The star duo of the Milwaukee Bucks, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, who were struggling at the beginning of the season, are gradually showing the power of the best one-two punch in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Milwaukee defeated the Houston Rockets 128-119 in the 2023-2024 NBA regular season home game held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA on the 18th (Korean time).waukee (19-7), second in the Eastern Conference with four consecutive wins, maintained a one-and-a-half game gap with the leading Boston Celtics (20-5), who defeated the Orlando Magic 114-97 that day.Milwaukee has a clear upward trend, with 8 wins and 2 losses in the last 10 games. The protagonist of this upward trend was definitely Antetokounmpo.

Milwaukee defeated the Houston Rockets 128-119 in the 2023-2024 NBA regular season home game held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA on the 18th (Korean time).waukee (19-7), second in the Eastern Conference with four consecutive wins, maintained a one-and-a-half game gap with the leading Boston Celtics (20-5), who defeated the Orlando Magic 114-97 that day.Milwaukee has a clear upward trend, with 8 wins and 2 losses in the last 10 games. The protagonist of this upward trend was definitely Antetokounmpo.

Antetokounmpo scored 64 points, the most in a single game in the club’s history, in the 140-126 win against the Indiana Pacers on the 14th.On this day, Lillard led the way to victory with 39 points and 11 assists.Antetokounmpo scored 26 points, which was lower than his recent performance, but he grabbed 17 rebounds and contributed to the fight.Antetokounmpo recorded 31.4 points and 11 rebounds per game this season, joining Joel Embiid (Philadelphia) and Nikola Jokic (Denver) as candidates for the regular season’s Most Valuable Player (MVP).

Lillard, who left the Portland Trail Blazers and joined Milwaukee before the start of this season, is averaging 25.8 points and 7.1 assists. This is a worse record than last season, when he averaged 32.2 points and 7.3 assists. In fact, the field goal success rate in the 2023-2024 season (43.1%) is lower than last season (46.3%). The long-term 3-point success rate is lower this season (36.2%) than last season (37.1%).However, many analyzes say that the reason Milwaukee continues its recent upward trend is because the two players’ chemistry has entered a stable stage.Recently, Lillard is forming a complementary relationship with Antetokounmpo by becoming the main scorer and taking responsibility for the team’s offense when Antetokounmpo is faltering.In the home game (146-114) against the Detroit Pistons right before the big win, Antetokounmpo scored only 22 points, but Lillard scored 33 points to secure the victory early on.

In addition, it appears that Antetokounmpo’s attack under the goal is becoming easier as the opponent’s defense, which is keeping Lillard’s outside ability in check, has expanded to the 3-point line.Antetokounmpo’s field goal success rate is close to 61.8%. It is a significant increase from his last season (55.3%), which means that he is effectively attacking the bottom of the goal where the defense is dispersed.The fact that Lillard, who is considered a top NBA point guard, stayed on the court and took off the burden of managing the game is also considered a factor in Antetokounmpo’s efficiency.However, with the loss of the league’s best defender, Jrue Holiday, in exchange for Lillard’s trade, the defensive performance dropped significantly. Milwaukee, which gave up an average of 113.3 points last season and 112.1 points in the 2021-2022 season, is giving up 119.2 points this season when Lillard joined.The reason Milwaukee can smile despite its weakened defense is because its offense has improved even more due to the “Lillard effect.” Milwaukee’s average score this season, which averaged 116.9 points last season, is 124.4 points.Milwaukee poured in 128 points on this day against Houston (13 wins, 10 losses), ranked 9th in the West and boasting a salty defense, 무료슬롯게임 with the 2nd most points allowed (106.1 points) this season.