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Final Score: San Antonio Spurs 121 - Milwaukee Bucks 114
The Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs faced off against each other on Sunday at the AT&T Center in front of a sellout crowd. Spurs defeated the Eastern Conference leaders Milwaukee to register their fifth straight victory. They have also won eight games in a row at home.
Spurs started the game without their third-leading scorer Rudy Gay, who missed the game due to an undisclosed illness.
Everyone expected the Bucks to win as they have the second best on-road record in the league (only behind the Golden State Warriors), but could not accomplish that as the Spurs proved their worth and clinched the victory with the help of LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan.
San Antonio have moved to seventh position in the Western Conference standings whereas the Bucks retain the top spot in the Eastern Conference with their overall record of 50-17.
#3 The Bucks lead the first quarter
The Bucks started scoring with Eric Bledsoe's perfect three-pointer (Bledsoe scored nine points during the opening run). Some decent scoring and playmaking from Giannis Antetokounmpo gave them a 15-point advantage. Milwaukee continued their impressive performance and maintained a healthy lead.
San Antonio struggled on offense during the first few minutes and couldn't score (Spurs started the game 2-for-10 from the field.). At this point, the Spurs fell behind and were not able to convert their chances. With only three minutes left on the clock, they improved their game. Aldridge and Patty Mills helped the Spurs' scoreline at the end of the first quarter to 32-25.
The Spurs enjoyed a three-day rest period whereas the Bucks played just a night before. Their energetic and dominating start showed their spirit and will to win. Any other team would have started slow, but not the Bucks.
#2 Aldridge, DeRozan and the Spurs bench turned the game around
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 29 points and got 15 rebounds while DeMar DeRozan added 28 points and gave 6 assists. Some impressive shooting from Marco Belinelli and Patty Mills (both of them scored 16 points from the bench) also helped the Spurs in the second quarter, which started really well with the team scoring 17 while the Bucks scored only 4 points.
Aldridge is averaging 21.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. He is performing well consistently and with the help of his three-pointer, the Spurs got the lead in the third quarter. After having the upper hand in the game, San Antonio kept outscoring the Bucks in the final quarter with scoreline of 34-31. They took a lot of shots and nearly converted about 49% of them.
LaMarcus and DeMar scored big in stats, but it was an all-round team effort what made it possible for the Spurs to beat the strong Bucks side and extend their winning streak. DeRozan seemed happy after the game and stated,"It was a great test for us, one of the best teams in our league, we started off kind of rough but we kept at it. To pull out this win is big."
#1 Disappointing night for the Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo was expected to perform well on both the ends of the court, and he did not disappoint. He scored 27 points, made 13 rebounds (he has now racked up at least 12 rebounds in each of his previous six appearance) and gave 6 assists. Apart from Giannis, Brook Lopez (11 points and 10 rebounds) and Eric Bledsoe (21 points and 6 assists) contributed well.
It was a frustrating night for the Greek Freak and his team as they started off well but failed to improve their away record. After the game, Antetokounmpo praised the Spurs, "They played really good team defense, packing the paint, I was trying to create some shots for myself but I was trying to find my open teammates. I think I did a pretty decent job but we weren't able to knock down shots."
Bucks are the strongest team in the Eastern conference and fans can expect them to come back stronger, whereas this win against Milwaukee could prove to be a boost for the Spurs, as they look to improve their 38-29 record.
