Middleton to rest as Bucks monitor post surgery knee

Khris Middleton won’t play Sunday against the Atlanta Hawks as the Milwaukee Bucks monitor his workload in the threetime All-Star’s return from offseason knee surgery.

Middleton played 16 minutes Thursday in the Bucks’ 118-117 seasonopening victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.

Bucks coach Adrian Griffin said the team chose to rest him Sunday, the first of back-toback nights in which the Bucks are playing.

Griffin said Middleton is expected to be available for Monday’s game with the Miami Heat.

“This is just being smart and ramping him up gradually,” Griffin said after the Bucks’ Saturday practice. “He participated in practice today and looked really good.”

Middleton appeared in just one of the Bucks’ preseason games.

He started and had six points, four assists and three rebounds against the 76ers, though he played just four minutes in the second half and none at all in the fourth quarter.

Middleton played just 33 games last season, missing the first 20 games while recovering from wrist surgery and 18 straight games later on because of a sore right knee.

He underwent surgery on the right knee after the season.

Doncic scores 49 in win over Nets

Luka Doncic scored 49 points and had a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 26.3 seconds remaining on a righthanded heave that banked in as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Brooklyn Nets 125-120 on Friday night in their home opener.

Doncic was standing near the right sideline, about 25 feet from the basket while being tightly guarded, when he sent a hook shot with the shot clock about to expire. He scored the last four field goals for Dallas — all on 3-pointers.

Cam Thomas led the Nets with 30 points in his seventh career NBA start, a game after setting a league record by scoring 36 points off the bench in a season opener.

Friday’s game was the first between the teams since the February trade that sent 10-time AllStar Kyrie Irving to Dallas in exchange for Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie.

Dinwiddie scored 23 points, hitting six 3pointers in the first three quarters. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 19 points off the bench for the Mavericks, and Irving finished with 17.

Finney-Smith and Dinwiddie were honored with videos.

Finney-Smith made his first start of the season with Nets starters center Nic Claxton (ankle sprain) and forward Cam Johnson (left calf contusion) out with injuries.

Celtics honor shooting victims

The Boston Celtics acknowledged the victims of this week’s mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, before their home opener.

Boston players wore the warmups of their NBA G League affiliate, the Maine Celtics. The Celtics also donned a band on their jerseys in honor of the state as it recovers after a shooter killed 18 people and wounded 13 at a bowling alley and a bar there.

The jersey band simply read “Maine” and was placed above their Vistaprint-sponsored logo patch.

Fans also observed a pregame moment of silence while a green and white image of the outline of the state was displayed on the jumbotron.

The shooting suspect was found dead Friday after a two-day search.

Patrick McDermott/Getty Images Bucks forward Khris Middleton will miss Sunday’s game as the team wants to limit his minutes after he had offseason knee surgery. He’s expected to return Monday.