Bucks start slowly, Pistons end lowly
Giannis Antetokounmpo was called for two quick fouls, and with 9:02 left in the first quarter, he went to the bench.
When he returned, there was plenty of time for him to make an impact.
“No matter how many fouls I have, I’ve got to be aggressive. If I get the third one, I get the third one,” Antetokounmpo said. “Whenever I stop being aggressive, I don’t make plays.”
Antetokounmpo made lots of plays down the stretch, finishing with 32 points and 12 rebounds, and the Bucks pulled out a 107-104 victory over the Pistons in Detroit on Monday night when Blake Griffin missed a last-second three-point try.
Griffin missed two attempts at threes in the final 14 seconds. The forward had a triple-double after three quarters, but he had a rough fourth, finishing with 19 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds — and 10 turnovers.
“We’re not going to win games by 10 turnovers and by making the poor decisions like I did down the stretch,” Griffin said. “I feel bad for these guys because they played so hard and got us back in this game. I wasn’t there for them tonight.”
After coming back from a 15-point third-quarter deficit to take an 89-86 lead, Detroit trailed 107-100 but rallied with a chance to tie. Griffin missed from beyond the arc, and after Jose Calderon came up with an offensive rebound, Griffin missed again.
“I was unbelievably awful,” Griffin said. “I thought we had a chance to tie it tonight despite everything I did.” Rockets 102, Jazz 97: James Harden scored 47 points to help host Houston hold off Utah for its fourth straight win. Donovan Mitchell had 23 points for the Jazz, who have lost four of five. Timberwolves 132, Kings 105: Karl-Anthony Towns had 14 points and 14 assists in just 21 minutes, Andrew Wiggins scored 17 and Minnesota got a big boost from its bench to beat road-weary Sacramento. Minnesota led by 36 in the first half against the Kings, who won 120-113 Sunday at Dallas. Trail Blazers 131, Clippers 127: Damian Lillard scored 22 of his 39 points in a dominant third quarter for visiting Portland. Los Angeles’ Tobias Harris matched Lillard with a careerhigh 39 points. Suns 128, Knicks 110: Devin Booker tied his season high with 38 points, T.J. Warren scored 17 of his 26 during Phoenix’s 41-point third quarter and the Suns beat host New York for their third straight victory. Emmanuel Mudiay had 32 points, six rebounds and six assists for the Knicks. Spurs 123, 76ers 96: Rudy Gay had 21 points and LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan each added 20 for host San Antonio, which bounced back after squandering a 21-point lead Saturday in a loss to Chicago. Thunder 121, Bulls 96: Paul George scored 16 of his 24 points in the final five minutes of the first half and host Oklahoma City rolled. Russell Westbrook had 13 points, 16 rebounds and 11 steals for his 111th triple-double. Briefly: Washington completed a trade to get forward Trevor Ariza from the Suns for forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and guard Austin Rivers . ... The Thunder have exercised their fifth-year option on head coach Billy Donovan’s contract.