25-10-5: Bucks’ Antetokounmpo filling up the box score

Welcome to the 2020-21 edition of the Bucks Weekly Spotlight. Each Thursday, we’ll track the progress of the players who are trying to help Milwaukee make a championship run and give updates on other players from the previous week.

This is the 3rd edition of the 2020-21 Bucks Weekly Spotlight.

SPOTLIGHT ON …

Forward Giannis Antetokounmpo

The Milwaukee Bucks played only two games this past week but Antetokounmpo still filled the stat sheet.

In a win over Dallas on Friday, he had 31 points and nine rebounds. Monday against Brooklyn it was 34 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists.

It marked the fourth and fifth times Antetokounmpo had a 30-point game this season, tied for sixth most in the NBA. Since the beginning of last season, only James Harden, with 49, has more 30-point games than Giannis, who has 42.

Antetokounmpo is also second in the NBA since 2015-16 in games with 25+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists. That season was the first time he piled up that stat line and he’s had 93 overall in that span, trailing only Russell Westbrook, who has 99 such games over that time period. Even beginning with Giannis’ rookie year in 2013-14, he’s still second in the NBA with nine more than LeBron James and 10 fewer than Westbrook (Harden is fourth with 64).

The contest against the Nets was the fourth time Antetokounmpo reached at least 25-10-5 this season. Only Dallas’ Luka Doncic, Denver’s Nikola Jokic and New York’s Julius Randle have more, with five each.

The only shocker was that Antetokounmpo didn’t put up those numbers in fewer than 30 minutes (as he did back on Jan. 1 vs. Chicago).

Since 2013-14, Antetokounmpo has eight games in which he had 25+ points, 10+ rebounds and 5+ assists while playing fewer than 30 minutes. There have been only 13 other such games combined in that span by every other player in the NBA and none have more than two (Doncic and Harden).

If you expand it to 30 minutes (rounding down) or fewer, Antetokounmpo has 12 such games – nine more than anyone else in the league (Doncic and Joel Embid).

BUCKSHOTS

— Khris Middleton scored 25 in each of the Bucks’ two games. He went 8-of-20 in against the Dallas Mavericks and went 10-of-20 vs. the Brooklyn Nets, but was far more sporadic from long range, going 4-of-9 against Dallas compared to 0-of-5 against Brooklyn.

— The past two games have not exactly been masterpieces from Donte DiVincenzo. That’s not to say he was awful, but he scored six points against Dallas and eight against Brooklyn, shooting below 50% in both contests. DiVincenzo is averaging 10.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists, so this appears to be nothing more than a short slump.

— The Bucks used just 10 players last week in the two games and only nine against the Nets. Thanasis Antetokounmpo played just over four minutes against Dallas.