Bucks’ Khris Middleton posterizes Jimmy Butler, renews pleasantries with Bulls
Jimmy Butler recently expressed surprise that, after becoming an All-Star and earning a five-year, $95 million contract, he’d be featured on opponents’ scouting reports. Based on Tuesday night’s preseason encounter with the Milwaukee Bucks, we can surmise that the first line on that document is, “Dunk through the man’s very essence.” And Khris Middleton always follows the scouting report.
[Yahoo Fantasy Basketball: Sign up for a league today]
Preseason or no, the 24-year-old Middleton — who got a nice raise himself this summer after developing into one of the league’s rising 3-and-D stars — evidently felt pretty eager to resume unpleasantries with the Bulls team that unceremoniously drummed Milwaukee out of the playoffs last season. He pressed up on Butler with just under seven minutes remaining in the second quarter, getting one of those now-trademark long Buck arms in the passing lane, stealing Nikola Mirotic’s halfhearted feed and lighting out on the break.
Butler stayed with him stride for stride, though, and made an effort to protect the rim. Middleton, however, made a better effort, cocking the hammer and bring down a right-handed tomahawk directly in the mug of Mark Wahlberg’s bestie to bring the Bucks bench to its feet.
Middleton, not exactly a bomb-thrower in terms of his on-court demeanor, even let his glare linger a bit after coming down, as if making a brief statement: “Hey, this ain’t last year.” From Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
“He’s a great player,” Middleton said of Butler after they renewed their matchup from last season’s playoffs. “In the back of my mind, he got me two times last year just blocking my shot, so I knew I had to go strong (for the dunk).
“When somebody embarrasses you like that in the playoffs, you’re going to remember it, especially when you’ve got your parents, your friends talking about it.”
Middleton’s dunk certainly got people talking. And even though Butler and the Bulls wound up getting the better end of things on Tuesday — he scored 23 points on 7-for-12 shooting with a team-high six assists and three rebounds in 25 minutes of work to Middleton’s 10 points (5-for-7 FG) and two steals in 17 minutes, with Chicago scoring a 105-95 win in new coach Fred Hoiberg‘s debut at United Center — it seems a safe bet that Butler won’t forget Middleton’s one-handed calling card before the Central Division squads meet for the first time in the 2015-16 regular season … even if he’ll have to wait until January to offer his reply.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
Coming off a surprising playoff run, the Bucks believe that the free-agent addition of offensively gifted center Greg Monroe, the return of 2014 No. 2 pick Jabari Parker and continued growth from young core pieces like Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, the recently re-upped John Henson and point guard Michael Carter-Williams will build them into both a viable contender and a true rival for the long-starrier-and-more-established Bulls. From Mark Strotman of CSN Chicago:
The Bucks are no longer underdogs. They’re no longer the NBA’s biggest surprise. No one will miss the Bucks coming like they did a year ago when Milwaukee became the ninth team in NBA history to make a one-year jump from owning the league’s worst record to securing a postseason berth.
“For us, we’re still in the process of learning how to win and what it means to play hard every night,” Kidd said. “[The Bulls] have done that for some time now. They’ve had MVPs, they’ve gotten to big games in playoffs. So for us, we want to hopefully get to that level here in the next few years.”
To get there, some of the young Bucks (no superkick party) will need to step up and take on larger leadership roles, just as Butler’s committed to doing on this year’s Bulls, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune:
As for Butler, he consistently has stated his desire to add leadership to his already full plate throughout training camp.
“I have to do it,” Butler said. “I think Derrick [Rose] is the quiet one. [Joakim Noah] is the emotional one. Someone has to be that guy to be calm and lead while still producing at both ends. Easy? Probably not. But somebody has to do it. I have to do it.”
Butler said he never envisioned himself in this role but that he wants to add something to his game every year. He added his contract has nothing to do with it, that there’s room for more than one leader and answered “I hope so” when asked if the team is ready to accept him in this role.
“We have a couple of guys who are quiet by nature. And nothing’s wrong with that,” Butler said. “Guys lead with their emotions if it’s Jo, with their play if it’s Derrick and Pau [Gasol]. Pau has won championships. But you need a guy who’s going hard every night and is going to back up what he’s talking about. And I definitely think it’s going to be me.”
And sometimes, that means coming up short while trying to make a play on defense, collecting yourself, and getting the team back into its offensive flow. It’s a dirty job, but hey, that’s why they pay you the big bucks lots of money.
– – – – – – –
Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
Stay connected with Ball Don’t Lie on Twitter @YahooBDL, “Like” BDL on Facebook and follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr for year-round NBA talk, jokes and more.
