Short-handed Clippers done in by Bucks duo THE SCORE
LOS ANGELES >> The odds of the Clippers beating the Milwaukee Bucks on Sunday without two of their AllStars were slim. No Kawhi Leonard. No Paul George, and no Russell Westbrook, for that matter.
And the chances were even lower considering Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard were healthy and playing like superstars.
But the Clippers did have James Harden and Ivica Zubac.
And P.J. Tucker.
While Tucker, who has spent most of the season on the bench, and the other fill-ins put up a fight, it wasn’t enough to combat the Bucks’ top duo.
Antetokounmpo and Lillard combined for 69 points to lead the Bucks to their second victory against the Clippers in a week, this time winning 124-117 at Crypto. com Arena.
The two Milwaukee AllStars broke open a close game, accounting for all but two of the Bucks’ points inside the final three minutes that all but put aside any thought of a victory for the Clippers (41-22).
Antetokounmpo finished with 34 points, seven rebounds and 10 assists, while Lillard had a game-high 35 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists. Lillard scored 41 points a week ago against the Clippers.
“Those two guys, I mean, they’re great players and we understand that,” coach Tyronn Lue said. “And they had a good game. I thought Dame set the tone early,
BUCKS 124, CLIPPERS 117
Up next: Timberwolves at Clippers, Tuesday, 7p.m., TNT scoring the basketball, a couple 3’s and then took over the game late.
“And once he got going, it was hard to stop. We tried to blitz. We tried to fire, tried to do some different things, but he had to go in and he made some big shots.”
The short-handed Clippers did what they could do and that was relying on
Norman Powell, who scored a season-high 26 points and Zubac’s 18 points and six rebounds. Terance Mann and Amir Coffey both finished with 16 points, while Harden posted 13 points and 11 assists.
With Leonard and George sitting out the game, Tucker got his first start — and the most minutes — of the season. He finished with seven points, six rebounds and two assists in 25 minutes.
Tucker was a somewhat logical choice to start in place of Leonard given his history with Antetokounmpo. The two were teammates on the Bucks’ 2021 NBA championship team. After one season in Milwaukee, Tucker signed with the Miami Heat.
This season, he joined the Clippers as part of the trade with the Philadelphia 76ers that brought James Harden to Los Angeles. But shortly after arriving he was relegated to the bench and ultimately demanded a trade until recently when Lue began inserting him into the lineup.
On Sunday, he started and scored his first basket since Nov. 14, when he made a layup that gave the Clippers a 27-26 lead early in the opening quarter. In the following quarter, he buried a 3-pointer.
The Clippers, who have focused lately on improving their transition defense, held the Bucks to just four fast-break points in the first half.
Their defense broke down in the third quarter as the Bucks scored 10 fastbreak points over the first eight minutes, giving the Bucks an 85-80 lead.