Bucks vs. Wizards: “Big Bob” was on it for Milwaukee

With no Giannis or Dame, Bobby Portis stepped up in a big way

The Milwaukee Bucks got back on the right path after Friday night’s loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, beating the lowly Washington Wizards without Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, 112-101. The oft-maligned Bobby Portis ended up playing hero as he dropped a game-high 34 points to go along with ten rebounds and eight assists, while Khris Middleton had his best game of the season, playing a season-high 23:39 and putting up 18 points. Jordan Poole had an excellent game scoring the ball from outside, scoring 26 points on 8/13 shooting from downtown, and Bilal Coulibaly had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds.

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?

Maybe there still is a place for Bobby Portis on this team. For those of you who have followed my work over the almost two years I’ve been with Brew Hoop, you know that I may have wanted Bobby Portis off this team more than once (see my two previous trade articles on him specifically). He’s not a good defender, there are times when he takes ill-advised shots, and his energy can be a hindrance (see his punch/shove against Andrew Nembhard in last year’s playoffs). Yet if he can continue to play at the level he’s been at since he missed the game against the Detroit Pistons, I’d be more inclined to see him stick around. Since that point on November 16, Portis has been averaging 12.9 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and is shooting the ball at an efficient 49.7% from the field and 47.7% from beyond the arc. Those are the type of numbers you want to see from Bobby Portis, night in and night out.

“I knew he had close to 40 [points], but I didn’t know he was close to getting a triple-double also, and you know he should have kept playing the game the right way” Khris Middleton joked. “When he was playing naturally it helped him out, so hopefully he’ll get in [that] position again and not worry about it, it will happen naturally.”

While yes, I do understand that this was the 4-22 Washington Wizards, these are still moments for Portis to prove that he should still be part of this core, for this year and beyond. We’ll see how he responds when they play some better competition after Christmas week (Bulls twice and the Nets this Thursday), but it’s an important building block for him in his career and his role on this team.

Three Ryan Rollins Plays

Before last night’s game, Doc Rivers had said that he agreed with Giannis that they needed a more traditional point guard Friday night in Cleveland. In response, Doc tapped two-way player Ryan Rollins as the starting point guard. Rollins showed that not only should he be part of this rotation, but that he should have his contract converted to a standard deal (as our own Jack Trehearne has been campaigning for). Here are Rollins’ three best plays from Saturday night.

The Bucks may have another player who can turn defense into offense.

It was expected with an older roster that the Milwaukee Bucks wouldn’t have a lot of fastbreak points and wouldn’t be the team that runs a lot. Yet that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t feature guys who can. Coming into tonight the Bucks were 27th in the league in fast break points (13.1). While they only finished the night with 11, Rollins had a big hand in pushing the pace on multiple occasions, including this play here where he makes a great read on a pass to Sarr at the elbow.

He’s able to deflect it and runs the break perfectly to be an option for Bobby on the break, leading to an and-one layup for Rollins. Easy baskets and creating turnovers will be a vital asset come playoff time for the Bucks and while I don’t know how much Rollins will play into the rotation, he should have a chance to earn those minutes now in the regular season.

Rollins has some skills in creating his own shots at the rim.

One thing I didn’t expect to see out of Rollins at all was creating his looks at the rim. While this is in transition again, Rollins makes the right read once he sees Poole ahead of him and Sarr out at the three-point line guarding Lopez.

It’s a savvy left-to-right cross-over into his gather step for a finger roll layup over Poole. If Rollins can show this more consistently, he can be a real threat in one-on-one situations. He definitely has some ball-handling skills.

I don’t think we fully realized how athletic Rollins really is.

I know Rollins is a young guy with some hops, but I certainly didn’t think he’d be posterizing players. With the game all but won, Rollins had the larger Sarr covering him on the perimeter. Sarr is a fairly mobile and athletic big, but Rollins has good speed and can generate enough space for lift-off for a left-handed dunk over Sarr when no one decides to come in to help the rookie sooner.

“He’s a very confident player, can make shots, can really shoot the ball, more athletic, like you saw at the end, than you think and he’s a terrific defensive player,” Rivers said.

Bonus Bucks Bits

• Bobby Portis set a new career high with eight assists tonight. According to Doc Rivers, if not for Damian Lillard telling him he had that many in the fourth quarter. “He was sensational. If Dame hadn’t told him that he had two assists left to get a triple-double, he probably would have gotten a triple-double,” Rivera said. Bobby went on to jokingly comment later that Dame telling him that messed him up.
• Andre Jackson Jr. filled out the box score tonight. While he only scored five points, the former second-round pick snatched up seven rebounds (four offensive) and dished out five assists. “Minutes make you stronger in this league, the more minutes you get the more confident you get,” Portis said. “Sometimes as a young player when you step onto the court, [you’re] like a deer in headlights, things are moving so fast, the game is moving so fast. It’s kinda cool to see the game slow down and see these guys make the right reads and go out there and help impact the team in positive ways.”
• Khris Middleton played the second game of a back-to-back for the first time this season and he put up 18 points, and eight assists, and was a game-high +31 in the box plus/minus.“I felt like I was ready to [play a back-to-back]. I haven’t done it for a while, through the injuries and whatnot,” Middleton said. “Going through the post-rehab, coming back and playing, and the way I’ve been responding after games, I thought tonight would be a great shot to feel what a back-to-back felt like and hopefully move past that stage of can’t be playing back-to-backs anymore.”

Up Next

The Bucks will make the hour-long drive down I-94 to Chicago, where they will face the Bulls for the third time this season. You can watch it all unfold at 7:00 PM Central on Monday night from the United Center on Fan Duel Sports Wisconsin.

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