Milwaukee Bucks: Takeaways from 113-110 win over Portland Trail Blazers
On the shoulders of a magnificent performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Milwaukee Bucks narrowly defeated the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night. We take a look at who and what stood out in the nail-biting victory.
It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t always pretty, but the Milwaukee Bucks prevailed over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday night, winning 113-110, thanks to a herculean performance from Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Coming off of their tough loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers the previous night, the Bucks were looking to bounce back against a Blazers team that was off to a strong start for the season. But both teams very much looked sluggish playing on the back end of a back-to-back, as the game was played with a certain amount of sloppiness for the first quarter.
It was the Blazers, however, who started to break open the game a bit early in the second quarter, leading by as much as nine points.
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That was enough (as well as the air horn sound blaring throughout the arena during stoppages) for the Bucks to wake up and peel off a strong 25-9 run for the bulk of the period, which propelled them to build a five-point lead heading into halftime.
The Blazers charged right back to start the second half though, setting up a back and forth affair between the two teams for the remainder of the game.
That was until late into the fourth quarter as the Bucks broke open the game once again and looked to have to sealed the game near the three-minute mark. But once again, the Blazers stormed back and recaptured the lead with 57 seconds left to go in the game.
Then came the last minute stretch of the night where Antetokounmpo, after missing two straight free throws that would have reclaimed the lead, stripped CJ McCollum of the ball and delivered home a quick slam dunk to bring the team back up by one. Just to seal it once and for all, Antetokounmpo denied Jusuf Nurkic near the rim on a last second play to close out the victory.
So without further ado, let’s take a deeper look at what made this win so special and who made it that way, starting with the man of the hour, day, week, month and year.