MILWAUKEE – Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers hailed Damian Lillard as “phenomenal” as the Bucks bounced back from a loss to National Basketball Association (NBA) leaders Boston with a 115-108 home win over the Brooklyn Nets.
The star guard scored 13 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter and came up with two late steals on March 21 to help his team forget about their 122-119 defeat by the Celtics just a night ago.
Lillard added 12 assists and Milwaukee’s two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from a two-game injury absence to score 21 points with nine rebounds and five assists.
Lillard was key on both ends of the floor.
The game was tied at 96-96 with fewer than four minutes remaining when he poked the ball away from driving Brooklyn guard Cam Thomas, launching a fast break capped by a three-point play by Antetokounmpo.
Milwaukee were up 103-101 with 1min 41sec left when he grabbed another steal and found Malik Beasley for another three-pointer.
Lillard drained a jump shot with 1min 11sec remaining and his trey with 41 seconds to go pushed Milwaukee’s lead to 10 points.
“Dame, defensively, was phenomenal – all game,” Rivers said. “He’s a very competitive guy and you could see that.”
The Bucks led by 16 in the first half before the Nets, led by 24 points from Mikal Bridges, worked their way back.
“I like how we kind of gathered ourselves,” Rivers added. “They took the lead, we came back and got stops. We didn’t play well the beginning of the third.
“The first half, the ball was hopping. It was beautiful. And then we kind of went back to that hold-the-ball, no-movement style. We had to play ourselves through that.”
Milwaukee remain second in the Eastern Conference on 45-25, behind the Celtics (55-14).
Elsewhere, defending champions Denver Nuggets continued their late-season surge with a 113-100 home victory over the New York Knicks.
Michael Porter Jr connected on 13 of 16 shots to score 31 points for Denver, his highlight-reel night including an alley-oop pass to himself off the glass.
Nikola Jokic delivered his 22nd triple-double of the season with 30 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.
The Nuggets (49-21) are neck and neck with the Oklahoma City Thunder (48-20) in the race for first place in the West.
“I think we all collectively realise we’re not going to be able to (just) turn it on in the play-offs, so we’re trying to get our rhythm, get our flow before then,” Porter said of the Nuggets’ sense of urgency. AFP
