Watching Giannis Antetokounmpo is always a treat. It’s especially more so at Fiserv Forum.
If you’re in Milwaukee it’d be wise to grab a ticket (or, you know watch on Bally Sports Wisconsin) whenever the Bucks are in town and Giannis is on the court.
Antetokounmpo has played 20 games at home this season and is averaging 34.7 points in those contests – that stands to be the highest single-season scoring average at home in Bucks history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the top mark, for now, at 34.3 ppg in 1971-72. Abdul-Jabbar topped 30 ppg two other times (31.3 in 1974-75 and 30.3 in 1970-71).
This isn’t the first time Giannis has hit the 30-point mark at Fiserv Forum – he also did it last season, with 31.1 ppg.
Amazingly, Antetokounmpo is putting up such a prodigious number despite scoring just nine points vs. Charlotte on Jan. 6 – do we smell a revenge game against the Hornets on Tuesday night? – and 16 against Cleveland on Nov. 16.
But the All-Star captain has had at least 30 points in 17 of his 20 home games (and 27 in the other) with six games of 40+.
Antetokounmpo has reached the 50-burger – er, 50-piece – twice this month. He had 55 against Washington on Jan. 3 and hit for 50 vs. New Orleans on Sunday.
In that latter game, Giannis got 50 points despite playing only 30 minutes. He was only the fifth player in NBA history (per basketball-reference, which has minutes played stats going back four decades). The others were Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Golden State’s Klay Thompson (who did it twice) and Portland’s Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
It’s been quite the season for Antetokounmpo – and particularly at Fiserv Forum
Other notes
-- Antetokounmpo is getting to the line a lot this season – 13.4 times per game. That’s the fourth-highest rate in NBA history. Only Wilt Chamberlain has attempted more foul shots in a game (and has three higher rates, 17.0 in 1961-62, 13.9 in 1962-63 and 13.8 in 1959-60).
-- It’s hard to truly equate the impact Jrue Holiday has had since arriving in Milwaukee, but here’s one way: Since 2020-21, only two players have a higher box score +/- over than span than Holiday’s +6.3 – and barely. Embiid and Denver’s Nikola Jokic are both at +6.4. This season Holiday has 17 games of +10 or higher, including a high of +37, which he accomplished vs the Pelicans on Jan. 29.
-- The Bucks have been shooting a lot of 3s this month. We wrote more about that here.
Statistics courtesy Sportradar and basketball-reference
