Rapid Recap: Bucks 121, Nets 109

Wow, well that was pleasant. The Milwaukee Bucks, without essentially their entire roster worth of guards, took it to the Brooklyn Nets in Barclays center with a thorough beatdown, 121-109.

Bobby Portis took my “can he play against Brooklyn?” question and answered it with a resounding 25 points and 12 rebounds. Giannis Antetokounmpo led all scorers with 31 points to go along with seven rebounds and nine assists.

NBA.com Box Score

Even without most of their backcourt brigade, the Bucks found themselves ahead 29-21 after a solid start on both ends of the floor. That wonderful opening led to a more even second period, but the Bucks powered through to maintain a 60-49 advantage heading into halftime. Much to the delight of Bucks fans, and the chagrin of Brooklyn fans, Darvin Ham’s team just kept pouring it on with 38 in the third. The hits just kept on coming and it only took six minutes into the period for Coach Steve Nash to wave the white flag as Milwaukee ended its two game losing skid.

Stat that Stood Out

There are a lot of stats to pick out from this one but the fact that Giannis merely played just a tick under 27 minutes and still amassed that stat line is pretty remarkable.

In other stats, it helped that the Nets shot just 6-27 from deep, but Milwaukee at 36% isn’t some kinda outlier at all. They got up a ton more threes and made Brooklyn try to beat them at the rim and from midrange, where they couldn’t.