Milwaukee Bucks headed into the week on a two-game winning streak with the hopes of making it a third on Monday night. The task would not be easy as they faced Memphis Grizzlies who are playing better than anyone expected. Even though, the Grizzlies were finishing up a five-game road trip, this would not be easy for Milwaukee. Despite a nails matchup with Marc Gasol, John Henson had himself a nice and played a large role in aiding the Bucks to victory as they win their third straight.

Let’s talk about John Henson
With Greg Monroe being traded to Phoenix, we’ve seen Henson at his best for the last couple of weeks. He had his best game of the season tonight with 17 points, nine rebounds and a couple blocks. In his last five games, Henson is averaging 9.2 points per game with 7.6 rebounds. He’s been a bit of a beast down low. Giannis Antetokounmpo is helping him in a big way by creating easy buckets as the superstar attracts attention down in the paint. We’ll continue to see if Henson can keep this up.

Defense comes to live in the third quarter
I nearly wrote about ‘Did Bledose fix the Bucks defense?’ which we can discuss at a later date, but that seemed foolish after the first half. Milwaukee gave up 65 points and trailed at the break. But the defense found itself in the third quarter holding Memphis to only 12 points and doubling up the Grizzlies on offense to retake the lead. That changed the game entirely. Bucks are getting better on that side of the ball.

Khris Middleton gets it going from three
This was an encouraging night for Khris Middleton. He started off hot out of the gates for the first time in forever, and the threes were falling for him. Middleton hit four threes tonight off five attempts. That was a season-high for him, and none bigger than the one to push Milwaukee’s lead out to six late in the fourth. After a Henson block, Tony Snell hit Middleton with a trail pass for a beautiful three. Hope this jumpstarts Midds from the outside.

Quick hitters
– Thon had his best game of the year with six points and six boards
– Giannis continues to be a beast. Helluva line tonight.
– Bledsoe’s knee is a bit worrisome, although he looked fine tonight with 15-7-6.

Next up
In an unexpected big game, Milwaukee gets the upstart Pistons for their second meeting of the year. Detroit is 10-3 to start the year off. Andre Drummond will challenge Henson again after going off in their first game. This will be a great test to see if that defense really improved in the last week.

Charlie.