Bucks’ Hill continues to shoot the lights out

Welcome to the 2019-20 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, give updates on other players from the previous week and sometimes take a look at who is lighting it up for the Wisconsin Herd.

This is the 7th edition of the 2019-20 Bucks Weekly Spotlight

SPOTLIGHT ON …

Guard George Hill

There was a time last season when it was thought George Hill wouldn’t be on the 2019-20 edition of the Bucks. Now it’s hard to imagine Milwaukee without him.

Hill is turning into a MPBP – Most Valuable Bench Player – this season. This past week was just the latest examples.

Averaging just 22.1 minutes in Milwaukee’s four games, Hill nevertheless put up 15.8 points per game – only Giannis Antetokounmpo (23.0) and Khris Middleton (20.3) had higher averages on the Bucks in the past week.

Hill scored in double figures in each game – he’s done that in six consecutive games and eight of his last nine – including a 21-point effort in a big win over the Lakers on Dec. 19. Hill played just under 13 minutes in a win over the Knicks on Dec. 21 but still managed to score 10 points. He also had 17 against Indiana and 15 at Philadelphia.

Hill also continued his lights-out shooting. Always a good 3-point shooter (37.8% career rate entering this season), Hill has been blisteringly hot from downtown. In the Bucks’ four games, he sank 11 of 17 attempts (64.7%) and had three made 3s in three of the four games.

He’s now made 3+ 3-pointers in eight games this season and has another six games with two 3s. Hill’s 50 3-pointers are already two more than he made all of last season and his per-36 rate of 2.8 made 3s would be a career high (he’s been over 2.0 per 36 just twice, with his best a 2.2 in 2016-17).

One reason Hill has so many made 3s is that he’s been incredibly accurate from beyond the line this season, leading the NBA with a 53.2% 3-point percentage (50-for-94). In NBA history, only nine times has a player had 100+ 3-point attempts and made at least half of them – Steve Kerr did it three of those times and current teammate Kyle Korver did it another (back in 2009-10). The last to do it was Pau Gasol for San Antonio in 2016-17 (56-for-104, 53.8%).

Hitting 3s hasn’t been the only thing Hill is doing well (we previously highlighted his knack for offensive rebounds). He also averaged 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists (with just 1.0 turnovers) last week. He had nine rebounds (his most since the 2015-16 season) and four assists in the win over the Pacers.

Hill also leads the NBA in offensive rating (per 100 possessions) with a 141.

Who could have imagined any of that before the season?

BUCKSHOTS

— This week in Giannis: Antetokounmpo’s scoring has been down – 22, 18 and 18 points in his last three games (it’s the first time he’s had three games in a row of 22 points or less since he did it four straight from Dec. 5-12, 2018) — but he’s had five straight double-doubles and recorded his third triple-double of the season with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in just 26 minutes at New York.

— Splash Mountain is back. After reaching double digits in points just once in eight games, Brook Lopez had 10+ in each of Milwaukee’s four contests last week, including 17 against the Pacers. Struggling with his shot from long range, Lopez was 10-for-19 over his last three games, making a season-high four 3s against the Knicks. He also had a season-high seven blocks in that game and 13 on the week.

— Wesley Matthews continues to do a little bit of everything. In the three games he played – he was inactive for the Knicks game – he averaged 12.0 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.7 steals while making 43.8% of his 3 attempts.

— We mentioned the Wisconsin Herd’s Rayjon Tucker in this space last week. Since that time, Tucker was signed by the Utah Jazz. Tucker dropped 34 points in his final game for the Herd.