Antetokounmpo powers Bucks with career-high 55-point effort

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a career-high 55 points in a return from a one-game absence and the Milwaukee Bucks beat Washington 123-113 on Tuesday night, snapping the Wizards’ five-game winning streak.

Antetokounmpo has scored at least 40 points in three straight games for the first time in his career. The two-time MVP sat out a 118-95 loss to the Wizards on Sunday because of a sore left knee.

The only other Bucks to score at least 40 points in three straight appearances are Flynn Robinson in

February 1969 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in February 1972.

“I want to get in a position … that my game is boring,” Antetokounmpo said. “I just do what I do and people don’t talk about it because it becomes boring — I do it every single night. That’s what I want to do. I want other people to feel like my game is boring. But I don’t get bored. The greats — the best players — never get bored. They go out there and they always give their best any given night.”

Antetokounmpo also had 10 rebounds and seven assists, giving him at least 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in his past three games. The only other players in NBA history to have three straight performances of 40 points, 10 rebounds and five assists are Elgin Baylor in 1961 and 1963, Wilt Chamberlain in 1963 and Russell Westbrook in 2016.

Antetokounmpo’s previous career high was a 52-point effort against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 17, 2019.

Washington’s Bradley Beal returned after missing three games with a sore left hamstring, but he played just 13 minutes. Beal scored eight points before the hamstring issue prevented him from playing at all in the second half.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 points for the Wizards.

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Thunder 150, Celtics 117:

Josh Giddey scored a season-high 25 points and short-handed Oklahoma City blew out NBA-leading Boston at home.

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who ranks among the league’s leaders with 30.8 points per game, sat out with an illness.

Without him, the Thunder set a record for points since the team moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle before the 2008-2009 season. The previous mark was 149 points in 2013.

Lu Dort scored 23 points and Jalen Williams, Tre Mann and Isaiah Joe each added 21 points for the Thunder. They shot 59.2 percent from the field.

It was a record-tying performance. Including playoffs, it was the 18th time in NBA history that a team had five players score at least 21 points in a game.

The most recent instance was also by Oklahoma City, when Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari, Chris Paul, Dennis Schröder and GilgeousAlexander did it against Minnesota on Dec. 6, 2019.

Jaylen Brown scored 29 points for Boston, and

Jayson Tatum added 27.

Kings 117, Jazz 115:

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De’Aaron Fox made a driving layup in the final second and scored 22 of his 37 points in the fourth quarter to help Sacramento win at Utah.

Utah’s Lauri Markannen made a three-pointer at the final buzzer that was initially ruled good, but reversed upon replay.

Domantas Sabonis, playing with a broken right thumb, had 21 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists to help the Kings win for the third time in four games.

The Jazz dropped their fifth straight game, with the five losses by a combined 17 points.