Eric Bledsoe played one of his best games of the season on Sunday. The Milwaukee Bucks point guard scored a season-high 33 points and doled out 11 assists on 12-of-17 shooting overall and 5-of-6 from beyond the arc, picking up the slack of a resting Giannis Antetokounmpo to give his team a chance against the Brooklyn Nets, in dire need of a victory while fighting for a playoff berth. Unfortunately for Bledsoe, the Bucks came up just short in a wild back-and-forth affair, falling to the Nets 133-128.

Bledsoe can take solace from more than just what might be his best performance in a Milwaukee uniform, though. The nine-year veteran eclipsed the 8,000 point mark for his career on Sunday, becoming one of just over 500 NBA players in history to reach that threshold.

Though Bledsoe was always likely to surpass 8,000 points in his career, doing so undoubtedly means a bit more given how well he's played this season after being little more than the butt of an NBA in-joke during last year's postseason. Remember his back-and-forth with Boston Celtics guard Terry Rozier in the first round of the 2018 playoffs? Bledsoe was badly outplayed in that series, following up a regular season during which he did little to cement himself as a fixture of the Bucks' future.

But in 2018-19, the 29-year-old has re-emerged as one of the most impactful two-way guards in the league, averaging 15.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists, and 1.5 steals per game while also garnering All-Defense consideration for the league's best team. Scoring 8,000 points is a feat of which Bledsoe should be proud. With the playoffs right around the corner, though, it's safe to say he wants more than individual accomplishments.