Greek Freak, Khris Middleton strong in Bucks’ win over Spurs in first scrimmage

The San Antonio Spurs put up a fight for a half of basketball, but Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton were just too much. The duo helped lead the Milwaukee Bucks to convincing 113-92 win over the Spurs in a scrimmage inside the NBA bubble in Orlando on Thursday. The Greek Freak looked like the MVP favorite, leading the game in scoring. Check out this highlight of Giannis’ no-look pass (h/t B/R).

The Spurs were playing without LaMarcus Aldridge, who opted for surgery, which will hold him out of the season restart. The Spurs were also without Trey Lyles, so the lack of size in the front court was a factor. If you’re a Spurs fan, at least you got this (h/t gifdsports):

Here are some notable stats for each team:

Milwaukee Bucks stats

Giannis Antetokounmpo: 22 points, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals
Khris Middleton: 16 points, 5 assists
Brook Lopez: 17 points, 4 rebounds

San Antonio Spurs stats

DeMar DeRozan: 8 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists
Derrick White: 11 points, 5 assists
Dejounte Murray: 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Lonnie Walker IV: 14 points

Takeaways

There’s not too much to gather from this win for the Bucks. The Spurs are expected to be one of the worst teams in the bubble and that should hold true. Milwaukee doesn’t have Eric Bledsoe and Pat Connaughton for now, each testing positive for Covid-19. If anything, it’s nice to see no rust on Giannis and Middleton. Both look motivated and in All-Star form. It doesn’t appear the Bucks will falter at all before the playoffs.

San Antonio worked a deep rotation and it looked like the scoring was spread out a bit. If this continues into the regular-season games, there could be some value in some of their player props, particularly points with no go-to scorer. Lonnie Walker could emerge as a sleeper as a consistent scoring option.