Damian Lillard has historic day, teams with Bobby Portis to lead Bucks to 140-129 win over Suns
The last time Giannis Antetokounmpo was a late scratch before a Milwaukee Bucks game, his team lost by 40 points in Cleveland on Jan. 17. What a difference two months can make, as the Bucks handled the Phoenix Suns, 140-129, Sunday afternoon at Fiserv Forum after Antetokounmpo was ruled out less than an hour before tip-off.
Buoyed by the return of Khris Middleton, the Bucks (44-24) led by as many as 25 points in the first half and were led by a blistering shooting performance by Bobby Portis and a 31-point, 16-assist afternoon by point guard Damian Lillard.
It was the first 30-point, 15-assist game in Bucks history and tied a career high in handouts for Lillard. It was the fourth time in his career he had 16 in a game.
“I just wanted to come out and be in attack mode, really," Lillard said. "I didn’t really think to myself I have to score a bunch of points., I just knew I had to be a problem for the defense, getting into the paint, getting them in rotations, making them have to help and that’s just how I played. I kept making the right play and guys just made shots.
“I give a lot of credit to the guys' shot-making. Even though I created the plays, you don’t always make shots at that clip and we did tonight.”
Milwaukee is 9-2 when Lillard has at least 10 assists. Portis tied a season-high with 31 points and he pulled down 10 rebounds.
“He was just, I think, picking them apart really,” Middleton said of Lillard. “Mostly just seeing the crowd that he was attracting and just getting it off early. He trusted the guys out there to make the plays and hit the shots for him. But I think he did a great job of picking and choosing on when to attack that big off the double team and then also just knowing when to get off of it and not forcing things too much.”
Phoenix (39-29), which was ending a four-game Eastern Conference road trip, stayed in the game and whittled the deficit to six late in the third quarter.
BOX SCORE: Bucks 140, Suns 129
The Suns were led by Bradley Beal’s 28 points. Grayson Allen (25), Devin Booker (23), Royce O’Neale (16) and Eric Gordon (10) all reached double figures for Phoenix. Star Kevin Durant was held to 11 points on 4 of 10 shooting.
Bobby Portis, Damian Lillard key Bucks win
A smile on his face, Lillard shouted “Damn, Bob!” as Portis pounded his chest and whipped the Fiserv Forum crowd into his special kind of frenzy following his fifth three-pointer of the first half that forced a Suns timeout with 6 minutes 3 seconds left.
Lillard assisted on back-to-back Portis triples that broke Suns in a 30-second span, giving Milwaukee a double-digit lead it pushed to as many as 24 in the first half.
“We all know that he’s a scorer and he can fill it up," Lillard said. "He gets going, he can really get going and change the game. So, he made his first couple shots and I think as a team we saw it and we just fed him. Anytime he had an inch or he was the next guy, even if he was covered, we was throwing him the ball and he just kept it rolling and kept it rolling."
Portis scored 25 points in just 12:44 of play, making 10 of his 13 shots, including a 5-for-5 mark from behind the three-point line.
The Bucks’ reserve big man didn’t check into the game until 4:14 remained in the first quarter with the Suns leading 20-18. Portis proceeded to make all five of his shots and score 12 points in that brief stretch, including a three-pointer with 29 seconds left to give the Bucks a 39-36 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Milwaukee head coach Doc Rivers stayed with the hot hand, and Portis added another 13 in the second quarter and the Bucks led by as many as 25.
Middleton said Portis was getting to his spots, so it was the right decision to play through the big man and let him make decisions offensively.
“He’s a guy, once he gets hot, let him keep going,” Middleton said.
Portis’ teammates noted how he had gotten some clean shots to start – and of course knocked them down – which put him in a zone he’s all too familiar with.
“I think I do that a lot, bro," Portis said. "I be in my own zone, man. Try to block out all the naysayers. They been talking crazy about me all year long, trade him, all type of stuff. So I get in my own zone when I’m on the court, I’m just like that, man. Get back to who I used to be, go out there and play with confidence, shoot the ball, miss or make, come back the next day, be who I am. Not a whole lot of chitter-chatter about who I am, you feel me? Just trying to shut the naysayers up, make e believe. That’s all it is for real.
"I got confidence. I got confidence in my coaches. They got confidence in me. They pour confidence into my teammates, pour confidence into me and make it easy for me to go out there and just hoop. That’s all I’ve been trying to do the second half of the season, up my game each and every day.”
But the veteran Suns did not fold – and the Bucks couldn’t finish them off – early in the third quarter, and Phoenix cut the deficit to 95-87 with 3:34 left in the third. Then, Lillard took over. He flew in for an offensive rebound and a basket off a Pat Beverley missed three-pointer, then converted a three-point play of his own to give the Bucks a 100-87 lead.
The Suns cut it to 100-94 with 90 seconds left in the third, but Lillard scored seven straight points to end the frame – including a buzzer-beating logo three-pointer to give Milwaukee breathing room at 109-94 heading into the fourth.
The pair then did damage together in the final quarter, with Portis scoring six more and Lillard hitting a three. Both assisted on Malik Beasley three-pointers, too.
“It opened up everything,” Crowder said of Lillard’s passing. “You have to worry about him every night but when he gets downhill and taking two or three defenders and catching the weakside passes and we’re making these guys pay, I think it opens up our offense a lot. I think it gives him more freedom at the top to play one-on-one instead of seeing double teams off the pick-and-roll, and I think we just rolled with that action. We did a great job of just playing through him the whole entire game.”
Beasley finished with 17 points and Brook Lopez added 10.
Khris Middleton returns for Bucks
The three-time all-star returned after a 16-game absence due to a severe left ankle sprain suffered Feb. 6, and Middleton made an immediate impact on both ends of the floor. He played 26 minutes and scored 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting and handed out seven assists.
“Khris Middleton, I tell you, for a guy that missed that many games to look that good was pretty impressive,” Rivers said.
On the defensive end, he moved well in defending Beal, Allen and Durant. Following Bucks practice on Saturday, Middleton had said being able to react to an opponent without issue was one of the final hurdles he had to overcome to get back into a game.
Though he did finish with four fouls, Middleton looked entirely at ease.
"It’s weird I’ve been doing this a long time where I know how to slow myself down and not try to go too fast or speed myself up," Middleton said. "I know how to come in, play at my pace and change my pace when need be. A lot of the work I was doing in rehab was just making sure my wind was there, my conditioning was as good as it can be, and I thought it was.”
Jae Crowder sparks Bucks in first half
The Bucks led 66-53 with 3:36 left in the first half when Suns forward Kevin Durant put the ball on the floor to try and drive past Bucks forward Jae Crowder. Durant had the ball low, however, and Crowder grabbed hold – tightly – spinning Durant off his feet. Crowder wrested the ball out and hit the court himself, with the Bucks recovering. As his team streaked up the court, Crowder lay prone and slapped the hardwood with both hands. He got into a crouch and watched as Beverley drilled a three-pointer, giving the Bucks a 69-53 lead and forcing a Suns timeout – during which Crowder got up and quietly put up three fingers toward the opposing bench.
“It’s a momentum play,” Crowder said. “That’s what I felt when you saw me slapping the ground. Just momentum. I felt like the momentum was going our way big time and I just tried to make a play. Obviously he’s a hell of a scorer, I just tried to make it tough, make it physical a little bit for him and I was able to come up with the steal.”
Crowder started his 17th straight game, this time in place of Antetokounmpo. The Marquette University alumnus helped the Bucks keep pace with the Suns in a high-scoring first quarter, scoring eight points. He then helped the Bucks tighten up defensively, allowing them to take a double-digit lead in the first half.
Crowder finished with 18 points on 7 of 11 shooting.
Did you notice?
Lillard made a poor pass in the backcourt early in the third quarter, and Durant poked it away for a steal. For a moment, it appeared as if Durant would get a free run to the rim for a fast-break dunk, but Lillard quickly hit the gas and knocked the ball out of bounds. He told his teammates “my fault” for the bad pass. And though the Suns scored coming out of the inbound, it was a hustle play by one of the team’s leaders even though Milwaukee was up 25 points at the time.
Giannis Antetokounmpo misses game with hamstring injury
Antetokounmpo went through his pregame routine normally Sunday and in his pregame news conference Rivers believed Antetokounmpo would be available to play with a sore left hamstring. But Antetokounmpo was a scratch about 45 minutes before tipoff, and he did not join the team on the bench as he usually does when not playing. He had begun the day questionable to play.
The last time Antetokounmpo was a relatively late scratch was on Jan. 17 in Cleveland with a right shoulder bruise, and the Bucks were routed by 40 points by the Cavaliers.
After practice on Saturday Rivers said that while he loves heroes, he likes them better in May and June and wanted his star to rest if it was needed.
“Well, it’s not an injury, we’re just concerned a little bit,” Rivers said of the decision to scratch Antetokounmpo. “Plus, you look at the schedule you have one, two, three, four, five days off, so we planted it in him and he had to do it. Which we were happy that he decided to do it.”
After the Bucks’ win over Philadelphia on Thursday, Antetokounmpo acknowledged that he didn't want to "mess with" soft tissue injuries in his legs and that it took him a while to feel good enough to play an evening game. He said he first felt something in the muscle during the Bucks win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 10.
He was first listed with the injury head of the 76ers game.
“I had to warm up,” he said of the prep to get ready to go against the 76ers. “There was no shape or form I could compete the game if I wasn’t 100% warmed up from the game going on. No, it takes a little bit to get your balance and get your steps, but my body was warm. My body was ready to go. You don’t play with stuff like that. You have to be on. There’s other times your body might feel good and you kind of warm up through the game. This wasn’t one of those games. I had to be a thousand percent ready to compete this game.”
More: How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to get over himself to play the best basketball of his career
5 numbers
3-1 Bucks record without Antetokounmpo this season. Milwaukee beat Toronto on Nov. 15, lost to Cleveland on Jan. 17 and beat the Los Angeles Clippers on March 4.
18 Points for Crowder. It was just the eighth time this season Crowder has reached double figures in scoring. He last did that on Feb. 27 vs. Charlotte (10 points).
43 Second-quarter points by the Bucks, a season high. They scored 40 against Dallas on Feb. 3.
82 First-half points for the Bucks, as they led 82-60 at the break. It was a season high, besting the 81 they scored against Detroit on Dec. 16. Milwaukee made 18 three-pointers in the first half.
191 Three-pointers made this season by Lillard and Beasley, passing Lopez (187 in 2018-19) for third-most in a season by a Bucks player. Ray Allen made 202 in 2000-01 and a club-record 229 in 2001-02.
Assistant coach Rex Kalamian moved to front of bench
Rivers brought three assistants to Milwaukee after he was hired on Jan. 26 in Dave Joerger, Rex Kalamian and Pete Dominguez. All had worked with Rivers in his previous stops, and Joerger immediately joined Rivers, Joe Prunty and Patrick Mutombo on the front of the Bucks bench (only three assistant coaches are allowed to sit up front, the rest sit behind those coaches and players).
Prunty and Mutombo were hired by previous coach Adrian Griffin, and both were front of bench all season until March 12 in Sacramento when Kalamian joined Rivers, Joerger and Prunty. Kalamian was in front for the games against Philadelphia and Phoenix also.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Damian Lillard has historic day to lead Bucks to 140-129 win over Suns
