Giannis Antetokounmpo sets franchise record with 64 points as Bucks beat Pacers 140-126
Giannis Antetokounmpo broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time franchise scoring record with a three-pointer. It seemed fitting he broke Michael Redd’s single-game scoring record with two textbook free throws.
The 29-year-old Bucks superstar called his shot on Monday night after the game against Chicago, saying he might have to “make something happen” against Indiana on Wednesday night at Fiserv Forum.
Did he ever.
The 7-footer broke Redd’s 17-year-old record for points in a game with 64 in a 140-126 victory against Indiana, making 20 of his 28 shots and 24 of his 32 free throws. He tied the record on a layup but missed the free throw. He then was sent to the line by Indiana rookie Jarace Walker with 3 minutes 25 seconds on the clock and drained both to set the mark.
Box score: Bucks 140, Pacers 126
More: The top single-game scoring performances in Bucks history, including 64 from Giannis on Wednesday
“I don’t think there was a specific moment that I thought that I’d score 60. I’m just trying to play the game," Antetokounmpo said. "There was a lot of moments that I was able to take advantage of the defense and the way they were guarding me and make plays for myself and my teammates. I was able to go to the free throw line and knock a few free throws in. That’s pretty much it. I just tried to take a play at a time.”
Antetokounmpo said he had never thought about breaking the record even as he flirted with it by scoring 55 against Washington on Jan. 3 and scoring 54 against the Los Angeles Clippers (Feb. 2) and Indiana (Nov. 9).
But it did enter his mind in the fourth quarter when he said head coach Adrian Griffin informed him he was close and that he was going to say in the game.
“I’ve never in that position before," Antetokounmpo said. "And I was like, OK, great, I’ll go try to get it. And I was fortunate enough to be in a position to get it. It’s a great feeling but at the end of the day its living in the past. It's done now. It’s done. Hopefully I’m able to create more moments like that in the future and keep on my making my team great.”
Redd scored 57 points on Nov. 11, 2006 against Utah. In that game Redd was 6-for-12 from behind the three-point line. Antetokounmpo was 0-for-3 from deep against Indiana.
Redd knew this day was coming, too.
He joked with Antetokounmpo in the tunnel after a game in 2021 that one day he would own that mark.
“Oh yeah, he’ll get it,” Redd said in a later interview. “He’ll get that. I meant that that night. We were joking about it, I said I had a lucky night and he’s like, I want to get lucky, too.”
Also during the course of the night Antetokounmpo passed 17,000 career points, becoming just the 100th NBA player to do so. He was assisted on that basket by Khris Middleton, who last month passed Redd as the No. 5 scorer in Bucks history.
“It feels great,” Redd said of the pair passing his marks. “I’ve known them since they were young guys and try to be there for them any way I could. For them to throw those numbers out and things out it feels good. They’ll pass all my records. And I want them to. I want them to. Every generation should want the next generation to exceed them and that’s what I want.”
Antetokounmpo scored the most points in a game since the advent of the three-point line (1979-80) without making a three-pointer."He’s an unstoppable player," Griffin said. "You can’t guard him one-on-one. And we’ve got some really good guys surrounding him, but at the end of the day, it’s all him – his talent, his ability, his will. He has an incredible will to win and he’ll do whatever it takes to win. Every point he got, he did it the right way. He made the right play. He attacked the rim. It was within our team and that just makes him a unique individual. He could probably do that every night, but he’s a team-first guy and I love the way our team rallied behind him. That’s what made it a special night.
Antetokounmpo is also the second player in league history to make at least 20 field goals and 20 free throws without a three-pointer. Wilt Chamberlain did it in his 100-point game in 1962."It was fun, man," Bucks big man Bobby Portis said. "Obviously to see your brothers win. We all work so hard, we all sacrifice, we all are together on a daily basis and we see each other’s ups and downs, so it’s cool to see your teammates win.
"Obviously he was getting to the rim at will, scoring the basketball and getting to the line and just being himself. Happy to be part of it, happy to experience and congrats to him for sure. That’s a lot of buckets.
Antetokounmpo also became just the fifth player in league history to score 60 or more points on at least 70% shooting, joining Chamberlain (four times), Karl Malone, David Thompson and teammate Damian Lillard.
Lillard has five games of scoring 60 or more points.
More: Damian Lillard becomes NBA’s No. 5 all-time three-point shooter as Bucks host Pacers
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“Any time you can score that many points in an NBA game, it’s special," Lillard said. "There’s guys that come along that randomly go out there and score 50. And then there’s guys who the other team is trying to stop and they game-plan for you and they’re there the whole time, I think that makes it more impressive, just how he was going and going and going and going. It was special to watch.
"There’s a lot of times that I’ve been in that situation and I think this was the first time where I was like, man, you just don’t want to get in the way. You want to see him just keep going and keep going. It's fun to watch but it’s also just good possessions for us. When you get in a game like this it’s looking like he’s going to score every time. He made a significant amount of free throws, too. It was just fun to watch. I think anytime a great player gets in that type of flow and is going like that you gotta allow them to keep going and try to contribute to it and also appreciate it when you’re there to be a part of it and witness it.”
While not many teams have had solutions for Antetokounmpo on the defensive end since he’s emerged as one of the best players in the NBA, the Pacers in particular have had a rough go of it the last four seasons.
In his last 10 games against Indiana (dating to Feb. 3, 2021) Antetokounmpo has averaged 36.2 points on 69.1% shooting. And he already had recorded two of regular season 50-point games with 50 in Milwaukee on Feb. 15, 2022, and a 54 in Indiana on Nov. 9.
“It really looked crazy,” Bucks guard Cameron Payne said. “It was crazy to watch, man. He did his thing within the team. That’s pretty awesome to see. But all these dunks and stuff is really crazy to see it every night, man. Sometimes just watching on TV but to see it up close, it’s amazing stuff.”
Antetokounmpo’s dominance of his division rival continued Wednesday night.
“He’s a diffident kind of force of nature in this game,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said before the game. “There’s never been a player like him. We’re talking about Dame (Lillard and his three-point shooting), he’s in one extreme and Giannis is like … I don’t even know. Like, 10 years ago if somebody had tried to describe to me a 7-foot guy that does what he does I would’ve just looked at ‘em like they were crazy. How’s that every going to happen? But it’s happened.”
Carlisle pulled all of his starters with just under six minutes left to go in regulation and Antetokounmpo with 51 points, but Griffin kept his in so Antetokounmpo could go for the record.
He did take one very hard fall just before setting the mark, taking moment to flex his hips. He also appeared to favor his side as he took his ensuing free throws.
Griffin subsequently pulled his starters, but the Pacers backups quickly made it a 10-point game and all the Bucks’ starters had to return for the final two minutes. In that span, Antetokounmpo only added to his historic total to secure the victory and he punctuated it with a breakaway dunk, chest pound and mean mug.
Bucks finally keep Pacers boxed out
The Bucks have had issues all season on their transition defense, with an early problem arising from the team’s initial emphasis on offensive rebounding. But, time has borne out that they aren’t very good at that – the team entered the league No. 26 in that category – so the focus turned to getting back to set their defense as the shot goes up.
Indiana stresses that more than most teams and even caught the Bucks moving too slowly off made baskets in their win in Las Vegas.
The Pacers also took advantage of the Bucks on the offensive glass in Las Vegas, particularly late in that game. Indiana had 15 offensive rebounds and 23 second-chance points in that victory (vs. nine for 14 back on Nov. 9).
Unfortunately for Milwaukee, talking about that problem didn’t immediately translate to fixing it on the court as the Pacers scored 14 of their 63 first-half points off 12 offensive rebounds. The extra efforts helped them stay in the game, as they shot just 21% from behind the three-point line and 42% overall.
But, if there was a positive sign it was that Indiana didn’t collect another offensive board in the final 7 minutes 28 seconds of the first half – and perhaps not coincidentally the Bucks stretched a three-point lead to as many as 12.
In fact, Indiana didn’t get another second-chance point until late in the third quarter, a period of time during which the lead swelled to as many as 16.
It was a key point in the game that allowed the Bucks to finally secure their first win over Indiana this season.
“Obviously we watched the film, we know what beats us, we know what’s been hurting us all season and we’re trying to correct it,” Portis said. “It’s the part of the season where you start clearing up things and I think we’ve been clearing up a lot of things, especially over the last couple games, just trying to get better, trying to make strides and trying to get better throughout the season. That’s the biggest thing. Obviously their second-chance points allows them to get more threes off the rebound, kick-out threes, and it’s just energy plays as well to keep them in the game.”
5 numbers
6 Blocked shots for Bucks center Brook Lopez, giving him a league-high five games with five blocks or more. He came into the game leading the league in blocks per game and total blocks.
11 Straight wins at home for the Bucks. They are 12-1 at Fiserv Forum this season.
71.4 Shooting percentage for Antetokounmpo (20-for-28), tying a franchise record with 60% or better shooting for seven straight games. In that stretch Antetokounmpo is 93-for-135 from the floor. John Henson last accomplished the feat over seven games, spanning two seasons from April 5, 2014, to Oct. 29, 2014, (41-for-64). The last two players to do so in a single season were Ervin Johnson from March 14-22, 1999, (19-for-28) and Jim Fox from Nov. 14-28, 1975, (24-for-31).
258.5 The pregame over/under on the game, surpassing In-Season Tournament game total by a full point – which ESPN had reported was the highest total since 1991. Indiana came into the game with a league-high 10 games scoring at least 130 points and the Bucks were No. 2 with eight.
100 Players in NBA history to score at least 17,000 points, a group Giannis Antetokounmpo joined with his 47th point against the Pacers, a strong layup with 6:26 left in the game. Only nine other active players have reached that milestone, including Lillard. It was also fitting that Middleton, Antetokounmpo’s longtime running mate, assisted on it.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Giannis Antetokounmpo sets Bucks' record with 64 points vs. Pacers
