On Thursday night, the Milwaukee Bucks won for the seventh time in 10 games since trading for Eric Bledsoe. They went on the road, to the hostile Rose Garden in Portland at the end of a four-game western swing, and absolutely demolished the Portland Trail Blazers 103-91. Only a frantic fourth-quarter flurry from the Trail Blazers even made the final score look respectable, as the Bucks had a strong 24-point lead in the fourth quarter and essentially coasted to that 12-point win.
The take home message for me, after watching that game, is that the Bucks have a legitimate "big three" now that should be consistently dominant moving forward.
When putting talent together, there's always a question as to whether it will fit. The Oklahoma City Thunder, for example, are still battling through the issues of putting three heavy scorers together and trying to make it fit. The Bucks, though, are not having that issue. And it makes sense, because their main three guys have different skill sets with only a moderate amount of overlap with differing types of excellence.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is the MVP, the outlier. His length and athleticism allow him to attack the paint on offense and erase mistakes on defense at an ultra level, and his growing skill level as a ball handler and floor general make him dangerous as an attention magnet that warps opposing defenses and sets up teammates with easier looks.
Bledsoe is a strong scoring lead guard, who is not a pure point guard but is a veteran now at running teams and can take that pressure off Antetokounmpo. With Bledsoe running the show, the Greek Freak is freed up to be an offensive disruptor -- and, vice versa, the Greek Freak's presence gives Bledsoe lots of space to get off shots or attack the defense with less attention. While there were initial questions about whether their ball-dominance might clash, instead it seems to be meshing very well.
Meanwhile, Khris Middleton is the shooter/scorer, the player who stretches opposing defenses and helps create space for the penetrators to work. He can be a high-volume scorer working almost entirely as a finisher, and with Antetokounmpo and Bledsoe drawing the attention off the dribble, Middleton is getting all types of open looks. Middleton is shooting better than 48 percent from the field and better than 40 percent from downtown during these 10 games, improving scoring efficiency while putting up almost 20 points per game. Those numbers improve to 21.7 points per game on 52.3 FG percentage in his past seven games.
All told, the rest of the NBA should worry about the Bucks. And fantasy owners should take note. While Antetokounmpo was already a fantasy MVP, it strongly appears that Bledsoe should retain his max value from his Phoenix Suns days, and Middleton looks great as well. The latter two make nice trade targets, as the dust from the big trade finally starts to settle.
Thursday recap
Box scores
Highlights:
Dario Saric, Philadelphia 76ers: 18 points (3-6 FG, 3-6 FT), 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 3-pointers, 2 TO
Kevin Love, Cleveland Cavaliers: 25 points (7-16 FG, 7-8 FT), 16 rebounds, 4 3-pointers, 2 assists, 5 TO
Will Barton, Denver Nuggets: 37 points (13-19 FG, 5-6 FT), 6 3-pointers, 3 assists, 3 steals, 2 rebounds, 3 TO
Jusuf Nurkic, Portland Trail Blazers: 25 points (9-17 FG, 7-8 FT), 11 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 assist, 1 block, 6 TO
Lowlights:
Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics: 2 points (1-6 FG), 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 4 TO
Luke Babbitt, Atlanta Hawks: 8 points (2-4 FG, 2-2 FT), 2 3-pointers, 2 assists
DeAndre Jordan, LA Clippers: 8 points (3-5 FG, 2-5 FT), 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 TO
Thursday takeaways
Saric (available in 37.4 percent of leagues) is the forgotten young superstar in Philadelphia, but he continues to step up as he has in recent weeks, especially when either Joel Embiid or Ben Simmons sit. Embiid sat on Thursday as a precaution for the second half of a back-to-back, and Saric turned in a strong double-double. He is averaging 16.4 points (48.3 FG%, 84.2 FT%) with 8.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 3-pointers in his past five games.
While LeBron James is obviously always the story in Cleveland, Love has now put up back-to-back dominant performances. In his past two games, he has averaged 31.5 points, 12.5 rebounds, 4.0 3-pointers and 2.0 assists while making a whopping 21 of 25 free throws. Love's role seems to ebb and flow as the season goes along, but right now he seems to be at a peak.
Barton (available in 39.2 percent of leagues) stepped up in a huge way on Thursday, turning in a career-high in scoring on a night when Nikola Jokic went down (see below). Barton is a potentially explosive scorer, but his production can fluctuate wildly from game-to-game. However, when the Nuggets make him a priority, he tends to put big numbers on the board more regularly, so if Jokic misses time, it could be Barton who makes up some of the offensive gap.
Nurkic had another huge game on Thursday and has been stepping up more and more regularly of late. He has three double-doubles in his last five games and has avereged 19.4 points, 10.2 boards, 3.0 assists, 2.0 blocks and 0.8 steals during that stretch. Last season, after Nurkic settled in, he flirted with becoming a dominant center before injuries wrecked the end of his season. He seems to be settling in for another run at dominance this season, and if he can sustain it, he could be a nice trade target in the short term.
Brown missed Saturday's game for personal reasons and has now struggled in both games since returning. This could be a factor of him dealing with personal loss, so it's not necessarily a dangerous trend yet. However, on the positive side, Kyrie Irving is showing more and more that if any of the other scorers have difficulty, he is more than willing and able to step up his own scoring. On Thursday, Irving turned in his fourth 30-plus scoring explosion in his past eight games with 36 points (12-21 FG, 7-8 FT), 5 3-pointers, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 TO.
Babbitt got the start in place of the injured Dewayne Dedmon, but he was upstaged hugely by another stretch-4 off the bench. Ersan Ilyasova (available in 93.8 percent of leagues) got 30 minutes to Babbitt's 18, and turned in 22 points (8-11 FG, 2-2 FT), 4 3-pointers, 4 steals, 3 rebounds, 1 block and 1 TO to lead the team off the bench.
Jordan was strong on the glass Thursday but couldn't step up on offense in the team's first game without Blake Griffin. Instead, he ceded the scoring responsibilities to perimeter players Austin Rivers (73.3 percent available) and Lou Williams (20.1 percent available). Rivers turned in 25 points, 6 rebounds and 3 3-pointers while Williams added 20 points, 5 assists and 3 3-pointers. Of note, the Jazz are one of the stingiest defenses against opposing centers in the NBA, so Jordan is likely to have better scoring lines moving forward.
Injuries of note
One night after Kristaps Porzingis went down with a sprained ankle, Jokic rolled his ankle in a similar way. In Jokic's case, he turned the ankle while on a dribble drive to the rim. He was fouled, and after initially leaving the court, he came back to make both free throws, but then he left the game for good. X-Rays were negative, so consider him day-to-day moving forward. With Paul Millsap also down, a Jokic absence would open the middle up for Mason Plumlee (92.4 percent available), Kenneth Faried (89.4 percent available) and Juan Hernangomez (99.3 percent available) to potentially step up.
Rodney Hood sat out his second game with an ankle injury on Thursday. This opened things up for Alec Burks (98.2 percent available) to explode on Thursday for 28 points, 7 boards, 5 assists, 4 3-pointers, 3 steals and a block off the bench.
Iman Shumpert had knee surgery on Thursday and is expected to be out for the next 6-8 weeks. He hasn't played much for the last couple weeks, but his extended absence in conjunction with Derrick Rose's hiatus leaves more responsibility for the other wings and perimeter players to step up. On Thursday, Dwyane Wade (19 points, 3 3-pointers, 4 steals, 3 assists, 2 blocks, 2 rebounds) and Jae Crowder (15 points, 3 assists, 2 3-pointers, 2 rebounds) were the two Cavs wings to take up the extra production slack.
Analytics advantage for Friday
Simple Rating System (SRS) is a team measurement that takes into account both the strength of schedule and the average point of differential. It gives a more accurate measurement of team quality than just record alone. An average team has an SRS of zero. SRS in the range of 10 is historically good. This season, the Rockets are at 10.72 and the Warriors at 10.15.
The Chicago Bulls currently sport the worst SRS in the Association (SRS -11.6). The Sacramento Kings aren't much better (SRS -9.79). Together, they represent two of the three weakest teams in the NBA by that measure. They have the two worst offenses in the league (99.7 points per 100 possessions for the Kings, 97.9 for the Bulls), but they also have two of the eight worst defenses in the league (Bulls eighth worst: 109.9 points allowed per 100 possessions, Kings third worst:111 points allowed).
Put that all together and something has to give in their matchup on Friday. Since both are bad teams, the game could be competitive. And since both have such terrible defenses, there's a reasonable chance that both teams have better-than-expected offensive production. This makes players from both teams very streamable on Friday, and since the teams are so bad, there are key players widely available from both teams.
Top players to watch tonight
Russell Westbrook: The Thunder have lost way more than most anticipated to start the season, and it seems to be taking a toll (have you seen any of the videos/memes about sad Westbrook?). Westbrook has been in the zone his past five games, and until otherwise shown, I'm betting that his answer to sad team underachievement is more personal explosion.
Kyle Lowry: Lowry just continues to ratchet up his game, now averaging 21.6 points, 8.4 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.3 steals with 4.1 made 3-pointers in his past eight games.
Elfrid Payton: Payton has been playing his way back to full speed after a lengthy battle with a hamstring injury, and he's looking pretty close now. He has three dominant games in his past five outings, a stretch during which he averaged 15.6 points, 7.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals overall on 59.6 FG% with 1.0 made 3-pointers a game.
Will Jeff Teague (questionable, Achilles) play? If not, Tyus Jones (available in 92.5 percent of leagues) makes a strong stream option again, as he has averaged 11.3 points, 6.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 1.8 3-pointers in his last four starts.
Will Kemba Walker (questionable, shoulder) play? If not, we could have another Michael Carter-Williams sighting.
Lance Stephenson (87.5 percent available) and Kelly Oubre (77.7 percent available) have both played well in their last several outings.
Kelly Olynyk (83.8 percent available) and Bam Adebayo (97.6 percent available) both look to have larger roles in the short term while Hassan Whiteside is out.