Poster dunks are a thing we see all over the NBA and college basketball. They are easy social media layups. You post a dunk that features a guy dunking on someone else, it’s an immediate viral hit. Aaron Gordon climbed the latter against Giannis Antetokummpo. He technically dunked on him but Gordon did not connect the finish. It also looked like a change. At that point, Orlando trailed by two points. When the game ended, they trailed by 21. Milwaukee went on a 33-13 run to fuel their team after that dunk. Not sure if that woke them up, but glad it did. Bucks are 7-4 to start the season.

Player of the Game: Khris Middleton – A large part of the reason the game turned into a blowout was Khris Middleton. He finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Middleton looked like a closer. Milwaukee missed that the last two years of having a guy be able to say ‘Fuck this, this game is over.’ Middleton did just that. He finished strong helping Milwaukee to victory.

Honorable Mention: Bobby Portis – I continue to be impressed by Bobby Portis. We’re very young into the season, but Portis might have a legitimate claim at 6th man of the year. He is fantastic. Portis played well in that fourth-quarter run too hitting a big three early on. The forward finished the game with 20 points and five rebounds. The Bucks’ bench last night had 53 points yesterday.

What went right for Milwaukee: Stealing cookies all day and night – Bucks had 15 steals last night. As my podcast partner Mitch said to me, ‘That feels like a lot.’ Indeed it is. Milwaukee was all over the place on defense last night. Milwaukee’s defense has been under the microscope, but they’ve held their last two opponents to under 100 points. Now, it’s Cleveland and Orlando so let’s hold off on a parade, but it is still a nice response after Utah.

What went wrong for Milwaukee: What’s up with Giannis’ rebounding numbers? – Antetokounmpo is on a cold streak when it comes to rebounds. This is his fourth-straight game without double-digit rebounds. Giannis is still averaging more than 10 rebounds per game (Barely at 10.1), but this doesn’t happen often for Antetokounmpo. As Frank Madden pointed out last night, it’s a rarity. I don’t think it’s anything worth losing our minds over though.

The Bucks have rebounded well this season, but interesting to note that Giannis has now had 4 straight games in single-digit rebounds and 5 overall in 10 games. Last season he only had 7 single-digit rebound games all season and never in back-to-back games.

— Frank Madden (@fmaddenNBA) January 12, 2021

Next up: Milwaukee plays Detroit yet again, this time in the Motor City. Detroit is scrappy at home. The Bucks need to make sure they do not look ahead to an upcoming matchup with Dallas on Friday night (Might be off with COVID, but we’ll wait on that). Pistons will be fresh heading into this one, as they will be off since Sunday.

Charlie.