If the Milwaukee Bucks were on Sesame Street, the word of the day would have been ‘pace.’ You heard Malcolm Brogdon talk about it after the game with Katie George of FOX Sports Wisconsin. Mike Budenholzer said the same thing in his post-game press conference. Pace was the word of the night, and Milwaukee discovered it in the second half leading to a 112-99 victory over the Chicago Bulls. Once again, Milwaukee avoids losing two straight games this season, and they’ll attempt to sweep the Bulls in later this year for the first time since 2000-2001 season. Bucks have five straight wins against their Windy City foe which ties their longest streak ever in the Bulls-Bucks rivalry.

Player of the Game: Giannis Anetokounmpo – What a goddamn night for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Sometimes, you have to marvel at the stat line this kid puts out on a nightly basis. Giannis finished the game with 29 points, 17 rebounds, eight assists and four blocks. That’s a stat line. He only shot the ball 13 times from the field. Yes, you read that right. 29 points on only 13 attempted shots all night. That’s bananas. Poor Lauri Markkanen who will probably need to drown his sorrows tonight as Giannis took him to school.

Silver Star: Eric Bledsoe – Here’s a name that we’ve been talking about a lot of late, but suddenly, Bledsoe has become the Mariano Rivera of this team. He is the closer. Bledsoe finished with 19 points, but 12 of those came in the fourth quarter. Bulls pulled the lead to three before Bledsoe decided to take it back for Milwaukee with his own 5-0 run then hit another triple later in the fourth. Bledsoe played a large role in Milwaukee’s victory.

Positive: Legs didn’t get tired – We talked about pace a bit in the open, but consider this for Milwaukee… This is their fourth game in six days. That’s usually a trouble spot for some teams where they can look tired and almost sag in all facets of the game. That didn’t happen for the Bucks. Instead, they dialed up the pace late in the game to help get back to their winning ways. We say it all the time, but this team finds new ways to impress you each game.

Negative: Still icy from three – Bucks did get some big threes late in the fourth, but they were otherwise very cold from deep. This continues to be a trend from Orlando as well as a couple other games. It’s nice that Milwaukee is find other ways to win besides the three-point arc, yet, it’d be nice to see Milwaukee have a night where they cannot miss a shot.

Next up – To finish up this crazy fist half, Bucks will head to Indiana to play the Pacers. Bucks have not lost a team twice this season, and the average win margin when they play that team a second time is 19.5. Indiana will look different with no Victor Oladipo, but this Pacers teams keeps fighting as they’ve maintained their three spt in the Eastern Conference.

Charlie.