The Milwaukee Bucks faced off against their divisional rival, the Detroit Pistons, on Wednesday night in a game to determine who will continue their win streak. Detroit came into the BMO Bradley Center with a 10-3 record, having won five games in a row, and currently lead the Central division with impressive wins under their belt early in the season. The Bucks have not lost a game ever since signing Eric Bledsoe from the Phoenix Suns, and their win streak continues putting the Bucks at a record of 8-6.
What Detroit does well
The Pistons are a talented team this year, with big playmakers such as Avery Bradley, Andre Drummond, and Reggie Jackson. This is a team that likes to play defensively and punishes the opponent with three-pointers. Detroit's defense has proven to be good this year as Andre Drummond is currently the NBA leader in rebounds. On the offensive side, Detroit is shooting more than fifty percent behind the three-point line. Tobias Harris has been contributing towards that stat, as he is in third place in the NBA for three-point shots. This creates a lot of trouble for other teams, and the Pistons utilized this well against Milwaukee.
Detroit came out hot right away, scoring seven unanswered points on Milwaukee. The Pistons used their three-point specialty to stay in the game, coming back to rally multiple times from being down. Andre Drummond showed his value to the team by scoring 24 points in the game with 14 rebounds, proving yet again why he’s such a deadly asset to the Pistons. Avery Bradley contributed with 23 points, two assists, and two rebounds -- a majority of those points coming in the fourth quarter with a huge rally to force the game into a nail-biter.
Can’t stop Giannis
The buzz around Giannis is spreading across the NBA as an early candidate for MVP this year. Giannis Antetokounmpo is a monstrous forward that is just too hard for teams to handle when he’s driving down the lane.
The Greek Freak had himself another impressive game by scoring 29 points with three assists and four rebounds. Up until this point in the season, Giannis was leading the NBA in scoring. According to ESPN’s updated stat sheet, the leader now goes to James Harden with 30.7 points per game. Giannis has been averaging 30.6 points per game, creating the separation between the two players by a mere .01 points.
Giannis used his height to his advantage with seven blocked shots against the Pistons.
This type of defense helped the Bucks to be up ahead 15 points during the third quarter. It was the biggest rally that Milwaukee had on the Pistons all night.
Bledsoe enjoying Milwaukee
Eric Bledsoe appears to be much happier being in Milwaukee.
Who’s to blame him for smiling when all he has done since joining the Bucks is win? Although Bledsoe remained quiet in the first half against the Pistons, he came out strong in the fourth quarter by making some clutch shots when they mattered the most. It was a team effort in order to get the win when other players such as Malcolm Brogdon and Khris Middleton both scored in the double digits. Middleton had himself a big game with 16 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds.
All cylinders are clicking for the Milwaukee Bucks right now, and with the Dallas Mavericks coming up on Saturday we will see if Giannis and the Bucks can go for five in a row.