Milwaukee Bucks

The first-ever meeting between 2018-19 NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and top overall 2019 NBA draft pick Zion Williamson occurred Tuesday with Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks defeating Williamson's New Orleans Pelicans 120-108.

After the game, there was nothing but respect between the two stars, and Antetokounmpo said the following to sideline reporter Jared Greenberg postgame:

Giannis reflects on his first game playing against Zion after the Bucks’ W with @JaredSGreenberg. pic.twitter.com/RxWFFsGotK

— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 5, 2020

"It's amazing," Antetokounmpo said.

"I'm happy that he's out there, I'm happy that he's healthy. I'm happy that he's able to be out there and help his team win and compete with his team. It's going to be a duel for a lot of years, so it's good playing against him."

Antetokounmpo finished with 34 points, 17 rebounds and six assists. Williamson had 20 points, seven boards and five dimes.

Antetokounmpo and Williamson had a few meetings at the rim, with the Bucks forward stopping the rookie late in the second quarter:

Giannis denies Zion 🤚#FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/LIG2embZLK

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) February 5, 2020

Williamson got some revenge in the fourth quarter by wresting a rebound away from Antetokounmpo:

GIVE HIM THAT pic.twitter.com/njf3edxcZ0

— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) February 5, 2020

Moments earlier, the ex-Duke star then tried to dunk over Antetokounmpo moments later. He didn't convert but got fouled in the process.

Antetokounmpo provided another sensational performance in the midst of leading the Bucks to an NBA-best 43-7 record, but Williamson's fearlessness and confidence en route to challenging the game's best player was certainly worth watching.

Pels head coach Alvin Gentry was asked about it postgame:

On Zion Williamson continuing to attack Giannis in the paint. Gentry: “I think he’s a confident player. I don’t know why he wouldn’t be.” pic.twitter.com/zWWV8o3U00

— Jeff Nowak (@Jeff_Nowak) February 5, 2020

Antetokounmpo and Williamson will not meet again this regular season, as the two sides have played their two annual matchups already.

The Bucks beat the Pels 127-112 on Dec. 11 with Antetokounmpo (quad soreness) and Williamson (torn meniscus) both sidelined.

The final slot in the 2020 NBA Slam Dunk Contest has been reportedly filled by Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton. 

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Connaughton accepted the NBA's invite Monday. Aaron Gordon, Dwight Howard and Derrick Jones Jr. previously committed to the Feb. 15 event.

The dunk contest has been limited to four participants each of the last five years. Barring an unexpected change, that should finalize the field—and serve as a disappointment to fans who wanted a Gordon-Zach LaVine rematch.

Connaughton, 27, will be participating in the dunk contest for the first time. He's the only first-time participant, with Gordon, Howard and Jones each having competed before. Howard is the only previous winner in the field, but the 34-year-old is 11 years removed from his last dunk contest.

Gordon and LaVine put together one of the best head-to-head matchups in dunk contest history in 2016, which finished in a controversial victory for the high-flying guard. Gordon returned a year later hoping to get his first dunk contest win but finished in last place; Jones made it to the final round of that contest but lost to Glenn Robinson III.

Connaughton, meanwhile, is one of the league's most athletic players you'll rarely see on a list of "most athletic players" among fans. The Notre Dame product says he relishes in disproving the expectations about him. 

"I actually like the stereotypes, because I can disprove them. In today's day and age, political correctness and stereotypes are kind of unspoken truths, if you will," Connaughton told Martenzie Johnson of The Undefeated. "From time to time, people don't want to talk about them and they're not always true, but they're just kind of the way it is. So to be able to be a part of, you know, a small group that can disprove a stereotype like 'White men can't jump,' I think is pretty cool.

"If you do work hard, it doesn't really matter who you are, where you're from, what box people try to place you in. You can kind of get out of that box. You can accomplish what you want to with some hard work, with some dedication."

Connaughton will now get a chance to shatter the notions about his athleticism on the NBA's biggest stage. 

Giannis Antetokounmpo leads the NBA's best team and is an overwhelming favorite to win his second straight MVP. 

Now he wants his teammates to get adequate respect.

Antetokounmpo spoke to reporters Friday, saying he felt teammate Eric Bledsoe was deserving of making the All-Star team.

"I want to be honest. I feel like at times that we don't get as much respect and it's OK, we haven't earned anything, at the end of the day," Antetokounmpo said. "I think (Eric Bledsoe) should've made the team. We have a great team. We have guys that don't play a lot of minutes.

"Bled could average 20-25 points if we actually played a lot of minutes but we didn't. He's sacrificed also, a lot for this team and is one of our leaders," he continued. "Not just Bled, and Brook (Lopez) also. I wanted Bled to be on the team, the whole team wanted Bled to be on the team because he's definitely deserving, but this team is unselfish. Guys that are on this team, they just play to win and even though he did not make it, he's going to come out tonight and for the rest of the season give his best and help this team be successful."

Antetokounmpo has a point about national respect for his team. The Bucks are currently on a 71-win pace with a point differential that ranks among the best in NBA history but have been on the outskirts of the national conversation that has focused heavily on the pair of Los Angeles teams. It seems like Milwaukee is a "quiet" 41-6, which is eye-opening given the two-way brilliance and presence of the game's best player.

On the Bledsoe point, Giannis was mostly just being a good teammate. There isn't much of a statistical merit to Bledsoe being an All-Star, even in the Eastern Conference. While it's good for the long-term outlook of the Bucks that Bledsoe plays only 26.3 minutes per game, the All-Star Game is an individual honor. There are a number of players who carry a larger load on a nightly basis; Bradley Beal has a far better case for his frustration at not being selected.

The Bucks got a second All-Star with Khris Middleton, which feels like a justified amount. This is a team with one shining star, a solid secondary star and then a group of really good but non-All-Star players who comprise the best sum of the parts in the NBA.  

Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry isn't just satisfied with winning a championship. He wants this team to go down as the greatest in NBA history.

Recounting a conversation he had with Charlotte Hornets chairman Michael Jordan, Lasry said Tuesday he wants the Bucks to win more than 70 games and take home the Larry O'Brien Trophy in June.

"Everybody wants to be recognized for being unique and different. I mean, all these players," Lasry said, per Eric Woodyard of ESPN. "When I was in Paris, I was talking to Michael about this and I said, 'Well, what do you think? I think we've got a real shot at doing what you guys have done [win 70 games]. This is a really unique team.'

"And he goes, 'Look, my advice to you is don't focus on beating our record, focus on winning a championship.' And I said, 'Wow, that's great. Thank you for that. Just so you know we're going to focus on beating your record and winning a championship.' I think we should do everything, but that's me."

The Bucks are currently 40-6, putting them at about a 71-win pace. Jordan's Chicago Bulls went 72-10 in 1995-96 on their way to winning an NBA championship. The 2015-16 Golden State Warriors set an NBA record with a 73-9 mark but lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Finals.

While Draymond Green's Game 5 suspension in that Finals was the turning point, some have also wondered if the Warriors ran out of gas after chasing 73 wins in the regular season.

The Bucks, though, are among the NBA's best teams at managing minutes. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the only player on the roster averaging even 30 minutes per game, and he's at 30.7. The 2015-16 Warriors had four players over the 30-minute mark: Green (34.7), Stephen Curry (34.2), Klay Thompson (33.3) and Harrison Barnes (30.9).

The Bucks may be the team best-equipped to do what Lasry wants, pushing the all-time wins record while keeping players fresh.

In terms of pure dominance, these Bucks are closer than any team to Jordan's Bulls. Milwaukee is outscoring opponents by 12.8 points per game, slightly ahead of the 12.3 points per game by which Jordan and Co. outpaced their opposition.

Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo will miss at least one game because of a shoulder injury. 

The team officially announced Antetokounmpo won't play Tuesday night against the Washington Wizards with soreness in his right shoulder.

Tuesday marks Milwaukee's first game since a 116-103 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday in Paris. Depending on the severity of the injury, Antetokounmpo could return for Friday's game against the Denver Nuggets. 

Antetokounmpo is averaging 30.0 points, 12.9 rebounds and 5.6 assists in another MVP-worthy campaign after winning the 2018-19 award. The nightly triple-double threat is tied with Justise Winslow of the Miami Heat in defensive win shares (0.183), per NBA.com.

The Bucks have gone 3-0 sans Antetokounmpo in 2019-20, with the team notably taking down the New Orleans Pelicans, Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic by an average of 17.3 points in December.

Antetokounmpo sat out the Pels' matchup with right quad tendon soreness, and back soreness kept him out of the Hawks and Magic contests.

The 25-year-old has largely stayed injury-free over his first seven NBA seasons. He hasn't missed more than 10 games in a single year since the Bucks picked him 15th overall in the 2013 draft.

The Bucks have broken out since Antetokounmpo's 2018-19 MVP season, going an NBA-best 60-22 last year and a league-best 40-6 so far in 2019-20. Last year's Bucks fell to the eventual NBA champion Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals, but this year's squad is in the driver's seat to have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs once again.

Milwaukee needs a healthy Antetokounmpo to contend for its first NBA title since the 1970-71 season, but the Bucks' deep rotation has done its part when the superstar has been off the court.

Expect All-Star wing Khris Middleton to assume more usage and scoring responsibilities in Antetokounmpo's absence. 

Point guard Eric Bledsoe will see increased opportunities as well.

Ersan Ilyasova should get the biggest bump in court time. The 32-year-old forward has entered the starting lineup in Antetokounmpo's place and fared well, notably averaging 17.5 points and 15.5 rebounds per game in two starts on Dec. 27 and Dec. 28.

The 39-6 Milwaukee Bucks have the best record in the NBA and have refuted a report that they would be willing to deal guard Eric Bledsoe if offered an enticing return package.

"We have no talked to any teams about trading [Bledsoe], since the day that we traded for him," Bucks general manager Jon Horst told Bleacher Report's Howard Beck. "And I think it's evident, pretty strongly, in the fact that we extended Eric, what he means to us. The fact that we currently have the best record in the NBA, had the best record last year in the NBA, he's an All-NBA First Team defender and a guy that we feel strongly should be an All-Star for the Milwaukee Bucks this year. We have not had those conversations, and we are not going to trade Eric Bledsoe."

NBA reporter Gery Woelfel previously reported he was told by an Eastern Conference executive that the Bucks would "definitely" consider dealing Bledsoe.

This reportedly is not the first time the Bucks have considered trading Bledsoe.

According to Woelfel, they nearly dealt him to the Dallas Mavericks for Dennis Smith Jr. last season. Instead, they signed the University of Kentucky product to a four-year, $70 million contract extension, but Woelfel reported some around the league felt that was to make him a more trade-friendly asset so potential suitors would have multiple years of team control available.

The report also pointed to the notion Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer is "more comfortable" with veteran George Hill running the offense and likes of Donte DiVincenzo playing alongside him in the backcourt.

Still, there is plenty Bledsoe, 30, brings to the table.

He was an All-Defensive First Team selection last season and is averaging 14.8 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game in 2019-20 while shooting 48 percent from the field and 35.4 percent from three-point range.

Beck noted "Horst praised Bledsoe as being 'really impactful' in the first two rounds last spring and pointed to his continued improvement since then. 

"He's improved his drive rate, he's improved his free-throw percentage, he focuses a lot on his shooting," Horst said. "I think he's improved in that area. And I fully expect Eric to be even better this year in the playoffs than he was last year."

Beck added that, "like many teams, the Bucks could use a boost in three-point shooting. But there are no glaring needs that need to be addressed before the trade deadline, and while Horst advised 'never say never,' he indicated a deal was unlikely."

Bledsoe's Milwaukee legacy will ultimately be decided by his postseason performance in this championship-or-bust season after he shot just 29.8 percent from the field and 16.4 percent from three-point range in last year's Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Toronto Raptors.

"We'll always look at things to figure out how to get better," Horst said, per Beck, but added, "I don't anticipate us being incredibly active. We are very happy with the group that we have, and I think there's a strong chance that we stick with the group that we have."

The Milwaukee Bucks have every reason to be confident with the league's best record (38-6) and Giannis Antetokounmpo leading the way, and the reigning MVP feels similarly.

"I don't think there's a team in this league we cannot beat," Antetokounmpo said, per Michael Lee of The Athletic.

The Bucks would likely be widely accepted as title favorites if they had won a championship in recent years. Teams often have to prove themselves on the sport's biggest stage before they get anointed as favorites, and Milwaukee has not won a championship since the 1970-71 season. Its last NBA Finals appearance was in 1973-74.

However, Antetokounmpo's proclamation looks correct at this stage.

The Bucks lost to the eventual champion Toronto Raptors in last season's Eastern Conference Finals, but they have steamrolled their way through the competition this season. They also have wins over the top Western Conference teams such as the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers.

Antetokounmpo is putting up MVP numbers again at 30.0 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocks per game, while Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe and Brook Lopez have provided secondary scoring.

There are enough shooters on the roster to take advantage when opposing defenses collapse on Antetokounmpo, and the team is No. 1 in the league in defensive rating, per NBA.com.

If their leader is to be believed, nobody is standing in the Bucks' way this season.

The 38-6 Milwaukee Bucks are coasting to the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed en route to what they hope will be their first NBA title since 1971.

The Bucks (namely Giannis Antetokounmpo) should garner numerous individual accolades and awards along the way, and point guard Eric Bledsoe gave his Defensive Player of the Year endorsement to center Brook Lopez following their team's 117-97 road win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.

Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe on Brook Lopez: "I think he is the Defensive Player of the Year."

— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) January 19, 2020

Lopez blocked five Nets shots in just 26 minutes while helping the Bucks hold Brooklyn to just 33.3 percent shooting from the field.

The ex-Stanford big man has averaged a career-high 2.6 blocks on the season and is on a tear of late, with 28 in his past nine games. He has blocked five or more shots eight times this year.

Lopez is ranked 19th out of 59 qualified centers in defensive real plus-minus, per ESPN. He's also ranked 20th in defensive win shares among players who have participated in 12 or more games, per NBA.com.

Lopez also does things that don't show up in the typical box score. Per NBA.com (h/t @BucksFans5), he's first in the NBA in shot contests on two-pointers and overall shot contests.

The 31-year-old may not be the best DPOY candidate on his team, with Antetokounmpo—an MVP and DPOY contender—serving as a likely front-runner for the award.

However, Lopez deserves a ton of credit for Milwaukee sitting first in defensive efficiency, per ESPN.

Every aspect of Giannis Antetokounmpo on a basketball court is unusual. His numbers, physical frame and nickname, the Greek Freak, all defy convention.

So there's a certain consistency in the fact that his Milwaukee Bucks, a league-best 37-6 following Thursday's 128-123 win over the Boston Celtics and on pace to set the all-time record for average margin of victory, don't conform to expectations, either.

They're their own strange brand of superteam.

Yes, everything starts with Giannis, who logged 32 points, 17 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks on what could legitimately be described as an off night. He set the tone early with bully-ball rim attacks against a Celtics defense wearied by playing the second night of a back-to-back set.

Giannis attacks the rim early! 😤@celtics x @Bucks

📺: @NBAonTNT pic.twitter.com/Oa1yNv0WHC

— NBA (@NBA) January 17, 2020

Antetokounmpo's relentless drives are the fulcrum around which Milwaukee's offense turns, but it was telling on Thursday that the Bucks expanded their leads during his rest periods.

Up a dozen when Antetokounmpo took a breather in the first quarter, the Bucks increased their lead to 16 points by the time he returned. In the third, Milwaukee inflated its advantage from eight to 19 points with Giannis on the sideline. That's how he wound up with a minus-seven plus/minus in a game his team won by five points.

Blinking-neon-sign caveat, complete with sirens to draw further attention: Nobody would ever make the case the Bucks are better without Giannis. They post a plus-14.5 net rating with him on the floor and a plus-8.0 with him off.

But that's just it: The Bucks go from great to very, very good when their best player rests. And they manage that feat without a clear second star—you know, the kind you'd find, possibly alongside a third one, on your typical superteam.

That's the first element that sets these Bucks apart. They possess a rare combination of otherworldly talent (Giannis) alongside a team-wide willingness to scrap for every available inch and advantage.

Players like Brook Lopez, Eric Bledsoe, George Hill and even Khris Middleton have all spent time on other teams, and they're playing now as though past experience has taught them how little is promised. These are hungry vets embracing their roles who also happen to be deployed in ways designed specifically to help them succeed.

There's another unusual aspect of these Bucks: They're effectively a system team. Though displaying more subtle wrinkles in their offense this season, they still orbit around Antetokounmpo, happy to shoot threes on offense, wall off the lane on D and trust the math to get them where they want to go.

What's odd is that when Antetokounmpo doesn't play, the whole apparatus keeps working. Non-Giannis minutes on offense feature a variety of pick-and-pops, handoffs and, if Donte DiVincenzo is involved, gunslinging confidence.

Donte Divincenzo playing like it's the National Title game and his jersey says Villanova

Hits the double crossover 3 on Marcus Smart @lockedonbucks @KanePitman pic.twitter.com/r5RBaWpiS3

— Locked On NBA (@LockedOnNBAPods) January 17, 2020

These aren't LeBron James' second-stint Cleveland Cavaliers, who had no offensive plan whenever their superstar sat. These role-filling Bucks are empowered, and it showed Thursday.

Lopez started the game on a heater, hitting three treys and denying Celtics attackers at the rim.

BLOCK PARTY x SPIN ZONE#FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/o9hGbtK0y5

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) January 17, 2020

George Hill walked into clutch threes to ward off Boston comebacks.

Middleton, who finished with 23 points, continued his season-long trend of scoring on seemingly every after-timeout set head coach Mike Budenholzer draws up for him.

Collectively, along with Antetokounmpo, the supporting Bucks fought for most of this mid-January game like they were playing in June. And they actually had to, as the Celtics did that thing they've done so many times this year by erasing a massive deficit and turning a boat race into a game.

Maybe that's where the real distinction lies, in Milwaukee's totally absent sense of entitlement. The Bucks are special without acting like it. They're supremely dominant but rarely forget the old adage about hard work beating talent when talent fails to work hard.

Compare them to our most recent example of a superteam, the dynastic Golden State Warriors, and the contrast is stark.

Even the early iterations of those Warriors teams were defined by a casual style that spilled into recklessness. They coasted often, knowing they could channel a five-minute eruption that would reduce even the best opponents to ash. The top-end talent was overwhelming, which is sort of the foundational idea behind superteams: Accumulate enough stars to bury opponents on command.

That's not how the Bucks do things. They have an incomprehensibly talented MVP who plays with the competitive desperation of someone trying to earn a second 10-day contract and a collection of supporters who'd probably play hard anyway, but who have no choice but to match the intensity of their tone-setter.

Milwaukee does not coast. It habitually builds massive leads and rests after the work is done. That's why Antetokounmpo is on pace to become the first player to average over 30 points in under 31 minutes per game. Very often, he and the Bucks dispatch teams in three quarters, rendering the fourth an extended cool-down period.

Thursday's game was a bit unusual in that regard as the Bucks were up by as many as 27 points early on, only to find themselves in a fight down the stretch. But Milwaukee never relinquished the lead, underscoring its "take care of business" approach with its league-leading 10th wire-to-wire win.

Forget those bygone Warriors squads for a moment and appreciate how Milwaukee's makeup also distinguishes it from current superteams.

The Bucks are not the two-star Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James, who has spent large portions of entire decades coasting on D and who, for what it's worth, effectively started the modern superteam trend into which these Bucks don't fit.

They're also not the mercenary Los Angeles Clippers, built by stars who chose to align and who aren't approaching the regular season with anything resembling Milwaukee's night-to-night urgency.

If you view those other superteams—built in ways that feel inorganic and unearned—as poison, these Bucks might just be the antidote. And even if you're not among those bothered by the way most great teams come together these days, it's still worth appreciating how Milwaukee has built something unique.

           

Stats courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise indicated. Accurate through Thursday, Jan. 16. 

While Giannis Antetokounmpo's impending 2021 free agency looms large over the franchise, the Milwaukee Bucks are happy with where things stand regarding their superstar.

The Athletic's Sam Amick provided an update Wednesday: "Sources say Bucks ownership and management remain very confident in the relationship they've built with Antetokounmpo and what that might mean for the possibility of a shared future, but they're also well aware that the outcome of this postseason will be a major factor here."

Milwaukee has done its best to capitalize on the championship window it has with Antetokounmpo.

Firing Jason Kidd and eventually hiring Mike Budenholzer helped the franchise evolve. Budenholzer is not only a better coach than Kidd, but his perimeter-focused offense played perfectly to Giannis' strengths.

Milwaukee is averaging 39 three-pointers per game (fourth-most in the NBA), which helps open up the floor for the reigning MVP to drive to the basket.

Ownership has shown a willingness to spend as well. 

Attracting marquee free agents to the Bucks is difficult, especially with the questions over Antetokounmpo's future. The team has the 10th-highest payroll after having re-signed Brook Lopez, George Hill and Khris Middleton.

General manager Jon Horst acknowledged the luxury tax was a consideration in sending Malcolm Brogdon to the Indiana Pacers in a sign-and-trade when speaking with The Athletic, but Brogdon left the impression a move to Indiana was his preference anyway.

"I had to figure out what my options were," he told The Athletic's Eric Nehm in November. "I had two or three teams in the mix that we were really considering, but Indiana was by far the best. It was the team I was really pushing for and my agents made it work."

Ultimately, playoff success could be the one thing that determines Antetokounmpo's decision.

After Milwaukee lost to the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals last May, ESPN's Malika Andrews reported "getting to the NBA Finals is not just an ambition, it could tip the scales as he weighs his contractual future."

The Bucks will be eligible to offer the Greek Freak a supermax extension starting this summer. Should he turn that down, Horst could have an extremely difficult decision on his hands.