Giannis’ three quarter double-double powers Milwaukee over New Orleans
The Milwaukee Bucks kept up their winning ways as of late, winning their sixth game in a row, beating the New Orleans Pelicans, 136-111. Despite the win, the Bucks will be locked into either the fifth or sixth seed, with the Indiana Pacers beating the Clevalnd Cavaliers, 114-112. Giannis put up a 28-point double-double in just three quarters of action, with 11 rebounds and five assists to boot. Lester Quinones led the Pelicans offense with 21 points off of the bench on 8/21 shooting and 2/10 from the three-polint line.
Game Recap
Despite being down to just to eight total players, the Pelicans gave the Bucks everything they could handle in their first quarter. Jeremiah Robinson-Earl put up five points in the early going to get the Pelicans a five-point lead forcing a timeout from the Bucks with 7:54 to go. New Orleans would go up as much as nine points with after Antonio Reeves hit a three-ball with 1:03 left in the period. Kevin Porter Jr. continued his sticky fingers with two more steals in the first quarter. After the Pelicans went up by nine, Porter scored on back-to-back possessions to end the frame, cutting the Bucks deficit down to five, 26-21.
Milwaukee came out and quickly erased that deficit in just the first 2:21 of the second quarter, with a Bobby Portis post-fadeaway jumper to tie the game at 33-33. That’s when Lester Quinones started to heat up for the Pelicans. Already with four points in the quarter, he went off for five more to give himself 11 for the quarter, and the Pelicans a four point lead. The Bucks finally got over the hump to reclaim the lead after Kyle Kuzma hit his first shot of the night and then Taurean Prince hit his patented corner three to take a one point advantage. After going scoreless in the first quarter, Kuzma finally found his stride from the field, scoring eight of the next 11 for Milwaukee. It was all part of a 11-0 run for the Bucks to take a 10-point lead with 1:02 to go in the stanza. After two straight buckets in the paint for New Orleans, Giannis hits a near buzzer-beating lob on an out of bounds play from Taurean Prince, giving them a 62-54 lead heading into the locker room.
The Pelicans wouldn’t stay quiet and roll over to the Bucks. After the Bucks went up by 10, the Pelicans went on a 7-1 run to cut the lead down to four points. Milwaukee responded by outscoring New Orleans 11-5 over the next 2:08 of game time to re-take their 10-point lead. After staying in contention for most of the game, the wheels started to fall off the wagon for the Pelicans, with the Bucks ourscroing them 24-13 in the final 6:10 of the quarter to take a 100-85 lead going into the fourth quarter.
After the results of the Pacers game went final, Giannis was pulled late in the third quarter and didn’t return to the floor. The Bucks bench, plus Kyle Kuzma, did a fine job taking care of business throughout the fourth quarter. They outscored New Orelans 16-7 in the first four minutes and 44 seconds to take a 116-92 lead. At that point, Doc started going deeper into his bench, brining on Pat Connauhgton and Andre Jackson Jr. for Trent and Kuzma. Chris Livingston and Jamaree Bouyea got some solid run in the final 6:13 of the game to close this out. The second two way player, Stanley Umude, checked in for KPJ with 5:18 to go with the Bucks up by 21 points. Connaughton even flashed some of his old tricks with a nice and-one dunk in the closing moments. When it was all said and done, the Bucks went on to win by 25 points, after leading by as many as 28.
Stat That Stood Out
The Bucks bench continues to look stronger and stronger with the return of Bobby Portis. After the bench went for 55 points in their miraculous comeback against the Minnesota Timberwolves, they go for another 70 points tonight with Portis, Kevin Porter Jr., and Gary Trent Jr. are going into double figures.
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