NBA Stats Notebook: The Milwaukee Bucks are on a shot-making stampede

The Milwaukee Bucks enter the All-Star break as the hottest teamin the NBA. They've won 12 straight games despite missing keycontributors for parts of the surge, including Khris Middleton,Bobby Portis and, most recently, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

"There’s 25, 26, I don’t know, 28 games left and (all ourplayers) need to shut it down for a little bit, and then, they alsoneed to come back with some conditioning and ready to work andready for the stretch run,” Mike Budenholzer said beforeThursday's win against the Chicago Bulls (and beforeAntetokounmpo injured his wrist). “Hopefully, we’ll be playing ourbest basketball as the playoffs start.”

It'd be hard to notice the Bucks' injury struggles on thescoreboard though. They still took down Chicago by double digits tocap a perfect run since the surge began on Jan. 23. The All-Starbreak presents a much-needed window to get healthy, but even in thethick of a race for the Eastern Conference's top seed, Milwaukee islearning that its depth of impact players might be more impressivethan most realize.

The Bucks' top-ranked defense is the backbone of its current41-17 record. Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday deserve all of thepraise for their All-Defense-caliber seasons, and Antetokounmpostill excels in his own right.

Since the streak began though, Milwaukee has catapulted itsoffense forward. The team's offensive rating was No. 22 in theleague (112.9) before the stretch; it ranks eighth (119.8) since,per Cleaning the Glass. Over the past four weeks, when Milwaukeehas called on ancillary scorers to step up, they have answered thecall.