{"id":68506,"date":"2024-03-16T15:08:27","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T19:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=68506"},"modified":"2024-04-06T22:34:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-07T02:34:49","slug":"bucks-brook-lopez-replace-khris-middleton-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/16\/bucks-brook-lopez-replace-khris-middleton-injury\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucks Star Says \u2018No One Can Replace\u2019 Longtime Teammate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Out since Feb. 6 with a left ankle sprain<\/a>, Milwaukee Bucks swingman Khris Middleton<\/a> continues to fall victim to myriad injuries. Once the near paragon of durability, Middleton played in at least 65 games in all but two seasons from 2013-14 to 2021-22. However, the wheels began to fall off for the 32-year-old in 2022-23 and he\u2019s played just 76 regular season games over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Sportskeeda\u2019s Mark Medina, Bucks longtime center Brook Lopez<\/a> discusses what\u2019s been yet another extended absence from his brother-in-arms. Middleton has missed their last 16 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one can replace Khris<\/a>,\u201d Lopez says.<\/p>\n

Brook Lopez Reveals Bucks\u2019 Mindset Amid Khris Middleton Injury<\/h2>\n

The loss of Middleton is indeed a notable one<\/a> for the Bucks. Not just because of the chemistry he\u2019s developed with players like Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> after having been traded to Milwaukee a month after the Greek Freak was drafted.<\/p>\n

Middleton has long been the Bucks\u2019 most formidable outside threat, knocking down 38.9 percent of his 3s since joining Milwaukee. He\u2019s far and away the franchise\u2019s all-time leader in made 3s with 1,326. That\u2019s 275 more than Hall of Fame sharpshooter Ray Allen<\/a> had during his six-plus seasons with the franchise.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, because of his skillset, experience, and basketball IQ, Lopez believes that Middleton will be able to hit the ground running. Literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an incredible player, an All-Star and an All-NBA player.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cThe great thing about [Middleton] is that he\u2019s so good and has such a good feel for the game and has a high IQ,\u201d Lopez says of his teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019ll slide right in,\u201d he continues, speaking on Middleton\u2019s ability to integrate himself with the group. \u201cHe knows his spot to a \u2018T.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Stepping Up<\/h3>\n

In the meantime, Milwaukee is getting strong shooting performances from several players in his absence. Eight different Bucks players are shooting at least 36 percent from 3 over their last 15 games<\/a>. Antetokounmpo leads the team, shooting 45.5 percent from deep in that stretch.<\/p>\n

However, of those to take at least 4.5 attempts per game as Middleton has this season, Malik Beasley<\/a> leads the group. Beasley has shot it well all season in what\u2019s been a bounce-back year for him individually. He\u2019s been even better as of late, making 41.6 percent of 3s (8.1 attempts per game) over his last 15 games.<\/p>\n

For his part, Lopez has shot 37.3 percent from 3 over his last 15 games, taking 5.5 attempts per game. After an uncharacteristically poor start, Damian Lillard<\/a> appears to be hitting his stride from deep. The marksman has made 36.6 percent of his shots from 3 on 8.7 attempts per game.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Lopez says that the Bucks \u201ccan\u2019t replace Khris.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dIt\u2019s just a matter of coming up and doing their job a bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out since Feb. 6 with a left ankle sprain, Milwaukee Bucks swingman Khris Middleton continues to fall victim to myriad injuries. Once the near paragon of durability, Middleton played in at least 65 games in all but two seasons from 2013-14 to 2021-22. However, the wheels began to fall off for the 32-year-old in 2022-23 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":71468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1608,62,3],"tags":[233,187,324,293,4745],"class_list":["post-68506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bucks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-brook-lopez","tag-damian-lillard","tag-khris-middleton","tag-malik-beasley","tag-nba-injuries"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}