Giannis Antetokounmpo’s triple-double propels the Milwaukee Bucks over Toronto Raptors

TORONTO – Giannis Antetokounmpo may be a scoring machine, but it was his unselfish play that earned praise from his coach on Jan 6.

The Greek posted his fourth triple-double of the National Basketball Association (NBA) season, and Damian Lillard scored 25 points to lead the Milwaukee Bucks to a 128-104 road victory over the Toronto Raptors.

NBA scoring leader Antetokounmpo had 11 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and kept the Milwaukee offence clicking with his season-high 13 assists as the Bucks snapped a two-game skid to improve to 18-16.

The team had lost four of their last five matches, but they handled the 8-28 Raptors convincingly, despite the absence of Khris Middleton with an ankle injury.

Bucks coach Doc Rivers said Antetokounmpo’s passing – including 10 assists in the first half – “set the whole tone to our team”.

“When your best player does that, it becomes contagious and the ball just moved,” he said. “We shot 44 threes (22 were successful) so I thought we did a great job with the ball.”

The only downside for the Bucks was a cut that Antetokounmpo suffered on his right little finger when he hit the rim on a block attempt late in the first half.

Rivers said it required stitches to stop the bleeding, but his star man wanted to stay in a game, in which he and Lillard were both able to sit out the entire fourth quarter anyway.

“He didn’t want to come out because he thought he could finish,” added Rivers. “But it kept bleeding and it definitely affected him because he hurt his ball-handling hand a little bit.”

R.J. Barrett had 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists for Toronto, after missing three games with an illness. With his return, the Raptors had their projected starting line-up together for the first time this season.

Scottie Barnes added 21 points for the Raptors, who have lost two in a row and 13 of their past 14 games.

“(The group) was playing for the first time together this season and we exactly looked like that. We were not connected, we didn’t have enough fight over the course of the game,” coach Darko Rajakovic said.

“I thought the first couple of minutes was decent and there was fight but we were not able to sustain it. We’ll need to find a rhythm together and definitely we’ll need to bring much more fight to the game.”

In Chicago, Zach LaVine scored 35 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Bulls rallied from a 19-point third-quarter deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 114-110.

Coby White added 23 points, driving for a go-ahead lay-up then throwing down a dunk to put the Bulls up 113-110 with 15.9 seconds left, before LaVine added a final free throw to close it out.

The Bulls withstood another standout performance from San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, who had 23 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and eight blocked shots.

Elsewhere, Phoenix coach Mike Budenholzer’s decision to shake up his starting line-up paid dividends in Philadelphia, where Bradley Beal came off the bench and scored 25 points to lead the Suns to a 109-99 victory over the 76ers.

With the Suns on a four-game losing streak, Budenholzer shifted Beal and Jusuf Nurkic to reserve roles. Phoenix trailed by as many as 12 points in the first quarter and were down by four at half-time.

But Beal scored 20 second-half points and the Suns bench outscored the Sixers reserves 54-7 overall.

In another game, the injury-ravaged Orlando Magic beat the suddenly struggling Knicks 103-94 in New York.

Cole Anthony scored 24 points and Wendell Carter Jr came off the bench to score 19 for Orlando, who remain without their top four scorers in Paolo Banchero, Franz Wagner, Jalen Suggs and Moritz Wagner.

Jalen Brunson and Mikal Bridges scored 24 points apiece for the Knicks, who lost their third straight game on the heels of a nine-game winning streak. AFP, REUTERS