CHICAGO — After grabbing a miss at the rim by Chicago Bulls guard Coby White with just over four minutes remaining in the Milwaukee Bucks’ 112-91 win on Monday, Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis tossed a pass to Khris Middleton and bolted up the floor.
Portis’ mad dash to the rim drew the attention of Bulls center Jalen Smith and opened up a massive lane for a teammate in the middle of the floor. On a normal night, that lane would be filled by Giannis Antetokounmpo, but the Bucks’ two-time NBA MVP was out with back spasms for a second straight game, so someone else needed to take his spot.
Enter AJ Green.
The third-year sharpshooter saw the opening and took full advantage. Green sprinted into the open lane, Middleton threw a gorgeous bounce pass leading him to the rim and Green finished with a floating layup around White and over the top of Smith.
The breakdown in transition defense gave the Bucks a 22-point lead and inspired a timeout from Bulls coach Billy Donovan, but Middleton and Portis were not happy. As the Bucks went to the bench, both veterans made their way to Green to give him a piece of their mind.
Why?
Across 1,539 minutes in his two-plus NBA seasons, the 6-foot-4 shooting guard out of Northern Iowa has never registered a dunk. And the whole team is aware of that fact because Portis informed them in the team’s group chat earlier this season.
“It’s weird, like I get all these stats that come to my phone,” Portis said. “And it was like this graphic thing that had like these eight players that never got a dunk. And I saw it and I read it and I saw his name. And I’m like, ‘What? He ain’t got a dunk?’
“And I sent it to the group and I said, ‘Yo, Dairy Bird, man, before the year’s over or whenever, I gotta get a dunk out of you, man.’ And he actually had a chance to get one today and then when he didn’t do it, we all messed with him. Like come on, what you doing?”
Behind the jokes, Middleton told reporters there was actually a serious lesson for Green.
“I’m actually glad,” Middleton said. “I mean, we’ve been talking to him sometimes about not stopping all the time at the 3-point line and take the layup. I’m a little upset that he didn’t try to dunk it to get off that list that’s out there, but I told him two points is two points, so he did the right thing.”
The moment served as another example of how far the Bucks have come since their disappointing start to the season.
In the second game of the season, the Bucks lost their home opener to the Bulls. There was no time to joke around or have fun at each other’s expense because the team wasn’t playing well enough to win games. On Monday in Chicago, not only were the Bucks able to win their second straight game without Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard (right calf strain, illness), they were having quite a bit of fun while doing so.
“It just tells you where we are now and where we were,” Bucks coach Doc Rivers said. “Early in the year, we wouldn’t have won either game. Now, we’re not only winning games, we’re winning them with a cushion.”
After an 11-point win over the Washington Wizards on Saturday, the Bucks put together a 21-point win over the Bulls on Monday. Antetokounmpo and Lillard, the NBA’s top-scoring duo, did not play in either game, but it didn’t matter. The Bucks won their 15th regular-season game in their last 19 tries on Monday. The vibes were quite good, as Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” blared in the road locker room at the United Center as the Bucks prepared to head home to spend Christmas with their families.
Offensively, three of the Bucks’ NBA champions carried them Monday. Brook Lopez got the Bucks off to a strong early start by scoring 17 of his 21 points in the first half. Middleton took over with 10 points in the second quarter, which led to 21 points, five rebounds and five assists in 23 minutes. And Portis was solid throughout the night on his way to 19 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.
Without Antetokounmpo and Lillard, the Bucks needed to find a way to create pressure around the rim, and they did that by leaning on their two big men.
“I thought they had the one big, so I thought we would always have an advantage with one of our two bigs,” Rivers said. “And whichever one had the smaller guy, we took advantage. We went to the post. What I like most is they didn’t just shoot the ball, they passed the ball.
“You look at our team, no Giannis, no Dame — who gets downhill for us? And so we thought well, post it; that’s the same thing as getting into the paint. They help. We throw it out, and we get shots that way. So we kind of inverted the game that way and it was good for us.”
The Bucks got off to a bit of a slow start with their throwback plan on offense, but Lopez got them going working off Portis. On back-to-back offensive possessions, Portis was able to draw defenders and create for Lopez 30 feet from the rim.
On the first possession, Lopez stepped into a deep 3-pointer from the left wing.
On the next possession, Lopez used the threat of his shooting to get all the way to the rim for a powerful two-hand slam.
“I get double-teamed a lot, especially on the block, guys sitting in my lap digging and things, so I’ve watched a lot of film over the last couple of years, just trying to get better at it,” Portis said. “What I’ve been trying to do is make the right reads, passing out of the post, getting guys shot opportunities.
“And then if those guys hit shots, then I can go play one-on-one after they open it up for me. So just read the game better than the game. Slow down for me and just taking what the defense gives me.”
By the second quarter, Portis had made enough passes out of the post that he was able to work one-on-one in the post, just as he explained after the game.
But it wasn’t just the inside-out post-up game that was working for the Bucks on Monday. Middleton put together his best offensive stretch of the season, scoring 10 straight points by himself in a 90-second stretch of the second quarter.
Khash in his bag with a personal 10-0 run! 💸 https://t.co/9TRN3RkwCc pic.twitter.com/9AZD1ou1wn
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) December 24, 2024
When asked about it after the game though, Middleton made sure to note that even though his second-quarter scoring outburst looked like the prime version of the three-level scorer who made three All-Star teams, Monday was just another step in his path toward regaining his full form and getting back to where he wants to be for 35 minutes on a nightly basis.
“Got shots to go. I don’t want to say it’s the best. I don’t want to think this is the best I will be,” Middleton said. “Hopefully I continue to get better. I know there will be games where I won’t go on stretches like that — the complete opposite probably, which I hate to say — but it felt good.
“I just wanted to be aggressive. With Dame and Giannis out, there’s gonna be a lot more opportunity for me right now, just trying to take advantage of it in the right way.”
The Bulls struggled to do much of anything offensively, going just 10-of-48 from 3 on Monday, so the Bucks likely won’t head into their Christmas break thinking they’ve played their best basketball on either end of the floor, but they executed well enough to make their 21-point win look routine.
Because of that effectiveness, they were able to have a little fun at the end of the game, which seemed impossible a month ago when they were fighting to just be a .500 team. Like Middleton in his return to the court, the Bucks have a long way to go, but Monday served as a reminder of what they can do when they play together as a team, even without their two leading scorers.
(Photo of Khris Middleton: Justin Casterline / Getty Images)
