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The National Basketball Association announced today that Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has been named the Kia NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month for games played in March. The award is the first of Antetokounmpo’s career and the first for a Buck since Michael Redd won the award in January of 2004. Antetokounmpo joins Redd, Terry Cummings (January 1985) and Sidney Moncrief (December 1981) as the only four Bucks players to be named Eastern Conference Player of the Month.
Antetokounmpo averaged 22.4 points (.514 FG%), 8.4 rebounds, 4.9 assists, 1.8 blocks and 1.4 steals per game during the month while leading the Bucks to a 14-4 record. Milwaukee’s 14 wins in March were the most in the NBA in the month, and marked the third-most wins in a month in franchise history. He posted 20+ points in 13 games in March, while scoring over 30 points three times and recording five double-doubles. He shot 50.0 percent or better from the field in 11 games last month and had six games with multiple blocks and steals.
In a win over New York on March 8, Antetokounmpo tallied 32 points with 13 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks. On March 22 at Sacramento, he finished with 32 points, 14 boards and five assists in another Bucks victory. Antetokounmpo posted 34 points, 13 rebounds and five assists as Milwaukee defeated Atlanta on March 24. To close out the month, he helped Milwaukee earn an overtime win against Detroit on March 31 as he was one assist shy of a triple-double (and earned his 28th double-double of the season) with 28 points, 14 rebounds and nine assists.
Milwaukee entered the month of March six games under .500 with a 26-32 record and began the month of April a season-high four games over .500 at 40-36. The Bucks went on a season-long six game win streak from March 3-11, which was the team’s longest winning streak since the 2011-12 season. Milwaukee also went 4-2 during a six-game West Coast road trip, picking up wins over the Clippers, Lakers, Trail Blazers and Kings, which marked the first time since the 1988-89 season that Milwaukee had won four games on a single road trip. The Bucks had five back-to-back sets in the month of March and swept four of them.
Portland’s Damian Lillard was named Player of the Month for the Western Conference.
