic Lopez-mascot interaction before tip:

Up Next

The Bucks have Christmas Day off this year, as you probably have heard. They’ll take two days off for the holiday and get back in action on Thursday at Fiserv Forum, taking on the Nets. That one tips at 7:00 PM CST and is viewable on Fan Duel Sports Network Wisconsin.

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