Portis, Middleton fueling Bucks’ accuracy from the floor

While you’re watching the Milwaukee Bucks play, you think to yourself, “Boy, the Bucks sure do make a lot of their shots,” you wouldn’t be wrong.

Twenty games into the season, Milwaukee is making 49.1% of its field-goal attempts. That’s second in the NBA and the best the Bucks have shot in their first 20 games since the start of the 1985-86 season, when they made 50.2% of their shots.

The only other time Milwaukee had a better shooting start after 20 games besides 1985-86 was in 1982-83, with a 50.1% field-goal percentage. The Bucks also shot 49.1% after 20 games in the 1983-84 season.

The cynic might think the Bucks are shooting so well because they’re taking a lot of shots near the rim. That’s not the case, however.

Milwaukee has taken 47.4% of its shot attempts from outside the paint, which is the fifth-highest rate in the NBA this season. (Wednesday’s opponent, Indiana, is at 35.9% outside the paint, third lowest in the league).

Four players on the Bucks are making more than half their shot attempts. Among regulars, Bobby Portis leads the way at 56.0% followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo (55.8%) and Khris Middleton (51.7%). The fourth player is Thanasis Antetokounmpo, who is 16-of-24 (66.7%) from the field.

Portis and Middleton are members of a small group in the NBA this season — two of just five players who have shot at least 50% from the field and 45% from 3.

Portis, who is shooting 46.3% from downtown, has the highest field-goal percentage among the five. Middleton is making 45.8% of his 3 attempts. The other three players are Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant (53.3%, 45.2%), Philadelphia’s Tobias Harris (51.4%, 46.4%) and Brooklyn’s Joe Harris (51.2%, 48.7%).

Giannis Antetokounmpo isn’t in that grouping but he has his own select clubs.

He’s one of just four players this season to be averaging 20+ points, 11+ rebounds and 5+ assists per game, at 27.3 ppg. 11.0 rpg and 5.7 apg. The other three are Denver’s Nikola Jokic (26.8, 11.8, 8.6), New York’s Julius Randle (22.4, 11.1, 6.0) and Indiana’s Domantis Sabonis (21.1, 12.0, 5.7).

This is the third time in his career that Antetokounmpo has those averages after the first 20 games (he’s done it the past two seasons as well). Since 1982-83, he’s only one of seven players to accomplish this – Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, DeMarcus Cousins, Luka Doncic, Jokic and Russell Westbrook are the others — and Giannis is the only one to do it multiple times.

Other notes:

— On Tuesday, Indiana scored 134 points while shooting 59.8% from the field and 55.2% from 3. It was the fourth time this season a team has reached 130+ points and shot 50% or better on both overall field-goal attempts and 3-point attempts. The Bucks have two of those (Dec. 25 vs. Golden State and Dec. 29 vs. Miami).

— This is the first matchup of the season between Milwaukee and Indiana. The Bucks took three of four last season, scoring an average of 112.3 points to Indiana’s 97.5.

— Get ready for transition play. The Bucks lead the NBA with 16.9 fastbreak points per game while Indiana is fifth at 15.6. However, Milwaukee allows only 9.1 fastbreak ppg, which is second best in the league.

— The Pacers are 3-0 in the second of back-to-back games this season and 16-10 since 2018-19.

Statistics courtesy Sportradar and basketball-reference.com