MILWAUKEE — Damian Lillard scored a season-high 40 points to push his career total over 20,000, Giannis Antetokounmpo had a triple-double and the Milwaukee Bucks trounced San Antonio 132-119 on Tuesday night as the Spurs played without Victor Wembanyama. Giannis Antetokounmpo passes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for Bucks’ career rebounding record
Wembanyama sat out the game with a sore right ankle. This was only the second game the 7-foot-3 rookie has missed. “I don’t think we’re expecting it to be long-term or anything,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said before the game. Antetokounmpo had a career-high 16 assists, 14 rebounds and a season-low 11 points for his 37th career triple-double and second this season. His other triple-double came in a 132-121 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 2.
The San Antonio Spurs fought hard with Victor Wembanyama missing, but the Milwaukee Bucks took a 132-119 win thanks to a Damian Lillard 40-point explosion.
Wemby missed just his second game of his rookie season, this time due to right ankle soreness. The 7’4 big man is expected back by the time the Spurs hit the floor next against the Bulls on Thursday in Chicago.
The end result looked like it was going to be much worse than it was after the Spurs missed thirteen straight shots – yes THIRTEEN! – after making their first of the game. This helped the Bucks go on a 21-1 run and take an early double-digit advantage. Tre Jones and Cedi Osman, two of San Antonio’s most trustworthy and consistent players came off the bench and provided some much needed pace to get the Silver & Black some easy buckets. However, the first quarter was all about Dame Time, who chipped in 19 points for the home team which included hitting four triples as Milwaukee had a 44-26 lead at the end of the first interval.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis were hurting the Spurs to start the second by using their size to dominate the paint. Fortunately, the Spurs have their own ‘Big Body’ with Keldon Johnson inserting his dominance around the rim to score six straight in the paint for the visitors. Tre Jones had a nice opening half of basketball for the Spurs as he gave his side some scoring punch with 12 points to keep the Spurs within reach of the Bucks at the half, 72-59.
The Spurs then got off to an uncharacteristically fast start in the third quarter to reduce the deficit to single digits. The Bucks and in particular Damian Lillard then stepped on the pedal to push the lead back out as Dame had over 30 points with more than a quarter and a half still to play. San Antonio weren’t going away easy and were sticking close enough to the Bucks until the home team made a run at the end of the third to all-but put the game away. It was 107-85 heading into the fourth.a
