The Milwaukee Bucks’ superstar duo of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard have yet to reach their final form. These two have been looking much better as a pairing of late, but there’s no denying that they still have another gear or two in them.
On Saturday against the Detroit Pistons, however, Antetokounmpo and Lillard were clicking. This resulted in the All-Star duo combining for 76 points to lead the Bucks to a hard-fought 141-135 victory at the Little Caesars Arena.
Milwaukee Bucks Stars Found Their Groove Vs. Pistons
Lillard went off against Detroit, scoring a season-high 45 points on 12-of-22 from the field. He also added five triples, six boards, 11 assists, a steal, and just one turnover in 37 minutes of action.
For his part, Antetokounmpo logged 38 minutes with a problematic shoulder, and he still managed to log 31 points on 10-of-16 from the field, to go along with 10 rebounds, nine dimes, two steals, and one block.
Not only were both of them great individually, but as a pair, Antetokounmpo and Lillard were on the same wavelength all night long.
“I just feel like they did a good job of just reading the game and everyone else did a good job of playing around them and off those guys,” veteran Jae Crowder said, via Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They were aggressive tonight. They had a great pick-and-roll synergy together and great iso game. So, it was one of those games where they just had it going.”
As Crowder said, when their two superstars play like this, it’s easy for the rest of the team to follow suit. This is exactly what the Bucks did on Saturday night, and it resulted in win No. 29 for them.
Then again, it is a bit concerning that despite the offensive brilliance of Antetokounmpo and Lillard, the Pistons were still able to hang in for pretty much the entire game. The fact that Detroit dropped 135 points also speaks volumes of the Bucks’ shortcomings on the defensive end.
As always, the offense has been great. Their defense, however, is still a work in progress.
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