Rapid Recap: Bucks 125, Pistons 115

The Milwaukee Bucks took home a W against the visiting Detroit Pistons, 125-115.

NBA.com Box Score

The Pistons opened up the game with some makes from behind the arc, but Milwaukee bullied their way into the paint for layups, including this gorgeous Donte DiVincenzo dime to Khris Middleton.

The barrage of paint buckets just didn’t stop for Milwaukee, and Detroit barely managed to put up even token resistance. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 30 points on 12/14 shooting at halftime, and finished with 43 points on the evening. Detroit hung around for a while in this contest and will be hanging around in Milwaukee for a few days, since these two teams play again at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday night.

Seriously, there was very little actionable intelligence to take away from this game. Milwaukee was clearly the superior team, and there was no real cause for doubt in this contest. Detroit managed to keep it closer than most would have expected, including a single-digit deficit inside the 3 minute mark of the fourth quarter, but the Bucks just had too much. This happened earlier in the game but, I mean, look at this:

Stat That Stood Out

The Pistons managed to post a respectable shooting night with 17 made threes on 40 attempts, but the Bucks made their hay on the inside to the tune of a 20-point advantage in points scored in the paint (62-42). There was simply no avenue which wasn’t available for Milwaukee to get the ball in inside position: off drives, off cuts, in transition, on lobs, it was all there for the taking. This in turn fueled the Bucks’ massive advantage in overall field goal percentage, where they posted a 57.6% rate compared to a paltry 43.9% for the Pistons. The final score alone wouldn’t indicate it, but this one wasn’t close.

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