Giannis and Lillard take over the fourth quarter to lead Bucks to 124-117 win over Clippers.
LOS ANGELES – The Milwaukee Bucks won for the first time on their current West Coast road trip Sunday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena, outlasting the Los Angeles Clippers, 124-117.
Milwaukee (42-23) caught the Clippers (41-22) on the second afternoon of a back-to-back, but they had their own mental challenge to overcome following a loss to the Lakers on Friday. After being around this Bucks team in the early days of his tenure, Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said he liked the fact that locker room was comprised of “grownups,” a veteran group he could count on to take coaching and know what to do and when.
Part of that could apply to games like Sunday’s, following an off day in Los Angeles and an early tip-off. Before the game Rivers admitted, “I always worry about afternoon games in great cities. I’ll leave it there. I’ll let you figure the rest out.”
And while the Clippers, despite being down three stars in Kawhi Leonard (rest), Paul George (rest) and Russell Westbrook (broken hand), kept the game close into the fourth quarter the Bucks managed to do just enough to get the win – and “just enough” meant leaning on Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard to close out the game.
Los Angeles went on a 13-3 run early in the fourth quarter to take a 98-96 lead, and then the Bucks’ star duo took over.
BOX SCORE: Bucks 124, Clippers 117
The pair scored 20 of the team’s next 23 points – and Lillard assisted on a Brook Lopez three-pointer for the other basket.
It was Lopez’s only made three-pointer of the afternoon.
“It’s going to take a third player on the other team, at some point, to help,” Rivers said. “We kept Brook lifted. We kept saying, at some point, someone’s going to leave Brook. And they finally did and Brook made the shot.”
“We’re just learning to use each other against the defense,” Lillard said of his burgeoning chemistry with Antetokounmpo.
The point guard said he noticed the Clippers were keeping him to one side of the court, but he said he waited until late in the game to really rely heavily on the two-man game on the side of the floor. Lillard walked through some of his 16 fourth quarter points and passes to Antetokounmpo and then “I saw the defense just start to be over earlier and earlier.”
Antetokounmpo noted in a timeout that the Clippers were about to be susceptible to a different set of moves out of that action, but Lillard said he insisted they keep running it as they were.
“I knew eventually after enough times they would be tighter and tighter,” Lillard said. “And I know, if it’ll be Brook or ‘Beas’ or whoever, but I knew once it happened like that the weakside, they would end up getting a shot or two. So that was kind of how that developed.”
Lillard then hit the dagger with 1 minute, 19 seconds left when he came flying around a screen from Antetokounmpo, took the handoff and hit a fading 27-footer to make it 119-109.
Antetokounmpo said Lillard was calling for the ball as he sprinted to him for the decisive handoff that led to the shot. Just two nights before, Lillard has a potential go-ahead shot against the Lakers blocked in the final seconds.
“I take pride in being in those moments and taking responsibility in those moments," Lillard said. "I think part of that is accepting and understanding you’re going to come up short sometimes. I take pride in being able to handle that too, because I know that a lot of people can’t. So when it doesn’t go my way, I get more bold about it, you now? And I’ve always been that way.”
Antetokounmpo smiled.
“I just gave him the ball and…all-time great,” he said. “He did what he did, man.
“Made it, gave us momentum and I think on that play we kind of won the game.”
Lillard and Antetokounmpo each flirted with triple-doubles, with the point guard scoring 35 points and handing out 11 assists to go with seven rebounds. Antetokounmpo had 34 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
It was the second straight game the pair handed out double-digit assists.
“They are very unselfish,” Rivers said. “They know that they’re in the action, but they know it’s team action. So, they’re just making the simple pass to the open guy.”
Malik Beasley added 17 points and Bobby Portis had 11 off the bench.
Norman Powell led the Clippers with 26 points off the bench as six different players reached double figures for Los Angeles. James Harden was held to 5 of 16 shooting for 13 points, though he had 11 assists.
More: How Giannis Antetokounmpo learned to get over himself to play the best basketball of his career
P.J. Tucker scored for first time since November
With Leonard and George sitting out on the second of back-to-back matinees, the Clippers started former Bucks forward P.J. Tucker. Tucker, who was fined for asking to be traded in February, played for the first time since Feb. 28 and started for the first time since Oct. 29.
He made an immediate impact, too, pulling down six rebounds and scoring five points on 2 of 6 shooting in the first half to help the Clippers to a 62-59 lead. Not only were his six shot attempts a season high, but he had also not scored since Nov. 14, 2023 when he had six points in a loss at Denver.
Tucker also had a game-tying layup to make it 93-93 with 10:02 to go the game, capping an 8-0 Clippers run.
Did you notice?
On the first of a pair of Giannis Antetokounmpo free throws with 1 minute, 49 seconds left in the first half Clippers center Ivica Zubac threw his hands up looking for a 10-second violation. He turned to official JB DeRosa, who told Zubac he stopped counting once Antetokounmpo began his shooting motion. Antetokounmpo made that free throw.
Doc Rivers, Ty Lue share unique coaching experience
Los Angeles head coach Ty Lue began his career on the bench under Rivers in Boston during the 2011-12 season and followed Rivers to the Clippers in 2013-14 before moving to Cleveland in 2014-15. One season later, Lue took over a 27-14 Cavaliers team after David Blatt was fired and led that team to the NBA championship.
Lue is the last coach to take over in season and do that, which now is what his mentor is trying to do in Milwaukee. Rivers took over the Bucks on Jan. 29 when the team had gone 32-14 under former head coach Adrian Griffin (30-13) and interim head coach Joe Prunty (2-1).
“No, I didn’t give him advice,” Lue said with a laugh. “Like, Doc’s seen everything. This is different for him. My circumstances were different because I’d been with the team for a year and a half, I already can see things that we can improve on or we can do better, things you can kind of change. And Doc is coming to a situation he has no clue of what they’re doing, their philosophies, their terminology, and so it was different. His situation is a lot harder than mine as far as just coming in midway through the season, not knowing the players, not having a relationship with the guys, not knowing what they like offensively and defensively. So, that was big (for me). It was a lot different in my situation. It’s a lot harder (for Rivers).”
Five numbers
2-6 Bucks record thus far on their two “West Coast trips.” They conclude this trip in Sacramento on Tuesday. Milwaukee’s only win came in Dallas on Feb. 3 during a five-game Western Conference swing from Jan. 29-Feb.6.
6-5 Clippers record in the second game of a back-to-back, including a 3-2 mark at home.
22 Hours between weekend matinee tip-offs for the Clippers, who hosted the Bulls at 3 p.m. CT Saturday and the Bucks at 2 p.m. CT. But Daylight Savings Time took effect in the overnight, shortening the window between games by an hour.
Clippers head coach Ty Lue: Very extreme. But, you know, that’s why we’re so excited to get to the Intuit Dome next year, get our own place and get our own schedule. Over the last three or four years I think we have 32 games tip off before 2 o’clock our time and the next closest team was 14. So, you do the math.
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers: Now that I’m not coaching the Clippers, it was awful. I think we’d get two or three of these a year, these back-to-back afternoon games. It’s just not natural. I thought being here you got used to it, you know? You got used to it, it’s still not something you prefer to do. It’s part of the reason they’re going to have their own arena next year so they can not only not have these but also have preferred dates and have a better schedule. That’s probably the main reason.
183 Total three-pointers made by Malik Beasley this season, moving past Khris Middleton (179 in 2018-19) and Michael Redd (182 in 2002-03) into the top four made in a single campaign in Bucks history. Beasley reached the total in his 63rd game. Beasley trails only Brook Lopez (187), Ray Allen (202) and Allen’s record mark of 229 set in 2001-02.
900 Career three-pointers for Bucks center Brook Lopez. The total in and of itself doesn’t rank very high all-time in made threes, but it is impressive for a 7-foot “traditional” center. Only two players considered a “center” have made 900 or more threes in their career: Channing Frye made 1,049 in his 13-year career while Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns has made 973.
When will Khris Middleton play?
Khris Middleton missed his 14th straight game after landing on Kevin Durant’s foot on Feb. 6 and severely spraining his left ankle early in the first quarter of Milwaukee’s loss to Phoenix that night. Bucks head coach Doc Rivers said the three time all-star had a "great workout" Saturday afternoon.
"Really good, looked great," Rivers said before the Clippers game. "So, he's getting closer."
In his only media session since the injury on March 6, Middleton said continued swelling in the ankle continues to be the biggest issue preventing a return to action. He also does not want to be a defensive liability.
More: Milwaukee Bucks all-star Khris Middleton speaks on ankle injury: ‘I need to be playing’
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis, Lillard combine for 69 points as Bucks top Clippers 124-117
