Welcome to the 2020-21 edition of the Bucks Weekly Spotlight. Every Thursday we’ll be tracking the progress of players trying to help Milwaukee run a championship run and updating other players from the past week.
This is the 7th edition of the 2020-21 Bucks weekly spotlight.
SPOTLIGHT ON …
Guard Pat Connaughton
Pat … let shoot?
After Jrue Holliday paused, Connaughton’s minutes increased over the past week. On Tuesday against Toronto he played a season high of 31:21 – the first time he had reached 30 minutes this year – and scored 20 points.
That doesn’t seem like much, especially on a team with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, but it was the most points Connaughton has scored in his three seasons at Milwaukee, and he was only 20 years old for the second time in his career.
Connaughton’s previous high with the dollars was 18 points against Portland on October 21, 2019. His career high is 24 for Portland in Phoenix on October 18, 2017.
Against the Raptors, Connaughton made four 3s, one of his personal bests, and finished the race with 8 points out of 15. The 15 field goal attempts were a career high and the eight make one of his top nine, scored in his 24-point game.
Additionally, Connaughton blocked three shots from Toronto, which best linked his career, which he did with the Bucks in Denver on November 11, 2018.
Connaughton remains a energetic player who, with 6-foot-5 and incredible jumping skills, makes a good rebounder. He had five boards against Toronto and seven in Oklahoma City on Sunday. He’s at 7.2 rebounds per 36 minutes and has now been at that rate or higher in each of his three seasons at Milwaukee, having hit that mark just once in his first three NBA seasons with Portland.
Yes, let Pat dive in. But he can do other things as well, as he demonstrated last week.
PATTY C STARTS 🚀#FearTheDeer pic.twitter.com/8BVGFTMbeg
– FOX Sports Wisconsin (@fswisconsin) February 17, 2021
BUCKSHOTS
– This week in Giannis: In three games Antetokounmpo had a triple-double and two double-doubles. Against Toronto on Tuesday he had 34 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, a season high of five steals and two blocks. Basically, he continues to fill out the statistics sheet.
– Bobby Portis has four double-digit games in a row despite playing less than 25 minutes in three games. Portis made 2 out of 3 3-point attempts in each of his last two games and now reaches a rate of 48.4% behind the curve, which would easily be a career high (39.3% in 2018-19) and definitely that Improvement over the previous year when he played for New York (35.8%). Portis is currently fifth in the NBA in 3-point percent and 17th in field-goal percent (55.6%).
– Mamadi Diakite, who is under contract in both directions, has no chance at Milwaukee but is making up for his time with the G League’s Lakeland Magic. Diakite had games last week with 20 points and 10 rebounds in just 23 minutes, 16 points and 13 rebounds in 26 minutes and 20 points, six rebounds and five assists in 29 minutes. The 6-9 Diakite was signed to a two-way contract by the Bucks after leaving Virginia.
