The Milwaukee Bucks have put a sluggish begin behind them and are enjoying a few of their finest basketball of the season.
They’re going to face one other staff that is been enjoying higher these days after they go to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday evening.
The Bucks start a six-game street journey after sweeping a four-game homestand. They’ve gained seven of eight video games and have their finest seven video games of the season above .500.
“We play an amazing ball sport as a staff, we’re aggressive defensively and we play at a superb tempo,” ahead Giannis Antetokounmpo mentioned. “There might need been one or two instances the place we weren’t ourselves in the previous few weeks, however general we competed in each sport and received higher.
“The fellows are enjoying very well and making pictures, enjoying the best manner, making further passes, serving to one another defensively. So I am comfortable the place we’re proper now. However we’ve to proceed to get higher day-after-day. We “I performed nicely. However that is not sufficient.
Antetokounmpo had 34 factors and 15 rebounds in a 123-109 residence win over the injury-depleted Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday. Damian Lillard scored 16 of his 25 factors within the fourth quarter and have become the thirty eighth participant in NBA historical past to attain 22,000 factors.
“I didn’t even give it some thought earlier than the sport,” Lillard mentioned. “Like I at all times say, I am not likely good at issues like that, and when it occurs and I look again on it, I am like, ‘Man, that is an enormous accomplishment.'”
Lillard was teammates with Pelicans guard CJ McCollum for 8 1/2 seasons in Portland, and McCollum is coming off a big efficiency of his personal. He scored 45 factors, together with 31 after halftime, together with six in extra time in a 123-119 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz on Monday evening.
“CJ was unbelievable,” New Orleans coach Willie Inexperienced mentioned. “As soon as he received going, I believed his teammates did an amazing job looking for him. We had been establishing stuff for him and he executed time and again. With out that effort, it might have been tough for us to win this match.”
Utah scored the primary 14 factors of the sport and led by as many as 25 factors earlier than the Pelicans accomplished the best comeback in franchise historical past. New Orleans trailed by 20 factors at halftime, however allowed solely 50 factors the remainder of the sport.
“The coaches challenged us to be extra disciplined, extra dedicated, extra aggressive and extra assertive,” McCollum mentioned of the locker room at halftime. “We weren’t profitable within the first half and it was apparent.”
The Pelicans have gained a season-high 4 straight video games and 7 of their final 10.
“It is only a matter of perspective,” McCollum mentioned of the staff’s enchancment, “maintain getting higher day-after-day…and do not take these wins with no consideration as a result of it took us two months to get 5 wins.
“As shortly because the tide turns, it might probably go up, it might probably go down. There are good days and dangerous days. There are dropping streaks and successful streaks, so you need to experience the wave and maintain your level imaginative and prescient underneath management.”
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