BBNBA: Bucks Win 11th Straight in Blowout Win Over Hornets

[caption id="attachment_271673" align="aligncenter" width="781"] (Via Milwaukee Bucks)[/caption] Good morning, folks. The Milwaukee Bucks are better than the Charlotte Hornets. Surprise, surprise. Let's talk NBA.

RECAP

• Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was on his way to another double-double when he went up against the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday. Up until this game, the Greek Freak had recorded a double-double in all 19 games the Bucks have played this season. The record for most consecutive double-doubles to open a season was 34 games from the great Bill Walton back in 1976-77. Antetokounmpo was up to 26 points and nine rebounds before he even hit TWENTY MINUTES against the Hornets. Had Charlotte put up more of a fight, Antetokounmpo would have assuredly continued his streak. But alas, the double-double streak came to an end on Saturday after the Bucks mopped the floor with the Hornets, 137-96 (Bucks head coach, Mike Budenholzer, said after the game he should have left the reigning MVP in the game). Bucks guard Eric Bledsoe played only 22 minutes himself, registering just two points, however, he coupled that with 10 assists and zero turnovers. Milwaukee led this game by 17 at the halftime break and pushed the lead to 26 entering the fourth quarter, which allowed Bledsoe and Antetokounmpo to rest the final 12 minutes. The win marked the 11th straight for the Bucks, who boast a 17-3 record, good enough for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
• For the Hornets, it was a struggle most of the evening. P.J. Washington followed up his 26-point effort in the previous outing with just seven points on 3-12 shooting and posted a disastrous minus-39 in the box sheet. Malik Monk wasn't much better, either, adding five points on 2-7 shooting. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was a healthy DNP for the seventh consecutive game. If MKG isn't going to be playing in 30-point blowouts, he likely isn't going to play at all this season. That trade is coming.

Other notes

• Without De'Aaron Fox - who is still on the mend with an ankle injury - the Sacramento Kings pulled off a clutch overtime win against Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets, 100-97. Murray went for 15 points, four rebounds, six assists, and two steals for Denver, who blew a 17-point halftime lead. It was only the third time this season that a team has come back to win after trailing by at least 17 points halfway through the game.
• We're going to go slightly off-topic for the final note of today's BBNBA (mainly because it was a slow night). The NBA has been known - and has been incredibly vocal to the public in the past - to be in favor of third-party sources such as YouTube highlight channels, who create highlight videos of a specific player or game. However, it would now seem that the NBA is stepping back on that stance. The league has been filing copyright claims against popular YouTube channels that produce packages of daily highlight reels, which removes the money made off of advertisements from that video. Why the NBA is doing this, I have little idea. My guess would be the recent drop in ratings, which has been a heavily debated topic of discussion this season among NBA fans and media. But I'm not sure how removing highlight videos from the day after a game would encourage more people to watch the actual game.
• The League Pass app is trash - and expensive - and should be the first thing they address. Kevin Durant - the second-best player in the world - is out all season. Most of the league's top talent is on the West coast, where games don't tip off until after 10 p.m. on the East coast. This is more of a tinfoil hat theory, but possibly the ties with China have the NBA feeling more on edge in terms of how they generate revenue. The streaming age surely has something to do with this, too. Either way, the NBA has been adamant about allowing the public the ability to watch highlights, and removing them in this fashion is very 'NFL-y' of them. Fans on Twitter have been quick to point out that up-and-coming stars such as Luka Doncic and Joel Embiid relied heavily on YouTube videos growing up to help influence their love and passion and knowledge for the NBA. Those videos grow fan - and player - interest. Unless the NBA is going to consistently put out their own highlight reels as the popular YouTube channels have been for years, this is only going to piss people off. It's also going to make it more difficult for me to provide you all with highlight videos. I may be the 'NBA guy', but I still can't watch 12 games in one night. Not only do those videos help me keep you all up to date, but they also help me cover what I missed the night before. This seems uncharacteristically reactionary from the NBA. Let's see how serious they actually are about it.
• Check out the full stat sheet below.

STATISTICS

[table id=428 /]

TODAY IN THE NBA

3:00: Heat (Adebayo, Herro) @ Nets 3:30: Celtics (Kanter) @ Knicks (Knox, Randle) 3:30: Grizzlies @ Timberwolves (Towns) 4:00: Mavericks @ Lakers (Davis, Rondo) 5:00: Spurs (Lyles) @ Pistons 5:00: Thunder (Gilgeous-Alexander, Diallo-out, Noel) @ Pelicans (Miller-out) 6:00: Warriors (Cauley-Stein) @ Magic 6:00: Jazz @ Raptors 10:30: Wizards (Wall-out) @ Clippers (Patterson)