Durant delivers as Warriors beat Bucks

MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks made a big run. They battled and scrapped and put themselves into a position where they had a chance to knock off the Golden State Warriors.

Then Kevin Durant slammed the door as the Warriors defeated the Bucks, 10894, on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.

With under three minutes left in a tight fourth quarter, the Warriors took possession up four and needing a basket to stem Milwaukee’s slowly growing momentum. With Stephen Curry out due to a right ankle injury, Golden State turned to Finals MVP Durant, and he delivered.

Guarded tightly by Bucks wing Khris Middleton, Durant fired a fadeaway that slipped through the net to put the Warriors up by six. Then, after a Middleton turnover, Durant again came up huge despite being closely defended, this time knocking down a 3-pointer.

Those buckets put Golden State ahead by nine with just over two minutes to go, and Milwaukee didn’t have another run left. Durant finished with a game-high 26 points while Giannis Antetokounmpo led the Bucks with 23 points in the loss.

The game looked like it might go sideways on the Bucks early as they trailed by nine at the end of the first quarter, wholly unable to quell the Warriors’ offense as they

shot 66.7 percent. That continued into the second quarter and Golden State led, 63-49, at the break.

Milwaukee returned to the court undeterred and slowly chipped the margin to eight before being dealt a tough blow when Antetokounmpo was called for his fourth foul. The call of a push-off on Durant forced Bucks coach Jason Kidd’s hand as he removed his star from the game with just under five minutes left in the third.

Now, the Bucks would have to figure out how to navigate an extended period of time, likely the rest of the period, without their go-to guy and the second-leading scorer in the league.

Enter Malcolm Brogdon and Tony Snell.

With the Bucks still down eight under a minute later, Snell buried a 28-footer. Then it was all Brogdon as over a stretch of less than two minutes he knocked down a 3, deposited a reverse layup for an and-one and then added another 3 to tie the game for the first time since the first quarter.

Snell added another triple for good measure, putting the Bucks ahead, 82-80, their first advantage since early in the contest, bringing raucous cheers from the sellout crowd.

That was about as high as the Bucks would rise, with Brogdon opening the fourth quarter with a dunk to give Milwaukee a four-point lead. Golden State, led by its bench, responded with a 14-2 run from which Durant didn’t allow the Bucks to recover.