Rapid Recap: Bucks 117, Magic 108

You wouldn’t know it by looking at the final score, but the Milwaukee Bucks had a 24 point advantage partway through the fourth quarter against the Orlando Magic. In what should’ve been a simple win, the wheels fell off and forced Bud to bring his starters back in — a frustrating development on a back-to-back, but thankfully none of the core pieces had to play much more than 30 minutes as Milwaukee won 117-108.

NBA.com Box Score

Against the East’s worst team, the Bucks jumped out to a 36-24 lead behind a sweltering early performance from deep. That held serve in the second, as 54.5% from deep propelled them to a 62-50 halftime advantage. The Bucks finally busted it open in the third quarter, pouring it on to the tune of a 96-71 lead to start the final period. Bud pulled any of his vital players shortly after the fourth started, only to have to put them back in when the Magic’s deep bench cut the lead to just 13. Finally, the starters managed to shut down the late uprising, and they’ll get Orlando again on Monday in Fiserv.

Stat that Stood Out

The insane shooting from deep as a team stands out (19-40), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t call attention to Bobby’s individual stat line. He tied a career high with six 3-pointers in a game, on just seven attempts no less, and his 24 points plus 14 rebounds were illustrative of his instant impact as a scorer and cleaning up missed shots — a bugaboo for this team early. It was against the lowest of the low competition, but it was still the most points he’s scored in a Buck regular season uniform. Kudos to Bobby for giving the home crowd plenty to cheer about, they deserve it.

Second shout out to Giannis for drawing a ludicrous 23 free throw attempts in this game. He went 15-23 (65%) on the evening.