LOS ANGELES — — Damian Lillard scored 16 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter of the Milwaukee Bucks’ first win of their California road trip, 124-117 over the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.
Lillard made three of his seven 3-pointers in the fourth, while Giannis Antetokounmpo had 34 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds as the Bucks superstar duo took control of the game the rest of the way. Antetokounmpo and Lillard became only the second pair of teammates since 1980 to record at least 30 points and 10 assists each in the same game, according to the NBA.
“This is how we work in practice,” Antetokounmpo said. “We made a lot of good shots down the stretch. Tonight it worked, and it’s something we’ll have to do moving forward.
From the start of the fourth quarter, Antetokounmpo and Lillard scored or assisted 31 consecutive points for Milwaukee, decimating the Clippers with the two-man game the Bucks rely on to lead them to the championship.
“I think it’s getting a lot better,” Lillard said of his relationship with Antetokounmpo in their first season as teammates. “To start the season, I think a lot of people wanted it to happen right away. But I think any time you put two guys together who have always been the decision makers, who have always had their hands on the ball for years and years, it’s going to take time for us to learn how to play with each other. .
Malik Beasley added 17 points as the Bucks bounced back from back-to-back losses to Golden State and the Lakers by outlasting the Clippers, who were playing without Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
James Harden had 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting and 11 assists while playing without his two superstar teammates, both of whom missed the team’s second home game in less than 24 hours. Leonard and George played heavily in Los Angeles’ win over Chicago on Saturday afternoon, and the Clippers decided to rest Leonard’s sore left groin and George’s sore left knee.
“Both of those guys are great players, and we understand that,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said of Lillard and Antetokounmpo. “They had a good match. I thought Dame set the tone early and then took over the game late. Once he started, it was hard to stop. We tried to blitz, do different things, but he came through and made some big shots.
Norman Powell scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half for the Clippers, who were already without an injured Russell Westbrook. With over 57 points per game taken out of their lineup, the Clips still gave another top team a tough game heading into the final minutes.
Before the game, coach Tyronn Lue called the Clippers’ weekend schedule “very extreme.” The Clippers won’t face as many scheduling hurdles next year when they move out of the arena they share with the NHL’s Lakers and Los Angeles Kings and into the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
Six days after the Bucks’ 113-106 victory over the Clippers in Milwaukee, Lillard and Antetokounmpo finally took charge during the rematch to avoid the Bucks’ first three-game losing streak in a month.
Neither team led by more than eight points all day until Lillard made three free throws and a 3-pointer on consecutive possessions with less than two minutes to play.
Harden wasn’t at his best, missing seven straight shots in the first half and finishing 1 of 6 from 3-point range.
PJ Tucker scored his first basket since November 14 for the Clippers in the first quarter, finishing with seven points. The veteran has failed to crack the Clippers’ rotation since being acquired from Philadelphia along with Harden, and he was fined $75,000 by the NBA for publicly campaigning for a exchange close to the deadline.
FOLLOWING
Clippers: Host Minnesota on Tuesday night.
Bucks: At Sacramento Tuesday night.
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