Bobby Portis has been on quite a tear of late for the Milwaukee Bucks. He led his team to a 32-point blowout win over the Detroit Pistons on Saturday by dropping a season-high 31 points on 11-of-18 shooting, to go along with 12 rebounds and four triples in just 27 minutes of action. Portis has kept his foot on the gas since, averaging 21.7 points on 63.4 percent shooting, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.0 steals, while also knocking down 2.7 treys on a 53.3-percent clip over his last three games.
It’s not just the scoring punch that makes Portis so valuable for Milwaukee, though. According to head coach Adrain Griffin, the hard work Portis puts in every single night is what makes him such an important member of the squad: “He’s a grinder,” Griffin said, via Gabe Stolts of Brew Hoop. “He works extremely hard. I think his work on the [offensive] boards over the last couple of games has really won games for us where he’s given us second-chance opportunities. Obviously, he can score the ball. But he’s willing to do the hard work, too. He’s playing defense. He’s sprinting back. He’s aggressive in his pick-and-roll coverages. He’s defensive, rebounding the ball. And he’s on the o-boards again. He’s doing it all.
“I’m trying to find ways to reward him sometimes coming out of [time outs] because we work him so hard. But that’s on Bobby, man. He just ignites our team with his hustle. .. Having Bobby come off the bench leading that second unit has just been invaluable for us.”
