Bucks rip Sixers; Knicks win 9th game in a row

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 24 points and moved into second place on the Milwaukee Bucks’ career scoring list in a 132-94 romp over the visiting Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.

The Bucks beat the 76ers for the second time in three days to hand Philadelphia its fourth straight loss. Playing without All-Stars Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, the 76ers matched their lowest point total and suffered their mostlopsided loss of the season.

Embiid, who scored 24 points against the Bucks on Thursday, didn’t play due to a sore right shoulder. Simmons missed a fourth straight game because of an unspecified illness.

Khris Middleton found Antetokounmpo for a dunk early in the third quarter that enabled the reigning two-time MVP to overtake Glenn Robinson and become the Bucks’ second-leading career scorer. Antetokounmpo increased his career total to 12,223.

Robinson scored 12,010 points for the Bucks from 1994-2002. The Bucks’ leading scorer is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had 14,211 points while playing for Milwaukee from 1969-75 and went on to finish his career with an NBA-record 38,387 points.

Antetokounmpo also had 14 rebounds and seven assists despite playing just 24 minutes. He sat out the entire fourth quarter with most of the other Bucks starters.

Philadelphia (39-21) dropped a full game behind the Brooklyn Nets (40-20) in the Eastern Conference standings. Milwaukee (37-22) is third in the East, 2 1/2 games behind Brooklyn and 1 1/2 back of Philadelphia.

Bobby Portis added 17 points for the Bucks. Bryn Forbes and Jordan Nwora scored 13 each. Jrue Holiday had 12. Donte DiVincenzo and Pat Connaughton added 11 apiece.

Shane Milton and Tyrese Maxey scored 15 points each to lead the 76ers. Dwight Howard had 12 points and 12 rebounds.

Milwaukee took the lead for good less than three minutes into the game.

Philadelphia’s Seth Curry scored seven points during a 10-0 run that cut Milwaukee’s lead to 55-54 in the third quarter. The Bucks wasted no time regaining control, as Antetokounmpo had eight points and two assists during a 15-0 spurt that put Milwaukee ahead 75-57.

The Bucks poured it on from there.

Milwaukee swept the regular-season series with the 76ers, who haven’t been at full strength for any of these matchups.

A Knicks 120, Raptors 103: Julius Randle had 31 points and 10 rebounds, RJ Barrett added 25 points and 12 boards, and host New York beat Toronto for its ninth straight victory.

Derrick Rose scored 19 points for the Knicks, who are on their longest winning streak since a 13game run late in the 201213 season, when they won the Atlantic Division title.

The Knicks have moved into fourth place in the Eastern Conference with 11 games remaining and improved to 21-10 at home, where an announced crowd of 1,981 fans sounded louder at a time of year when basketball season is usually over at Madison Square Garden.

Randle, coming off a 40-point performance Wednesday against Atlanta, had 20 more by halftime Saturday. The Knicks then broke open a close game while he was on the bench to start the fourth quarter and Barrett made the big shots down the stretch to turn away his hometown team.

Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby each scored 27 points for the Raptors, who were trying for a seasonhigh fifth straight victory. They entered the day tied for 11th, a game behind surging Washington for the final play-in position in the East.

There were 14 lead changes in the first three quarters and neither team led by more than nine, before the Knicks opened the fourth with a big burst.